Abacus, it does alter everything, there is a great deal of difference between Normilizing
and Maximizing/Limiting. For Normalize to work properly the audio material has to be pretty
even since normilizing brings everything up, the picks and the noise while maximizing is a
whole different procedure, lets not bring up details about it cuz its a way complex and lost
topic, it took me 4 years of college to understand just a little of it. Normalizing exist everywhere
but its still the last resource to be used if you have nothing else to use. Any process alters audio,
even maximizing/limiting but it all deppends on how they alter it. When i was at college
(Audio Engineering, Mixing/Mastering) the engineers/teachers always tought us to try to avoid
as much as we can, some reasons i understood some i didnt, its complex.
There is also a lot of mathematics involved in it too, as what Compression does vs Limiting or
what Normalizing does vs Maximizing and e tc. An example:
A Maximizer brings up the low level and the high level together to a point you define and wont
let it peak, it will crush it down while Normalizing will bring everything up, Noise, LowLevel and
also Peak which will go way over 0db while a Compressor can raise the low level and crush the
high level and on the other hand the Limiter wont just let the sound go after a point you define.
A Limiter is basically a compressor, nothing else, just with infinite Ratio.
And they dont do only that, they can do other things too, deppends on settings.