Metering Delay / Metering is Late

[Spanzor]

The metering is no longer accurate with the audio.

After this newest update I notice my master fader metering shows up substantially behind when I hear my kick drum for example- the spike shows up about half a second late.

I've never seen this issue before that I can recall. My last plugin in the MASTER chain is to my TC Electronic Clarity M, which if you don't know of is an external display that shows various metering options. The TC is fine and shows up right on time with the audio.

When can we expect metering to be sample accurate again?

[wwittman]

If you remove the tc from the chain does the track meter still look late?

[Spanzor]

Hi-

Yes, it is late even with my main mix chain (hardware insert via Lynx Aurora32(n)) deactivated so that I only have up to date plugins on my mix bus.

I fully understand latency caused by the plugins, have delay comp turned on, etc. Typically I would think the metering on my master fader would reflect the audio output/what I'm monitoring, but I'm experiencing notable difference in seeing it vs. when I actually hear it come out of the speakers. I hear it well before I see the peak levels pop up.

FWIW, all of the tracks feeding the mix bus are frozen audio tracks, so there is very little processing happening within the session. Hardware inserts don't seem to be the culprit here (see above).

[albee1952]

Given graphics and buffer settings, I seriously doubt that metering was ever sample-accurate

[Spanzor]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Given graphics and buffer settings, I seriously doubt that metering was ever sample-accurate

thanks mate

[Spanzor]

In case there's any other questions regarding this, here is an excerpt from page 151 of the downloadable the Pro Tools Reference Guide regarding track and master meter types.



"Sample Peak Provides the default Pro Tools metering. The scale and the decay time is calculated in dB/second, which results in slower decay in metering compared to previous versions of Pro Tools. The Sample Peak option is the only Meter Type that has a 0 sample integration time, and as such shows all dynamic activity of the digital signal at every moment in time."

I guess that's why they call it SAMPLE peak?

Not trying to be rude, but the idea that the graphics card is causing a half second lag on the master meter, and my Clarity M doesn't show that lag, and when I type on the keyboard the text comes up faster... I'll say I have doubts that it's the graphics card in my 2018 loaded Mac mini. I've never seen buffer times cause the master meter ballistics to change, personally. This would mean plugin gain reduction metering also isn't accurate, right?

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Given graphics and buffer settings, I seriously doubt that metering was ever sample-accurate

Metering cannot be sample accurate by definition, because fastest displays have 360Hz refresh rate, which means every change the display can make takes 123 samples on 44.1kHz session.

[Spanzor]

Is the manual inaccurate? What would cause it to be noticeably later than it used to be? It's far more than 123 samples late...

By the way, the gain reduction meter is fine, it's just the main meter.

So for example when my kick drum hits, the gain reduction meter shows up just fine with the sound of the kick, but the meter takes half a second to spike.

[Spanzor]

Maybe this will help clarify what's happening...

https://youtu.be/gbdLfhLJaBE

[Spanzor]

I uploaded my camera phone video into premier pro so I could really get under the microscope.

My phone is set to 30fps.

It takes 3 full frames between the time that the gain reduction meter hits and the time that the VU meter peaks. The peak would be what triggers the gain reduction meter 3 frames prior.

Master fader meter is not sample accurate, fine, whatever, graphics card has refresh rate, cool, understood. The mod said it, so fine, lets say there 123 samples latency.

Take 3 frames at 30fps, so we have 1/10th of a second, or .1

Sample rate of the session is 88.2k, so multiply .1 by 88200 to get 8820 samples. Seems pretty late, much later than my graphics card lag would produce.

If it was the graphics card:

1) Why wouldn't the gain reduction meter follow the same formula as the VU meter on the same track?
2) Why do the drum busses and other sub groups play back in time with the meter when audio goes through, but not the master fader?

Mostly rhetorical questions, but like I said before, don't think it's the graphics card.

Maybe I'm crazy though.