Those dinky meters

[Allseasons]

Being a relatively new user of Audacity, I'm not sure if I am the only one to notice this but over the years I have been brought up to rely on setting record audio levels on meters that are readable. The meters in my Audacity 1.2.6 always default to little tiny things with a dynamic spread of nearly 50 dB - something that is irritating as heck and completely impossible to set levels to. Yes, I can undock the meters and expand them but it becomes a pain each time I have to do it. Then where do you put them so that you have unfettered access to the remainder of the functions on the screen?

Is there a way to keep the meters so that they are a rational size when you start Audacity? I'm sure that they could be presented in a little larger size up in the toolbars. The present ones are worthless!

[kozikowski]

<<<The present ones are worthless!>>>

Maybe not worthless. Awkward to use, perhaps.

The lower right corner is your friend. If you pull the lower right corner of the Audacity operating window bigger and bigger, the meters will follow you. I believe it will stay that way time after time, too.

If that's not enough, shrink the Audacity window left to right and sooner or later, the meters will snap to a second line in the menu bar and be quite large. Mine snap to 3-1/2 inches each (on a very small screen) when I do that. That's the size of a standard Modutec VU meter. And it repeats.

Koz

[Allseasons]

Ah! I tried shrinking the window. It didn't take much before the configuration changed. Thank you!

It would be nice to see a meter configuration option in a future release to allow permanent selection of a larger meter display. And I agree with your disagreement regarding the term "worthless." Usage of the tiny meters is more or less awkward... very awkward.

[kozikowski]

<<<Usage of the tiny meters is more or less awkward>>>

In addition to they're not being VU meters. They're sampled digital peak meters, so a certain amount of adaptation is necessary.

Koz

[Allseasons]

Yes, I kind of understand that. Having been on the "other side" of this stuff for over 35 years (designing recording and broadcast audio processing circuitry) I have seen quite a few approaches to signal monitoring and metering especially woth DSP designs. However, I have also had to work with user interface considerations such as display methods and sizes.

[kozikowski]

<<<I have also had to work with user interface considerations such as display methods and sizes.>>>

You're going to be really sorry you said that.

Do you know a software package that will display a VU meter on the screen? I totally don't care about the graphics (I do have a copy of ANSI C16.5) as much as I care about the ballistics. Almost by accident I discovered an electronic translation of C16.5 ballistics in a semiconductor tech manual. It works. It's basically an electronic filter that created a DC voltage that changes at the right rate. Apply to any indicating device and poof. Instant VU meter.

Of course being a compulsive engineer, I would be pulling over the Musell Color Values (that beige color), number drawings, etc, but the important point is the relationshop between Digital Peak and classic VU. Nobody gets that and outside of creating videos...

http://www.kozco.com/tech/audiolevels.html

...there's no tool to run on your machine.

Know anybody that can create a plugin for Audacity?

Koz

[waxcylinder]

It would be nice to see a meter configuration option in a future release to allow permanent selection of a larger meter display. And I agree with your disagreement regarding the term "worthless." Usage of the tiny meters is more or less awkward... very awkward.

For some reason this thread popped back into my head yeaterday - so I experimented with my 1.3 installation.

What I did was to drag the meter bar to under the top bar and stretch it out across the whole window width - and now I have lovely wide metering that is much easier to use - and in the 1.3 GUI it sticks like this, fine between different Audacity sessions. Now much easier to work to a -6db or even -3db threshold - marvellous.

I only wish I could have done some thing like this over a year ago - doh! .......

WC