Ableton Forum

Hi Guys

I try to normalize an audio clip in Ableton without consolidating / exporting it.
I know that when exporting audio, I can select to normalize it.
Also, when consolidating a clip, it will be normalized to 0dB after adjusting the volume fader.
But these two processes are kind of time consuming, especially for long audio files (+5 min).
Also they create a new audio file which uses more storage on my hard disk.

I assume that for warped clips, it's difficult for Ableton to normalize the audio, especially when some time stretching etc. happened.
This could be because the actual resulting audio can be different from the original file.

But this should not be true for unwarp files, right? And it would be enough for me to normalize unwarped files.
Is there a simple way to normalize an unwarped audio clip to 0dB?
I'm basically looking for a one-click solution which is instant and which does not create any new audio files.
I just want the volume fader of any audio clip to be adjusted so that the maximum peak of the files is at 0dB.

As a workaround, a plugin or something like that which gives me the level of the highest peak instantly (without playing the clip) so that I can adjust the volume fader manually would be sufficient.

Any ideas?

Thanks and cheers!

Sorry, there is no way to do this that will be faster than just consolidating the files.

Tarekith wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 10, 2023 2:29 pm

Sorry, there is no way to do this that will be faster than just consolidating the files.

Thank you for your reply.
Do you know if this is a technical limitation or just a missing feature?

theoretically someone could implement this function with Max4Live...

kaktus wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 10, 2023 10:25 am

...
I'm basically looking for a one-click solution which is instant and which does not create any new audio files.
I just want the volume fader of any audio clip to be adjusted so that the maximum peak of the files is at 0dB.
...

I'm not entirely clear of your setup and why you would be doing this but yes, you almost could. It's not a one-click solution to your question and bear in mind this will normalise the entire audio file, not just the clip in Live. But if you set your external editor to a lossless audio editor like Fission (paid), Ocenaudio (free), or maybe you have Izotope RX you can select/highlight the audio clip you want normalising by tapping the tiny EDIT button in the tool tabs on the Clip View. Your selected audio file will open in the external editor, normalise there, save, quit, go back to Live and it will be now normalised.

However, Normalising is something you should not be routinely doing to audio files, and especially important on masters or if those files are going on to be processed, mastered, re-used in any way further because for every digital audio change there is a small but important irretrievable trade off in bit integrity. And to be clear, we are talking about Peak Normalisation.

that is a good point — why would you want/need to normalise clips on a regular basis?

I feel your pain, homie.

Peak normalization of clips without consolidating and/or exporting is useful in various ways.

EXAMPLE: Say you're editing a bass take, and you want consistent note volumes (at least in terms of the attack). Being able to normalize the peaks without consolidation or exporting is essential for the sake of nudging and splicing clips together smoothly. Also, it would be impractical to create a new sample for every single note. Moreover, I often want to do this manually instead of using a compressor/limiter/leveler, since each note/hit is more-or-less unique, requiring different gain adjustments and fades. It's a labor of love but well-worth the effort.

This is a serious limitation of Ableton Live. If they added this simple feature, it would save so much time. HEAR ME, ABLETON!!!

You can now normalize a clip in L12 (via right-click), but it will create a new audio file.

^ Thanks for replying. I'm not thrilled, but it's an improvement nonetheless.