mixer meter compared to soundforge meter

djclueveli

New member
when i hit the 0 mark on my hardware mixer, does that mean it will read -18 on my soundforge peak meter? does anyone know any good articles that show the difference between software meters and hardware mixer meters?
 
It's not a question of hardware or software, but the algorithm the meters are using, ie. peak or RMS.
In case of peak, it might use an intersample algorithm, though they usually don't.
In case of RMS, the 0 mark can be at different places. Usually equal to a full scale sine or square wave, though also 12, 14 or 20 db bellow that are available.
The integration time can vary also. Usually they are integrating 50 or 300 ms.

Also it could be possible that you just measure different pegels, depending on the settings of your sound board I/O-lines.

And on analog circuitry, they have no absolut limit, so they are calibrated to some voltage standard. There are too many of them, and you don't really need to know them all, just don't let the signal clip.
 
Not much to do with peak/RMS to be honest. Thats different parts of the same scale.

Analogue and digital meters are measuring completely different scales.

Commonly dbFS for digital, dbVU for analogue. The differences you see are as expected during the conversion.
 
djclueveli said:
when i hit the 0 mark on my hardware mixer, does that mean it will read -18 on my soundforge peak meter? does anyone know any good articles that show the difference between software meters and hardware mixer meters?
As for the first question, that depens upon the calibration of your A/D converter. We went all over that already last week in the discussion re the Firepod and test tones and all that.

As for the second question, I'm working on an interactive chart/web app that covers the whole subject of metering and gain structure in detail. It's been delayed a few times because of real life (and death) getting in the way, but I'm coming Real Close Now to completion. Watch this forum for an announcement when it becomes available.

G.
 
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