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Blue Cat`s DP Meter Pro User Manual

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1. Crest factor is thus mainly used to understand the shape of the waveform and quantify its dynamics A higher crest factor means more dynamics while lower values mean more compression and sometimes distortion 0 dB will be reached with a pure sine wave while a usual value for crest factor on mastered music is in the 6 to 15 dB range from pretty compressed to pretty uncompressed Individual instruments may produce larger crest factors especially percusive instruments Also you will notice jumps of the crest factor at playback start and stop as there is a huge intensity gap between silence and sound An interesting property of the crest factor is its independence from the average level of the signal it is only dependent on the shape of the signal as you can see in the picture below It represents the peak red RMS yellow levels and the crest factor blue while playing the tail of a sound fed into a digital delay As you can see the shape of the crest factor remains the same while the intensity of the signal is decreasing Since the crest factor is also a time varying value it is important to note that it is computed on the same temporal window as the RMS value With shorter lengths faster value changes Instant Max Average While the meters show instant levels the plug in can also display longer term statistics The instant value is the short term or real time value right now The average value is the
2. It allows the peak and RMS levels of a pure sine wave to be Boost equal as recommened for audio applications Peak Hold Meter Meter ms Time during which the local maximum value remains unchanged Hold Reset dB s Reset speed for the local maximum value peak hold meter Speed Transformed Output Envelope Eneviope Selects the type of envelope to use to generate the transformed enevlope level level hold Type crest or crest hold Peak RMS Reverse Amount Offset Histograms Enable Hist Hist seconds Length Hist Reset Reset Clip Reset Max Peak Reset Max RMS Reset Max Crest Reset Avg Peak Reset Avg RMS Reset Avg Crest Reset Ratio of Peak RMS levels for the output envelope for level or level hold eneviope types Reverse the transformed output peak envelope Amount for the transformed output peak envelope percentage of the original envelope used to generate the transformed envelope If gt 100 variations of the transformed envelope will be larger than for the original envelope if lt 100 they will be smaller Offset for the transformed output envelope Enable histograms computation Histograms integration time duration Value changes reset the histograms Value changes reset the clip output attribute Value changes reset the maximum peak value Value changes reset the maximum RMS value Value changes reset the maximum crest factor value Value ch
3. Read More In this tutorial you will learn how to use the DP Meter Pro plugin DPMP s real time capabilities in Cakewalk Sonar use it to let any instrument influence the parameters on any effect for any other Read More In this tutorial you will learn how to use the DP Meter Pro plugin DPMP s real time capabilities in Ableton Live use it to let any instrument influence the parameters of any effect for any other in Read More In this tutorial you will learn how to use the DP Meter Pro plugin DPMP s real time capabilities in Steinberg Cubase use it to let any instrument influence the parameters on any effect for any othe Read More Tutorial Real Time Ducking the DPMP as a Voice Over Tool This tutorial shows how to perform real time ducking in your favorite host using the DP Meter Pro plugin DPMP The following example is a typical Voice Over situation where you want to add a VO Read More This tutorial shows how to use the DP Meter Pro plugin DPMP in energyXT in order to modify the parameters of an instrument or effect on a track according to the envelope of an other track Read More This tutorial will teach you how to use the DP Meter Pro envelope generator in Cakewalk Project 5 Download the tutorial as a pdf file Read More This tutorial shows how to use the DP Meter Pro audio analysis plugin DPMP in MAGIX Samplitude in or
4. amp crest factor meter e True dynamic range measurement with levels histograms e Instant average and maximum audio levels e Modular user interface to fit into your workflow with multiple screen sizes e Total control over the metering characteristics including attack release shape e Bob Katz s K System scales support K 12 K 14 K 20 and custom e Mono stereo mid side or surround analysis e Record measurements peak RMS crest factor clip etc as automation Curves e Control in real time any MIDI compatible plug in or external MIDI device with the generated envelopes thanks to the plugin s MIDI CC output See the Tutorials section for more examples e Manage the shape of the output envelope record reversed envelope change amount of signal and offset the generated envelope This lets you use the plug in for side chain ducking compression and much more e Easy stereoness and phase cancelation measurement system Requirements Windows e An SSE2 enabled processor Pentium 4 or later e Microsoft Windows XP Vista Windows 7 or 8 e Any DirectX VST RTAS AAX compatible host software 32 or 64 bit e Available as Mac AAX Mac AU Mac RTAS Mac VST Win AAX Win DX Win RTAS Win VST Win x64 AAX Win x64 DX Win x64 VST e Native DSP code for optimal performance e Full MIDI control and automation support with silent zipper free parameters update advanced response control and M
