Normalize or not?

[vanfanel1]

Do most of you that convert files for playback normalize the audio? I understand the idea behind it and the reason however at times it sounds a bit unnatural and jarring especially when using headphones. For instance the background noises will be a bit louder and suddenly die down when the main characters begin their dialog and suddenly amp up again when they stop.

[Avatar74]

Originally Posted by vanfanel1

Do most of you that convert files for playback normalize the audio? I understand the idea behind it and the reason however at times it sounds a bit unnatural and jarring especially when using headphones. For instance the background noises will be a bit louder and suddenly die down when the main characters begin their dialog and suddenly amp up again when they stop.

Not when doing AC-3 passthru. AC-3 has its own "dialnorm" parameter that tells your receiver's decoder to adjust the center channel in relation to the relative average loudness of the overall mix.

If it's just a stereo program or DTS, it won't have built in dialogue normalization.