The problem with effect "Normalize".

[юра00]

It acсepts only 1 sign after decimal separator (1/10). But if I want more precision, 1/100, for example -1,1 - is possible, but -1,12 - isn't? Second decimal sign isn't acсepted! Audacity 2.1.1. Please, correct!

[steve]

This certainly could be "fixed" to give 2, 3, 4 or more decimal places, but what is the need for smaller divisions than 0.1 dB?

[cyrano]

Confirmed. Would be pretty useless, wouldn't it? Why would anyone ever require that kind of precision?

Generally speaking, 3 dB is about what most people hear as a minimum in sound volume change. Some say they can hear 1 dB difference. But absolutely no one even pretends to be able to hear .1 dB difference, let alone .01 db...

[юра00]

It is really to hear 0,01 db. But after I enter -3,12 db and press OK, Audacity overthrows the value to -3,1! Rounding off, remaining only 1 sign!

[steve]

The Amplify effect goes to 2 decimal places, so if you really need the second decimal place, use the Amplify effect.

[юра00]

It is an idea, thank you! But, please, correct "Normalize" also to 2 decimal places, because there is no item "normalize stereo channels independently" for Amlify.

[DVDdoug]

It is an idea, thank you! But, please, "Normalise" also to 2 decimal places.

Why???

Most people just normalize to 0dB, and some people normalize to some slightly-lower level, usually between -1dB and 0dB. The idea is to get the maximum overall volume without clipping and it doesn't take a lot of precision to accomplish that.

I always use Amplify when I want to normalize. The advantage is it tells me where I'm at as well as where I'm going. (Amplify doesn't have the Remove Offset option, and it's a couple of extra steps if you want to normalize the channels independently.)

And like cryano says, 1/10th of dB is already 10 times better than what you can hear.

[DVDdoug]

because there is no item "normalize stereo channels independently" for Amlify.

That's generally a bad idea* because it alters the left-right balance. (Perceived loudness or perceived left/right balance doesn't correlate well with the peak-normalized level.)

But, it can be done. If you want to edit the left & right channels separately, you can click the little drop-down arrow to the left of the waveform, and select Split Stereo to Mono.



* Most commercial CD releases are compressed & limited for 0dB peaks in both channels, and in that case it won't make a difference either way.

[юра00]

It is users preferences. Imagine, -0,1 and -0,15 db: difference 1,5 times! But now effect "Normalize" rounds off entered -0,15 to -0,1 (and -0,16 to -0,2)!

[steve]

Imagine, -0,1 and -0,15 db

The difference between -0.1 dB and -0.15 dB is an imperceptibly small amount.

The attached file has one word recorded, which is then repeated. The repeat is 0.05dB different from the original. Can you hear which one is louder? To me, they both sound exactly the same.

test.wav

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