I have Sound Forge Audio Studio 14.I am trying to Master a music CD. I am trying to limit peaks and audio clipping. I am not sure I totally understand Normalizing. But my question is, How do you find the limiter in Sound Forge Audio Studio 14?
"Normalizing" is the process by which the absolute peak level of your signal is reduced or increased so that it meets whatever you have set as the Normalizing level. So, if you set your Normalize level to, say, -0.5dB, your peak level will never exceed this but the level of ALL the material in your file will be reduced or increased to ensure this level is achieved. In other words, applying it maintains ALL the relative levels of the whole file without allowing it to exceed the peak level.
I don't have SFAS 14 so can't help you with the location of the limiter you need, but if, as suggested by your post, you are dealing with audio clipping on your recorded tracks using it will not help if the clipping is already burned into those tracks. Or, is it that you are trying to raise the overall level of the recording and this is producing the clipping? If so, Normalizing may well be your best friend! I'm not sure whether this is possible in SFAS but you may be able to set the Normalize level to 0dB, or perhaps -0.1dB; then all your levels will not exceed the 0dB threshold for the onset of clipping.
I am not very familiar with the limiters included with Sound Forge AS. Peak normalize may work, but it sets the global highest peak (as desired), but low level sounds would still be low in relation to the highest peak I recall an Express Dynamics compressor that will peak limit with an inf:1 ratio, The included iZotope Ozone Elements has a decent limiter stage in addtion to EQ and image There are probably others. There are probably a hundred plus free (and otherwise) third-party limiters available as well (search for free VST limiters). The free LoudMax is a popular clean sounding brick-wall limiter whcih is easy to set with two basic parameters, output ceiling and threshold. I am not sure if the legacy Direct X Wave Hammer is included with AS. Wave Hammer is a two-stage comp/limiter that can have a vintage (old school 1176) analog FET tube sound, which sounds great on 'some' music.
btw, welcome to the Magix Sound Forge users community @GonzoGib.