By now, you have probably amassed a sizable collection of MP3 and WAV files. In doing so, though, you may have unwittingly acquired some less-than-questionable copies of your favourite songs. As such, you're probably suffering from some shabby bit rates, low volume troughs, and oddly pitched high notes. Not to worry, fair audiophile! Here is an easy-to-use tutorial that will guide you through the lovely process known as "normalisation."
Normalisation is a fancy term for a rather simple process. Say you have a number of MP3s on a playlist, and you're fixing to burn a CD. Chances are that a few of those MP3s won't be recorded at the same level as the others, and thus, you'll be left monkeying with the volume knob the whole disc through. By "normalising" the tracks, you'll have everything sounding as if you just walked out of HMV Records. Now you have two approaches to consider, and you must follow the appropriate steps for each.
1. If you are ripping songs from CDs, you'll need to first download MusicMatch Jukebox and install it.
a. First, open MusicMatch Jukebox and select "Settings" from the option window. Then select the third tab over from the left, marked "Recorder." Within the recorder window, select the button marked "Advanced," which is located second from the top on the four-button stack. You should now see the advanced recording options window.
b. In the special effects area, type in a number (usually between 98 and 100) in the normalisation field. Typing in a percentage higher than 100 will result in unnecessary distortion. Click the OK button located at the bottom of the window.
c. The default CD quality setting should be at 128 Kbps, but check it just in case. At this point, you can tweak other preferences within this window and select the button marked OK.
d. Insert a CD, check the boxes in front of the songs you wish to encode, and click the red record button. The progress bars will slowly fill up as you approach completion. Repeat with as many CDs as necessary.
2. If you want to normalise MP3s that you currently have saved on your hard drive and you don't want to spend any money, you'll need to grab a copy of Wave Flow 3.5 software. This program normally requires you to register and pay a fee, but for our purposes, the shareware version serves nicely. You will also have to first convert your MP3s to WAV files, which you can learn to do by clicking here. Once you have all the WAVs ready, proceed through the following steps.
a. Run the Wave Flow 3.5 setup.exe file, and then run the actual application. Do not opt to register the software - unless, of course, you're feeling particularly charitable.
b. Under the file menu, select Open. Browse your WAV files and choose them one by one. You'll see them open in a window that displays a wormlike graphic of your file. On the bottom left side of this sound field, click the "Select All" button.
c. Under the tools menu, click the large "N" graphic, which stands for "normalise". In about five seconds or so, you'll have a newly normalised WAV. Click the Close box, and when you're prompted to save, select yes.
d. Now learn how to convert WAV back to MP3 with MusicMatch, and you're on your way!
There, that wasn't so bad, was it? Now you're on your way to audiophile Valhalla. Never again will you lunge for the volume knob while driving, and never will you be embarrassed at those important cocktail parties (where you opted to play a burned CD instead of hiring that quartet as you promised.) Yes, everything is back to normal, so to speak. Go figure, now get to normalising before it's too late!
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