Quote:
Originally Posted by spustatu
Thanks very much, everyone. I think I will try looking for a good metering plug-in, but it seems like what I've got going right now is maybe not as stupid as I thought. I think I even understand why commits are necessary. I appreciate your assistance very much.
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If you are finding that analyzed levels, and "rendered" or "committed" levels might have to be changed many times, and there IS processing like EQ, reverb, or anything, what Bob L said about "signal path" is super relevant. Changing the gain of a file on the track (that file is called a "clip" in PT terminology, goes for MIDI clips too), happens BEFORE the audio signal gets to the EQ or Reverb plug-in. So the level can be different after final export.
Another thing that might be relevant is "loudness" is related as well as distinct from "RMS" or "peak" metering. Any standard 16 bit 48 kHz wave file for example, has a maximum level of 0.0 dBFS (decibel Full Scale). Imagine every sine wave at "max" amplitude, instead of sound that makes sense, your speakers would be damaged, and the digital file would look like a square wave reaching the very top and bottom of "Full Scale".
Obviously, this kind of volume level is what we hear when our equipment is "angry" for whatever reason, half disconnected cables and so on, but this 0.0 dBFS also gives an insight into the different Gain Analyzer readings.
RMS and Peak are two kinds of analysis. Loudness is more like RMS but a bit different. One important consideration, the peak is momentary or very short term and the RMS is over a longer time period. Loudness is supposed to be more like "how loud it sounds to your ears" which is perhaps a helpful real time metering solution like Ben Jenssen describes.
In a basic sense, perceived loudness is a consequence of varying signal peaks and continuous signals over time. That is, a momentary peak might or might not seem "much louder" when in fact it is much more powerful but just for a moment. In other contexts, a continuous sine wave sustained will be much more present to perception than those momentary peaks were.
Altogether these things lead to "listener fatigue" or "interesting dynamics" and so on. "Being loud enough" is something that might be a standardized level, but the platforms for streaming vary on the numbers. I go with Audio Engineering Society loudness spec guidelines.