Metering multiple output channels...

[da...@davo.net.au]

Hi All

I'm overlaying and matrixing out multiple simultaneous sound effect cues into a ten speaker setup and it would be useful to see how the various combined levels for each channel are building up as I pile on effects.

Is there a way to meter multiple output channels from QLab? I've used Waves Analyser to monitor stereo output... how would I go about monitoring the level of all ten channels simultaneously?

Cheers

DAVO

[micpool]

At the risk of stating the obvious...

5 stereo instances of Waves Analyser (or probably a more compact meter plugin)

Mic

[da...@davo.net.au]

Hehehehehe... true. :-) 

I guess five compact stereo plugins side by side would provide meaningful feedback. Does anyone have suggestions for a suitable plug? 

Even better would be something that emulated a meter bridge... with inputs you could patch to from the Device Outputs tab. [optimistically]

[fishmonkey]

another option is Spectre:

http://spectre.aurchitect.com/

[da...@davo.net.au]

That looks like a nice metering solution... thanks for the tip... had quick play with it... the trial quits after three minutes which makes it a bit hard to test out features... can you configure a multi-channel meter bridge using soundflower? It looks like you might be able to to it but I couldn't get the right combination of settings inside the trial period after a quite a few attempts. I'll write to the developers tonight.

Thanks again!

[fishmonkey]

 yes, you definitely can create a multi-channel meter bridge with Spectre. i managed to do it without using looking at the manual after a bit of trial and error (it's not very intuitive)...

1. in the Spectre "Input" preferences, set the default Hardware input to Soundflower (64ch).

2. in the Spectre "Bundles" preferences, create a bundle for each Soundflower channel (or combination of channels) that you want to meter.

3. create a new Level Meter—this will default to a stereo meter; click the little info button to open up the settings for the meter.

4. in the "Meter" tab, create "Bars" for each individual meter that you need (i found that renaming the bars was a bit flaky, that needs fixing by the dev).

5. now open up the "Traces" tab—a "trace" is used to define a specific signal measurement, e.g. a peak meter, VU meter, etc. (you will see that a default Stereo meter has 4 traces per bar—peak/RMS/peak bar/over).

6. it's probably easiest to first delete all the existing traces by repeatedly clicking the minus sign in the "Traces" tab.

7. to get the hang of how it works, i suggest creating a new peak trace for each of your individual metering bars.

8. click the plus sign to create a new trace.

9. in the "Source" tab, choose an input bundle (created in step 2 above), and the metering type.

10. in the "Display" tab, rename the new trace, and select which meter bar (created in step 4 above) to display the trace on.

11. repeat steps 8–10 until you have all the bits you want...

[David Pyle]

Aha... thanks for the breakdown of steps... that makes it really clear. Will have a crack when I am back at the machine tomorrow.... thanks again!!!
Cheers. Davo

> yes, you definitely can create a multi-channel meter bridge with Spectre. i managed to do it without using looking at the manual after a bit of trial and error (it's not very intuitive)...
> 1. in the Spectre "Input" preferences, set the default Hardware input to Soundflower (64ch).

<snip>

[micpool]

In the interests of audio extremism. and just to take this just as far as possible (but only as a proof of concept, rather than an economical solution to your problem)

Here is a screenshot of QLab outputting through Source Nexus Connect to inserts on a ProTools HD session.

This gives you metering, VCA output grouping, the ability to record QLab's output as multitrack audio in a PT session, and potentially just about anything else you can think of. 

On Monday, May 21, 2018 at 9:53:31 AM UTC+1, da...@davo.net.au wrote:

[Jonathan Pearce]

Depending on what sound interface you are using some have utilities that prove very useful for this sort of thing, without the need of lots of extra plugins (and cpu overhead).

RME Totalmix is a particularly good example.