1. according to sox stats effect: your sox file has peak lev db -12 and rms lev db -16.77. Same result when I generate the file with your command.
2. according to sox stats effect your rx6 file has rms lev db -15.02 (not -12).
That is, there are discrepancies between your screenshots and rms level figures reported by sox.
I would abandon rx in the process and use the method I described earlier. If you want to reach -12 rms (as reported by the rx) you should be able to easily alter the gain in your sox command until you reach desired -12 rms lev db.
You could be additionally able to eliminate the discrepancy described above by altering the RMS calculation methods in the rx preferences. I guess in your current setup it calculates RMS level in a "nonstandard way".

>As a side question, it would be nice if someone here could confirm what flavor of white noise SoX produces.
Yes, I can confirm that your command in my environment delivers _uniform_ type of white noise.

>I want SoX, ideally natively via some appropriate command-line switch, to output a white noise file with a specific RMS amplitude. 
Yes, that could be nice feature. But I suppose you can easility generate desired RMS level db with sox by using my magic number 4.77 (or other number if you use your current RMS calculation standard).
br, Mikko




On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 5:45 PM, James Trammell <james.trammell@gmail.com> wrote:
Måns,

Perhaps the following information will explain what I am seeing.

Files

1. http://substrate.com/rms/sox,noise,white,stereo,24b,96000Hz,m12dBFSpeak,tpdf,10s.wav

Stereo white noise created by SoX; a 24bit 96kHz file at -12dBFS Peak and 10s duration, dithered with TPDF dither to 24 bits.
SoX invocation: "sox -V -b 24 -r 96000 -n sox,noise,white,stereo,24b,96000Hz,m12dBFSpeak,tpdf,10s.wav synth 10 whitenoise whitenoise gain -12 dither"


2. http://substrate.com/rms/rx6,noise,whiteuniform,stereo,24b,96000Hz,m12dBFSrms,tpdf,10s.wav

Stereo white noise created by iZotope RX6; a 24bit 96kHz file at -12dBFS RMS and 10s duration, dithered with TPDF dither to 24 bits.



Screenshots

3. http://substrate.com/rms/filestats_sox.png

Brief RX6 analysis of the SoX file; notice the peak level is -12dBFS while the RMS level is -13.76dBFS.


4. http://substrate.com/rms/filestats_rx6.png

Brief RX6 analysis of the RX6 file; notice the peak level is -10.24dBFS while the RMS level is -12dBFS.


5. http://substrate.com/rms/rx6_whiteuniform.png

An FYI shot of the RX6 dialog box to point out that it only allows amplitude specifying as RMS; there is no way to enter a peak value.


6. http://substrate.com/rms/rx6_whitechoices.png

An FYI shot to show that RX6 offers 4 flavors of white noise. I chose white uniform for this exercise because that appears to match what SoX produces. As a side question, it would be nice if someone here could confirm what flavor of white noise SoX produces.


To recap what I am trying to do, so that my original question is not lost: I want SoX, ideally natively via some appropriate command-line switch, to output a white noise file with a specific RMS amplitude. 


Thanks.


On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 8:39 AM, Måns Rullgård <mans@mansr.com> wrote:
Jeremy Nicoll - ml sox users <jn.ml.sxu.88@wingsandbeaks.org.uk> writes:

> On 2018-07-07 21:47, Måns Rullgård wrote:
>> Jeremy Nicoll - ml sox users <jn.ml.sxu.88@wingsandbeaks.org.uk> writes:
>
>>> Yes.  So does that mean that the OP should use something like the
>>> 'stat' effect to find out the peak RMS level of the audio file,
>>> then work out how much gain or attenuation is needed, then use
>>> a 'gain' effect with that calculated value?
>
>> No, he should just use the gain effect.  It adjusts both RMS and peak
>> values by the same amount because that is what happens when you multiply
>> each sample by a fixed amount, which is what the gain effect does.
>
> Yes, I understand that gain is gain, but he has to decide how much
> gain to apply.  If he's previously done that in terms of a pre-gain
> peak level, but now wants to bring RMS levels to a certain point,
> he surely has to find out what the file's RMS levels are first
> then decide how much to modify it by?

The question posed was how to obtain an RMS gain of -12 dB.  The answer
is that RMS gain is equal to peak gain, so "gain -12" will perform the
desired function.  If the question were how much gain to apply in order
to obtain a specific RMS level, then of course the initial value would
have to be known.

--
Måns Rullgård

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