5. Also remember that you can open the presets settings pane for a summary of all automation and MIDI enabled parameters If you want to change the default settings for all current and future instances of the plug in you can do it in the global settings window The various elements of the user interface knobs sliders buttons are simple and intuitive to operate but more information about how to interact with them is available in the Plug ins Basics chapter of this manual Operation While using the plug in to simply monitor audio levels is straightforward other scenarios may require a bit more thoughts Below are a few examples as well as tips and tricks to get the best out of your plug in Levels Monitoring Visualization Make Choices The plug in offers a large amount of meaningful data It can however become difficult to monitor everything at the same time expecially with surround sources that multiply the number of parameters by the number of channels So once your meters are setup the way you like it is wise to carefuly choose which parameters you are interested in and hide all other views that are not essential so that you can focus on what is important to you Histograms use reference tracks to make decisions In order to get the best out of the histograms you should take a look at their shape for reference tracks that you like and which sound good to you This way you will be able to compare your tracks with the
6. Default save the current state as the default preset This preset is used every time a new instance of the plug in is created e Reset Default reset the default preset to its factory state this makes the plug in forgets the custom settings you might have saved as a default preset More about Presets There are two types of presets factory presets read only that are provided with the plug in and user presets that can be created and stored by the user The user presets are stored in a subdirectory of the documents folders of your profile Documents on Mac and My Documents on Windows Blue Cat Audio Plug in Name Presets Each preset is stored as an individual file You can create folders and subfolders in the Presets directory to classify your presets as shown in the example below Folder A b User Presetl Folder B b User Preset User Preset X User Presets If you save a preset named Default in the root Presets directory it will override the factory default preset that s what Save As Default does To restore the factory default preset you can just remove this file or use the Reset Default command MIDI and Automation Control Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro can also be remotely controlled via MIDI using MIDI CC Control Change messages or automation curves if your host application supports it It is possible to customize the channel control numbers range and response curve used for each parameter in the settings panel a
7. Small increment of the value of the control Small decrement of the value of the control Set to default value same as mouse right click Opens the fine tuning window to precisely set the parameter P When the key is down the fine tuning mode is on and you can modify the value with better precision when moving the mouse the mouse wheel or using the keyboard Just release the key to get back to the normal mode Action Pushes the button To get started with the plug in and discover its capabilities a couple of factory presets are provided You can also save your own presets and recall them later for other projects Our plug ins propose a full featured preset manager to let you save browse organize and recall its presets The Presets Menu The presets menu can be opened from the main menu or the main toolbar It displays the list of presets available for the plug in as well as commands to load save or organize presets Factory Presets Folder A Folder B User Preset X User Preset Y User Preset Z Load Save As Copy Paste Save As Default Reset Default e Factory Presets shows the list of factory presets delivered with the plug in e Folder A to User Preset Z user presets and categories e Load load preset from file e Save As save current preset to a file e Copy copy preset to the system clipboard e Paste paste preset from the system clipboard if available e Save As
8. and basic features available with all our plug ins are detailed in the Blue Cat Audio Plug ins Basics section The Plug in comes in three flavors Mono Stereo or Surround that all share similar characteristics The user interface has been designed in a modular way so that you can activate each view separately depending on the information that you want to display Overview At the top of the interface below the main toolbar you will find a couple of buttons to activate or deactivate each view There are also several functions that affect the entire plug in 1 Show hide the statistics view 2 Show hide the levels meters button top and the crest factor meters button bottom 3 Show hide the histograms for all visible meters 4 Show hide controls for analysis and envelope generation setup 5 Show hide the history view envelopes 6 Select the size of the user interface small medium and large 7 Freeze all meters and graphs 8 Brightness control use this knob to reduce the brightness of all meters and graphs The three other buttons at the top left are described in details later in this manual They let you bypass the plug in change the Opacity of the window and show hide the automation and MIDI control setup buttons Statistics In the statistics view you can see for each available channel the maximum and average values for levels and the average value of the crest factor Rig Values are displa
