Vintage VU meter request

[d.bop]

Sorry for the LONG wait on this! I only had Saturdays to work on it :/


But. It's here!
https://stash.reaper.fm/v/21184/VuDu%20VU%20Meter.zip


Included is a single track version, a multi track version, and an excellent guide written by hopi to get you up to speed on how it works.


I won't be able to support this plugin much, if it all, but do let me know if there are any showstoppers. I'll try my best to fix any issues as soon as I can!


Thanks and have a great day everyone!
Dustin

[jpanderson80]

d.bop & Hopi,
I feel like that I should say this for all of the non-tech guys out there: Thank you!

I'm very excited about this.

[JHughes]

Yay! I'll post a screenie when I get home unless someone beats me to it.

Thanks guys!

[hopi]

[IMG]http://imagizer.**************/v2/xq90/820/4tes.png[/IMG]

from the user guide

not shown is the single meter but it looks the same as just one meter face...

[richie43]

Thanks you all! These will be handy (and great looking too!). I am impressed that you have supplied 64bit as well. The only change I would make (and did myself) is to rename the 64bit to be identical with the 32bit (remove the _X64) so that if I can open a project in either 32 or 64bit Reaper and these will load properly. Nice work though!!

[Dynsdale]

Very nice, thanks for your effort.

[hopi]

just a short note...

d.bop will update this in about a week or so...

there is no reason not to use it as is right now, however there is a small niggle with the multi version...

here is what it is:

when you load the multi and then then clk the screw to show more meters [see user guide about this] the vu led's that indicate clip will show red.. and they should not...
normally you should be able to clk them and have them go back to black ...
but you can't do that unless you are in Play and for Play to work you need something on either the track itself [a blank midi media item will do]
or something on one of the tracks sending to the VuDu track.

It's not a show stopped and it will be fixed by and by...

in the meantime... go vintage!

[4x4uk]

absolutely awesome a big thankyou to everyone who worked on this

[d.bop]

Thanks everybody

[4x4uk]

than you for all of your time and effort in producing what will more than likely be my most used plugin

[cprompt]

Wow, love these meters! Fabulous, thank you for your hard work.

[4x4uk]

Originally Posted by hopi

just a short note...

d.bop will update this in about a week or so...

there is no reason not to use it as is right now, however there is a small niggle with the multi version...

here is what it is:

when you load the multi and then then clk the screw to show more meters [see user guide about this] the vu led's that indicate clip will show red.. and they should not...
normally you should be able to clk them and have them go back to black ...
but you can't do that unless you are in Play and for Play to work you need something on either the track itself [a blank midi media item will do]
or something on one of the tracks sending to the VuDu track.

It's not a show stopped and it will be fixed by and by...

in the meantime... go vintage!

I haven't noticed this. Using 64 bit, clip lights dont light at all even if i push the track to the point where its definately fading

[d.bop]

Originally Posted by 4x4uk

I haven't noticed this. Using 64 bit, clip lights dont light at all even if i push the track to the point where its definately fading

Fading? The meters don't touch the audio stream at all (other than to read from it) so there shouldn't be any fading going on.

Or do you mean the audio is clipping but the lights aren't turning on?

[hopi]

4x4 I think there is a little about that in the user guide... no?

It threw me at first also until d.bop explained what I was seeing...

I was expecting the vu led clip to go red when the needle when over the zero and crossed into the red area... but that is NOT how a VU meter works.. or at least not this one...

You can see clearly how it works if you do the thing with the
JS tonegenerator... you will see the vu clip go on when the VuDu needle goes past the red +3... well I do anyway

I don't know what 'fading' means as you use that word...???

[4x4uk]

Ill take another look later this weekend it was late last night when I was trying it out and I was tired. I tested it on a project I am working on. I ust pushed the fader right up on that track so it was clipping meter on the track. not far enough so that it auto muted though

Bad habbit of mine I really should read the manuals

[planetnine]

This very good, a brilliant rendering of an analogue VU meter, but at the risk of being picky in the defence of realism, the meter's basket or cage isn't moving!

