Hi sandyeric welcome back! I will have a look at your configuration in terms of setting up K system metering and some options. Just busy with it all right now. But will have a think about it. I will need to sownload some manuals and things and have a llok at a signal flow diagram.

I have a (digital) mixer creating my final steero buss (not Sonar) and that is where I keep the analog VU's. One can still patch the final output from any mixer back into a Sonar track and park the Blue Cat meter there for a look at overall mix level. The Blue Cat is set for a 700 ms VU time constant which is a bit weird but if you set it back to 300 ms it behaves quite close to the real VU's. BlueCat meter is handy because you can put them anywhere.

I bought quality meter movements on ebay in the US. Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/AP...?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0

Just keep an eye out for the obvious larger quailty uinits on ebay. They are quite large. I drive them from an ART Clean Box. You need to get power for the lights to them as well and mount them some how. Mine were about $60 each. You can buy new quality movements here in Australia but they are $200 each. The souce impedence effects the ballistics. There is a source resister feeding the movement and even changing it slightly alters the ballistics. So it is important to feed the movement from a constant 600 balanced source. I use the two hot pins from the ART Clean box only to drive the movement. You just get the required gain adjustment from K-12 down to K-20. Mike Stavrou (Top Australian Engineer) did a great article on the virtues of VU meters in Australia's 'Audio Technology magazine. I am happy to scan it and email it to those interested for further detailed reading. You can almost mix well using VU meters! If you watch the ballistics of your meters while you mix you will end up with a very nice tight controlled mix with no stray movement or swinging on either side.

Back to signal flow. I use a digital mixer to create my final stereo mix. I send stems from Sonar over to it during mixdown and some of my hardware synths might even be playing back at the same time. I do all this at 24 bit resolution and at 48 KHz often too. I like to fiddle with the stems on mixdown. Also there is a nice transperant compressor I use to mix the stereo mix into but only a light coat of compression here and only for projects that might wind up louder later.

The ideal thing about digital mixers is you can set up exact signal levels within the desk easily. I record what is plugged into the analog inputs. Even with the meters across the main stereo output, it is simple to monitor your incoming signal through the stereo buss and the signal on the VU's is accurate at this point. Just get the input to do its thing and adjust input gain trim for a nice 0 db VU average setting. The direct out signal level is exact going to a Sonar track from the mixer. So it just records everything at the desired K level. With an anlog desk you could put the BlueCat on the track you are recording on and monitor the incoming level that way.

The Katz download seems to be accurate. I have software that can genarate all the test tones you need. When I generate a -20 db pink noise I get the same level as Bob. There is no reason why any test signal would suffer from being downloaded.

Dean how do you cope with the wide variation between the audio levels of various TV digital stations and also commercial vs program levels. I have just patched a nice compressor (set more for limiting) between my LCD TV and my hi fi amp. I am amazed at how the compressor varies its behaviour between stations and of course between commercials and program levels. It smooths everything out nicely and makes the whole TV audio thing much better and way more consistent and enjoyable. In Australia there seems to be variations. A lot of it is also due to the wide variations in how things are mastered for TV as well. One minute '24' comes on and its blasting and the next some quiet documentary. The compressor makes a big difference though.

Once again, I must thank you for the plethora of info here.
 
I will have to sit down and absorb what both Mike and yourself have given me.
 
Lots to think thru.
 
A quick look at the VU meters from some of you links indicated that there are both cheap ones and seemingly much better ones available for $150.
 
I'll be back in another post when i run into the questions that are bound to come up.
 
Thanks again,
 
Sandy
 

 
Hey Dean, I can't tell you how much I loved you classic statement about character building!:
 
I don't at deal with it it all anymore. I have no TV and I sold my home theater to pay for my little music studio. I just have a little DVD player and 27" TV in the bedroom and that's it. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Running my own business has allowed me to enjoy the character building nature of poverty.

If nothing else, humor is still alive and well in the recording industry, at least on this site anyway.
 
I haven't laughed that hard since my baby brother...or was it my mother..___ in the wringer...or...??
 
I can relate 'cause I had my own alarm company for 12 years. I hired help in the last year or two I was in business and am wondering if that's why I'm not still in the business..?
 
Sandy
 

Its too long since Dave posted in this thread! I agree that giving away television is a very admirable thing to do. The more I watch it, the more I just think how silly we are as a human race. We just keep fighting and hurting each other and beating each other up for no reason really. Dean I am so impressed your sold your home theatre system to build a home studio centered around Sonar. What a great thing to do.

But connecting a decent compressor between your TV receiving device and your Hi Fi amp is the way to go. It goes a long way to improving the TV experience. Part and I think a lot of the stress of TV is the fairly serious level variance there is, not only between networks but between commercials and normal program material. The compressor goes a long way to sorting that all out. You just have to be able to give up one of your compressors to do it.

Also I have scanned and zipped up that great article in Audio Technology on VU meters and why we really should never be without them for anyone interested. Just PM me with a normal email address I can send an attachment (1.5 meg or so) to.

It's funny... yesterday I was working on a TV crew shooting a commercial on a Red One camera. Goodness, the picture is juts beautiful on that camera.

When I got home my wife had NPR on. Later I turned on my old 25" Sony CRT TV that is hooked up to my beat up antenna outside. We watched Rocky on a Net Flicks DVD.

I can't imagine having anything fancier.

best,
mike

Jeff - I have a compressor on my TV system.  I have questions, but I don't want to hijack this thread.  I'll start a new thread, please pick it up there.