9. default settings skins and miscellaneous data We provide an installer for our customers convenience Our installers do not modify the system settings or the Windows registry except for the DirectX versions registration Our installers won t harm your system Software Version How do I know the version of the plug in I am using You can see the version information in the about box right click on the background of the plug in user interface and select About The product version is also available in the Windows Add Remove Programs Window Why do newer versions of a plug in override older ones they have exact same name and IDs Because newer versions improve previous ones When a new version is released older versions are not supported anymore In some cases the new versions may be installed as new products compatibility reasons major changes but it is explicitly documented on the product page A new minor version of a product purchased some time ago is available Where can I download the update The new version can be downloaded from the same place where you downloaded the original version All information is contained in the email you received when you purchased the product Your registration number has not changed either Upgrade A new minor version of my plug in has been released Where can download it When you purchased the plug in an email containing the information to download and register your software has been
10. how wide your mix is and check that there is no mono compatibility drops in the mid level shows that left and right channels may be out of phase Separate settings are available for peak and RMS crest analysis Attack controls how fast the peak meter reacts to signal increases You will usually keep this time short or even set to zero so that you can measure the actual peaks But increasing the value will give the meter a more analog feel missing peaks like a VU meter It can also be used to generate smoother envelopes Hold controls how much time the peak meter will hold its current position before starting falling down when the level is decreasing Release controls how fast the meter reacts to signal decreases The shorter the value the faster the meter will follow the decreasing signal The duration correponds to a decrease of 20 dB when silence is fed into the plug in while the peak level was non null Attack and Release Shape modify the shape of the curves Positive shape values will increase the duration over time while with negative values the meter will react faster over time Changing the shape modifies the duration of the fall but the initial slope of the curve remains unchanged Note the effect is less noticeable on the attack because of the logarithmic nature of decibels but the principle is the same and it strongly affects the way peaks are caught RMS Average is the duration of the sliding window used to comp
11. make the plugin window transparent and see behind e New toolbar to access main functionalities e Main MIDI settings are now available from the plugin user interface e Curves are now anti aliased e Improved the display of parameters values in the MIDI settings panel and the host application e Improved graphs refresh rate e Reduced memory consumption when using several instances e Improved Skins loading performance e Default values for MIDI controllers have been changed to be more convenient e Blue Cat s Skinning Language 1 4 2 support e Warning this new version has so many new features that it is installed as a new plug in If you have a previous version installed and do not want to keep it just uninstall it V2 4 2006 12 11 e Bug fix the preset MIDI output settings were not restored correctly when re opening a project or changing a preset V2 3 2006 11 29 e Now supports Blue Cat s Skinnning language 1 2 4 e Curves are now antialiased e Parameters can be fine tuned when the shift key is down e CPU efficiency improvement no processing occurs when input Is silent e Settings window now loads faster e Bug fix in some plug in adapters such as FxPansion s VST to RTAS adapter the GUI did not display properly when first loaded e Bug fix when reinstalling the software in another directory the skin not found message was displayed V2 2 2006 09 27 e Minor Ul enhancement for hosts not supporting Wi
12. of a track It s a very simple example of how to connect the measurements Cap Read More Updates As you can see in the history log below we care about constantly updating our products in order to give you the latest technology available Please visit our website often to check if Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro has been updated or subscribe to our Newsletier to be informed of the latest news about our products You can also follow us on twitter and facebook for almost real time updates notification and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see the latest videos about our software Versions History V4 05 2014 01 09 New Features e Copy paste the plug in s current state from the presets menu using the system clipboard Improvements e Reduced the plug in s memory usage e Windows VST Installer now remembers where the plug in was initially installed to simplify upgrades e Mac plug in version number is now available when using Get Info in the Finder e Mac Improved display of Audio Unit parameters in most host applications Bug Fixes e Fixed window frame not showing with Cubase 7 5 32 bit on Mac e Mac About window does not show up first in the corner of the screen anymore e Win Alt Click on a control now resets the value to default in Pro Tools as expected e Fixed version number reported to host application for VST and Audio Unit versions V4 04 2013 06 21 e 64 bit AAX support for Pro Tools 11 V4 03 20
13. sent to you You can download the new version from the exact same location as the first time have downloaded a new version do I need to uninstall the previous version No you don t except if it s specified on the product page in the history section Just run the installer and it will upgrade your software Automation What is Parameters Automation The parameters of an effect can be automated in most host software It means that you can record the changes you do during playback or recording so that it s replayed when playing back again It s a way of sequencing parameters changes the same way you do with Audio or MIDI data What is Smooth Update When changing parameter values in real time or replaying a song where parameters have been automated our plug ins compute intermediate values between parameter changes in order to avoid clicks and pops that may occur otherwise It results in a non audible smooth parameters update and lets you freely use automation or MIDI control to change the effects in a song Do your plug ins support MIDI Control Yes they do They offer precise control over the mapping of MIDI Control Change CC messages to parameter values you can adjust both the channel and CC number as well as the response curve of the control Since some of our plug ins are also capable of creating MIDI CC from the audio signal they can all be connected for real time signal dependent audio effects See our MIDI Contr
