Basic volume/meter question

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
willpeterson1616
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 10:07 pm

Basic volume/meter question

Post by willpeterson1616 » Sun May 12, 2019 10:22 pm

This question is very basic. When I upgraded to Live 9, the look of the volume meters changed. So, when a sound is playing, the volume is shown in both the channel that it is in, as well as the master track. My question is this: what does the semi-transparent portion of it mean? The base of the volume is solid green, then there is a lighter green section above that which seems to show the highest point, but it is not solid. It is like a much "thinner" light green. It kind of reminds me what a compressor or EQ will show after the effect is applied. That is, the lighter portion would be what the volume used to be before you cut some frequencies or applied some compression, while the "thick" color is what the real volume is now. Any clarification would be much appreciated. As simple as this question is, there is literally no information on this in tutorials, forums, or anywhere else.

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

Re: Basic volume/meter question

Post by fishmonkey » Sun May 12, 2019 11:04 pm


willpeterson1616
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun May 12, 2019 10:07 pm

Re: Basic volume/meter question

Post by willpeterson1616 » Mon May 13, 2019 9:05 pm

Thanks man, I knew it would be something simple. But wait, because shouldn't the RMS value be an average value that remains constant? Why is it moving with the instantaneous peaks? Maybe they use a scaling factor for it, like RMS=(4/5)*Peak. 4/5 is arbitrary here, but just represents what the scaling factor would be relative to the average peak in one case. Either way, no need to waste time with a reply. I've got what I need. Thanks again

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

Re: Basic volume/meter question

Post by fishmonkey » Mon May 13, 2019 10:40 pm

all metering values are calculated over a specific time window.

you can see by the way that the RMS meter lags slightly behind the peak meter that its time window is slightly longer than that used for the peak meter.

in theory you can calculate a single RMS value that includes the current state of a whole audio track (an "integrated" value), however that is usually done as an offline process. if you think about it a bit more you will probably see why such a value isn't very practical in the context of mixer metering — it doesn't tell you very much about small sections of audio, and every time you tweak anything in the track the integrated RMS value would need to be recalculated...

Post Reply