Currently there appears to be a -6dB gain reduction on every track. So even though the track level shows 0dB, it’s actually outputting at -6dB. I believe Taktik has said that this was intended to help prevent clipping, because if all tracks were really outputting at 0dB and you were using fully normalised samples/instruments, then things would overload and clip like hell very quickly. This is perfectly understandable, and I even agree that such a safety measure is a good idea, just not necessarily implemented in this exact way.
What I’d like to see instead is true 1:1 gain, meaning that when I have a track set to 0dB then it is truly outputting at 0dB. If I play a normalised sample through a track and then use render to sample, what I should get back from that is a new sample that is also normalised to the exact same level as the input. The relationship should be 1:1. If a track clips, then it will be entirely my own fault, but either way I want a track to output exactly what I have put into it, and to not have such obfuscated/hidden gain reductions that only lead to further confusion.
In order to help prevent clipping for new users, the default track level could still be set to -6dB to essentially behave as it does now, but it should be possible to raise the track level up to true 0dB if they choose to.
The problem with normalising (assuming we mean normalise to 0dB, as Renoise’s sample editor does) is that it will not always be correct.
For example: Let’s say I have a sample playing on a track which is not fully normalised to 0dB, rather it’s actually only peaking at -3dB. Now I use the render to sample feature which produces a new sample that has a -6dB gain reduction. The -3dB and -6dB combined mean the new sample is peaking at -9dB.
If I were to use the normalise/maximise feature in Renoise’s sample editor, the sample will be boosted to peak at 0dB, which would be incorrect, since the result would then be +3dB louder than the original sample itself. To avoid this, I would have to use the adjust volume feature instead and input the correct gain boost manually, which is pretty cumbersome.
If the track itself was simply outputting at true 0dB to begin with, then render to sample would have given me a perfect 1:1 copy of what I wanted in the first place.
Edit: Changed all the 6.021dB’s to 6dB’s, just for the sake of clarity.