Especially with Bitwig´s weak sample waveform display in clips (and scaling of waveforms isn´t an option neither as it heavily distorts every clip visually, which didn´t brought down in volume already) I would use normalization on every single audio clip just to get the visuals right...
Tbh, beside of fades I absolutely dislike scaled peak display by clip volume... it´s perhaps a nice visual gimmick but in regards how far the clip volume has to be brought down for a "normal" mix, it causes much more problems than it could ever help in any way so I never use clip gain to bring it down as in Bitwig it looks like this with -18db:
instead of:
This is how FLS looks after bringing all clip volumes down to -18db:
The normalize option would help a lot after bounce in place/bounce...
And tbh in belongs into the render/export audio dialog of every DAW and there is actually no excuse for not having that... this an essential tool imho!!
No normalisation?
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- KVRAF
- 8828 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
Normalizing is dangerous,-) its way better to use the gain within the audio editor. You can boost it up to 18 dB. As normalization is not, as you might expect, creating the same loudness perception, it does not really help, better use your ears to level out your clips...
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- KVRAF
- 8828 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
I was joking, its dangerous in a mental way. If you automate too many parts, you listen less. You loose subtleties. If you instead adapt the level by ear you will get better mixes. It takes half a second longer to set a volume than normalizing, but while you do that, you listen.
What I want to say is not that that feature would be useless, but a lack of that feature does not hurt. For me its on the lowest priority, it will not stop you from working and more likely will help you to get better mixes...
What I want to say is not that that feature would be useless, but a lack of that feature does not hurt. For me its on the lowest priority, it will not stop you from working and more likely will help you to get better mixes...
Last edited by Tj Shredder on Mon Sep 16, 2019 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRist
- 459 posts since 28 Mar, 2014 from Los Angeles, CA
I wouldn't mind this as it currently is if Bitwig would release the file handles when it is not in focus. What I mean is, you can't edit any of the files in a session in another external audio editor and save the changes (because the file is "in use"). The only way is to deactivate the audio engine first, but this means you have to reload everything when going back to Bitwig after making any destructive audio edits.
I like the way Reaper handles this - when the application is not in focus, the audio clips go "offline" and it releases its hold on them, and you can edit and save the files, alt-tab back, and they refresh. Not to mention it has a handy shortcut to edit any clip in an external audio editor of your choice.
I like the way Reaper handles this - when the application is not in focus, the audio clips go "offline" and it releases its hold on them, and you can edit and save the files, alt-tab back, and they refresh. Not to mention it has a handy shortcut to edit any clip in an external audio editor of your choice.
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- KVRAF
- 8828 posts since 6 Jan, 2017 from Outer Space
+1
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- KVRAF
- 11194 posts since 2 Dec, 2004 from North Wales
Lots of opinions on Audio normalization and the best way to do it (or even if it should be done), but the visual thing (being bale to see the detail in a wave) I think can be considered as a separate issue.
If you are not visually deciding how loud things are but want to see the waveform for editing, alignment, it would be nice to have an option to just see the waveform as big as it can be as a visual aid....be even cooler if it did that as a fainter ghost image with the actual (relative) size in different colour or bolder. Not sure if any DAW does it that way....
If you are not visually deciding how loud things are but want to see the waveform for editing, alignment, it would be nice to have an option to just see the waveform as big as it can be as a visual aid....be even cooler if it did that as a fainter ghost image with the actual (relative) size in different colour or bolder. Not sure if any DAW does it that way....
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- KVRist
- 235 posts since 12 Mar, 2017
Oh, Flstudio again.
The biggest thing I hate in FL is that you have no visual representation of Gain/Volume of clip's waveform itself. No matter how loud or quite it is - you always get same "normalized" waveform which sucks big time.
Why you want to fix what's not broken?
The biggest thing I hate in FL is that you have no visual representation of Gain/Volume of clip's waveform itself. No matter how loud or quite it is - you always get same "normalized" waveform which sucks big time.
Why you want to fix what's not broken?
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- KVRAF
- 4476 posts since 27 Jul, 2004
Because it makes sense...bolba wrote: ↑Sat Sep 21, 2019 11:48 am Oh, Flstudio again.
The biggest thing I hate in FL is that you have no visual representation of Gain/Volume of clip's waveform itself. No matter how loud or quite it is - you always get same "normalized" waveform which sucks big time.
Why you want to fix what's not broken?
It is good practice to gainstage sources before they hit the mixer, isn´t it??
In Bitwig´s case this means you don´t see anything anymore from the peak displays and this isn´t any helpful or you have to workaround and insert always a tool first to bring the volume down, which would be for me an overkill...as I got gain control already in the clip anyway...
I am with you, that sometimes it could help to see the changes visually but for me the disadvantages are much more a showstopper as having always the full peak display...
Different peeps different opinions... a vicious circle
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- KVRian
- 1441 posts since 4 Oct, 2012 from Utah
I make use of both visuals. When sample processing (usually synthetic drums that have been rendered) I adore the immediate visual feedback. However, there's also something to be said for seeing what a clip contains without having to open it. Kinda the whole reason why MIDI clips get normalized is to show that. I'm a newer Bitwig user so I'm still nailing down a workflow, but both forms of visual aid are useful. Perhaps a toggle somewhere? Oh man how many times does that phrase get used on KVR.
Oh man how many times does that phrase get used on KVR.
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- KVRAF
- 2402 posts since 28 Sep, 2012
Bump for normalization on export!
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- KVRist
- 236 posts since 19 Jul, 2014
The feature I was used to in the old days was a normalize-to-percent - useful for working with Samples. Since Bitwig has a lot of sound creation possibilities, I was hoping to use it in the audio clip event interface - but I guess I'm so new that I don't know how else this is achieved in Bitwig. The pen and pointer tools and such, when used in gain view, don't seem to allow a quick horizontal line drawing. In other older tools I would just eye the wave and click a button at some percent (like 80 percent of maximum) for my selection - which is how I did it in days long gone, probably in Cubase For e.g. applied to an audio event selection or the entire wave or whatever. This gets one into the ballpark of hearing something that was recorded too quiet at a more optimum volume, while ensuring the change in amplitude is applied evenly to the whole selection so as not to alter the natural event (while it can be okay to alter it later - I like to keep the level consistent at first). For this particular use, its not specifically about normalize for me in the sense that I don't care about the maximum. What I care about is getting a horizontal line of increase of the audio so that I can ascertain the value of my selection by hearing it at some more appropriate levels, to decide whether to export it as a sample. It would be equally solved for me if I could have a straight horizontal line tool to place within the selected event, that would constrain both horizontally and to the event vertical boundaries. Then I could drag the amplitude of the entire event up or down and audition the event at the various levels until I decided to export one (or leave it behind entirely).
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- Banned
- 11467 posts since 4 Jan, 2017 from Warsaw, Poland
Normalization in 32-bit floating point channels is an undefined problem, though 