14. 13 05 14 e Fixed AAX version not showing up in Pro Tools 10 3 5 on Windows e Fixed user interface display issues when first opened in Ableton Live 9 Mac e Mac Control MIDI settings dialog now brought back to front when already opened in the background e Mac fixed copy paste keyboard shortcuts for plug in registration that did not work in some hosts V4 02 2013 04 15 e Fixed yellow zone that disappeared in some cases e Fixed MIDI and automation settings that were reset when using undo e Fixed compare button issues in Pro Tools e AAX Fixed initialization issues on some Pro Tools HD configurations V4 01 2013 03 07 e Changed default preset so that the plug in fits into small laptop screens when opened e Mac VST Fixed window resize issues on Cubase and Nuendo Mac e Mac Audio Unit Fixed random crashes at startup in some host applications V4 0 2013 02 19 New Features e Instant and average crest factor measurement e Peak RMS and crest factor histograms e Control the attack and release shape of the peak envelope e Surround support up to 8 channels e Brand new fully customizable user interface e New look and feel e Show hide what you need e Fully customizable meters characteristics range headroom color ranges e Control the brightness of meters and graphs e Meters and curves can now be frozen e New colored statistics display e Multiple display sizes e Improved readability e Animated transi
15. 16 0127 Response oot E More Check our online tutorial for more screenshots and more examples of our plug ins user interfaces Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro Parameters All parameters described below can be automated and controlled via MIDI if your host application supports it You can precisely define this behavior in the settings panels described later in this manual Input The input parameters of this plug in available for automation or MIDI control are shortly described below For more details please refer to the beginning of this manual Name Unit Description Bypass Bypass the plugin stops analysis Stereo Chooses between Left Right Stereo and Mid Side modes stereo version only Mode Peak Meter Attack ms Attack time for the Peak Follower see the graph below Hold ms Hold time for the Peak Follower see the graph below Release ms Release time for the Peak Follower see the graph below Attack Shape of the attack for the peak envelope follower positive values will make attack time Shape increase over time whereas negative values will do the opposite resulting in diffrent shapes Release Shape of the attack for the peak envelope follower positive values will make release time Shape increase over time whereas negative values will do the opposite resulting in diffrent shapes RMS Meter RMS ms RMS computation time also used for crest factor computation Average RMS 3dB offset for the RMS value
16. Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro User Manual f Undo Re Default Settings 2 i Ny Blue Cat s DPMP amp average Channel 7 chal RE Cres Left 27 l Channe Z reak IE 9 TKS Crest Right 12 68 A unique audio meter and side chaining tool D AY y6q 2 RIAs O DX Table Of Content e Introduction e Description e Features e System Requirements e Installation e Using Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro e Introduction e The User Interface e Operation e Blue Cat Audio Plugins Basics e User Interface Basics e Controls e Keyboard e Mouse e Presets Management e MIDI amp Automation Control e More e Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro Parameters e Input e Output e Plug in Settings e The Global Settings Window e The Preset Settings Window e About Skins e Changing the Skin e Create a Custom Skin e Frequently Asked Questions e More e Extra Skins e Tutorials e Updates e Versions History Note An online version of this user manual is available here Introduction Description Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro DPMP is a unique audio analysis tool it combines very flexible and customizable audio meters with advanced side chaining control capabilities thanks to its MIDI and automation outputs The metering capabilities of the DPMP plug in let you control and monitor audio signals exactly the way you want almost every aspect of the peak RMS and crest factor meters can be customized It proposes five different scales
17. IDI Learn e No CPU load on idle when the plug in is fed with silence the processing smoothly shuts down to optimize the CPU usage of your Digital Audio Workstation e Skinnable and customizable user interface with transparency management e Automation and MIDI output record output parameters as automation curves or send MIDI CC messages to other plug ins for powerful side chain effects e Smooth Bypass activate deactivate the plug in with absolutely no noise e Undo Redo e Full featured integrated presets manager e Copy paste the plug in s state between instances using the system clipboard e Any sample rate supported Mac OS X e An Intel processor e Mac OS X Mavericks 10 9 Moutain Lion 10 8 Lion 10 7 Snow Leopard 10 6 or Leopard 10 5 e Any VST Audio Unit 32 64 bit RTAS AAX compatible application For more information about supported platforms see our FAQ Installation Blue Cat Audio plug ins cannot be run standalone they require a host application see the System Requirements chapter for more information Depending on which host application you use you might need to install the plug ins in different locations Windows Install All versions of the plug in provide an installation program Follow the steps of the wizard to install the plug in on your machine During the installation you will be asked where you want the plug in s to be installed For the VST version you should
