Meter Calibration (PC vs Analog)

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bajanboi

New member
For the life of me i cannot get my meters calibrated properly. Ok....so im able to get my sonar 3 and cool edit meters to read the same values. No magic there, thats automatic. My issue is getting my software meter to match up with my hardware meters (dbx 160a compressor). It's driving me nutzzzzz. I'll spend a few minutes calibrating the back of my compressor with a "TONE" i've created from the "Generate" menu in cool edit so that -6db in cool edit and sonar matches with -6db on the compressor. But when i play a random wav file of vocals for instance my compressor usually reads anywhere from 5 db less to 2 db greater than the value on my software meters(its pretty random). The point is my compression ratio doesn't kick in at the threshold it should.....

Has anyone ever experienced this? What could possibly be going wrong?

Any help is appreciated
 
What calibration tone did you make in cool edit - a pure sine wave ? You might check the stats and see what the rms, max rms, and peak of the tone are...but you might consider making a more complex calibration signal - pink noise - get the same stats: average rms, max rms, peak and see if the setup makes better sense that way. I'm just throwing out a couple of ideas here based on what you've said...

also what type of software meters are you reading peak or rms ? Voxengo has a free VST tool called SPAN that'll give you rms and peak ems (max rms in cool edit) readings. There's also a free vst plug called rms buddy you could try too.

It'll be nice when they're all tuned up though...
 
bajanboi said:
i was using a square wave tone under....Generate/Tone

I'll try the pink noise
Click to expand...
Oh Ok - square is more complex than sine, noise even more complex - get the stats and see if they correlate to the meters...If you tell me what noise/tone settings you used I can do the same thing here. I've got a DEQ2496 on the outboard I use for metering that I think is fine and accurate. We can compare notes about the reference in other words.
 
Thanks Blue Bear. Thats really important for people to understand. You certainly wouldn't want your analog gear to read -2 when your digital gear reads -2. If they did, your digital gear would start to clip right when the analog gear was just getting to it's "sweet spot" or "unity". Personally, the most important is that you get all your analog gear to meter the same numbers, and all your digital gear to do the same. Unless you have a more expensive console with variable meters, this can be really tough to do. You could take this one step further if you want in the analog realm. A 1khz tone should read 1.23 volts on the output when the meter is reading "0", or is at "unity". When I am calibrating, I get all my analog gear to read properly on a voltmeter, then I set the whole system so that analog "0" is at digital -12. Many people reccomend using it at -18 though. It also makes a big difference if your analog meters are reading peak or RMS.

If you go this route, start with your console. If it does not have variable meters, you will have to do your best to set all other analog gear that does to match the meters on your console. Also, things change alot if you insert a piece of gear with a -10 I/O with something thats rated at +4. Good luck:)
 
Great explaination guys - that should square things up !

Sorry to get you tangled up bajanboi - I work in the DAW, out spdif to a DEQ2496 - going the opposite direction you are I believe. In addition I'm matching up 2 pieces of digital gear where you have an analog compressor and a DAW it looks like.
 
thanks for all the input guys...sorry for taking so long but i was visiting family over the holidays...I have better control over my compressor parameters now....thanks again. :)
 
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