Metering in Pro Tools still seems a bit of mystery to me. I personally like to use the Waves VU meter. It defaults to -18dbfs, so a -18db reference tone in PT will default to 0 db on VU meter. Of course it can be adjusted.
In
this tutorial from Kenny Gioia, he shows how we can adjust the Pro Tool reference level to gain more headroom. Of course, you'd have to adjust the VU meter accordingly. But he seems to be speaking about levels coming in to PT from outboard analog gear. He doesn't discuss anything related to VI's, for example.
So, I'm wondering a couple things: 1) do any of you set a different reference level for PT other than the default (which is, I believe -18)? 2)Do you adjust the meter color ranges like Kenny shows in the video? 3) Is there an "ideal" reference level?
I have to agree with Kenny that it often feels to me that even with VI's, it feels that everything is running a bit too hot, but before I change anything, I'd like to hear from some of you guys out there on this.
Also, which of the now MANY PT meter options do you prefer to use. In the video, Kenny is using the PT Classic meter. I have normally used the PT RMS setting, but I'm not sure that's the best option either.
Thoughts?