Stereo Tool

Hello,

Question about WatchCat. I want to normalize a batch of songs for a broadcast environment.

Two questions:

#1 - does RMS normalization in WatchCat do any kind of processing to the files (in the traditional "audio processing" sense), or does it merely "turn up" or "turn down" the volume?

#2 - what is a good RMS level to shoot for so that I don't turn up and clip older, more dynamic material...I'm thinking -24 or perhaps even -26?

Thank you.

Hi. Normalization in Watchcat doesn't do any processing beyond attenuation. I prefer to normalize the output since it can do LUFS via EBU-R128, however. That's just my own preference.
Good question. I guess it would be best to analyze your library and base your normalization target on that.

edit: I should mention that if you're normalizing the input, you can use the Advanced Clipper and prevent any distortion that would get added if you did normalize too loudly.