TT Dynamic Range Meter Setup Free
Tilo Chopin
The TT so-called "dynamic range" meter doesn't really measure dynamic range at all. BUT it is still an invaluable tool for mixing and mastering, and gives you useful feedback on the 'dynamics' of your music and how it measures up in the loudness wars - so keep reading !
There is also a second, off-line version of the meter, which generates an overall DR measurement for a complete WAV file or CD and allows you to generate a log file which can be submitted to the (unofficial) Dynamic Range Database.
DR stands for "dynamic range", although that's not really an accurate name. The DR value is actually closer to the "crest factor" of the music - the difference between the peak and RMS levels. This measurement is unique to the TT Meter, and is extremely useful because it gives an intuitive idea of how "squashed" the music is. The closer the RMS level gets to the peak level (usually close to 0 dBFS) the more compressed and limited the music is likely to be, and the smaller the DR measurement gets.
Peak level, loudness and "DR" are all measured in Decibels (dB) . Very 'dynamic' material - raw acoustic recordings, for example - will often read DR14 or more, whereas heavily compressed and limited 'loudness war casualties' typically read DR6 or less - in extreme cases even as little as 2 or 3.
As a rule of thumb, anything with an overall reading of DR12 or more will sound very dynamic - and in this case, the central DR meters of the plugin will stay green much of the time. 'Louder' material will sometimes have less range than this - any less than 8dB runs the risk of sounding squashed and crushed, and the DR meters start to fade from green to orange to red to represent this.
So, to ensure you aren't over-compressing your mix - keep the meters in the green for most of the time. Not all of the time, but a track where they are always red is almost certainly pushed too hard.
And also, this "green" rule-of-thumb applies to mixing. If you're using the meter in mastering, pushing up into the orange and occasionally red is probably OK - but use your ears and remember there is always a price to be paid.
One of the cleverest things about the DR meter is that it works independently of the overall level of the music. So, something very loud, crushed and distorted, like, say - oh, I don't know - Metallica's "Death Magnetic", for example - will be in the red, almost all the time - even if you turn the level down.
This means you can objectively compare how 'squashed' different recordings are, regardless of the overall level. Which in turn makes it a great mixing tool - if you over-compress everything in your mix, the meters will show you're in the red, even if the overall level isn't that high, yet.
Try it yourself - fire it up and watch how the meters react to your favourite recordings. Remember though they may have been pushed to a higher level in the mastering. Try comparing older CDs from the late eighties and earlier 90s - usually the overall level will be lower, and compared to releases from the last few years they will be more dynamic, ie. the DR values will be larger.
It's important to note though that the realtime DR meter only gives readings at an instant. And, it's quite permissible (and necessary) to push into the red at some points. To get an overall measurement of a track's 'dynamic range', you can use the off-line version.
And to find out more about my new Dynameter plugin, which aims to update and improve on the TT Meter by offering a zoomable history graph, plus the ability to choose your own dynamics targets, especially for online streaming - and see at a glance when you're achieving them - click here.
So, at the very least, you must ensure your music competes with the millions of other releases in the areas that are far less subjective, like dynamics, to provide every listener the best possible representation of your work.
A tool that visualizes the dynamic range of your track might not sound like the most exciting plugin, but it will be one of the most important in your toolbox if you plan to distribute your music in any format.
I just want to check the amount of these variations what I called dynamic range by assimilation to what we say concerning the normal dynamic range oh hearing (0-120 dB Heraing Level). It is certainly not an adequate term for audacity gurus. Sorry about that! but the difference between the quietest and the loudest parts of the recording is exactly what I want to measure.
What I will do is to introduce at the beginning of my noise an 1000 Hz tone. I will adjust the rms levels of both (1000 Hz and background noise) and play that stuff in our isoled sound booth to measure it with the sonometer (with different weighthing filters). If I follow the ISO rules, I should use the C weighting filter.
