loudness compare (plugin)

Cubase
,
1

Many Cubase plugins have an automatic output level adjust, which sets the output loudness to match the input loudness. However, not everything has this feature. Given the importance of the “Louder is better” illusion, it would be nice to have this as an independent feature.

I’m thinking along the lines of TBProAudio’s AB_LM, which basically works by putting a “sender” at the “start” of a chain, and a “receiver” at the “end” of the chain. Tapping the signal at these 2 points enables a comparison, which is reported to the user.

It seems like an obvious feature. Why isn’t it standard with the DAW? Or did I miss something.

2

Cubase has a quite good loudness meter already, however it is hard-coded for the output only. It would probably not be that hard to do a pluginversion of the same, preferable also with a gain control.

3

It’s more involved than just metering.

What I’m looking is a way to measure change in loudness due to inserts, and set it to zero – in some sense of “zero”. What I’m not looking for is a VU meter at the beginning of the chain and one at the end. Looking at 2 meters and guessing that they look about the same most of the time… that’s just not accurate enough to avoid the trap. It’s appropriate to automate these function – measuring and adjusting, if only because it comes up constantly. TBProAudio does this, as shown in their video.

So why don’t I just buy their plugin? Well, that’s the plan. It just struck me as so fundamental that it should be built into every DAW, including Cubase.

4

If you haven’t bought yet, I’d recommend taking a look at Melda MCompare - it has that function down great, and also includes the ability to compare reference tracks with the project (like Magic A/B).

I use it multiple times on every project.

5

Yeah, I like the look of MCompare too. There was some reason I preferred AB_LM. Price maybe? I’ll review my notes before I go for it. Do you really think Melda’s is better? They seem very similar.

6

Sorry, didn’t mean to imply better in terms of volume comparing, I haven’t used any others. It does have the advantage of actually having a completely separate function, the “MagicA/B” one, so it’s like two plugins in one (the volume comparison function being like Ian Shepherd’s “Perception” plug-in).

It also goes for 50% off every month or so.

Good luck with your decision either way … having this volume comparison ability had really been an “eye-opener” for me!

7

There is a Steinberg loudness freebie called SLM128 ;