Playback level is above 0.0 dB even after normalize effect (-1.0 dB)

Special Interest Groups Audio Processing
1

Hello, I’m having a problem with audio Playback Meter going into the red region.

I have a record of multiple tracks(single track in audacity that contains multiple clips). The tracks recorded have different amplitude peaks so I splitted them to normalize them individually and get them all to the same peak of amplitude. I selected one of the clips to normalize its peak playback level to -1.0 dB. The problem is that there are parts of it where Playback Meter already goes into the red region and when I apply the Normalize effect it increases its volume even more which makes more parts of it go into the red region. As previous post suggested I tried running the Amplify effect to check if audacity can read its playback level correctly but the Amplify showed me that it want to amplify it by 5.5 dBs, so I guess the problem is with audacity not picking its correct amplitude?
And I heard distortions after applying Normalize effect.

Note: there has been already effects applied previously to the whole track like Noise Gate and Detach at Silences.
Before Normalize Effect

2

This is how the Normalize effect increased the volume even more.
Normalize Effect

3

If the tracks are playing at the same time,
normal practice is to turn down the gain slider of each track to avoid clipping when they are combined.
If you are combining 2 tracks then typically you’ll need to turn down the gain slider of each track by 6dB to keep the overall level down below the red zone.

[ if it’s 3 tracks simultaneously combined you need to turn each down by 9dB, etc].

4

Well, there is only one track in audacity that is being played, by “tracks” I meant audio tracks in real life but single track in audacity with multiple splitted clips. But actually you drew my attention to the gain slider which turns out that I had it at +10.0 dB :sweat_smile:, everything went back to normal when I set it back to +0.0dB. Thanks for the help.