18. and automation output precision now prevents hosts from wrongly interpolating between values e Default release time is now shorter V3 32 2010 03 19 This update only concerns the RTAS version of the plug in e RTAS plug in bug fix when using both the mono and stereo versions in the same session the controls of the instances were linked together V3 31 2010 02 25 e Demo version now displays a nag screen only once per session and only when opening the user interface of the plug in e Mac fixed crash with demo version in Ableton Live 8 1 1 e Mac AU output parameters routing now works for more than one instance in Logic Pro s Environment e Mac AU fixed output parameters that could exceed defined range and not record properly as automation curves V3 3 2010 02 15 e RTAS plugin format support for Pro Tools Mac and Windows e 64 bit applications support for Windows DX and VST under Windows x64 e Mac AU 64 bit format support compatible with 64 bit Logic 9 1 on Snow Leopard e Fixed MIDI learn issues e Space bar does not trigger plug in buttons anymore avoids conflict with transport control in most applications e Mac fixed user interface crashes in some hosts under Snow Leopard e Mac fixed keyboard mouse focus issues in some hosts e Mac fixed user interface crashes in some hosts when used with particular display settings e Mac fixed multiple screens issue e Mac AU fixed user interface resizing issue w
19. anges reset the average peak value Value changes reset the average RMS value Value changes reset the average crest factor value Reset All Value changes reset all clip max average values envelope Hold F AO time Peak envelope shape parameters Output The plug in provides output parameters that can be recorded as automation curves or sent as MIDI CC to other plugins for advanced monitoring and universal side chaining These read only parameters are shortly described below On stereo and surround version parameters are repeated for each channel Name Unit Description Peak dBFS Peak level RMS dBFS RMS level Crest dB Crest Factor Transformed Tranformed Envelope the crest peak and RMS levels combined according to selected envelope type peak rms percentage Also transformed using the reverse amount and offset parameters Use this parameter for side chaining capabilities Max Peak dBFS Global maximum peak level can be reset by Max Peak Reset parameter changes Max RMS dBFS Global maximum RMS level can be reset by Max RMS Reset parameter changes Max Crest dB Global maximum crest factor can be reset by Max Crest Reset parameter changes Avg Peak dBFS Global average peak level can be reset by Avg Peak Reset parameter changes Avg RMS dBFS Global average RMS level can be reset by Avg RMS Reset parameter changes Avg Crest dB Global average crest factor can be r
20. average over time since last reset you can click on the value to reset the average The max value is the absolute maximum value over time since last reset you can click on the value to reset it Dynamic Range The global dynamic range of a song is the difference between the loudest and quietest levels This value is however not very useful if you have no idea of the exact distribution of levels during the song how long are quiet versus loud moments That s the reason why the plug in proposes other ways of looking at the dynamics Dynamic Range vs Crest Factor Some people make the confusion between the crest factor and the dynamic range but these two terms have different definitions While the crest factor may give a good idea of how much compression has been applied to a track it may have no relationship with the overall dynamic range at all as seen above the crest factor is independent of the loudness and it is only related to the shape of the waveform Histograms In order to get a good picture of the dynamic range the plug in proposes histograms that show the distribution of levels ina chosen timeframe up to 1000 seconds Range 300B Scale RMS 3cB The distribution of RMS values yellow gives a good idea of the actual dynamic range and how much dynamic the song will sound The distribution of peak values red and its relationship to RMS is also a good indicator of the dynamics related to compression or limiting this tim
21. by default including Bob Katz s popular K System scales K 12 K 14 K 20 and you can create your own Large colored statistics displays following your own scales are included for an overview of a track while histograms give you a precise measurement of the dynamic range of the track The graphs show the evolution of the audio envelopes over time and the mid side switch lets you verify mono compatibility problems and check the stereoness of your audio sources very easily Whether you are working with mono stereo or surround tracks this plug in will fit into your workflow All envelopes peak RMS crest factor can be reused for additional monitoring or side chaining purposes combined together reversed modified and recorded as automation curves or sent as MIDI CC messages they can control other effects in real time The DP Meter Pro Tutorials explain how to use these unique capabilities in your favorite host Possibilities are endless from voice over and ducking to side chain compression multiple tracks monitoring or dynamic stereo enhancement It is also possible to control external MIDI hardware such a synths MIDI effects video effects or lighting systems with an audio signal Typical applications Audio levels monitoring crest factor measurement dynamic range display ducking advanced side chaining techniques signal based envelope generation Features Main Features Blue Cat Audio Standards e Multichannel peak RMS
