Bitmeter not correct while rendering

WaveLab
#1

This could be a bug, a feature, or pilot error:

Problem: the bit meter doesn’t show the correct values while rendering.

Setup: One clip in the montage, two plugins in the montage track (external effects out to an analogue chain, and a limiter), one in master section (extra metering), one in the dither section, and speaker correction in Playback processing.

When playing back, all is well, and the bit meter shows whichever word length has been chosen in the dither plugin. However, when rendering (in real-time, due to the exfx), the meter always shows the full 32 bits. No settings have been changed. Note that the resulting file has indeed been reduced in bit length, and ticking/unticking Bypass master section makes no difference.

Am I missing something here? This actually freaks me out, as I’m starting to second-guess whether the dither has actually been applied. Also note that by moving the dither plugin to the montage clip/track/output, the bit meter operates correctly during the render.

j,

#2

Did you check after, on the rendered file?

#3

As in check the file? Yes, it had been trunced to 24. To see whether the dither had been applied, I’ll have to do some more checks.

j,

#4

Checked: the resulting file is ok, with the correct word length and dither. So it’s just the bit meter that shows an incorrect wl during rendering.

j,

#5

I could reproduce the problem. This is because the meters are fed with the signal after the Master Section sliders, not after the Final Effects. I will fix that for 10.0.50.

#6

Fabulous :slight_smile:

j,

#7

Hey PG, isn’t the way it works now correct though? Wasn’t this done intentionally by design? Don’t we want the meters to always be pre-playback FX section? Maybe I’m confused about the way this works for rendering with hardware…

I would never want to see meters post-playback effect… For example, if using room correction EQ, I would never want to see the spectrometer display AFTER room correction EQ had been applied.

#8

The way I read it, the bug is that the meters are pre final effects (the ‘dither slot’, so to speak) and they should be after these. That is still before the playback processing slots.

#9

The way I read it, the bug is that the meters are pre final effects (the ‘dither slot’, so to speak) and they should be after these. That is still before the playback processing slots.

Exactly. The meters should reflect what is exactly rendered to file, nothing more, nothing less.

#10

So the bug is that meters are pre-dither slot?

And in 10.0.50, the meters will be post-dither slot and pre-playback slots?

#11

So the bug is that meters are pre-dither slot?

And in 10.0.50, the meters will be post-dither slot and pre-playback slo

ts?

Yes. But this is only for real-time rendering.

For standard playback, you choose where you want the meters to be fed (pre-playback by default), by clicking
on this button:
2020-09-29_08-21-48.png

#12

Got it. Thanks PG!