I have been seduced by the sexy live.meters and love the stereo gain slider that has the meters right in it and db output reporting (man that helps make a neater interface). So far the only thing don't like about it is that it doesn't have a separate triangle jibby for adjusting left and right separately… but that is besides the point.

I have been also using the single live.meters and just had the old MSP level meter and the live one side by side and wow do they behave differently.

The live.meter shows more level at the floor so the display seems to be scaled differently however the MSP meter seems to be more accurate and show clipping more easily. I tried them at the same poling speed and on the same output. I could clearly see when I clipped on the MSP meter, but could not observe a clip in the live meter even with the extended clipping option on and screaming like a wildman into my open adac~. Is the MSP meter just doing a small clip hold that allows you to track the clipped signal more easily? I like the stylings and connivence of the live meters but am finding that I am clipping more by using the live meters since i am less aware of what is happening.

What are some good accurate metering strategies that folks use? Is there a way to get the sexy live.meters to behave more like the MSP meters?

Do folks just use [peakamp~ ] instead? I am doing a lot of live work and am trying to make my patches more performance ready with more metering and peak limiting.

meter-live-meter-behavior

 uses some kind of envelope follower to display the metering, in dB (which is the reason why it displays more signal). 

 on the other hand uses a peak approach (absolute value of the samples), which is more appropriate to detect clipping.

live.meter~ uses some kind of envelope follower to display the metering, in dB (which is the reason why it displays more signal). meter~ on the other hand uses a peak approach (absolute value of the samples), which is more appropriate to detect clipping.


Thanks Emmanuel. That is helpful and crystal clear. I'll stick with meter and kick it old school.

With a little DIY spirit you can build something custom. Not necessarily cheaper. But that's part of the spirit.

The important thing with this is to be uber vigilant about clipping and so I am most interested in anything that give the best most screamingly obvious warning of clipping. I wish the meter have more rude clipping indicators and maybe even an optional additional overload led hold. I am doing a lot more live stuff and am have exceedingly poor eyesight. Plus I am also trying to pay attention to what I play so I am looking for something that would pretty much wack me on the head if I am clipping.

A clipping indicator could be glued on top of it.

meter~ & live.meter~ behavior