Clip boundaries messes with normalization

I frequently work with clip boundaries within tracks, to make aligning different tracks easier. I noticed this behaviour which I am sure cannot be intentional?

  1. add a track (stereo or mono, does not matter - the issue occurs on either)
  2. add audio and some clip boundaries (see image 1 - this is compressed, but only to make the problem more obvious. Previous compression makes no difference to the issue)
  3. Apply ‘Normalize’ (I used -1, the issue occurs on every level I tried; see settings in image 4)
  4. audio normalizes, but way lower than it ought from normalization settings (see image 2). I think it’s also lower than previous volume as a general rule - though I have not tested that a lot.

What it ought to look like is (image 3) - audio at the volume as set during Normalization. I can only achieve this if I remove clip boundaries before normalizing.

This is on Windows 10, in Audacity 3.1.3, but happened in all the 3.x versions.
4-Reference normalization settings.JPG
3-normalised without breaks.JPG
2-Normalised with breaks.JPG
1-Compressed.JPG

Thanks for the report. It’s a bug. I’ll log it.