Thanks Bit. ATM, I'm about mid-way through treating the room (hopefully). Would it be logical to calibrate the SPL of the room after it is completely treated as opposed to calibrating it and then adding a cloud and broad band absorbers which will change the way the room sounds? ---------------------------- Also, What is the benefit if any of K-metering compared to the others meters already suggested that don't require the SPL calibration? Thanks again.

What Dave is saying is good. Get an SPL meter and the Radio Shack one is fine for the job. Although I still prefer the analog VU type display. I have got mine permanently set up right in front of me and wired to a small DC power supply otherwise you will be putting batteries in it over time.

Use the C weighting not A. Get familiar with 85 db SPL. It is a very nice level, seems quiet at first but you get used to it. The SPL meter keeps you honest. It is just so easy to monitor up and over 85 db SPL, before you know it you are at 95 or 100 db SPL! because it sounds so good up there. It is Ok to go up there for short bursts but come back to 85 db SPL. Give your ears time to readjust to 85 again.

Your mixing and mastering will improve if you keep tabs on your monitoring levels in your room. Many people have no reference monitor level and they monitor all over the place. It makes you change things because if you turn things up loud, reverbs and bass suddenly get louder so you start turning them down only to find later they are not right or too low.

The K system is a system of reference levels and consistent rms levels within your DAW. You need a good VU to show rms more easily. The Klanghelm meters are fine for this. K system is also about keeping a constant ref SPL level in your room no matter what the K ref digital level is within your DAW. It is a marriage of both things really. The ref levels within your DAW can change to either -12, -14 or -20 but the SPL monitoring level in your room remains the same. You have to alter where the monitor level control is obviously in order to maintain this same SPL level. Putting calibration marks on your monitor level control is one way but the SPL meter is another and much better way IMO.

I also still believe that a single small mono speaker a la Auratone etc is very important. You can sum your DAW stereo outs somehow and feed this. The small mono speaker tells you a lot about the overall critical mix ie the balance between a lot of things in your mix. It is good to monitor at a lower level on the small speaker. (eg 65 to 70 db SPL) I have found that between the small mono speaker and your main monitors you can get mixes to translate perfectly over a wide variety of systems. You dont need 6 speaker systems to check translation, only two.

Thanks carl I had the previous version. Don't think there is anything major in 1.8.2 but there may be some improvements for sure.

I would like to just report that I have been doing some testing and fine tuning as to how the Klanghelm meters work in conjunction with quality real VU's. After some initial adjustments I found that my hardware meters were reaching the 0 db Vu mark a little quicker than the Klanghelm meter even though the Klanghelm meter was set to a 300 ms rise time. Short 300 ms bursts were taking the real VU's just up to 0, on the Klanghelm it was a little behind.

The test signal are sinewaves in precise 300 ms bursts with longer gaps in between eg 500 ms etc. You can the see how both movements move up to 0 dbu. You can also see how well the movement falls back to zero when the burst stops. The amplitude of this wave is the desired ref level. I have been using K -14 db FS.

After just lowering the Klanghelm meter rise time down to a suitable lower value (200 ms) I am very happy to say both VU meters follow each other very precisely and they both dance beautifully in sync to the music! I had to slow the release time a little too to match up better with the real VU's as well.

These Klanghelm meters represent a very real opportunity to get into quality VU rms metering (for a very low price) and you just set the desired ref level and work there all without the need to build and buy meters etc. It is of course mainly for ITB mixing.

I use an external digital mixer and do more mixing there, the real hardware VU's are sitting across the main stereo buss so they are showing everything. But having great internal VU's also means sending very precise level matched stems etc from the DAW to any external devices mixers aor devices. These meters are great.