Distortion after normalizing

[Tomas E]

(DP 11, if it makes any difference)

After normalizing, the level meter in the audio monitor peaks and the square goes red. I also saw it in the aux track, same channel, but when disabling the EQ it disappeared from there, but not from the audio monitor level meter.

How can there be distortion after normalizing? I've never seen it before, but then I can't say that I've been looking at that level meter. Most of the time I only check the mixing board.

[mikehalloran]

It depends where your fader is set whether the level will overload after you Normalize a sound bite. I suppose it would be nice of the peaks correlated with -0 on the fader but I've never seen that.

Even if it did, that would be useless the second you added a second track. You do want to mix them, right?

Since lockdown, I've been making choir tracks. If I had my singers all peaking at -0, the mix would have so much distortion, it would sound like I was running it through a fuzz box.

[HCMarkus]

Don't normalize. Use the Trim or another plugin if you need some additional gain control.

[Tomas E]

It depends where your fader is set whether the level will overload after you Normalize a sound bite. I suppose it would be nice of the peaks correlated with -0 on the fader but I've never seen that.

Even if it did, that would be useless the second you added a second track. You do want to mix them, right?

Since lockdown, I've been making choir tracks. If I had my singers all peaking at -0, the mix would have so much distortion, it would sound like I was running it through a fuzz box.

Thanks for the reminder! I've mostly only recorded one mono track recently. Still I find it strange that it peaks in the audio monitor but not in the mixer. Does this mean that I can ignore the audio monitor peak and only adjust the fader level? I guess the signal seen in the audio monitor 13 and 14 represents the signal sent to the mixer aux track, where as said no peak is visible.

[Tomas E]

Don't normalize. Use the Trim or another plugin if you need some additional gain control.

Thanks! I'll take a look at this option.

[Tomas E]

I might add that I've recorded into a stereo track, and that it' the left channel in the audio monitor that has the peak.

I might also clarify that I cannot hear any distortion, I can only see the peak, so the headline maybe should be something else.

Can the headline be changed by users or only by moderators? At some forums you can hold down the Ctrl key and click and hold down the mouse key to do this. I know that it can be changed when replying and I've done so. Maybe that's enough then.

[Tomas E]

It only peaks if I go through the aux track in the V-rack and have Bus 1-2 as output source. The solution would be to use my insert preset as insert and not use the aux track. However, since it doesn't peak in the aux track level meter I don't know if that would make a difference.