I have a question regarding monitoring output levels.
I want to see the current decibel value of the output for each sound I’m playing. This is important to me for two reasons: I want to balance the volume of different sounds better, and I need to know how close I am to clipping and the overall loudness of my levels.
I’ve already managed to get a graphical display using the Meter widget by mapping it to the Audio Mixer and selecting the Left or Right Meter parameter.
Is there a way to display this information numerically in dB as well?
I think that’s not what I want. When I do so, I can only see the db value of the fader in the mixer. But I want to see the db value of the notes I am playing at the moment. So it should change the value while I am playing, just like the Meter Widget.
I guess you would need a Meter plugin which exposes the (peak) levels as a text parameter value… don’t know if anything like that exists, maybe something like this (can’t try it right now):
Another possibility would be the use of the GP-internal Envelope Follower… it offers audio levels as text value (in db) via parameter connection (parameter #18/19 “Audio Level Channel 0/1”), which can be bound to a label widget.
The problem is to “tame” the values which come in unfiltered and are of course quite “jumpy”.
I guess one had to make a “peak detection” via scripting (maybe with an adjustable time base).
I tried the Youlean Loudness Meter you mentioned, but it doesn’t expose any host automation parameters at all - at least this the case with the free version.
There is a nice option in GP’s own Envelope Follower!
The fader on the left is a Melda sine wave generator (MOscillator), which controls the dB value of the generated signal.
The meter on the right is connected to the GP Audio Mixer
The label under the meter is one of the ‘Audio Level’ parameters in the Envelope Follower. I also set the ‘Smoothing’ parameter to 100ms. It tracks the level perfectly!
I use a @Frank1119’s magnitude plugin which works wonderfully for displaying levels with meter widgets and it is simpler as the full Enveloppe Follower. Perhaps could Frank release it officially?
Of course I can. But I cannot officially build for mac, because I don’t have a developers license to get things notarized. Windows is not a problem.
But in both cases you’re gonna trust me. I know that isn’t a problem, but someone else doesn’t know for sure.
The thing should be on github. Then, if someone wants to be really sure, people can compile it themselves. I’ll check it tonight, so that that is covered. I’ll also compile the plugins (I don’t have Apple Silicon, so I think I can’t do that) and post the results, with the usual disclaimer ‘use at your own risk’.
To be clear: I mean this in the nicest possible way, but I want to be as transparent as possible about the implications
Last year @David-san had a little fight with getting signal-magnitudes from local rack to global rackspace. The usual approach (using the parameters in the To/From blocks) didn’t work, so I suggested I could create a work-around with a plugin that converted signals to parameter values. If you like, you might call it an envelope-follower-light: no MIDI, no advanced settings. Just a refresh-rate and a smoothing factor.
In fact, it was the base for the Envelope Follower, although in the end they became very different.
I didn’t test it thoroughly. Especially @David-san should take care. I think I didn’t mess up the parameter order, but I don’t want to be the reason for ruining a production setup.
@npudar: Maybe in time I could better create a new topic for this, so it’s more easily found?
It’s even worse than you think, we had quite a few unofficial discussions before the follower envelope was released and the Magnitude plugin was part of those discussions…
Frank developed an unofficial plugin?
