MTRX D-A Output Level

[laki]

Hello all. I'm fairly new to MTRX but no stranger to PT.

I have a -20 DBfs tone coming out of PT. Previously, With my HD I/O, when feeding VU meters this would equal 0 VU.

In Dadman, I have setup a metering output as part of my monitor profile. When feeding the same set of VU meters with -20, I need to push up the D-A outputs feeding the meters by +18 to get to 0VU.

That seems like an awful lot. Anyone else experiencing this?

[BScout]

I have not.

Can you take a screenshot of your DA and the Mon section of DADman (with the Mon section expanded in case the gain happens to be trimmed there) while passing a steady -20dBFs 1kHz tone and post it? That should indicate what is wrong.

The HD IO is a max 22dBU out and the MTRX is a max 24dBU, so there shouldn't be anywhere near that much variation unless gain is set wrong somewhere else. I think I remember all the channels on the DA card, when first put in the MTRX, were not set to 0dBFs.

[laki]

Thanks Bscout!

I'm back at the studio on Monday and I'll post those then. I might make a test profile with very simple routing.

In light of what you said, I have a feeling that the problem might be the wiring to the meters. There was a bit of rewiring going on during the change over from Icon/Xmon to S6/MTRX.

Thanks again for your speedy response.

[ntp-jl]

Originally Posted by laki

Hello all. I'm fairly new to MTRX but no stranger to PT.

I have a -20 DBfs tone coming out of PT. Previously, With my HD I/O, when feeding VU meters this would equal 0 VU.

In Dadman, I have setup a metering output as part of my monitor profile. When feeding the same set of VU meters with -20, I need to push up the D-A outputs feeding the meters by +18 to get to 0VU.

That seems like an awful lot. Anyone else experiencing this?

Hi laki,

The HD IO is specified to have an output level of +4dBu at -18 dBFS.

The output level on the MTRX D/A faders refers to 0 dBFS, not -18 dBFS. This means you must set the faders to +22 dBu (18 dB above +4 dBu) in order to get the same output level as on the HD IO.

My guess is that you have started off by setting the MTRX D/A faders to +4 dBu as that is the HD IO spec, which will give you an output that is 18 dB lower than the HD IO. And don't worry, you're not the only who has done that.

As Bscout also suggest, make sure you haven't set any output trim in the monitor profile. And also make sure you have selected the "pre-fader" option for the meter output, and not "post-fader". The pre/post-fader setting determines whether the meter output level is affected by your volume control.

[laki]

Thanks ntp-jl. This now makes sense.