VU Meters not accurate?
Is it just me, or are BM2's VU meters just not at all accurate? When I export tracks into desktop audio editors, their VU meters always accurately represent the track's volume, whereas BM2's meters don't.
Also, it always bothered me that the master track's VU meter turns orange after you start hitting 0dB and above, and then red at 3dB. Anything above 0dB on the master VU meter should technically be clipping, yes?
I would think, on the master volume meter, -6dB and above should be orange, and 0dB and above should be red.
Maybe someone with more professional mixing knowledge can chime in here. I may be wrong on this, but practically every other DAW I've used has displayed volume levels much more clearly than BM2 does.
While we're on the topic of volume, it would be very useful if BM2 had a tunable limiter I could apply to the master channel when I've finished mixing a track so that when I export to WAV, I can make sure the track is appropriately loud enough (I say a tunable limiter because not everyone wants to participate in the loudness war and squash the all of the dynamics out of their tracks for the sake of volume).
Also, it always bothered me that the master track's VU meter turns orange after you start hitting 0dB and above, and then red at 3dB. Anything above 0dB on the master VU meter should technically be clipping, yes?
I would think, on the master volume meter, -6dB and above should be orange, and 0dB and above should be red.
Maybe someone with more professional mixing knowledge can chime in here. I may be wrong on this, but practically every other DAW I've used has displayed volume levels much more clearly than BM2 does.
While we're on the topic of volume, it would be very useful if BM2 had a tunable limiter I could apply to the master channel when I've finished mixing a track so that when I export to WAV, I can make sure the track is appropriately loud enough (I say a tunable limiter because not everyone wants to participate in the loudness war and squash the all of the dynamics out of their tracks for the sake of volume).
Comments
Also the meters are labeled like an analog console would be, so you are correct in saying that they are not necessarily accurate. I don't really use the meters at all.
When exporting separate tracks, I find that I get accurate levels per track when everything is set at unity(0). The mix buss in BM2 overloads pretty quick, but you have to push it pretty hard for the sound to be offensive. That's the good news!
I really wish I could do this with BM2, however. I may end up buying Auria just to do mastering, as Auria has accurate volume meters and a brick-wall limiter.
These are good policies!
Auria is cool, but since you also are using a laptop, consider Reaper, which is in the same price range as Auria. Then you could export individual files and mix in reaper.
I've actually tried Reaper and found it to be pretty good, but I'd really like to have an all-iPad production environment. Although my laptop is small and relatively light (11.6" screen, about 3 pounds), my iPad is far more portable and has much better battery life.
I do all of my mixing in BM2, I just export my finished tracks to my laptop to maximize the volume with Audacity.