22. der to modify the parameters of an effect on a track according to the envelope of an other track Read More i a mn ta mad Lei This tutorial shows how to use the DP Meter Pro plugin DPMP in Cakewalk Sonar in order to en 2 s record the peak envelope of the audio signal as an automation curve Read More This tutorial will teach you how to use the DP Meter Pro envelope generator in Sony Vegas You will be able to reuse the envelope for audio or video effects Download the tutorial as a pdf fi Read More Tutorial Using DXi plug ins in Sony Vegas This tutorial will teach you how to use any DXi plug in in Sony Vegas Sony Vegas does not support MIDI automation so if your plug in supports the MIDI Dxi protocol it is removed from the plug ins l Read More Tutorial Export Plugin Presets to Share them with the Community mypreset This tutorial shows you how to export your presets in order to share them with the community on the Blue Cat Audio website This tutorial uses Blue Cat s Stereo Triple EQ for the demonstration Presets Files preset bu Read More Tutorial Getting Started with Plug ins User Interface Set Preset Skin CH SOME Get used to the user interface features of Blue Cat Audio products They have been designed for an optimal workflow so here are the tips and tricks to save time All these functionalities are explain Read More Global S
23. e Last the distribution of crest factor blue indicates how much the dynamics of the song changes over time You can look at it as how natural the song sounds no changes in the crest factor may mean that the song is too flat and sounds the same from the beginning to the end possibly inducing listener fatigue The screenshot below illustrates this with an over compressed song Range 300B Scale RMS 3cB As you can see all three histograms are flat and the difference with the jazz song above is obvious Please note that the sample above is artificial it was generated by pushing an already mastered song into a brickwall limiter Envelope Generation and Side Chaining As you can see this plug in generates a lot of meaningful information from the incoming audio signal This information can be visualized in the user interface but it can also be reused for other purposes The idea is that all computed parameters levels crest factor etc can be recorded as automation curves in most DAWs and then reassigned to other parameters or sent as MIDI CC messages in order to control other equipments plug ins software or hardware synths etc It is thus possible to control your DAW with sound or develop advanced side chaining techniques The envelopes can be precisely generated by the transformed parameter as its shape can be controlled in details as shown later in this manual The User Interface Note The main toolbar menus
24. eset by Avg Crest Reset parameter changes Peak Hold dBFS Local maximum Peak value The behavior of this output is controlled by the Meter hold and Reset Speed parameters RMS Hold dBFS Local maximum RMS value The behavior of this output is controlled by the Meter hold and Reset Speed parameters Crest Hold dB Local maximum crest factor value The behavior of this output is controlled by the Meter hold and Reset Speed parameters Clipped This value set to 1 if the audio signal clips meaning its peak level is above 0 dBFS This information can be reset by changing the Reset Clip input parameter Plug in Settings In addition to the controls offered in the main user interface Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro has various settings that let you fine tune the behavior of the plug in You can choose to change these settings either for the current preset or globally for all instances of the plug in The Global Settings Window The settings available in this window apply to all instances of the plug in for all presets if not overriden in the presets settings Consider these settings as default settings General You can change the default skin for all instances of the plug in write the skin file path in the text edit box or click on the button to open a file chooser dialog If you have several instances of the plug in opened in your session you will have to re open the user interfaces of these plug ins
25. ession in order to differentiate them Use global skin Skin file path C Progam Files Blue Cat Audio Skins Default defauk xml Browse Preset Control Input Settings MIDI and Automation Use the global settings or override them for the current preset The parameters are the same as for the global input settings Use global setting Parameter Name Enable Channel OC MIDI 16 127 All Parameters 0 Linear Bypass Linear On Param 1 j Linear 1000 ms Param 2 i arm Linear s 500 ms Param 3 3 am Linear 3000 ms Param 4 a Linear E 2000 ms Param 5 i l Linear 3dB Param amp Linear 3000 ms Param 7 F Linear 60 dE s Param amp i l Linear l 100 Param 9 j am Linear Reversed Param 10 am Linear Param 11 a Linear Param 12 i Linear Param 14 3 linear generic screen shot does not correspond to the actual plug in parameters Preset Control Output Settings MIDI and Automation Use the global settings or override them for the current preset The parameters are the same as for the global output settings Use global setting Parameter Name Control Autom MIDI 1 16 All Parameters ao Linear Out Param 1 i i Linear Out Param 2 EE am Linear Out Param 3 i i E 2am Linear Out Param 4 f gaT Linear Qut Param 5 am Linear Out Param 6 E ea Linear Out Param 7 l i i 7 zam Linear Out Param amp d Linear Out Param 9 1 g Linear Out Param 10 a eam L
