OK, guys and gals, gather 'round and read 'em and weep!

I have two different versions of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon"
CD. I have ripped WAVs of all of the tracks from both of these discs.
I have examined and compared their respective "peak" and "level"
readings. For testing purposes, I have normalized a copy of one of the
tracks by +4.5dB to attain my personally preferred level of -10dBFS, and
I have normalized an additional copy of the same track by what is to me
a deliberately unreasonable amount of +10dB. I have also made
screenshots of all three of these files while they were simultaneously
imported into 'Audacity' so that side-by-side comparisons of the
differences that "normalize" can make are visually obvious.

Note that in none of the three instances did "normalize" *clip*
anything. Instead it merely *limited* the loudest peaks where necessary
in an apparent attempt to preserve the characteristics of the original
waveform as much as it possibly could.


Pink Floyd, "Dark Side Of The Moon" (1973)
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab / Ultradisc II
==========================================
[mykec@sillygoose PFDSMFSL]$ normalize -nb *.wav
Computing levels...
level peak
-22.5712dBFS -10.6335dBFS track01.cdda.wav
-20.5430dBFS -9.3433dBFS track02.cdda.wav
-17.6751dBFS -8.1199dBFS track03.cdda.wav
-18.9479dBFS -7.8896dBFS track04.cdda.wav
-18.5242dBFS -7.6373dBFS track05.cdda.wav
-15.7739dBFS -4.9832dBFS track06.cdda.wav
-17.1860dBFS -6.1509dBFS track07.cdda.wav
-16.3045dBFS -4.7547dBFS track08.cdda.wav
-16.4466dBFS -5.5207dBFS track09.cdda.wav
-14.5302dBFS -4.4229dBFS track10.cdda.wav
-17.1589dBFS average level
5.158868dB volume adjustment


Looks to me here that the guys over at MFSL who mastered this version of
"Dark Side" didn't have a clue about what they were doing. Not one of
the peaks on this entire CD even comes *close* to approaching 0dB!


Pink Floyd, "Dark Side Of The Moon" (1973)
Capitol, Digital Remaster; (P)1992,(C)1994
==========================================
[mykec@sillygoose PFDSDR]$ normalize -nb *.wav
Computing levels...
level peak
-15.5109dBFS -3.3526dBFS track01.cdda.wav
-12.5016dBFS -3.2019dBFS track02.cdda.wav
-13.9399dBFS -2.2710dBFS track03.cdda.wav
-13.4255dBFS -2.4928dBFS track04.cdda.wav
-11.6618dBFS -0.2804dBFS track05.cdda.wav
-13.7878dBFS -3.1469dBFS track06.cdda.wav
-12.8113dBFS -0.9773dBFS track07.cdda.wav
-13.8615dBFS -2.4098dBFS track08.cdda.wav
-11.7779dBFS -1.6673dBFS track09.cdda.wav
-12.9274dBFS average level
0.927362dB volume adjustment


Ah, that looks much better. No wonder I always thought this remastered
sounds a heckuvalot better than that crappy old "Ultradisc II" edition!

Oh, and what's that???!! An average "batch level" of -12.9274dBFS for
the entire disc? Hmmm... Isn't that curiously close to my personally
preferred target level of -10dBFS? I think it is!

Now, since I've taken the time to rip these WAVs for this little
exercise, I think I'll normalize 'em just a little - not too much! - and
get busy with the encoding after that so that I can add them to my ever
growing personal library of MP3s.

Meanwhile, as I'm off doing that... Take a gander at these two nifty
screenshots which reveal exactly what "normalize" was able to do with
that sucky, old, MFSL version of track 10, otherwise known as "Eclipse".

http://www.mykec.com/mykec/images/20..._MFSL_Full.png
http://www.mykec.com/mykec/images/20..._MFSL_Zoom.png

Note that by simply boosting MFSL's original level for that particular
track from what it is to my personally preferred loudness of -10dBFS,
that *NO CLIPPING* was performed and the overall dynamic range of the
entire song was actually significantly *INCREASED*!!!

This is why I say that with "normalize" I have discovered a way to
breathe new life into the sound of older CDs and make them sound more
like modern, digital remastered editions!!! Now, if *I* can do this,
why can't the stupid, friggin' "music industry" do it at the
"professional" level as well *before they sell us something less*?!?!

I'm tellin' ya - even if I don't yet fully understand everything that
I'm doing with these WAVs and even though I know I don't fully
understand all the jargon that's required to communicate my thoughts as
effectively as we all might like, my experience with "normalize" and
with all my WAVs and MP3s convinces me that I'm usually pretty capable
of improving the sound of my commercial CD library by a significant,
non-trivial degree.

So there!

Myke

--

-================================-
Windows...It's rebootylicious!!!
-================================-

"Myke Carter" wrote in message

I have two different versions of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon"
CD. I have ripped WAVs of all of the tracks from both of these discs.
I have examined and compared their respective "peak" and "level"
readings. For testing purposes, I have normalized a copy of one of the
tracks by +4.5dB to attain my personally preferred level of -10dBFS, and
I have normalized an additional copy of the same track by what is to me
a deliberately unreasonable amount of +10dB. I have also made
screenshots of all three of these files while they were simultaneously
imported into 'Audacity' so that side-by-side comparisons of the
differences that "normalize" can make are visually obvious.


Has it occured to you that part of the intention of the album producer is
that Great Gig In The Sky is not *supposed* to be as loud as Money ? What
you are doing in making your music like MacDonalds - uniformly bland. If
you really love music (as opposed to being an addictive collector/hunter) ,
you should not be doing this sacrilege.


geoff