Audacity Forum

hi all, i'm using audacity to record my mixes as i'm a dj, i have a question that seems to get mixed responses. i am purchasing high quality 320kbps mp3's which i was burning in a jukebox format( mp3 disc). i was then using cd players ( pioneer ) to mix the tracks and record on my laptop using audacity.
my question relates to the mp3's i'm buying, i've been told that the music will sound better if i burn the mp3 as a audio cd , this is fine and i've tried it but there is an option within the settings of roxio cd creator for NORMALISATION, this gives you an option to move the scale from 0 -100%, at 100% it makes the audio louder yet looses some bass and mid response,(dance music is the genre), so a producer told me that dance music would be recorded right on the limiter so there is no need for normalisation.
so, if i buy 320kbps mp3-burn as an audio disc-turn off normalisation......

will that give me the best sounding audio
if not what would be the best route
thanks in advance

The only advantage to burning as an audio CD is that you will be able to play it on a normal CD player. Many CD players will not play MP3 disks. There is not improvement in sound quality other than your CD player may be better than your MP3 player.
If the MP3 has been produced well there should be no need to normalize it.

normalising makes it louder - amplifies everything the same amount

should not change the sound at all --
although the fletcher munson effect may make you think the highs and low freqs sound louder --

don't use mp3 but can't see how burning it can change it unless it gets compressed again the way you are doing it.

<<<normalising makes it louder - amplifies everything the same amount>>>

Amplify automatic does that. Normalize amplifies left and right separately which can lead to channel imbalance. This is a common argument on the forum. I'm in the camp that Normalize should do both with a selector whether or not you need to split the tracks for processing.

MP3 is a destructive format even if you use Really Big Bitrates. MP3 always damages the sound a little bit. Going in and out of MP3 multiple times multiplies the damage. WAV format doesn't do that, so after you complete your mix, Export as WAV and take those files off to your Music CD authoring and burning program. The authoring program is necessary to make a standard Music CD that will play in my old truck and my mom's CD player. If you Just Burn A CD, you may get a Data CD by accident. Those may play in your computer (which knows what they are), but they won't play in standard or older CD players.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:Normalize amplifies left and right separately which can lead to channel imbalance. This is a common argument on the forum.

That's absolutely true of Normalize in Audacity, but the discussion here is of using Normalize in Nero.
I don't know for sure, but I think that Nero normalizes linked stereo (both channels amplified by the same amount).