Meter Toolbar
- The green bar shows the playback level, and the red bar shows recording level.
In the image above, note that the blue bars (indicating the highest peak level attained) are at about the -6 dB mark. This is a sensible level to aim for on the recording meter when setting levels for recording, because it gives you headroom to make edits affecting volume afterwards.
Monitoring
When you are preparing to record it is useful to monitor the input without actually pressing the record button. This is useful for setting levels and checking that you have the input source that you expect.
There are two ways to turn input monitoring on and off:
- Left-click on the recording meter to turn monitoring on. Click again to turn monitoring off.
- Click on the downward-pointing arrow beside the microphone symbol - the meter drop-down menu appears. Choose "Begin Monitoring" or "Stop Monitoring" as appropriate.
What the bars and lines mean
ToDo Gale: If practical I think this image would be better if it was horizontal (as most beginners will have it). Thinner font (for the annotated text) would be better.
Done - Bill
Recording must be annotated as well, or people won't know what the
bars mean. The recording should be up to -6 dB (showing them the ideal
sort of level) but showing the clip hold light too from a previous clip. I'd
say the clip hold light is mandatory for recording.
Done - Bill
Gale: My only real concern for the playback meter was the green "recent peak" line. I can see having long text and arrows pointing to both meters is messy. I think we could possibly go back to the previous image and say under the playback text "(The green line at -5 dB is the highest recent peak level, corresponding to the red line in the recording meter)". Note I think we should only refer to "bars" for the real bars, and refer to "line" for everything to right of the bars.
Another way would be to have arrows pointing to the relevant parts of both meters, but abbreviate the text "CR, CP, RP, MP, Clip" and include that in the label for the descriptive text e.g
Current RMS level (CR): Blah, Blah...
That also lets us order the labels in the order of reading left to right on the meter, which seems more natural/less confusing to me.
Bill: OK, one more try. Annotated the playback meter and shifted the note to the recording meter. Added sentence about recent peak line to the note. As for left-to-right versus top-to-bottom ... I think it works with top-to-bottom - the descriptions are then in the same visual order as the labels. If you want left-to-right AND top-to-bottom the arrows have to come out of the left edge of the labels, and the labels pointing to the playback meter end up above the recording meter. I have all this in a photoshop document with layers for every element, so if you'd like to try that, I'm game.
Gale: I find I'm being pulled between the left to right and top to bottom label ordering on the image. I notice "Current RMS" first, then "Clipping", but I see "Clipping" first in the text. If you abbreviate the labels, I'd have thought the labels could be kept left to right on the same horizontal level. Some arrows will be horizontal then down rather than straight down, but I think this less confusing than now. Also the abbreviations let us cut the "recording and playback" duplications in the text descriptions.
Bill: OK, have look.
Gale: Thanks, I think that's an improvement. Does anyone not? Do you think it would look better if we let the labels go to right of the image, so the arrows could be either straight down (or straight out then straight down) rather than angled? I think the
arrow above clipping (almost straight down) looks odd.
- Explain in the image that the abbreviations are explained below in the text?
- Does the format Label (abbreviation): look better (see one example)?
- Cut the "recording or playback" statements in the text? (this was one point of the abbreviations giving us space to fully label the image, IMO).
- Current RMS Level (CR): The right-hand edge of the lighter part of the bar. The RMS level gives a general indication of the perceived loudness of the audio, and relates directly to the amplitude of the light blue shading in the waveform .
- CP: Current peak level - the right-hand edge of the darker part bar indicates the current peak level, and relates directly to the dark blue shading in the waveform.
- RP: Recent peak level - these lines indicate the highest peak level attained in the last few seconds. They are reset when recording or playback is stopped.
- MP: Maximum peak level - the blue lines indicate the maximum peak level attained during the current recording or playback session. They remain after playback or recording is stopped, and are reset when a new playback or recording session is started.
- Clip: These red lines will light up if clipping has occurred during the current recording or playback session. They remain after playback or recording is stopped, and are reset when a new playback or recording session is started.
When recording in mono (for example, from a microphone), usually only the left channel recording meter will be active, although this will depend on how your computer's sound hardware sends sounds to Audacity.
Undocking and Resizing
Ed 13 Nov 2009 an image offering...
The meter toolbar can also be undocked and displayed as a window in its own right. It can be resized, giving longer scales for the meters and hence a more accurate view of the volume levels. It can also be changed to a vertical orientation.
- To undock the Meter Toolbar, click on its handle and drag it out of the Audacity project window.
- To resize the meter when undocked, click on the resize handle at the bottom right of the window and drag it out to the desired size.
- To resize the meter when docked, click on the resize handle at the right edge of the Meter Toolbar and drag it out to the desired size.
The Meter Drop-down Menus
Bill: I don't mind the "quick text" for these drop-down menus. I'll put the h2 h3 thing below for comparison (actually is can be h3 + bullets since we already have an h2 for this section)
The drop-down menus for the playback and recording meters can be accessed by right-clicking on the meter, or by clicking on the downward-pointing triangle beside the speaker symbol or the microphone symbol.
| Menu | Description |
|---|---|
|
Disable Meter The meter is grayed out and does not operate. If the meter is disabled this menu item will change to read "Enable Meter".
Start Monitoring (record meter only) Start monitoring the input (recording) level without actually recording. During monitoring this menu item will change to read "Stop Monitoring". You can also start and stop monitoring by left-clicking on the recording meter. Horizontal Stereo Display the meter in horizontal orientation. Vertical Stereo Display the meter in vertical orientation. Linear Use a linear scale for the meter. dB Use a logarithmic (dB) scale for the meter. Preferences... Opens the Preferences window for the meter where you can set the refresh rate. |
Disable and Monitoring
- Disable Meter: The meter is grayed out and does not operate. If the meter is disabled this menu item will change to read "Enable Meter".
- Start Monitoring (record meter only): Start monitoring the input (recording) level without actually recording. During monitoring this menu item will change to read "Stop Monitoring". You can also start and stop monitoring by left-clicking on the recording meter.
Meter Orientation
- Horizontal Stereo: Display the meter in horizontal orientation.
- Vertical Stereo: Display the meter in vertical orientation.
Scale
- Linear: Use a linear scale for the meter.
- dB: Use a logarithmic (dB) scale for the meter.
Preferences
- Preferences: Opens the Preferences window for the meter where you can set the refresh rate.
