Design of a QRMS audio meter

[JohnRoberts]

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256...a57079&afSmartRedirect=y&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
They also have one that is a little larger that does various things like this and also does spectrum analysis for not much more money.

If you do some AliExpress searching, or type it into a Google Image search with the word AliExpress added, you'll find a ton of stuff around the $20.00 range.

And AliExpress has 2.4" analog vu meters pre-built for under $10.00.

And there are a zillion Arudino-type circuits out there for this.

Weirdly enough, though I lived the majority of my life more in the analog era, I find I 100% prefer linear bar-graph style peak meters.

+1 especially in the context of multi-channel recording. It is far easier to scan across a meter bridge full of bar graphs to find a channel with hot signal than try to read that many individual mechanical VU meters. I have put as many as 24 mechanical VU meters in one meter bridge (because the customer is always right) but even then I added red peak overload LEDs by each VU meter to help.

I prefer to calibrate the bar graph display in 3dB increments, and even provide simultaneous peak (dot) and average (bar) displays when possible.

For me it's just a better quick subconscious visual reference/check that i don't get from analog VU meters.

There are still customers who like VU meters for whatever reason (or at least they still did 20 years ago, last time I was in the trenches.

JR

AliExpress has a ton of those pre-built, both the (32? 30?)-segment, and for some reason the 12-segment is insanely cheap, while any other segment size, bigger or smaller is about 5x to 10x the price of those two.

I am actually using the free Avid Eucon Control app on an old discarded iPhone for metering, and with some tweaking it works great.

I'v heard of PC issues, but on a Mac it is completely solid, and no going into ip addresses or anythign for wifi, it just connects by itself without connecting at the start of the day.

I think it also does Android, but you would have to check.

 

[JimJhn]

+1 especially in the context of multi-channel recording. It is far easier to scan across a meter bridge full of bar graphs to find a channel with hot signal than try to read that many individual mechanical VU meters. I have put as many as 24 mechanical VU meters in one meter bridge (because the customer is always right) but even then I added red peak overload LEDs by each VU meter to help.

I prefer to calibrate the bar graph display in 3dB increments, and even provide simultaneous peak (dot) and average (bar) displays when possible.

There are still customers who like VU meters for whatever reason (or at least they still did 20 years ago, last time I was in the trenches.

JR

I'm with you there!

Allot of studios I use they have the old-style VUs and wouldn't have it any other way.

And it works great for them too!

I think you are right...whatever works for you!

Coincidentally I had gotten kind of going-down-the-rabbit-hole obsessed with this very topic the past week, which is why I responded so quickly.

It's really an interesting subject, and the way engineers now want to view metering post-streaming is a whole new thing that is a completely different thing to see (for me).

Again I digress from the tech-centric purpose of this forum!

There are other forums that that would be more appropriate for, but I love this forum because it is full of people who are really smart and see equipment in a different way than most of the other places I occasionally look at for knowledge / opinions / suggestions !!!