I enjoy the waveform display in Studio … however, when Volume Levelling is enabled the height of the waveforms is reduced by the ReplayGain. So if an album has a ReplayGain of -6dB the height of the waveforms is halved … which makes the waveform display less useful.
Any way to remedy this?
From the Audirvāna Knowledge base:
The Waveform is an excellent and cool way to see the playing track and check the dynamic associated with the track.
How can I display the waveform?
The technical mini-player is an excellent tool for checking one view of the song’s modifications (format, gain, and resolution) at each processing step during the playback according to your choices of audio settings.
How to open the technical mini-player?
I’ll let you extrapolate from the description of the premise for providing the display… If you need more detailed waveform display for editing. then import the file into a DAW with the tools to do so…
Hi @Agoldnear, I recognize that the waveform display is working as designed … I was wondering if there was a way to ‘scale’ it back to full height. I’m not looking for an analytical tool, just a good sense of the music. It’s very handy when skipping forward in a long track, for example, and that is tough to do when ReplayGain is 6 or 9dB.
The time scale is not good enough for skipping forward in concert with the display? Also, why would one need to normalize the files by more than -3dB? Lowering the gain by -6dB to -9dB alludes to some other gain structure mismatch in the signal path 
I’m no expert on ReplayGain, just reporting the results. I have many albums with RG over 6dB and some as high as 9dB. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ And at those levels the waveform display is too compressed to make out much of the shape.
You are adding gain??? …That is a HUGE mistake… !
My bad, my bad … should have reported ReplayGain from 0dB to -11dB! 
At -6db you are reducing the dynamic-range by 1 bit… so in the case of a 16-bit file you are now at around 15-bits of dynamic-range. The more you attenuate the signal the more you will lower the resolution…
The theoretical Dynamic Range of a LPCM digital-signal is calculated as:
[ 6(dB) x (number of bits) + 1.75mv = dynamic range ]
so… in the case of a 16-bit PCM file the theoretical dynamic-range is approximately 96dB, a 24-bit PCM file is approximately 144 dB … If your DAC is only capable of handling 16-bit dynamic-range, then you may want to normalize by gain reduction.
Don’t worry too much about the noise here.
The problem you’re talking about is interesting, the waveform is here to display the dynamics of the track, it’s not a mastering tool. Since RG doesn’t lower DR (dynamic range), I’d see it as an improvement if the waveform translates the DR intact no matter the RG (or volume for that matter, RG is just an automated volume setting and the waveform doesn’t register volume change so that’s consistent).
Ignoring the RG settings in the waveform makes it more useful and also more pleasing to the eye.
Good idea !
This is not true… in the process of normalization (gain reduction) bits are thrown-out, the file is decimated (and in the Volume Control) … the calculations are 32 bit registers and zero’s are inserted after the decimation process… so resolution is lost. The value of this is subjective of course…
Sort of like staring at your speakers during playback?
Your eyesight is WAY better than mine!
You would have to have some very crazy eyes to see your headphones on your own head Agoldenhead err Agoldenear… 
I listen to music in the dark… Light interferes with my perception of the blackness of the noise floor of my system and of the recording(s)… 
… I don’t listen with my eyes open, as this bias interferes with my perception of spatiality and depth of field imbued in the recording(s)… I am an active listener.
I just have a couple of drams of a single malt scotch…
Oh… And a couple of Mazda Cifte 12AU7 NOS small signal tubes in my PreAmp…