i am recording my whole mc tape coollection and many tapes are very quiet so i wanted to normalize them, but what does it exactly do? i dont want to compress etc. i just want to have the ORIGINAL signal UNALTEREDly louder.
It’s just a volume change. As long as you don’t go over 0dB, there is no quality loss.
The balance will only be changed if you chose Normalize stereo channels independently.
The Amplify effect can also be used to normalize without altering the balance.
If you go over 0dB, some file formats (such as regular WAV) will be clipped (distorted waves with squared-off tops). Even if the format can go over 0dB, you should generally avoid it because your digital-to-analog converter is limited to 0dB.
There is teeny-tiny bit of rounding error when you change the volume. But digital volume changes are done every day in audio production and it’s no big deal, and it’s considered a lossless process.
If you make a drastic volume reduction (say 20dB or more) and save the change as a 16-bit file, there a loss of resolution. The quality loss won’t be noticed unless you re-boost the signal later (by applying digital or analog gain). Basically, the same thing happens when you reduce an analog signal and then re-amplify it.
thanks a lot, some of my mc tapes are played on one channel a bit lower, i dunno if it’S cause those are 20 years old tapes, can i use a method to have both channels balanced?
thanks a lot, some of my mc tapes are played on one channel a bit lower, i dunno if it’S cause those are 20 years old tapes, can i use a method to have both channels balanced?
You can give it a try. In most cases it should work. But normalizing sets the peak volume, and “loudness” is more related to the average level. So if you normalize the channels independently, they will both have 0dB (or near 0dB) peaks but they may not sound equally loud.
The little drop-down arrow to the left of the waveform brings-up a menu where you can split the stereo track an adjust the volumes independently by ear if necessary. Since you don’t want to go over 0dB, adjust the loud channel down after normalizing independently instead of boosting the quiet channel.
P.S.
even after normalizing, you will probably find that your recordings are still not as loud as modern CDs or MP3s. Modern recordings tend to be dynamically compressed to bring-up the average-overall volume without boosting/clipping the peaks. (Or, sometimes the peaks are clipped.)
thanks a lot, yes i dont want the loudness war, i want the full dynamics but just the volume up, no compression etc. 
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Setting perceived loudness is a pain in the neck, so most of these tools set everything by peaks. Whoever’s head is sticking up in the blue waves wins.
If someone bumps the microphone once during the performance, that’s very bad. That loud bump will take over all the level setting tools. That’s the downside of doing it this way.
If your transfer system makes a click or pop when you start recording, you may want to cut that out of the show. Normalize will make that click so it’s perfect and ignore the show.
Koz