Amplifying vs normalising

I was trying to bring up the level of a track (Baby, you're a rich man CD single) by normalising to 96% with Adobe Audition, but it didn't seem to make any difference.
In the end I normalised to 105% and got more level. Even more odd was that the waveform seemed to "shrink" on screen when normalising at 96% (and normally the waveforms get bigger, which is what I would expect ??)

I guess I've overlooked something simple. Am I correct in undertstanding that the "percentage" of normalisation is the Percentage of maximum output (digital 0)?

Should I have been amplifying?

 

Well, are you trying to normalize the volume level of the song in relation to othefr songs, or are you just trying to make it louder?

PEAK normalization, what it seems like you're doing, just raises the highest/loudest peak to a level YOU determine. ALL you are doing is pointlessly changing the volume level. If you're in 16-bit, you had better not go past 100%, or you'll permenantly clip and ruin your sound. If you are in 32-bit, you can go to 500%, if you wish, and no harm will come to your sound. Just make sure you get it all back under 100% for a CD burn.

RMS normalization is what you do to get all files to an AVERAGE volume level, for a compilation, for an example. You van do this manually, or with the Group wave noemalizer. If you use the GWN, make sure you set the limiter to prevent your wave from exceeding 100% IF you go to CD.

 

I was trying to make that single track louder, as in relation to the others it seems quiet.
Will the group waveform normalisation change the level of the other tracks as well? I was only trying to do work on the one track so that the other remained as "untampered" with as they could be.

It did seem unusual what was happening to that file. I had earlier boosted the level of a needle drop of the Please Please me / Ask me why single using normalisation and it worked as expected.

If I understand correctly normalisation raises the whole of a file up to the amount specified.
Maybe BYARM has a big peak exceeding digital zero, but with most content way down low?
Could this explain whats happening?

 

The volume in that track is coming from the bass content.

I'll be back later to finish my post.

 

OK

 

Bump...

Grant...?

 

Oh, sorry, I forgot about this thread.

Well, to get your file the same AVERAGE level as the others, or at least the same as the ones that are next to it, open up the file you want to fix, and the file(s) you want to use for the reference. Take a reading of the reference files by running the statistics button. Take note of the equalized loudness, and go to the third tab. Enter the equalized loudness of the reference file or the average of the reference files as the "Normalize to" area. Be sure to tic the loudness contour box. Now, go back to the second tab and highlight the target file. You don't have to run a statistic on it, but you can start nomalizing it. Next, if your target file is in 32-bit float, you may wish to either enable or disable the limiter. Just remember, if you don't limit, you must do so at some point with the Hardlimiter before you dither down to 16-bit if your files exceeds 100%. If your file is already in 16-bit, and you think the file will clip, set that limiter!

 

When I do vinyl to CD-R dubs, I normally amplify more than normalize (if the recordings are at a soft volume to start with which they often are) and I do clip restoration if it exceeds 100% or start over again.

 

They are the same thing.