Let's revisit some of the concepts associated with the
Master Meter Module. On an M40 System, up to 2 Display Modules can be allocated as Master Meters. Master Meters can display from 8 up to 32 high-resolution meters on a single display, and can be assigned to show either Meters only or Waveforms and Meters. Meters have their own dedicated Layout Type as well as the ability to pair a Meter Layout with a Track Layout.
Master Meters can display meters from a single Pro Tools system, up to 8 Pro Tools systems (great for source machines and stem recorders), or a combination of Pro Tools, DADman, Logic and any other EUCON-enabled applications. From the
System >
Settings under
Auto-Load from Titles and Sessions,
Layouts and Meters is the data type that needs to be enabled to ensure that your Master Meter Layouts are restored when the Pro Tools session loads.
Let's start by examining a few different options for configuring a Master Meter Module. To change an existing Console Display Module into a Master Meter, go to
Settings >
Surface and choose
Config then
Display. Simply touch the
Fader Module living in the same bucket at the Display Module you want to declare as a Master Meter. There's a subtle change with the icon representing the display on the Surface page that you will observe (straight vertical lines turn to to dashed vertical lines). To remove the Master Meter assignment, simply return back to the
Surface page and choose
Display >
Clear.
It's also possible to add a Master Meter to your existing S6 configuration, either in a bucket with an optional Post Module (often used to correlate print tracks on the stem recorder), or simply by adding a completely blank module to the config. As you notice in the flow below, this meter is automatically added as a Master Meter since the bucket containing it does not include any Fader Modules. So, this is now a dedicated Master Meter Module that can recall collections of tracks from one more more attached workstations.
The Master Meter shown above is not bound in any way by the virtual blank bucket that we added to the system configuration. As you see below, I've added a dedicated Meter Module to my system in the same way, however mounted the panel to a side note desk that sits adjacent to my S6 frame. For my purposes, it's great to have a reference for MTRX monitor sources, stem inputs or metering on chains and submasters from Pro Tools. Here's a picture of the standard display module with the factory mounting bracket applied to some custom furniture. As long as you provide external Ethernet and 12v power you can make this work.
Finally, let's take a look at how to create a Meter Layout composed of sources and speaker outputs using MTRX and the DADman software. From the
Tracks page, press
Shift + Tracks to turn the bottom destination scroller into a Meters view. Press
Assign to start making assignments for your Meter Layout. From the
Local Options (Gear Icon) choose the number of Meters (8, 16, 24 or 32) and whether you want Meters only or Waveforms and Meters. Note that each individual Meter Layout can have distinct formatting settings which will be stored and recalled. Since we want to harvest Cue Monitors and Control Room sources and outputs, Application Switch over to
DADman and notice the
Tracks page is now populated with tracks from your currently loaded Monitor Profile (.dmprof file). I've chosen to add 16 meters, 2 rows, with my Control Room sources on the top row ending in the main Control Room output. The second row I'm populating with sources feeding the 4th Cue mix which is ultimately feeding out into a KLANG headphone DA via Dante. To finish the assignment, press
Store, name the Meter Layout (and optionally link it to a Track Layout), then press
Store once more.
