It has been my understanding Normalizing is a glorified Volume control. The Waves L1 and L2 do a much better job although tey reduce the Dynamic range of the material and can be overdone real easy. But today that doesn't seem to matter. L O U D limited Dynamic range is the rule. LOL

The important thing is to make all the tracks the same levels and relatively same EQ. The Waves Maximizer Stuff and a little program called T-Racks are good programs which do well for home use. Today's software goes a long way to doing what years ago could ONLY be done by a mastering engineer.

For most homegrown "sell at the gig" CDs it's good enough. If you have a commercial release you will or should have the budget to hire a respected Mastering engineer. Not some guy who advertises in the back of Recording magazine who has T-Racks and Waves

Listen to these samples to understand what even a home SW Mastering progam can accomplish
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/t-racks/audiodemo/
Print this and study it...
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug04/articles/computermastering.htm

[This message has been edited by Kingfrog (edited 04-13-2009).]