I'm comparing some mics and other gear I've borrowed and I need to match and maybe normalize the RMS levels of tracks. I don't have a dedicated wave editor app, so how could I do it inside SONAR? Is there some plugin I can use?


Also: How do I blast two tracks up to exactly the same vertical size in X2? It used to be shift-dragging while having two or more tracks selected, but not anymore! Sven

I have long wished for the capability within SONAR to highlight a section of a track and have SONAR calculate and report the average RMS for that section. This would be a great help for balancing tight vocal harmonies, for example. 

Sadly, such a feature does not exist. I can use an external editor, but usually that's too much trouble. There is, however, a 10-year-old (and somewhat buggy) 32-bit plugin that can display average RMS values for an arbitrary section of a track. It's called RMS Buddy.

Cool. Thanks for the tip, bitflipper.

Thanks Dave, that works! 

Would be cool if SONAR had an option to normalize files with regard to RMS as well as Peak level!

Sven, does it works with Sonar 64 ?

Use a VU meter. Just out of interest does Sonar have clip gain as in Pro Tools and Studio One. If not that is a major major oversight. Once you have it and work with it you will never go back.

You don't need any special tools either as per Dave's suggestion. You just drag the amplitude of clips up or down as per PT and Studio One and simply match the rms part of the signal by eye and that's it. Fast and effective.

Inside Sonar I would get a VU meter plugin, calibrate the system and then simply watch where the meters are reading for your various clips etc. Then simply adjust the gain of the various clips so the VU meter is showing the same for all of them and you will end up with them all sounding very close in terms of volume.

Thank you Bit!

Great stuff.

best regards,
mike