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Topic: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain) (Read 2901 times) previous topic - next topic
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Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

I would like to know if there is a plugin to automatically normalize my mp3s (peaks) to 0db or 0.1db. I'm not talking about about gain control, I'm talking about simple old peak normalization.
The reason I need this is because I'm in music production and I use foobar to preview sample files, which are often 24/32bit wavs, uncompressed, with peaks hitting as low as -18db. And then you could have a sample with peaks hitting 0db; you can see how playing these files can fry you ears if you don't have your hand on the volume control.

I want this either at the output (without modifying the files) or a process that normalizes each file.
Or if it's possible with ReplayGain - but it has to be without any AGC or compression.

Thank you.

Re: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

Reply #1 –
Have you tried using the replay gain scanner on them, setting replaygain processing to 'prevent clipping according to peak' and then turning the 'with RG' preamp up to the maxium?
 

Re: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

Reply #3 –
I will try this now, but I'm not all that familiar with ReplayGain so I need to know that it won't introduce any post processing or artifacts since I currently use foobar for all sorts of things; one of them being comparing the difference between 2 mastered files. So I would really need ReplayGain to not do anything other that simple normalizing, otherwise it will be affecting my judgment when listening.

Or in other words: I can import 2 files into Audition and process both with 'normalize to 0db', save .wav and listen in foobar. That's what I want, but I have gazillion files to do this and I'd rather have a plugin in foobar that does this at the output without touching the .wav files, rather than overwriting the original un-normalized file (as in the Audition example).

Quote from: 2tec on
would a DSP work ~ https://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_r128norm

I've seen this, but this statement puzzles me: "normalizing audio tracks using a running windowed calculation of the EBU R-128 standard". This appears to me something similar as ReplayGain Automatic Gain Control?

Re: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

Reply #4 –
I see the term 'normalize' used everywhere regarding wav/mp3 listening, when in reality they are talking about some form of gain control. I would like to add one thing to the above post so there is zero confusion: PEAK NORMALIZATION: scan the file, find the peak, set the peak to 0dbFS, i.e.: https://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/web2/audio/figs/aud.0411.gif

Thank you :)

Re: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

Reply #5 –
Replaygain does only apply continuous gain to a whole file, the same as normalization. There is no 'anything else' it's doing. If by automatic gain control you mean something that changes the applied gain over time, replaygain doesn't do that. However the R128norm component does change the gain over time so is not suitable.

The only problem is trying to get the replaygain processing to apply the *same* constant gain as 'normalise to 0db' in Audacity would. ReplayGain scanning already finds the peak dB across the whole file, so you just need to push that up to 0db. I believe if you turn the preamp right up and turn on 'prevent clipping' it basically does this, so should be roughly the same as 'normalise to 0db' as long as it wouldn't need more than 20db of gain.

Re: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

Reply #6 –
there's also a 'temporary' replaygain DSP, would that work? ~
Quote
"...experimental ReplayGain DSP does that. But it doesn't want to break gapless playback so it allows the scanner to only run for a bit shorter duration then the output buffer contains data. If the scanning fails entirely it will use the same adjustment as was used for the previous track."
~ https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=118430.msg977362#msg977362
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  ;~)

Re: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

Reply #7 –
Replaygain can be used to normalize to 0 dB. On conversion or realtime on playback with fb2k. Files need to be scanned and have replaygain info written to tags. Then with settings Source mode - track, Processing - prevent clipping according to peak, Preamp with RG info - +20 dB almost all files will be normalized to  0dB. When converting, ReplayGain settings are in Processing section.
You can also  normalize mp3 without reencoding with function "Apply gain to file content".  Settings: Apply track ReplayGain, Target volume - 110 dB, Make files louder only, Lower adjustment to prevent clipping.  Notice that when changing mp3 volume without reencoding, it only can be changed in steps 1.5 dB.

Re: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

Reply #8 –
Maybe it's possible only with hardware, software always perform some compression.

Re: Normalize to 0db (NOT ReplayGain)

Reply #9 –
You could also do this with the "Apply Max No-Clip Gain for Each File" option in the old Mp3gain 1.2.5 full install that included the VB mscomctl.ocx/comdlg32.ocx/msvbvm60.dll files.  This also wrote an APEv2 tag to the file that allowed it to be reversed to the original value if desired, losslessly.