Question

I have Klanghelm's VUMT, and I picked up the PreSonus VU Meter. They are not the same.

The PreSonus "VU Meter" only measures what's known as PPM, an analog metering method that reacts far more quickly to transient peaks, then falls gradually, and is used historically by broadcasting consoles and even some SSL plasma meter bridges in lieu of VU. This is highly misleading, because VU measures an approximation of the average level, close to RMS, but PPM is anything but averaging. It's not a full scale digital peak meter, but it's the closest thing in the analog world. 

The reason this matters is that some people think they're metering VU with this plugin they had to add, when they're not. And still others are using an actual VU metering plugin that isn't compatible with the S1 Expanded View, making them clumsy and often tossed after metering for gain staging, or just left on the Master and thrown to a second display. All the while, there's a meter on every channel always measuring the pre-panning Peak dBFS level, and that's not always the most useful information.

Studio One 3 already allows the user to select Peak/RMS, K12, K14, and K20 metering on the Master buss, and peak hold settings are accessible from every channel's meter as it is. So...

Why not allow the user to configure what the channel meters are showing? An inbuilt, true-to-form VU meter would be highly welcomed, as well as correcting the VU Meter plugin for actual VU metering. PPM would be welcome for veteran SSL users, and AVG or RMS would be useful for everyone that uses the DAW. The big win would be to make calibration for the VU/PPM meters available to the user, so the standard values of -18/-9 and -12/-6 and more could be set for familiarity with the meters, much like Klanghelm's VUMT and Waves meters allow the user to specify their own calibration.

Pro Tools has configurable meters as such in later versions. I know we're trying to win over PT users. This is a feature everyone could benefit from.

Again, I'd like to see real VU, PPM, and RMS meters alongside the inbuilt Peak meters. This would seriously clear the waters on how Console Shaper works, and help engineers understand the levels they're pushing, as well as translate knowledge from the analog world (another PreSonus staple within the StudioLive line).

Answer 1

Thank you for the feature request. 

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Answer 2

the studio one meter could defo need some updates in this field,would love to see this too

Answer 3

I fully agree with this feature request.

In addition, it would be really useful to be able to customise the colours on the meter bars of the built-in RMS console meters, the input channel meters and the stock meter plug-in.  For example; if one could set the meter bar to be green when < -18dB, amber between - 18 dB and -9 dB and red for > -9 dB etc. it would be excellent.

Although I have the Presonus VU meter, I never use it as the Klanghelm VU is far more useful, customisable and IMO, more accurate for tracking, gain-staging and mixing.

Answer 4

Don't stop there, I'd also want to enhance the channel/buss peak meters to do things like:

1. Pre or Post Pan (show energy in left and right channels independently if panned)

2. Pre or Post Insert (how loud is the signal going into the inserts, compare to how loud it is coming out)

3. Change gain scale ranges on peak meters, etc.

Answer 5

+1

I think Studio One should provide something like this

So, at least these features (more the ones already provided):

• Different meter modes
• Pre-gain (for proper gain staging)
• Peak meter over RMS 

Answer 6

That would be great.

I got LOADS of mixes wrong before I realised that the "analog" VU meter is in fact a PPM meter.

Having a real VU with the right ballistics for the needle would be fabulous

Answer 7

This may be an old FR, and we did get Peak/RMS on channel meters and pre-fader metering with S1v4.5... but that's as far as it went.

I've marked a Best Answer here because it has the best additional options for metering in the thread. Changing the gain range in particular would be welcome. I think VU/PPM with calibration would be a great "overlay" type channel meter still in 2020. With the new emphasis on color customisation, maybe the meters should be able to be colorized, too, or at least have adjustable color schemes that match the gain scale.

Still some work that could be done to metering in S1. Won't call this "implemented," yet.