I would question a couple of statements in this video. Yes, Normalize Region Gain is quite useful, but your examples could be misleading. I know "Gain Staging" is the buzzword nowadays, but it just means to "set your levels properly along the signal flow". You are absolutely right about plugins that are based on analog modeling that require attention regarding their input signal. The Loudness setting has nothing to do with RMS. As you can see, it has the unit LUFS, so it is Loudness Meter (I guess it measures "Integrated Loudness"), which is somewhat similar to RMS, but different enough that it should not be confused with RMS). Using the Loudness setting for single tracks of a drum recording is pointless. Applying Track-based normalization on the drum set is also questionable. Your goal during a mix should be to have each fader at its best operation position around 0dB for fine adjustments. There is no use of normalizing the kick and HH individually when the HH fader ends up at -20dB where it is hard to make precise adjustments. Of course, this all depends on your strategy during recording. Do you set the gain of each track to have the best recording level, or do you set all the faders at 0dB and set the Gain accordingly. With 24bit converters you don't have to worry about SNR too much when recording the HH signal at -20dB, so putting all the Faders at 0dB gives you an instant rough mix and starting point when starting mixing and continue the recording/overdub session at a later day.
There is no rationale reason to avoid normalizing. It keeps things uniform and tidy . . . ready for mixing. Thanks for the clear, concise tutorial. Excellent. I thought I had to normalize each track in the editing window. Fantastic feature to do it all is one swoop.
Thanks yet again Chris! I had a vocalist try all her mics to compare, and normalizing each region (each mic) allowed us to compare better as the gain of each region was similar!
Chris. Wow. Thank you for doing this. Very well done as well. I searched for this video hoping to find someone who was normalizing all tracks at the start of a mixing project. I have done this by hand using the gain plugin so many times and have never been satisfied with the results. So often during mixing drums I’ve run out of headroom and at that point reducing gain can seriously alter the way the compression (etc) sounds. This is beautiful done. I’m now liked,subbed and will be checking out your other video (not to mention playing around with the loudness option as well). Thanks! PS as you said engineers have been turning up their noses at normalizing. I only started recently using it for voice overs and lesser important things like podcasts, but it got me thinking about it. Glad it did.
Oh man! Another feature I wish I knew about 2 years ago. My first thought on watching this was, "you're kidding." So, I just tried out this feature with a new project that has tracks from various sources, and, it felt like I spent a minute to gain stage everything. Whazah! Thank you, Chris, this will save me so much time!
It's a pity that Logic calls it normalising instead of input gain adjustment, which is what it really is. The N word should technically only be used to refer to (destructive) audio signal correction.
Yes. It’s like calling Victoria secret “the whore shop.” Heheh. Women be like “nope. Not for me” just like self respecting engineers be like “no normalizing for me. I’m no rookie.”
Love this feature. Have been using it quite a while now. Never really use it on drums though. I sometimes wish they had a "Post" loudness normalization feature (for use after you've added all your plugins to all your channels). Yes, proper gain-staging should suffice for this feature but, sometimes I still find that I'd like to start mixing volumes from scratch with all the "selected" channels normalized (post plugin).
Can’t work out what Im doing wrong. Meters set to pre-fade, region selected, Whether I apply -18dB or 1dB, no gain or reduction can be seen on the waveform (or heard)
when i go to advance it only give ms the option to enable complete features and thats it. When i go to functions I still cant press normalize gain. HELP
Looks like a great feature for podcasters, maybe not always for music. “Gain staging” is adjusting the gain of each stage in a signal path to minimize both noise and distortion (to look at it practical terms) or to run each amplifier in its most efficient range (the technical point of view). Jacking up an instrument that’s supposed to be quiet would often be counterproductive.
help my normalize gain doesnot work on logic 6.4. No matter what value i give on normalize gain. it boost 9.8 db everytime though i change input value.
hi Chris, i created several tracks, mostly loops from logic, and threw a gain plug in to mess it up. Then i did the normalize just as you suggested, and it does nothing. What could i be doing wrong?
So i have no 3rd party plug-ins. All stock logic plug-ins. Should i leave faders at 0 and use -18db as a target starting level or does that even matter and use the faders as volume control?
It doesnt matter at all, as long as you are not clipping. However, good gain staging would mean that you set your levens to -18 RMS (not peak value!). Depending on the source and instrument, you should aim for -12/-10dB Peak
New to LPX so this is a great tip for me! QUESTION though: How can I find peaks in the audio region without going into the audio file editor-possible to do that?
Okay dude please help this is a great technique I was using hornet before which is great just it don't go to minus 18 only minus 12 this is great because I can get them to minus 18 just one of my vocal tracks is going to 17.9 not minus 18 but the rest of my tracks are going to minus 18 which is great do you know how I can get my track to minus 18 instead of minus 17.9 using this technique thanks for your great video 😇