Meters

[steve]

I have written a recording program which I have not made publicly available and it has those things along with true IEC 268-18 metering, peak hold and clip indicators.

Unless you intend to make your code GPL v2 compatible, isn't this discussion rather academic?
If you do intend to make your meter code GPL v2 compatible, then the developers mailing list would be the best place to submit a patch: http://audacityteam.org/contact/lists

[Gale Andrews]

The two main reasons I wrote my own recording program are:

1) At the time Audacity didn't support 24-bit recording because neither ASIO nor WASAPI was supported.

Obviously ASIO is supported - you just chose not to compile Audacity with ASIO support. We're not underestimating the impact of compilation being required - but you're a programmer so you should be able to compile Audacity in few minutes with ASIO support.

You can also get 24-bit recording under WDM-KS without compiling Audacity - just use the pre-compiled -alpha builds .

Right now I'm trying to make a test recording to check out Audacity's metering. Audacity won't go into record using WASAPI. It does when DirectSound or MME is selected.

Please start a new topic giving exact steps to reproduce the issue, giving exact symptoms and posting the information from Help > Audio Device Info... so we can see what devices you are selecting.

If you were recording WASAPI (loopback) you may need to start the stream before recording it.

Preferences: Opens the Meter Preferences window to set the refresh rate for the meters. A higher rate makes the meter show more frequent changes. Too high a rate can cause audio breakup on slower machines.

That's just bad programming. There should be a much lower upper boundary on the meter refresh rate if there is even a possibility of audio dropout no matter how powerful the machine. There is no practical reason for the meter to be refreshed at 100 Hz; in fact there is a reason it shouldn't refresh faster than 20 times per second (undersampling of low frequencies).

The default is 30 Hz, so if it says 100 Hz that was because you changed it.


Gale

[chris319]

You can also get 24-bit recording under WDM-KS

Will that work with a USB interface?

The default is 30 Hz, so if it says 100 Hz that was because you changed it.

You miss my point entirely.

[steve]

You can also get 24-bit recording under WDM-KS

Will that work with a USB interface?

Why? Are you having difficulty getting it to work? If so, please give a detailed description of your set-up, including model/version numbers and your settings.

[Gale Andrews]

You can also get 24-bit recording under WDM-KS

Will that work with a USB interface?

WDM-KS in principle works with USB interfaces, yes.

Are you asking if your specific USB interface is compatible with WDM-KS? There is a small chance it isn't compatible. There is a small chance that non-compatibility could freeze up Audacity or crash your computer (probably because of how PortAudio handles WDM-KS).

For that reason, WDM-KS support won't be released in Audacity until the user has a way to opt into it (or we solve the potential incompatibility problem).

At time of writing we're still waiting for you to explain what the exact problem is with "Audacity won't go into record using WASAPI". I am sure you understand the need for detailed bug reports.

The default is 30 Hz, so if it says 100 Hz that was because you changed it.

You miss my point entirely.

I addressed your first point in that the default is 30 Hz, which won't cause dropouts.

100 Hz shouldn't cause dropouts on any moderately fast machine, but anyone who changes the default can see that higher rates pose a potential dropouts problem. Higher quality real-time resampling creates a potential problem with playback dropouts, and low (non-default) buffer settings can cause playback or recording to drop out, but we don't disable high quality resampling or low buffer settings then advanced users are free to experiment according to their hardware.

About undersampling of low frequencies at high refresh rates - how low a frequency are you talking about? The meters catch clipping of 20 Hz sine tone at 100 Hz refresh rate. Is there a concern other than that?


Gale

[waxcylinder]

From the original post in this thread:

Are you after meters that are green from here to here, yellow from here to here and then red? That might interfere with the two-tone green which generally indicates the peak and RMS values and the red overload flasher.

In a word, yes.

Leland already has this working - I'v e seen it working, I have a pre-alpha build that Leland made for me.

Peter

[Gale Andrews]

From the original post in this thread:

Are you after meters that are green from here to here, yellow from here to here and then red? That might interfere with the two-tone green which generally indicates the peak and RMS values and the red overload flasher.

In a word, yes.

Leland already has this working - I'v e seen it working, I have a pre-alpha build that Leland made for me.

There is no guarantee that green/yellow/red meters will be released, and there are several requests in this topic, so please transfer the URL of this topic to Pending Feature Requests.


Gale

[waxcylinder]

There is no guarantee that green/yellow/red meters will be released, and there are several requests in this topic, so please transfer the URL of this topic to Pending Feature Requests.

Then maybe we could have them as an alternative option for those that prefer them that way - I certainly do, working with Leland's experimental build I find it far easier to set good recording levels even with smaller meters than I normally use.

I have added a note to this effect in the proposal: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Propo ... ng_Display

Peter