26. ettings Uzer Manual Check For Updates Tutorial Blue Cat s Digital Peak Meter Pro Video Overview LoopTV brings this video guide to the Digital Peak Meter Pro VST audio monitoring plugin which is from Blue Cat Audio with producer Dom Kane Blue Cat s Digital Peak Meter Pro DPMP is a unique Read More This tutorial will help you understand how to use parameters MIDI control in Cakewalk Sonar It is applicable to any DXi plug in MIDI enabled DirectX plug in Read More This tutorial shows you how to use the MIDI connectivity of our plugins in a modular host such as Plogue Bidule We are using the Mac version of Bidule in this tutorial The scenario here is very sim Read More Tutorial Monitor Mid Side Channels Mono Compatibility and Phase Inversion This tutorial shows how to use the Widening Meter Pro analysis plugin to monitor the Mid and Side channels on a mix It allows you to check the mono compatibility of a mix as well as its stereoness Read More Tutorial Level Monitoring with Blue Cat s Remote Control This tutorial shows how to use the Remote Control MIDI control surface and Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro analysis plugin DPMP to monitor several tracks in a Same screen on graphs or meters you can custom Read More This tutorial shows how to use the Remote Control MIDI control surface and DP Meter Pro audio analysis plugin DPMP to monitor and control seve
27. for a sine wave this is the recommendation for audio e K 12 Bob Katz s K 12 scale in the K System with 12 dB headroom e K 14 Bob Katz s K 14 scale in the K System with 14 dB headroom e K 20 Bob Katz s K 20 scale in the K System with 20 dB headroom e Custom build your your own scale You can customize it using the controls described in 5 and 6 5 3dB RMS boost Use this option to calibrate the RMS computation at 0 dB for a sine wave instead of 3 dB 6 Customize the green yellow and red color ranges and choose your own headroom Headroom will offset the 0 dB value so that O dBFS relates to Headroom decibels These changes also affect the values displayed in the statistics view Crest Factor Meters This view displays the crest factor meters and histograms for each channel Clicking on the histograms will reset them for all channels History The history view displays the envelopes for peak RMS and crest factors as well as the transformed envelope 1 Envelopes display The left scale refers to levels full scale and the right scale is for the transformed envelope Please note that the scale for the crest factor is not displayed its range is half the range of other levels 2 The surround version lets you choose which channel you want to display by clicking on the name The stereo version displays two graphs one for each channel 3 Show hide envelopes by clicking on the buttons 4 You can zoom t
28. he MIDI capabilities of the plug in have installed my plug in on windows 64 bit checked the items above and it still does not show up in my host application What can do You are probably running a 32 bit application If that s the case you need to install the 32 bit version of the plug in the choice for 32 or 64 bit is not determined by the operating system 64 bit windows can run both 32 and 64 bit applications but by the host application that you are using Why are there two plug ins called xxxx Mono and xxxx Stereo installed Mono effects which are effects that do not make any difference between left and right channels are bundled this way for performance reasons Some developers just deliver a stereo Version which also processes twice mono streams The Mono plug in is to be used with mono streams and the Stereo one with stereo streams The effect itself is the same in both cases but the number of processed channels is different this may drastically improve performance for CPU intensive plug ins How do uninstall my plug ins Open the Windows configuration panel Add Remove Programs and choose Remove on the corresponding plug in If you have installed the VST plug in zip file version just delete the corresponding dlls Why do your plug ins need an installer on Windows Do they modify the registry or system settings Why not providing just a dll Our plug ins require several additional files for
29. hen changing skin in some hosts Logic e Mac AU fixed settings lost issue when doing offline rendering in some applications V3 21 2009 05 05 Mac VST update fixed incompatibility issues with Cubase 5 on Mac V3 2 2009 02 27 e Mac Audio Unit support e Improved accuracy of MIDI output e Automation output can now be disabled for hosts that do not propose automated parameters choice e The average RMS value now corresponds to the RMS level of the entire song played thru the plugin e New Windows Installer you should uninstall any previous version before installing this new one e New documentation format V3 1 2008 12 10 e Now available for Mac in VST format e Minor user interface changes e Bug fix Keyboard shortcuts are no longer forwarded to host application when entering values in edit boxes V3 0 2008 03 03 e New user interface design e Bob Katz s K System scales support K 12 K 14 K 20 e You can now blend RMS and Peak envelopes for the tranformed output e New mid side mode you can now easily switch from Left Right to Mid Side stereo mode for instant mono compatibility check e Average values display e The output envelope can now be a combination of the peak and RMS envelopes e Main MIDI settings are now available from the main panel e Undo Redo support e Import Export presets in a host independent format and share them between the directX and VST versions e Window Opacity Management
30. her a typical application is automated voice over Attack Release and Hold will let you control ducking speed while Amount is well the amount of ducking e Loudness ducking the same as the previous example using RMS envelopes instead of peak e Volume controlled effect using a peak envelope as the source and a dry wet or mix parameter as a destination an effect can be controlled by the volume of a track In real time and with a microphone you can control the amount of effect applied simply with your voice no need to shout at the sound engineer anymore just shout at the DAW e More advanced techniques what about controlling the ratio of a compressor or an expander with the crest factor in order to increase or decrease the dynamics Or the frequency of a lowpass filter with the RMS envelope Feel free to experiment you can improve your workflow and automate many tasks If your DAW and equipment supports it it is possible to use the same principle to control external hardware as well Automation Output Similarly it is possible in most DAWs to record output parameters as automation curves There are a couple of reasons why you would want to do that Monitoring While real time monitoring is important it can be handy to visualize levels on top of a waveform to detect exactly the location where problems arise clipping level drops Recording this information as automation curves exactly provides this capability as
