QUOTE (DVDdoug @ May 9 2013, 12:04) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
QUOTE
DVDdoug, thanks for the tip. I do have GoldWave, and I did go in there and try that, but it's pretty much the same as Audacity's "Normalize" filter with the separate stereo channels ticked.
No.... Normalizing (what GoldWave calls "Maximize") uses the peaks as a reference, and by normalizing separately you are matching the peaks. MaxMatch, matches the average levels. QUOTE
Not sure what you mean by dynamic compression as the "only way."
It's the only way to match both the peaks and the average. By using compression you can boost the average level without boosting or clipping the peaks. I not recommending that you use compression... For example, say you have a file that's normalized with 0dB peaks in both channels, but the average in one channel is -18dB, and the other channel's average is -22dB. If you reduce the "louder" channel down to -22dB, that channel will now have a peak of -4dB.
Or, let's say you have the opposite situation where the channels are matched & balanced with an average of -18dB, but one channel has a maximum peak of 0dB and the other channel has a maximum peak of -4dB. If you normalize separately, one channel will be boosted by +4dB, it's average will now be -14dB, and the channels will be out-of-balance.
Of course, you can also have a situation where both the peaks & averages are different in both channels, yet it sounds perfectly balanced.
On a modern CD, the most common situation is th have both channels normalized to 0dB, slightly different averages in both channels, and balanced sound.
Not sure that you really want either peak normalization or use dynamic compression. But, you might look at the file with AudioLEAK (http://www.channld.com/audioleak/) which will return data on the channel levels using the Leq algorithm, which comes much closer to a "loudness" measurement than peak or average. You'll get better channel balance data that way, but it's still not an automatic corrector.