Platinum Notes vs Wavealign

Platinum Notes and waveAlign both make your library play at a consistent loudness, but they take very different routes. Platinum Notes does a lot: it normalizes loudness and corrects pitch, repairs clipped peaks, offers "warmth" effect. WaveAlign focuses on one thing: it levels your library to the BS1770-4 broadcast standard and leaves everything else about your tracks untouched. Want an all-in-one cleanup with added warmth? Platinum Notes does more. Want consistent loudness without altering how your tracks actually sound? That's waveAlign.

What Platinum Notes actually does

Platinum Notes (€98, Mac and Windows) is an audio-processing tool from Mixed In Key. On each track it runs several things at once: loudness normalization, pitch correction to fix tuning, clipped-peak repair and optional "Big Boost" processing that pushes tracks louder to match the modern loudness trend. It can also convert formats, for re-encoding fiole-formats. The processed copies are written to an output folder, postfixing the filename with "_PN"

The result is a new file. The trade-off is that it changes more than loudness: your tracks are re-tuned and re-shaped. Steering away from the meticulously crafted sound the artist and mastering engineer have envisioned. You can turn of these functions in the settings though.

Where waveAlign is different

waveAlign is deliberately narrow. It analyses each track with a windowed measurement using the BS1770-4 broadcast standard - the same loudness standard Spotify, Apple Music and Netflix use - and adjusts only loudness to a consistent target. Its custom limiter lifts quieter tracks up transparently if needed, and leaves pitch, tone and dynamics exactly as the producer and mastering engineer intended. At €79 one-time it's also a bit cheaper than Platinum Notes.

The problem with rekordbox cue points

Platinum Notes doesn't edit files in place. It re-encodes each track and writes a new file - so even if you point it at the same folder, you're working with new files and have to re-import your library. And for MP3s there's a specific catch: re-encoding shifts the audio timing slightly, so cue points and beatgrids you already set no longer line up.

Here's why. Every MP3 encoder adds a small amount of silence at the start (encoder delay) and pads the end to fill the final frame. The exact amount depends on the encoder, and players rely on the gapless-playback info stored in the file's header to compensate for it. Re-encode the track and that delay and padding change, so the whole waveform slides by a few milliseconds - enough to knock sample-accurate cue points and beatgrids out of place.

With Platinum Notes the safe workaround is to process tracks before you import and cue them. waveAlign is built to preserve your existing cue points and beatgrids even when it processes MP3s, so you can level a library you've already prepped without it drifting out of sync. It also leaves your other metadata and the filenames untouched - so you can process your library, or a USB stick, in place, with no re-importing in rekordbox.

At a glance

Which should you use?

• If you want to drastically alter the sound of your tracks along loudness normalization, then Platinum Notes is your choice.
• Want consistent loudness on a broadcast standard, without altering how your tracks sound, for less? waveAlign.

However be sure to run Platinum Notes before importing tracks into your DJ software. Since processing files that are already in your library can knock cue points and beatgrids out of alignment. With waveAlign simply process whatever you want, whenever you want it.

If you play rekordbox, see also our rekordbox Auto Gain comparison.

FAQ

Is Platinum Notes worth it? If you want to alter your sound in an all-in-one cleanup: loudness, clipped-peak repair and pitch correction then those €98 may be justified. If you only need consistent loudness with full reliability for DJs, then waveAlign does that transparently to a broadcast standard for less, in a minimally invasive way.

Does Platinum Notes change your audio? Yes. It corrects pitch, repairs clipped peaks and reshapes contrast. It alters each track, not just its volume. waveAlign only adjusts loudness and leaves everything else untouched.

What's a good Platinum Notes alternative? waveAlign, if what you actually want is consistent loudness. It normalizes to the BS1770-4 broadcast standard transparently, keeps your tracks' character intact, and costs less. It doesn't do timbre-changes or pitch correction. So if you need those, that's what Platinum Notes is for.

Does Platinum Notes mess up cue points? It can, if you process files that are already imported into your DJ library - the new files fall out of sync with your grids and cues. The fix is to run it before importing tracks.

Is waveAlign cheaper than Platinum Notes? Yes. waveAlign is €79 one-time; Platinum Notes is €98.