Reading meters is essential because listening and looking at mixes has the same level of importance. Meters help understand clipping as well as other unwanted sound content that is too subtle to hear during music production, especially after compression. There are many types of meters within the audio universe. Peak and VU meters the most useful ones.
Reading Meters: Levels
Before getting into reading meters, we must warn you: there is a unique difference between level and amplitude. The level is unipolar, whereas amplitude is bipolar. Experts use the level in metering in terms of the incoming signal: it should not exceed the system’s limit. It doesn’t matter if the voltage is positive or negative; the most important thing is the distance from zero. The human ears are extremely sensitive, but computers have a higher sensitivity level than the former. Because of this, digits and voltages are not that important to audio engineers.
Peak Meters
Peak meters display the level of the signal in the exact moment the change occurs, but they don’t reflect our senses. These meters are perfect for making sure a signal is not exceeding a particular limit, but they don’t reflect the way the human ear perceives loudness. They provide a precise and useful reading because the decay time is much longer than the attack. Despite this, the decay tends to have less impact than the attack on the overall perception of the source’s loudness.
UV Meters
Average RMS/UV meters range from mechanical RC circuits that slow down the needle to studio engineered VU meters to digital features like route mean squared (RMS). VU meters are the most popular type for reading meters. This type exists in both software emulations, as well as in the mechanical realm. VU meters scale in a way that the user can see changes in moderate and loud signals, as well as in lower level increments. Phase metering is necessary because the level is a frequent variable between the left and right channels. A healthy mix lies between zero and one on a phase meter.