To an engineer who uses analogue-movement meters this is comparable to watching a music video where the guitarist has no lead plugged in

The basket is the the electro-mechanical device that the needle and the torque-spring are connected to -having it visible, but not seeing it move with the needle looks quite funny.

Sorry to be picky like this, but I had to comment...



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[hopi]

oh my ok planetnine would you care to show us one where it does move?

[planetnine]

Originally Posted by hopi

oh my ok planetnine would you care to show us one where it does move?

Sorry. I did say I was being picky in mentioning it.

I'm not a connoisseur of analogue meter emulating plugins, so I'm not aware of any that cover this detail accurately, or even look and act as accurately as dbop's meter does, but if it's going to be the best, it could be something to look at in the future


Don't mind me, I'm just being pedantic. It's a very good emulation and I like it


I don't have my hosting live to post the screen-shot, but it's the bar that is perpendicular to the meter needle when at quiescent. It's the frame that would carry the coil around the centre core or magnet, and it would normally swing around with the meter against its torque spring. I could certainly forgive the torque-spring not being realistically rendered



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[hopi]

ummm I don't mind you... and though you are technically correct there are some things that are almost impossible when making a digital representation of some physical machine... i.e., they don't gather dust over time on their surfaces either...

I might direct you to have a look at [for example] the Wave REDD plugin and the meters there...

Now I'd say the graphics for VuDu's meters are better... but I am biased since I made them...hahaha
That is not to say that the Waves meters are not lovely... they surely are..

It might be possible to make a graphic in which the 'basket' seems to move but from what I already know about doing graphics in these sizes I think it would look like krap since we simply run out of pixels when things are this small...

Still let's have a compare:

Wave Meter:
[IMG]http://***************/a/img840/6459/09g1.gif[/IMG]

VuDu Mono Meter:
[IMG]http://***************/a/img819/2236/k2ql.gif[/IMG]

Now, one could get "picky" and say VuDu don't look as aged and old...
...hahaha well it is after all brand new... after a few years of using it that crummier look will begin to show up...

Still, I think it is clear which meter face has more detail, eh? and let's not forget that VuDu uses that detail as part of it's internal
controls... see the user guide for it if you don't know what I'm saying.

[d.bop]

Originally Posted by 4x4uk

Ill take another look later this weekend it was late last night when I was trying it out and I was tired. I tested it on a project I am working on. I ust pushed the fader right up on that track so it was clipping meter on the track. not far enough so that it auto muted though

Bad habbit of mine I really should read the manuals

Were you using the multi-track version or the single version?

Also, if it was the multi-track version, were you using it on a bus, or a single track?


Reaper's faders are post-fx. So just pushing the volume up on a track that has a meter on it may cause Reaper to clip, but not the meter plugin. If the audio is clipping before it hits the meter plugin, the clip lights should light up.

[d.bop]

I know exactly what you're talking about with the animation. It's easily doable, I just need a separate graphic from hopi.


hopi, he's talking about the area at the bottom of the needle behind the screws. This is usually hidden behind a faceplate, but in our plugin that area is visible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5bB75vvK5g

[planetnine]

If that top one in your post is the Waves VU meter Hopi, then they're much less accurate than the VUdu.

Their needle pivots from the zero-adjusting screw and not the basket/cage coil -you can see most of the circular core and coils above the pivot bar where it is supposed to rotate from.

The zero adjustment screw is usually offset from the pivot as it operates a twin-finger guide and peg to add or subtract tension to the torque-spring (the end of which is offset to the needle pivot.

I'll see if I can find an old one to disassemble for you -or at least a meter I can take different deflection photos of for you.

TBH as long as the coil bar is seen to move perpendicular to the needle it will be more than adequate. Dbop has got the idea, as it is at quiesent, horizontal bar at needle pointing 12 o'clock, part of bar visible at LHS with needle fully deflected right (bar perpendicular to needle at all positions).




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[babiuk]

Thanks a million!

I have to thank you guys both, your work is amazing and the meter is really a jewell. It is just what I told you about, thanks again and again.

I will include into my reaper redd theme and show it here whenever my little child allows me to do it

[babiuk]

And thanks too for the brilliant guide you made.
The advices for percussives osunds showing low readings are golden!!!

[hopi]

ah babiuk finally got here... good!

