Cleaning up: which order to use filters?

[johnivan]

Wow, Bill!

I'm using that now, it's amazing.

Thanks,
John

[johnivan]

I found that after EQing, and getting the best that I can get (but with loads of red peaks), I use Normalise or Amplify and the track is killed off again and made really quiet and dull.

So I undid that and this time, after EQ, I tried Compression instead, at default — which removed most of the red peaks but preserved the effect of the EQ — and then I used Normalise. This time around, Normalise preserved the EQing and the track is still loud.

I'll just emphasise again that this recording is a grating, distorted, overloaded mess — even after all of this — but what I've revealed just with EQ is amazing.

Any thoughts?
John

[billw58]

Normalize and Amplify made the track quieter. Turn up your speakers so you get the same sound level and they'll sound the same.
-- Bill

[johnivan]

I can't tell whether you were joking with that last reply!

[billw58]

I can't tell whether you were joking with that last reply!

I'm serious. Changing the volume of a track cannot change the inherent sound quality.

Things that are louder are generally perceived to sound "better". That's why it is vitally important to match the levels of two different sound sources when comparing them by ear.

That said, there may have been some clipping and/or distortion on playback of the overloaded track, caused by the (probably) 16-bit digital-to-analog converters in the Mac. That would result in a change in sound quality (for the better) after applying Amplify or Normalize. On the other hand, that clipping can make the track sound "brighter" (because the clipping artifacts are mainly in the high frequencies).

You can do a direct comparison of the track before and after normalization.
Duplicate the track
Apply Amplify to the duplicated track - make note of the exact amount of amplification
On the original track double-click the track gain slider and enter the amount of amplification applied to the duplicate track
In Preferences > Tracks Behaviors set the Solo Button to Simple

Click the solo button on the original track, listen for a bit, then click the solo button on the duplicate track. What do you hear?

-- Bill