Normalization & Vocal Intelligibility...

[xeojax]

Hey!

I had a question regarding vocal normalizing, and i'd like to find out if people are doing this as well, or if there are other techniques folks are using to achieve a similar effect (besides extensive compression/limiting)...

as part of the mix prep stage i decided last night to try and smooth out a lead vocal track by using the digidesign normalization plugin... however, instead of normalizing the entire track, i cut each individual phrase, and normalized it "region by region"... the vocals were recorded at a decent level, however the reason for the normalization was to create a really intelligible vocal, that was extremely consistant and smooth... (i set the normalization to peak at -6db)

the result seemed to work rather well... kinda surprising actually. I still compressed the vocals heavily, but was focuing more on compression character rather than trying to use it to make everything extremely even... I was curious to see if anyone out there has rejected this technique for a specific reason, or if this is something that people do fairly often...

Thanks!!!
Paul

[Wavebourn]

There are differences between piano and fortissimo and "normalizing parts", i.e. compressing, dynamic range is getting narrower, the result is flatter, less alive. However, if the singer varies loudness by mistake, it is Ok to compress, especially if it is rap recorded, but if he/she tries to transfer some feelings varying loudness I would preserve variations.
I use compression in order to make some mp3 files that will be listened through computer or similar speakers; when rare concert mix is compressed as the result reverberation level and hall noises are too high if to listen on normal volume with good speakers... It is always loss of useful information...