Burning Audio CDs with normalization...

[gold]

i have few questions about nomarization...
i use nero and there is two mode - rms and maximum... what are the differences... can normalization have some negative effect on quality of sound...and how often do you use normalization when burning audio cds from mp3?....

[Keymaster]

Maximum % is usually all that's neccessary. It is equivalent to simply turning up the volume control so that each song has the same level at it's loudest point. RMS adjusts different parts of a song different amounts. For professional produced and mastered music this should not normally be done since the producer and egineers already selected the levels for various parts of the song. If it is not a compilation CD, no normalization should be required for the same reason.

Normalization can have negative effects by boosting the volume above the clipping level (0 dB) or in the case of RMS changing the dynamics of the song. It can also create some artifacts due to round-off errors (of the 16 bit digital values), particularly when combined with other digital processing, such as EQ or reverb. In fact adding only one other effect like Eq combined with Normalization can result in the final level clipping. If you've already normalized the song to the highest possible level before clipping, EQ'ing a certain frequency range can cause that levell to go over the max (EQ is just adjustment of different frequencies by different amounts).