I find the current level meter too small and limited in functionality to be really useful. Here's what I'd do:
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Place it on the top bar: The bottom "status" bar is meant to hold just a line of text for app statuses. The top bar holds bigger elements, including the transport, providing more vertical room for a meter. If the transport would be moved to the left, aligned with the history buttons, instead of centered, there would be also a lot of horizontal room for it.
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Make it bigger: The numbers are just too small and dark, and the bars are too thin. This design is good for a level meter on a channel strip in a mixer, but too small for the main app level meter.
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Colour the bars: Dividing the bar in green, yellow and orange segments (in addition to the red clip ends) at appropriate levels (-18 and -6 dBFS for example) would be a very useful way to control signal intensity and make sure that it is hitting those useful levels.
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Introduce peak hold markers: These markers would hold the peak reached during the last second or two. They are very useful to tell peaks that are too fast to see.
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Introduce RMS metering mode: This could work as an alternative mode to the "peak" mode (selectable through an icon or drop down menu) or be superimposed on it. It is invaluable to be able to judge the loudness of a signal (especially when mastering) or its peak ratio.
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Make the dB range selectable: The range of the meter doesn't need to go all the way to the noise floor. This reduces its useful range. A drop down menu could again be used to offer floor options like -36 dBFS (useful for mastering), -48 dBFS (8 bit sample depth), -96 dBFS (16 bit sample depth) and so on. In this way, the range of the meter focuses on the range of loudness that is useful for the type of work being done.
Comments (13)
I for one advocate for peak hold markers.
That's one thing I'm familiar with the functionality/usefulness of.
It would be super helpful for mixing.
That would be good and many DAWs do have such meters but, to be honest, it doesn't really solve my need. I need somewhere in the interface a big, easy to read, detailed meter to see accurately what I'm doing. This is very important when gain staging, mixing and mastering. What I do now is, I have Audacity opened and its input meter in RMS mode and a floor of -36 dBFS detached from its window and resized to occupy the whole top of my monitor. Everybody loves big meters :) Maybe there are better places to put it in the app's interface, for example on a redesigned Master Output device (I've always thought that its "analog" meter scale is just decorative and doesn't really correspond to anything realistic), or better still on a floating window like the spectrum analyzer.
Sorry, I misunderstood you! I understood a small vertical meter between those areas on the top bar, like some DAWs have. Yes, that would be a big meter and it could be hidden or shown just like the right panel. I'd be happy either with this or with a resizable floating window.
Yes, by default, the meter is quite small. But you can click and drag its right edge (with the double line) to make it longer. You can also click its left edge (with the little horizontal lines in it) and "detach" it from the main window. Then you can click and drag the lower-right corner to resize it without limit.
Clicking the small black triangle and choosing "Preferences", a dialogue opens where you can set mode (gradient or RMS), type (dB or linear) and orientation.
Choosing the menu item "Edit > Preferences" opens the preferences dialogue. Click the "Interface" item on the list at the left. There is a setting called "dB Range" and a drop-down menu with options for -36, -48, -60, ... dB.
Yes, it looks very good. Here are some more professional models for reference or inspiration. Quite at the bottom of the page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_programme_meter
Mine is 2.1.2. Actually, every panel on the top region (between the app menu on top and the track view below) has this vertical edge on the left with the little horizontal lines and can be dragged anywhere on that region or detached from the app window and then resized.
This would be relevant for the Master Output's "VU" meter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VU_meter
I just tested it now. It's fantastic. Thank you so much. I think that together with the band limited oscillators, this is my favourite improvement on the DAW :) I also really like that it responds to resizing the app's window. I hope that you still have enough space for future texts on the staus line to the left of it.
Just a suggestion about the meter: to avoid potential confusion and make things clear at a glance, could the RMS mode be superimposed on top of the peak mode, instead of replacing it? When RMS mode is active, peak mode would still be shown, but with darker/dimmed/less saturated colours, and RMS would be on top of it with normal colours? Two reasons for this: As it is now, there's no way to tell for sure the meter's mode other than to check the menu (I initially thought that the RMS mode wasn't doing anything yet). Second, showing both modes simultaneously would make judging the signal peak ratio (difference between peak and RMS) very easy visually.
What I see in many places is that the RMS mode uses the normal colours of the meter, and the peak mode below uses darker versions of the same colours. Perhaps with the "value" reduced 50% or something similar. I send you and example per mail (I still can't attach images here).
I'm trying to send you a PNG image with a design I just made but my message is being rejected as spam by your mailer-daemon. Anyway, it's very clean and simple, no need to to enlarge or change anything. Basically the RMS mode is being shown with the current colours, just as it is, and the peak mode below has the colors darkened by black at 40% transparency. The empty area of the meter between the peak and 0 dB is also very dark, almost black. I think that this detail also helps to clearly suggest headroom visually.
I think it went through. For some reason, JPGs are accepted but PNGs not.
It looks great, thanks!