Suggested improvements for metering in WaveLabs: Bitmeter, Level Meter, Loudness

It would be great if the metering in WaveLab was further improved:

  • Bitmeter to have (resettable) counts of sample and inter-sample clips as well as clipping indicator
  • Level Meter to provided analogue displays as well as digital, and offer RMS and other display options
  • Loudness Meter to also have a Loudness History graphic display
  • Bitmeter: not sure what you mean with “resettable counts”. Also, there is a clipping indicator in the level meter, hence no need to duplicate this function.

  • The Level Meter has RMS options. See its settings.

  • Loudness: the histogram view is somehow a history display. Moreover, the audio file has a view that displays the full loudness through time, hence history.

As with anything, all of these can be done via plugins, and this is often as good a way as there is. However, in each case it means adding plugins in the signal chain… enhancing the existing functionality in each case would simplify the signal chain (always good).

Bitmeter: — specifically looking at having an indicator of inter-sample clipping, which I am not sure the level meter provides - ideally one that counts how many times it has occurred since “resetting” the count (one inter-sample clip over a whole song is not worth worrying about, multiple over a section of a song indicate an issue)… it is very easy to miss them if you only have a indicator flash when it happens - especially if you are watching multiple things at the same time. Currently using schwa’s “Bitter” plugin to do this but would be nice if just in the box.

Level Meter: — this is more about having the option for an analogue style display, which can be easier to work with when monitoring multiple things at the same time. Currently I am using plugins to do this (of which there are plenty including PSP TripleMeter or Klanghelm VUMT) but, like above, this does mean even more plugins in the signal chain.

Loudness: — probably not explained this one well enough so maybe easier to point at an example of what I mean, which is the YouLean Loudness Meter which provides a really great history graph over time of the LUFS against the targets - again making the monitoring of this easier when you have multiple meters showing. The histogram does not seem to do the same as this (although I might be misinterpreting it) and audio file view is not a LUFS view!

inter-sample clipping,

It is there:
image

it is very easy to miss them if you only have a indicator flash when it happens

We have this option to catch all:
image

it can be:

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OK. Thanks for that. Seems like a lot of this is covered, just in different ways. Thanks and next time I will try to read the manual first :slight_smile:

Just trying them with an AudioMontage (what I tend to be doing with WaveLabs for mastering) and notice that some of these options are not available at that level (LUFS, etc.) which is probably why I had not seen them! So, maybe an option for enhancement would then be to provide the display options available in the audio Edit mode for the whole Audio Montage as well.

And this is still all really useful info !!!

always a good idea
the manual provides many surprises… :wink: