Volume Fader Question

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clayton.dickmann
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Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2017 11:43 pm
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Volume Fader Question

Post by clayton.dickmann » Fri May 10, 2019 12:18 am

Can someone explain the difference between the solid green lines and the more "opaque" lighter green line above when looking at the volume meter? Which one should I be looking at/paying attention to with concerns to overall head room?

i.e. if the solid green lines are peaking at -6, but the more opaque lines are peaking at 0, does this mean my track is peaking at -6 or 0?

Thanks for the help!

fishmonkey
Posts: 4478
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:50 am

Re: Volume Fader Question

Post by fishmonkey » Fri May 10, 2019 12:48 am

the Live meters show peak and RMS levels. also, there are those small horizontal lines which are short-term peak hold meters. oh, and the number in the oval field is a long-term peak hold value (if you click on the value it resets to -infinity).

peak levels show the absolute highest signal levels for each channel. Live has lots of extra headroom on individual channels, which means your peak level can go about 0 dBFS without clipping on individual channels. however, you should never go above 0 dBFS on the master, as that will cause nasty digital clipping. that said, it is generally good mixing practice to pay attention to your gain staging and to not allow any channels to peak higher than 0 dBFS.

the RMS meters give a very rough approximation to the overall perceived loudness of each channel. an extreme case would be a very quiet track that has a few very brief loud peaks. the peak meters would freak out on those peaks, but the overall RMS levels would be low. as RMS levels are calculated using averages (root mean square), they are almost always lower than peak levels.

clayton.dickmann
Posts: 39
Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2017 11:43 pm
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Re: Volume Fader Question

Post by clayton.dickmann » Fri May 10, 2019 1:14 am

fishmonkey wrote:
Fri May 10, 2019 12:48 am
the Live meters show peak and RMS levels. also, there are those small horizontal lines which are short-term peak hold meters. oh, and the number in the oval field is a long-term peak hold value (if you click on the value it resets to -infinity).

peak levels show the absolute highest signal levels for each channel. Live has lots of extra headroom on individual channels, which means your peak level can go about 0 dBFS without clipping on individual channels. however, you should never go above 0 dBFS on the master, as that will cause nasty digital clipping. that said, it is generally good mixing practice to pay attention to your gain staging and to not allow any channels to peak higher than 0 dBFS.

the RMS meters give a very rough approximation to the overall perceived loudness of each channel. an extreme case would be a very quiet track that has a few very brief loud peaks. the peak meters would freak out on those peaks, but the overall RMS levels would be low. as RMS levels are calculated using averages (root mean square), they are almost always lower than peak levels.
So is the "solid" green the RMS level and the more "opaque" green the peak levels?

fishmonkey
Posts: 4478
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 4:50 am

Re: Volume Fader Question

Post by fishmonkey » Fri May 10, 2019 1:25 am

oops, i forgot to mention the colours. the bright green bars are RMS, the dark green bars (which almost always rise above the bright green) are peak.

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