1 Topic by MC

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Topic: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

While busy with many projects we still found the time to work a bit on DigiCheck NG, and added a feature often asked for: VU meters!


https://www.archiv.rme-audio.de/images/program_meters.jpg


Now, these are a bit two-sided. They either are just seen as nice-to-look-at toy, or as useful addition to the measurement arsenal already at hand. And if you are younger you might not even know what these swinging needles are good for at all. They had been radio and TV standard for a long time, but yes, both their technical definitions on working as well as the mechanical design are both outdated and/or obsolete. Nevertheless, here they are to try out and learn some interesting stuff!


https://www.archiv.rme-audio.de/images/qpeak_settings.jpg


Select the new Instrument type Program meters. Several VU meters show up. Click the right mouse button to open Settings, then select

- the kind of VU meter, Meter Type. Choices are Volume Unit (300 ms attack/release) or Quasi Peak (also Peak Programme Meter, 10 ms attack, 1.5 s release for 20 dB, different scale).

- Channel count for the number of meters

- Line Count for the number of vertically stacked ones. For example for a 24 channel tape machine setup you can have 12 in 2 lines, or 8 in three. Or with only 4 meters stack them all vertically at the edge of the monitor in 4 lines – whatever you want.

- Reference level lets you set the 0 dB point lower, for higher sensitivity. This is un-avoidable with the VU meter as you will quickly notice – with normal material that reaches 0 dBFS the needle hardly starts to move away from the -20 dB end of scale. The Quasi Peak meter acts much more like a typical digital level meter, and usually does not need that workaround.

- Motion Blur is a technique to make the needle swing smoothly instead of stuttering, even at 60 Hz frame rate.

- The optional Peak indicator reminds you of the true level the measured signal has. Especially with the VU meter the difference between peak and heavily averaged (the needle) is mostly very big.

- The levels for yellow and red color of the peak indicator are freely adjustable.

Note that the Windows version comes with installer to provide the included help. On Mac it is included in the app itself, so no installer for now. The included help describes the new Program Meters in more technical details.

We hope you like this stuff, and appreciate any feedback.


Downloads

Windows: https://www.rme-audio.de/downloads/digi … 2beta2.zip

Mac: https://www.rme-audio.de/downloads/digi … 2beta2.zip


Further info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VU_meter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_programme_meter

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

2 Reply by waedi (edited by waedi 2024-12-12 12:48:35)

  • waedi
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

It looks great !
Thanks for this new feature
Tested with Digiface USB on M1 Mac, works fine.

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue
  • From: Milan, Italy
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Thanks for the continued development on Digicheck NG, I'll try them against my Sifam hardware meters!

https://musicwall.app/hermetech

Babaluma's Website

  • Registered: 2024-04-12
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Fantastic! Appreciate the update..

Old skool VU’s are still a big part of my metering arsenal!

Si

  • From: Germany, Tuvalu, Poland, Chile
  • Registered: 2021-07-27
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Very nice!
Amazing, how perfectly the mass/rise time of the needle in the VU meter is "emulated".
Really useful. Thanks.

“Do It For Her”
My Gear: Bontempi Magic light Keyboard

6 Reply by Dmitry67 (edited by Dmitry67 2024-12-13 15:02:16)

  • Registered: 2018-01-23
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Hello!

Nice job!

Need an option "Always  on top" like in the old version DIGI.

Thank you!

  • Kubrak
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Thanks, MC, nice job!

FF UCX II, Digiface USB, Babyface Pro FS
  • Registered: 2008-05-11
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

I like the new VU meters. Nice. They are working as expected on my M2 Pro Macbook Pro running Sonoma 14.5.

Unrelated issue. The 2 channel level meters take up too much vertical space when in horizontal mode. The borders on the top and bottom of the window can hot be hidden or made smaller. It would be an improvement for my use case to have the horizontal channel meter window only show the meters and hide the title bar and gray space aboe and below the meters.

  • Registered: 2024-12-15
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Is this not available on fireface 802?

  • waedi
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

seongzzins wrote:

Is this not available on fireface 802?

It is available as standalone software with own download link, see above and it should work with every RME interface...

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue
  • Registered: 2024-06-01
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

The VU meters don't seem to let me choose playback channels as inputs on my DigiFace USB. Is that intentional?

  • From: Adelaide - Australia
  • Registered: 2007-05-01
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

These VU meters are fantastic MC.

----------------
Matt McKenzie-Smith (UFXII, UFX, Babyface) MacStudioUltra OS13.2.1
----------------

mattrixx's Website

13 Reply by MC

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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Steffen wrote:

The VU meters don't seem to let me choose playback channels as inputs on my DigiFace USB. Is that intentional?