Planet and d.bop... I'm willing to give it a try if I have something to work with in terms of creating the needed graphics....

yes, well that licecap IS of the Waves meter... so you do see by comparison to VuDu, IMO VuDu is much nicer to look at, eh?

I have never seen one of these meters physically working but do get a sense of what is being said, and the parts that would move.
I made a Nebula skin with meters very similar to VuDu vst. And in that used a png stack instead of programming for the needles. [talk about a PITA!...120 png files of needles and touchy ability to control them as to db settings]
The point is that for those needles each one had to include an overlay of the 'basket' spring at it's bottom...
They still don't show the spring and other mechanisms moving...
however, the pixels needed to even show all that get very sketchy at these sizes...

Still lemme see whatcha got and we can go from there.

[babiuk]

And about comparing to waves one... VuDu looks much much much closer to original redd desk than "aged" waves one.

Just look:



Every redd desk I´ve seen (I mean through internet of course) and looks white and red brilliant meters. None of them looks aged as waves one looks. It is just marketing, and from my point of view it feeds an undesirable untrue relationship between "aged and damaged gear" and "cool-good sounding-vintage" which is very common from recent years. A machine done 50 years before and placed a studio and being used even thousand and thousand times doesn´t became a piece of junk just by time passing. They must suffer a real bad and extreme treatment for getting so dark and dust covered and almost not readable meters like the new plugins' GUIs are showing recently.

So this VuDu plugin is PERFECT!
It looks like real machine looks even 60 years after.

[babiuk]

Hi Hopi!

Thanks again!

About basket matter... I really don´t see it is necesary.
I will never look at the basket, I will see the needle and the info it gives me (keeping me this way inside a redd graphic environment I find so cool)

So from my point of view it is dispensable

[babiuk]

Just one thing: Would it be possible a "multi" version showing just mono meters?
I mean you can show 1,2,3... SINGLE meters instead 1,2,3... PAIRS of meters?

This way, when using mono tracks (let's say 4) you could have the plugin's window floating with thin edges. In the other side, now I can use just 4 meters, routing easilly, but I have to resize plugin's window to get just 4 (L) meters showing and keeping hide the (R) ones. The only bad side of it is when you resize the sliders appear and the window's edges become bigger.

Well, it is just a silly aesthetic matter and the plugin is perfect as is. Just for commenting it, I don´t know if this feature is easilly doable or it implies to rewrite too much code.

In any case you know I am the happiest of town!
Thanks!

[planetnine]

Originally Posted by babiuk

Thanks a million!

I have to thank you guys both, your work is amazing and the meter is really a jewell. It is just what I told you about, thanks again and again.

I will include into my reaper redd theme and show it here whenever my little child allows me to do it

No, these are Jewell(TM) meters!










Ok, I'll shut up now...



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[hopi]

yeah shut up and go get me the demonstrations of the basket moving so I can get to work... btw, I'm out all next week

[pattste]

Very nice. Is there an option to get the multi meter to show one set of meters next to each other (Left and Right) as opposed to showing on top of one another? I think this a more intuitive way to view a stereo source. The Klanghelm VUMT does that.

[d.bop]

Originally Posted by babiuk

Just one thing: Would it be possible a "multi" version showing just mono meters?
I mean you can show 1,2,3... SINGLE meters instead 1,2,3... PAIRS of meters?

This way, when using mono tracks (let's say 4) you could have the plugin's window floating with thin edges. In the other side, now I can use just 4 meters, routing easilly, but I have to resize plugin's window to get just 4 (L) meters showing and keeping hide the (R) ones. The only bad side of it is when you resize the sliders appear and the window's edges become bigger.

Well, it is just a silly aesthetic matter and the plugin is perfect as is. Just for commenting it, I don´t know if this feature is easilly doable or it implies to rewrite too much code.

In any case you know I am the happiest of town!
Thanks!

Glad you like it, babiuk!

I suppose I could change it so the stereo pairs are next to each other rather than on top of each other (like pattste's idea above.) Then add a button to show/hide the second row of meters.

What do you think?

