I was testing a Melda oscilloscope, when I noticed that a waveform output at -18 dB showed up as -21 dB on Cubase’s master meter. There are not plugins on the track neither on the master bus, all clean, as you can se in the picture.
This makes me think all the level metering on my audio tracks is distorted. Why is this happening, and is there a way to calibrate my Cubase meters (assuming the Melda plugin is working properly)?
Hi, this is probably the pan law… Mono to Stereo.
Most likely you are seeing the results of your Pan Law settings. There are several threads here that go into all the details you’d want (and them some) about how the Pan Law settings work. So give them a search.
Hi, thanks guys, yes it was the pan law (I didn’t knew about it…). I had read two posts about this in the forum, but I didn’t understand where I needed to change the settings (sorry, I’m quite new to the software, I’m discovering it little by little).
Looking for information on the pan law, I read that it is recommended to keep it at -3dB, to avoid volume drops during panning. Ok, I set -3dB, that is the default setting in Cubase, I presume, I set the meter of a mono track to post-fader to get the right reading, (if I output a sound at -18 dB it shows -18 dB), but the Stereo Out and Control Room meters always tell me -21. At this point, what I don’t understand is this: is the real volume level the one indicated in the Control Room, 3dB less, or the one on the track meter?
More than anything to understand how to set the clippers and limiters correctly.
Thanks a lot!
The level in the Stereo Output bus reflects the fact that you have two channels instead of just one, so both meters are correct and show “the real volume”. If you want them to show the same thing then you probably have to switch the mono track’s meter to post-panner instead of having it post-fader.
But like I said, both meters are correct.
For aesthetics: just use your ears. I know that’s a boring answer, but it’s true.
For technical reasons: if you want to prevent going over 0dBFS (or some other number) for your final output then you should place the limiter last in the signal chain and use the measurement there.
Thanks Mattias. “Use your ears” is probably the best advise 
Also the pan law only matters in a practical sense if you are changing the pan position over the course of the mix. If the pan position is static whatever level change the pan law makes naturally gets taken into account when you set your fader level(s).
If your pan position is moving all over the place and it’s set to -3dB it sounds equally loud in both the sides and center positions. Where if the law is set to 0dB then it will sound about 3dB louder in the center than the sides.
