Normalizing takes the average sound level and brings it up, it does this by looking at the peeks and looking at the valleys and using RMS root mean square or other algorithm, it comes up with a maximum level in can bring the recording up to before distortion. Gain is absolute, it is blind it will not ask you to scan a section for an RMS sample; it will simply apply gain to the whole section. It can bring up noise floor if used improperly; it can also bring up distortion levels too.
In order to use GAIN you must look at the loudest peek your self and decide how much gain can be added to it, before it distorts. The best way for a beginner to get more gain IMO is to normalize.
You must take songs and do them one at a time. I even go as far as to normalize quiet sections and loud sections separately, and then I normalize the whole song again just to smooth out the transition. I always keep a safety copy of the file as a back up.
In the good old days of tape there was no such thing as a back up. Now you can play with EQ, Normalize, Expand and Compress till your hearts content.
I know this will not help you much but the best advice is to take a really bad recording and see how much you can improve it. And one more tip try listening to this "improved" track with as many different speakers, Headphones as possible and try and get it so it sounds pretty good on everything and I bet you will have a nice recording when you’re done. Good luck
And remember there are no mistakes in audio just fun adventures
Chris Church
well thanks for ya'lls help, i think i might be even more comfused now
i went the rms route and all seems fine. for what ever reason i couldn't change the rt channel independently, only the left. at least the peaks were w/ in 1db so i can live w/ it.