On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 16:25:05 +1300, "Geoff Wood"
-nospam wrote:

SPS22 wrote:
I am doing Cassette to CD transfers and this question emrges from
that: What is the rule of thumb (if there is one) for the volume to
aim for normalization of a song collection on CD's? Is it -18 dB or
is it -16 dB? It seems, reading some web sites and Goodle archives,
that one just normalizes all songs on a CD collection to the same
level; what that level is not that important. But is this really
sufficient? Isn't there a standard level to make them same as what is
mostly accepted as OK volume. (I mean if you give your CD to a
friends, they would neither feel it is too loud, nor too quiet.)

If you want to make your CD collection have a similar loudness to
commercially-released CDs, then you will have to both compress the
dynamic range and peak normalise to 0dB (or maybe -0.1dB to avoid
possible playback problems with sub-standard DACs). The normalisation
bit is easy. The choice of compression factors is not; you'll have to
do some experimentation.

If random tracks, then it's up to you. Average RMS of -12dB is loud.

I was about to say that a peak level of -12dB is very quiet, but if
the OP was talking about RMS levels, then yes, -12dB is fairly loud,
but by no means as loud as some recent commercial releases.

As cassette material is likely of low dynamic range anyway, just peak
normalise each track, reducing any that stick out too loud.

Actually, typical vintage cassette material is likely to have a
*greater* dynamic range than modern pop/rock CDs. This is a very sad
reflection of how modern mastering methods have destroyed any
semblence of natural dynamics, all for the sake of "everything louder
than everything else".
--
Clive Backham

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