Isn't it true that none instruments do so?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • From: Milan, Italy
  • Registered: 2012-02-19
  • Posts: 217

Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Yeah, they are really good, perhaps the best digital VUs I have seen (have tried lots!) They measure very closely against my hardware Sifam VU meters when calibrated the same. Look great full screen too!

https://musicwall.app/hermetech

Babaluma's Website

  • Registered: 2021-03-15
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Is there an option to set VUs only for two output channels? I don't need the whole channel-set and it takes quite a bit of real estate in Digicheck.

16 Reply by waedi (edited by waedi 2024-12-16 17:19:14)

  • waedi
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

NoisyNarrowBandDevice wrote:

Is there an option to set VUs only for two output channels? I don't need the whole channel-set and it takes quite a bit of real estate in Digicheck.

See post 1 the second image with the settings
channel count number and line count number, may be this is what you are looking for ?

M1-Sequoia, Madiface Pro, Digiface USB, Babyface silver and blue
  • Registered: 2021-03-15
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

waedi wrote:
NoisyNarrowBandDevice wrote:

Is there an option to set VUs only for two output channels? I don't need the whole channel-set and it takes quite a bit of real estate in Digicheck.

See post 1 the second image with the settings
channel count number and line count number, may be this is what you are looking for ?


Thx! Didn't read that properly. Very nice, thx RME! Now I wish to have more than four instrument panels big_smile

  • Registered: 2024-03-15
  • Posts: 90

Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Thanks for the update. I like the old VU meters! Will definitely check them out.

Would it be too much to ask to implement them into the ADI-2 series screen?
One channel (L or R, or L+R) full screen, please.

  • From: Milan, Italy
  • Registered: 2012-02-19
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

What would be super helpful for me would be to have the Reference Level setting as a knob/control on the VU front panel itself (maybe switchable on or off in the settings, like the channel names?) It's something one needs to change a lot when listening to different types of music, and at the moment is a little frustrating to have to go into the settings every time to change it.

https://musicwall.app/hermetech

Babaluma's Website

  • Registered: 2024-06-01
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

MC wrote:
Steffen wrote:

The VU meters don't seem to let me choose playback channels as inputs on my DigiFace USB. Is that intentional?

Isn't it true that none instruments do so?

All other meters in DigiCheck NG work with the playback channels (but only when using the DK driver).

21 Reply by MC

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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Unfortunately your issue descriptions are not much helpful. What exactly is the problem here? Too low level so needles don't move? KE driver in use which doesn'' support playback in DC NG? You did not select the right channels in the Input Selection dialog's table? A more detailed description with screenshot might help.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Registered: 2024-06-01
  • Posts: 20

Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Assuming this is a rely to me:

MC wrote:

Unfortunately your issue descriptions are not much helpful. What exactlky is the problem here? Too low level so needles don't move? KE driver in use which doesn'' support playback in DC NG? You did not select the right channels in the Input Selection dialog's table? A more detailed description with screenshot might help.

Like I said, the VU meters don't let me choose playback channels as inputs. I'd love to attach screenshots, but can't figure out how.

I'll try to describe what I'm seeing: in the "Program Meters Inputs" dialog box I can select input channels for up to 8 meters via dropdown. The dropdown lists offer channels ADAT 1 to ADAT 32, nothing else. With other instrument types I get ADAT 1-32, Playback ADAT 1-32, Playback Phones L and R. The "Add Playback Channels" option under "Setup..." is checked, btw.

Just playing around with it a bit I notice that other instrument types (like Totalyzer) also sometimes don't offer channels beyond ADAT 1-32. I never had that issue before. I can recover from that by loading a saved layout, then the playback channels are back. So perhaps this is just a UI issue with populating the dropdown. I'll keep messing with it, perhaps I'll eventually get the full dropdown for the Program Meter inputs by chance.

  • Registered: 2024-06-01
  • Posts: 20

Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

I think I found a workaround: When creating a new window and adding a new instrument, don't make that instrument a "Program Meter". Instead, choose a different instrument type, configure playback channels as inputs, then change the instrument type to "Program Meters". The playback channels will prevail.

Not sure how repeatable this ultimately is, but it has allowed me to share the joy of the VU meters

24 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Thanks for these details. We'll check and will fix in case we find the issue.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Gr8h8m
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Re: DigiCheck NG 0.92 beta 2 – public preview Mac /Windows

Thanks MC! Loving the update. Getting close to retiring my Clarity-M I think.