On the other hand, if you only need to know about relative changes, then there is no problem. Assuming that the analogue equipment is reasonably linear in its response (should be close enough as long as the sound is not massively loud or extremely quiet) then a change in SPL will cause an equal change in signal level in dB (not linear scale). Thus a 6 dB FS change in signal level corresponds to a 6 dB change in SPL (both with the same weighting). So your dynamic range measurements are valid for the acoustic (SPL) dynamic range.
In conjunction with the Pleasurize Music Foundation (PMF), MAAT Digital has worked hard remodelling the TT DR Meter plug-in to get the same familiar and much-loved ballistics of the original, which over the years helped to preserve dynamics for modern pop releases.
The only difference between the original and new DR meters is the removal of Correlation metering and the Mono Button. These were in response to user requests, to reduce UI height so the new DRMeter takes up less screen real estate. They have implemented those in a free plug-in, the MAAT 2BusControl, which also includes solo buttons for L, R, MONO & DIFF, plus a left-right flip button and a useful Balance meter that we featured in a recent Friday Free Plug-in article. With regard to the new Dynamic Range Meter, Matt Digital say..
Keeping a close eye on the dynamic range is essential in mixing and mastering. You need to ensure that your tracks perform well on streaming platforms and a wide variety of playback devices, while avoiding the lifeless sound associated with too much compression and limiting. The new Reflex Dynamic Range Meter plugin by Reflex Acoustics visualizes the dynamics across the frequency spectrum, making it easy to pinpoint problematic areas.
If you're looking for a in-depth review of the newest Band-in-a-Box 2024 for Windows version, you'll definitely find it with Sound-Guy's latest review, Band-in-a-Box 2024 for Windows Review: Incredible new capabilities to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs.
A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."
Warning: This component is known to be problematic, due to repeated crash reports, and should be installed with caution. wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Foobar2000:Components/Dynamic_Range_Meter_(foo_dynamic_range)
Even if you are clever and avoid this problem, you still have the problem that I made the print with variable-contrast paper, so you have no idea what the dynamic range of the negative is: perhaps I printed a very hard neg at grade 1, or a very soft neg at grade 4.5?
However you need to be quite careful about what this means. For instance, a print made using the 'true whites, true blacks' maxim will almost certainly end up with a dynamic range which is just that of the paper, if you read it in a simple-minded way. Similarly many digital images will have both highlights which are essentially white (the pixels are all at or very close to their maximum brightness) and shadows which are essentially black (pixels at or very close to their minimum brightness).
But a simple-minded reading of the dynamic range of this image would show it as having the largest dynamic range it can have, and that's just not a good representation of what is, in fact, a fairly low-contrast image: all the bits that actually visually matter in the image are in a fairly small range of values.
So if you want to get something that means something what you need to do is to make a slightly intelligent judgement about which parts of the image you care about, and which areas (specular highlights, say) you don't. This is the same thing you do when metering a real scene, of course: when I take readings from a scene with a spotmeter (for LF photographs) I'm always taking readings from the bits of the scene I care about: I'll read someone's face to get what I want to be in the middle of the range, and may be some bit of black clothing to get the bottom of it &c: I won't (for instance) take a reading from the Sun to get the top of the range, as I'm happy for the Sun to be way outside what the film can capture.
Well, you need to do the same thing for photographs: when you read them, even with a densitometer, you need to make intelligent judgements about what you're looking at in the same way: there's no point in just saying 'oh, there's paper black here, and paper white here'.
In fact I've been discovering something like this recently: I have access to a very fancy B/W enlarger which has a densitometer in it. What you do is set it all up with a neg, then take readings from the projected image, and it will then set both the exposure time & the grade (contrast) to print at (you need to calibrate it for the paper you're using). This is cool ... except quite often you're looking at a neg you know from experience needs to be printed at, say, grade 3 (so medium contrast neg)) and it will be absolutely determined that it wants to be printed at grade 5 (very soft neg). And you end up pissing around with the densitometer for five minutes, reading only the bits of the neg you care about, until it gives you the answer you know it should be giving you in the first place.
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