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In Reply to: Problem recording with Masterlink 9600 posted by ptruce on July 17, 2006 at 13:44:06:
And the compression kills off your LP's normal bandwidth.I use solid core silver DIY interconnects between my phono and preamp and run a dale/vishay stepped attenuator. This gives me a very dynamic very expressive playback much like live music. My DVD-A recordings are identical to my LPs and my CDR's are very close.
Follow Ups:
A brief explanation of normalization in the context of a 16-bit system...Suppose the peak amplitude of a digitized signal is -3dBFS which equals a sample value of approximately +/-23,200. The approximate maximum possibly sample values (0dBFS) are +/-32,800.
What normalization does is find a factor (call it X) that it can multiply the peak signal value by that will result in the maximum value allowed. In this example, the number would be:
X = 32800/23200 = 1.414
Now... the software will multiply EVERY SAMPLE in the recording by the SAME factor X which results in uniform amplification of the signal. It's just like turning up the volume, so theoretically it's a benign process.
That said I never, ever, use normalization when recording live with microphones or transcribing an LP at the 16-bit level. Instead, I make use of the converter's available resolution in it's entirety. If the OVER lights don't blink occasionally, the recording levels aren't high enough. Digital clipping is not a bad thing so long as it's limited to a few samples (literally) here and there on large transients. Why handicap an entire recording's resolution for a few samples that won't be missed?My philosophy: Be smart with recording levels and don't dick with the data!
-Anthony
Each one looks at the peaks and adjusts the volume as its software algorythms sees fit--and sometimes with really odd sounding effects.I am not familiar with John's recording rig but I know the varieties of capture cards and software I have used on my PC. I am not sure if his deck based recorder and my PC based set up are remotely similar. I am basically running the digital recording levels straight out from 0 to 100 percent and setting volumes by looking for the high peaks.
I am recording as I type and this Duke Ellington's 50th Birthday Concert is some fine music. My copy has lots of scratches so I have it set so that the music highlights hit 98 to 99 and the ticks and pops hit 100.
So I get no distortion and maximum volume. Maybe this is what John is doing too, setting normalization at maximum. Perhaps not. Maybe his software sets a decent recording level that he can rely upon.
There is also burning normalization and this is whole different set of issues. I fell that if recording levels are set appropriately, there is no reason at all to normalize the burn.
Sounds like you and I are doing about the same thing when it comes to recording. Thanks for illustrating the technical side of the issue.
For anyone interested in digital recording it is important to remember that the normalization settings you sellect tells the software whether to leave your recording levels intact or determine its own recording levels for your files.
So much of what we enjoy in vinyl was due to an engineer that set levels as the music was recorded. The best engineers seemed to be those that could read or follow the scores well and set the levels to produce the best sound.
I guess there will now be arguments about whether software or humans should set the recording levels....This can go on ad nausium....
Tubes: I tried it without normalization and it still sounded soft with boomy bass. I am going to swap preamps and phono stages and see if that works.Thanks for the swuggestion.
Peter
I normalized all the CD-Rs that I sent you. In fact, I normalize every CD-R I make. That's what makes them sound so good. ;-)Good luck,
John Elison
Remember the one that you sent me that was at a really low volume? You forgot to normalize it.
Anthony has an excellent explanation of the normalization process in his post above.I use normalization only when down-sampling to Redbook from a higher bit-level recording in order to achieve a full 16-bit recording. As Anthony explains, normalization turns up the volume so that the loudest signal goes all the way to full-scale. This provides the highest resolution possible, a full 16-bits, when down-sampling from a higher bit-level recording that contains at least 16-bits.
Normalization does not compress the recording; it simply turns up the volume digitally. I only use it when down-sampling to Redbook in order to maximize resolution.
Best regards,
John Elison
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