Normalizing whole tape?

wcoxe1 wrote on 6/25/2002, 10:13 PM
I am pretty much a beginner at many things in Vegas Video 3.0. I understand the point of Normalizing. What I would like to know is:

1) Is it worthwhile to Normalize an entire production (ALL clips, to give the production a standardized base from which to adjust volume)?
2) Is there a way to Normalize the whole tape at once. When I try what I THINK is logical, it normalizes the first clip and ZEROS the volume of all remaining clips.
3) Why isn't something like normalization down at the bottom in Audio FX, like the selections for Video FX, where it would be easier to get to?

Comments

Rednroll wrote on 6/25/2002, 11:51 PM
"I understand the point of Normalizing"

Could you please explain what normalizing is so that the rest of us can understand what it is too?
wcoxe1 wrote on 6/27/2002, 11:37 AM
As explained in the Vegas Video Help: It is raising (or lowering) the volume of a sound track so that the loudest peak is at a pre-specified level. Typically at or near 0dB. Thus giving it headroom, or reducing the likelihood of clipping. At least that is what I understood from what I read. Obviously, I am no expert, or I would not have asked the initial question. But, I am open to further explanation and answers to the original questions.

I had hoped that your comment on this would be as detailed as your comments on Noise Reduction in Vegas Video 3.0.
Rednroll wrote on 6/27/2002, 5:52 PM
I just wanted to ensure that you understood what normalization is and where you may have some misunderstandings. Here's a further explanation and hopefully with this information you can answer your own question.

Normalization is able to be processed on each EVENT within Vegas. Here's how normalization works. If you set the normalization peak to 0dB and then select normalize. Vegas will scan through the entire EVENT and look for the highest peak within the event. Let's say it found the highest peak at -3 dB. It will raise the volume of the entire event +3dB overall when you normalize. The result will be the highest peak will now be reaching 0dB.

So if you have an entire tape of music and record it into vegas, it would not be a good idea to normalize the entire tape, because it will not normalize each song individually. Instead it will treat the tape as one entire song and it might find the highest peak in song #3 which is at -1dB, while the highest peak in Song #1 is at -12dB. So the result is that Song #1 will be a lot less in level than in song #3. Each song only got raised in volume by 1 dB, so song #1 is only peaking at -11dB while song #3 is now peaking at 0dB. You will need to split each song of the entire tape into seperate events and do a normalize for each song, hit the "S" key to split an event.

3) Why isn't something like normalization down at the bottom in Audio FX, like the selections for Video FX, where it would be easier to get to?


Why would you want Normalize to be an Audio FX? This is why I asked if you really understood normalization. An FX processes audio in real time as it comes in, and as I mentioned normalization scans the entire event and then processes so that the entire event is adjusted in volume equally throughout the entire song.

Also as I mentioned in the previous post, just right click on the event and there is the normalization command a lot closer to where you are working instead of having to mouse down to the bottom of the screen like you're suggesting.
wcoxe1 wrote on 6/27/2002, 7:55 PM
I'm beginning to catch all the pointers, some on the second time around. Thanks. You are a pretty good asset to the forum.

Perhaps I should rephrase my inquiry a bit, though. Rather than say I want to normalize an entire tape (as a unit), is there a way to automate the normalization of all events (separately) rather than one at a time manually?

Again, thanks. You are most helpful.
Chienworks wrote on 6/27/2002, 8:05 PM
You can select all the events you want normallized, right-mouse-button click, choose switches / normalize. This will normalize each of them individually, but all in one step.
wcoxe1 wrote on 6/27/2002, 8:09 PM
Fantastic! First Rate, and a few other nice exclamations!

Thanks!
DougHamm wrote on 6/28/2002, 10:58 AM
You can also turn on a particular view...damn, what is it now! (I'm away from my Vegas computer...) Anyway, it shows all your track events in a table view. From that view you can see at a glance what event properties are enabled/disabled, and easily check them on or off from there. Sorry I'm a little vague, but if you hunt for it you'll see what I mean.

-Doug
Rednroll wrote on 6/28/2002, 5:10 PM
The "Edit Details" Window
wcoxe1 wrote on 6/28/2002, 6:25 PM
Again, thanks to everyone.

WNC