Got too excited last night recording my guitar parts for a song via Line 6 HD500 (used HD500 for the first time for recording).. And ended up recording at -35db... I was thinking about redoing the take.. But I tried the 'normalize' option to keep everything at -10db level and now sounds good so far (I may not have the best ears :-))... Wanted to find out what do people lose or sacrifice when they normalize a track..
Also is there a quick way of turning multiple faders down in 1 or 2 steps?

Thanks

magik570
I tried the 'normalize' option to keep everything at -10db level and now sounds good so far (I may not have the best ears :-))... Wanted to find out what do people lose or sacrifice when they normalize a track.

 
Basically it's just turning up the level so if there's noise, it will be turned up as well. At really low levels, the effective bit resolution is also lower and that will not be improved by normalizing. However, it's doubtful this would be audible with processed guitar, even at -35dB.
 

Also is there a quick way of turning multiple faders down in 1 or 2 steps?

Try Quick Grouping. Ctrl-click the faders you want to move, then hold Ctrl while adjusting one of the faders. The others will follow.

Depending on how the signal is processed, if the noise between phrases becomes audible, a noise gate may be helpful. This is more situation dependent. I will more often than not do a destructive noise reduction pass if this is the case (using a third party program) to remove the need to process the gate each time the track plays.

To make one point absolutely clear - the normalizing process itself just adds gain and thus won't introduce any new noise to worry about, but it will raise the level of any noise already in the signal.

Normalizing can also cause problems if you don't think about how it affects your gain structure. For instance, the input on a buss might start to clip if you normalize too many tracks being sent to it.

Normalizing at -10 dB you should avoid this issue. Just something for folks to think about in general before they normalize everything to 0 dB.

Peace,

Tunes

Use your ears, if there is no noise in the quiet parts other than the guitar hum go with it...
 
My guitar picks up radio stations... :)
 
I usually use the gain process but normalize can do the same too and it is more precise.

magic570:
 
To adjust the same control in selected tracks. Select the tracks you want to adjust, then hold down the CTRL key and adjust a control in any selected track. SONAR automatically adjusts the same control in all other selected tracks of the same type.
 
Hope this helps,
Paul

My 2 Cents: There is no need for normalizing when the tracks where recorded correctly.
 
CJ

CJaysMusic
My 2 Cents: There is no need for normalizing when the tracks where recorded correctly.
 
CJ

Same here.  I never normalize a single track. I may increase the gain some but I try to get individual tracks to their desired levels without any extra adjustments.

What is wrong with using normalizing at different levels on different vocal clips to get a roughly even level before mixing?  You don't have to max out the Normalize: you can use -2 on some sections, -3 on others, etc.  I normally record vocals at a pretty consistent level, but this has come up before and it avoided excessive automation and compression.  (Sometimes I also adjust levels in Melodyne for the same reason.)