Mixer VU numbers

[Larry Kriz]

Little confused about something.

The vertical VU meters in the mixer. From top down, the numbers go from -inf to 0 to -6 to -12 to -18 etc etc

The fader knob, when set to zero, positions itself between -12 and -18 on the meter.

Something about this seems off. When the fader is set to zero, shouldn't it position itself next to zero on the meter? If I raise the fader knob to zero on the VU meter I get like a +10 db boost.

Possibly a setting that's not correct? Or what's the deal? In Samplitude (for example) the fader position matches the numbers on the VU meter (zero is zero, -10 is -10) which makes more sense to me.

[sisaso]

Hi Larry.
A bit confusing.

From top down, the numbers go from -inf to 0 to -6 to -12 to -18 etc etc
That is the scale of the meter, actually -inf ist the Peak-Hold, meaning there is no signal at the moment-

The Fader has no scale, the actual Level is shown at the top, left of the mute button. I am talking about the default theme maybe there are Themes with a dB Scale for the Fader.

[Larry Kriz]

I had a similar thread going on with the Facebook user group - along with screenshots and fancy pictures. I got the entire gist of it now.

Some additional research yielded results too. Everything I needed to understand was detailed in the following ProSoundWeb link/thread.

Probably, what I've concluded is that Reaper's numerical VU display is more "correct" than other DAWs on the market. We're really talking about dbFS (decibel full scale). Whats showing as 0db in some places is actually -15 ~ -18 db

https://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php?topic=135561.0


https://www.facebook.com/groups/reap...=group_comment

[ashcat_lt]

Idk about that prosoundweb link. The information about meters and the difference between peak dbFS like in Reaper vs analog dBVU is good. The stuff about the faders doesn’t apply to Reaper. There is none of that “attenuate at the fader and make up at the bus” thing happening here. When the fader is at 0, it’s unity (subject to pan law), and when it says it’s adding gain, it’s really adding gain.

The real simple answer to your question is that the scale for the meters has absolutely nothing to do with the fader settings. That’s not where you look to see what your fader setting actually is. It is, however, where you look to see what it’s actually doing to the signal which is all that really matters.

All that said, I use the v4 default theme which doesn’t have a scale on the track meters, so I just don’t even have to worry about it.

[Larry Kriz]

Originally Posted by ashcat_lt

The real simple answer to your question is that the scale for the meters has absolutely nothing to do with the fader settings. That’s not where you look to see what your fader setting actually is. It is, however, where you look to see what it’s actually doing to the signal which is all that really matters.

All that said, I use the v4 default theme which doesn’t have a scale on the track meters, so I just don’t even have to worry about it.

yeah I understand that now. what's interesting is why some DAWs (like Samplitude or Sonar) are hard-coded for dbVU over dbFS. What's also interesting is why none of them (apparently) offer the option of changing that unless you want to change the skin or theme.

The main reason I'm bringing this all up is... I'm trying to replicate a project, in Reaper, that had been completed in Samplitude. I spent a few days saving presets and making screen shots of everything. Then duplicating all that in Reaper. First pass test was a mess. I don't know why yet. All things being equal.... they're not equal. That's how I first noticed the difference in the fader/VU metering. Reaper is the first DAW I've ever used that uses the dbFS setup.