[hopi]

pattste... there is not

people have various ideas of what it the 'way' to show diff things...

so two thougts, and these are ONLY my opinions mind you...

d.bop has VERY generously done a huge amount of coding work on this, all for free as a gift to reaper users... now for me, other than a couple niggles, I can't ask him for more time and effort since I know he has other things to do..
Of course it's up to him and not me, if he wants to add other options.

That said, I can think of a way you could sort of get what you wish by using the 8 meter view, shrinking the window to just the 4 upper meter faces and then using sends to get what you want to each of those visible meters... this is somewhat described in the user guide and I think you know enough to make it work.
Yes, you would still see the very dim L and R or in this case just the L's but you would know what you have done with those...
and then IF you wanted to see 8 or more meters you could add more instances the same way and deal with the sends to those.. you see?

[4x4uk]

Originally Posted by d.bop

Were you using the multi-track version or the single version?

Also, if it was the multi-track version, were you using it on a bus, or a single track?


Reaper's faders are post-fx. So just pushing the volume up on a track that has a meter on it may cause Reaper to clip, but not the meter plugin. If the audio is clipping before it hits the meter plugin, the clip lights should light up.

I was using the multi meter on a bus. It was late and I was tired but IM sure I pushed the fader on one of the tracks feeding the bus not the bus itself. I will re-chech though and let you know

[hopi]

Originally Posted by d.bop

Glad you like it, babiuk!

I suppose I could change it so the stereo pairs are next to each other rather than on top of each other (like pattste's idea above.) Then add a button to show/hide the second row of meters.

What do you think?

d.bop you are a true prince among Human beings with feelings... LoL

well then... two and a half thoughts...

1- As it is is great and we don't want to lose that...
2- IF you want to add pattste's request as an option.. OK but then what about the L and R on the meter faces?

Now I just got done with doing tests of what I had suggested ...shrinking the window so to see only the top 4 meters, adding a second instance and doing the same for that... then using the pin outs to set the second VuDu to use the in's from 9 thru 16, setting the channels on the VuDu track to 16 and then using sends to send audio to whatever meter you want ..

So I got 8 meters [and could have more] with each one responding to one of 8 mono tracks... and\or one side of a stereo track... so it 'can' be done with user tweaks up to some huge number of meters [I suppose]

1/2 thought: I guess IF you really wanted to get into more coding work perhaps something like a possible 16 meter faces in a single row [able to add more or less with the silver screws] and maybe no L or R on the faces... the user would have to think about and remember how each was set to respond...

Personally, I think it is more clear to see the L and R as they are now... and I surely can disregard the L and R and route whatever to whatever as desired.

oh well... just rambling out loud...

[4x4uk]

Originally Posted by 4x4uk

I was using the multi meter on a bus. It was late and I was tired but IM sure I pushed the fader on one of the tracks feeding the bus not the bus itself. I will re-chech though and let you know

Well dont know what I was doing the other night. but the meter clip lights definately light up.So everything is working as it should.

[planetnine]

I think d.bop and hopi should be congratulated and thanked for the hard work and its results.

It really is a quality piece of work, and to be offered freely is a stellar act of generosity.


Ignoring my nitpicking (I'm a perfectionist and merely seeking to improve it)



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[4x4uk]

I agree totally planetnine, d.bop and hopi have put together a fantastic high quality plugin

[hopi]

hey now pnine... ya can't get off that easy... hahaha I wanna see that basket movement of which you spoke...

and gosh, the best of all people, d.bop has offered to include it if I can supply the graphics... which I would do IF I could see what is needed...

so com'on now... you started this perfectionist thingy... and apparently maybe it would be an improvement... so you might be on to something... but now it's up to you to come back with something..

and PS... hopi only did the graphics and some testing and visual tweaks... d.bop is 'da man'... without him this would not exist!

[babiuk]

Originally Posted by d.bop

Glad you like it, babiuk!

I suppose I could change it so the stereo pairs are next to each other rather than on top of each other (like pattste's idea above.) Then add a button to show/hide the second row of meters.

What do you think?

Thanks for answering, d.bop. You both got a brilliant tool, yes!
I think I will never repeat it enough times...

About your reply, the showing/hide button for second row would be a clever and fast way to implement what I told about. It would be a cool feature.