Will passive VU Meter affect audio quality?

  • Thread starter Thread starter dickiefunk
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dickiefunk

dickiefunk

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Hi I'm looking to buy a Rane Ms-1b for my setup but the Rane doesn't really have any metering. Because of this I'm thinking of adding a rack VU meter to monitor tracking easier. SM Pro Audio has a VU meter called the VU8 :-

http://www.smproaudio.com/VU8.htm

If I was to use this in my chain for recording would this affect the audio quality in any way? Is there a better way of doing this or a better VU meter?

Thanks

Richard
 
I wouldn't put anything in the signal path. You could split the signal after the preamp and send one to the recorder and one to the meters. Or you could use the meters in the DAW software as SRR suggested. Or you could make sure your system is calibrated properly and then meter at the output, before the monitors.
 
Hi thanks for your reply. I would like a VU meter to monitor the input signal on a Rane Ms-1b as it has extremely basic metering. Is it possible to do this with the VU8? I would use the VU's on my Layla 3G software for the signal from the pre to the computer.
 
Are you overloading the input of the Rane? I'm not sure why you need metering between the mic and the preamp. Most preamps have very basic metering, usually just a clip light, which is pretty much all you need at that point. Anything after the preamp can be metered in the DAW, as you are planning to do.

What you are proposing is putting a VU meter on the mic, an interesting thought, but something I have to say I've never seen done before.
 
The Rane has a clip light. Set the gain so it's not clipping during the loudest portions and verify in the software, that you're not peaking too high. No need for a VU meter on the preamp -- they aren't that accurate on transients anyway, particularly cheap VUs.
 
SonicAlbert said:
Are you overloading the input of the Rane? I'm not sure why you need metering between the mic and the preamp. Most preamps have very basic metering, usually just a clip light, which is pretty much all you need at that point.
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The last 2 mic pres that I had (focusrite trakmaster, VTB1) both had meters for input and output which was a feature I really liked. Other pres such as the ART MPA Gold and my SPL Goldmike also have input VU meters which gives me a better idea of the signal going into the pre.
The VU meters on my DAW would then monitor the output of my pre.
 
Well, the VTB1 has input and output gain controls, and the trackmaster has compression and eq. The MS1B only has one gain stage, so there really is no need, plus I don't see how you would wire it to measure the "input" gain specifically. Hitting the VU prior to the preamp will not give you any/much signal, and monitoring it after the preamp is the same as monitoring in your software -- i.e. output gain.
 
I run the mains signal through a Dorrough meter on the way to mix down. No problems I can can hear.
 
VU's are a neccesitty and your DAW VU's arent 100% dead on balls accurate, and if your running pro tools its good to have that processing power free. But put it at the end of your signal chain
 
Nevermind, I see what your saying now with using your DAW VU's. My brain didnt feel like reading what was said.
 
Yea, be sure you monitor the INPUT VU meters on your DAW, not your mixing VU meter which are post fader...
 
BEK$ said:
VU's are a neccesitty and your DAW VU's arent 100% dead on balls accurate, and if your running pro tools its good to have that processing power free. But put it at the end of your signal chain
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The meters on my Lynx2a match everything else in the chain.

PT is so inefficient you have to shut off the meters for processing power????

Another good reason to avoid PT.
 
c7sus said:
PT is so inefficient you have to shut off the meters for processing power????

Another good reason to avoid PT.
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No, no, no. The meters in PT are fine. In any DAW it takes CPU resources to graphically draw the meters on the screen. They can be disabled in PT in order to squeeze as much power out of the processors as possible. If you are running tons of plugins and are right on the edge, the ability to turn the meters off is a good thing.
 
scrubs said:
The Rane has a clip light. Set the gain so it's not clipping during the loudest portions and verify in the software, that you're not peaking too high. No need for a VU meter on the preamp -- they aren't that accurate on transients anyway, particularly cheap VUs.
Click to expand...

+1

Use your software meters. If they're not accurate enough, learn their inaccuracies and compensate accordingly.
 
SonicAlbert said:
I wouldn't put anything in the signal path. You could split the signal after the preamp and send one to the recorder and one to the meters. Or you could use the meters in the DAW software as SRR suggested. Or you could make sure your system is calibrated properly and then meter at the output, before the monitors.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I do the latter. It's incredibly handy to have carefully calibrated VU meters hanging off an unattenuated (recorder) output.

Cheers,

Otto
 
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