31. idea and help you improve your audio production workflow Blue Cat Audio Plug ins Basics This chapter describes the basic features that are common to all our plug ins If you are already familiar with our products you can skip this part User Interface Basics About Skins Like all Blue Cat Audio plug ins Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro uses a skinnable user interface It means that the appearance and behavior of the user interface can be entirely customized Especially with third party skins the experience may be quite different from the one offered by the default skins that we provide However our plug ins and our skinning engine have several standard features that will be available whatever your favorite skin More information about custom skins can be found in the skins section The Main Toolbar In most skins an optional toolbar at the top of the user interface gives you access to the main options and settings of the plug in Presets Area At the center of the toolbar you can see the current preset area the Default Settings box It displays the name of the current preset with a at the end if it has been modified since loaded The arrows on the left and right let you navigate thru the factory and user presets available for the plug in Clicking on the preset name opens the presets menu which lets you manage the presets of the plug in Commands The icons in the toolbar give you access the to the following co
32. inear generic screen shot does not correspond to the actual plug in parameters About Skins Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro integrates Blue Cat s skinning engine that allows you to customize the user interface You can download new skins for your plug in at the following address http www bluecataudio com Skins Product DPeakMeterPro If you don t find a skin that fits your need or if you want a really custom one you can choose to create your own skin Changing the Skin You have two ways to change the skin of your plug in you can change the default or global skin in the global settings or change the skin for the current preset only either in the preset settings page or from the main menu The global skin applies to all plug in instances whereas the current preset skin only applies to the current preset of the current plug in instance See the main menu for more information about how to access these options On some hosts the plug in window won t resize automatically when you choose a skin with a different size In this case just close the window and re open it it will be displayed with the right size Create a Custom Skin You can create custom skins for your plug in in order to adapt it to your exact needs You can change its look and feel and make it completely integrated in your virtual studio Just read the Blue Cat s Skinning Language manual and download the samples for the tutorial on http www bluecataudio co
33. install the plug in inside the VST plug ins folder used by your host application s The default path set in the installer should work for most applications but you should check your host software documentation to know where it looks for VST plug ins Some applications will not automatically rescan the new plug ins so you might have to force a refresh of the plug ins list Upgrade When a new version of the plug in is released just launch the new installer it will update the current installation Uninstall To uninstall the plug in simply launch the Uninstall program that is available in the start menu or in the configuration panel It will take care of removing all files from your computer Mac Install On Mac the plug ins are available as drive images After download double click on the file to open it You can then drag and drop the plug in file s to the shortcut that is provided within the image It will install the plug in s for all users on the machine In case you do not have admin rights on your Mac or if you want to install the plug in s to another directory just copy the files to the appropriate location If required more information is available in the README txt file that is included in the package Upgrade When a new version of the plug in is released open the new image and copy the files over the previous ones The new version will replace the older one Uninstall To uninstall the plug in simp
34. itude to the chosen value This lets you precisely control the shape of the output envelope 4 Reverse the envelope after the amount and offset have been applied Example Note if you are used to the previous version of the plug in beware that the behavior of the revert button has been changed it is now applied after amount and offset It makes it easier to switch between reverted and non reverted envelopes without having to change offset and amount values MIDI and Automation Control Most parameters of the plug in can be controlled by MIDI or automation and the plug in is also able to transform most measurements into MIDI and automation To simplify the setup and streamline the workflow when the Show Controls Settings button is active fast access to automation and MIDI settings is enabled for most useful parameters as shown below Channel 1 clipped _ ett Channel 2 clipped Right AUDIO ANALYSIS Stereo OUT ENVELOPE Level Hold ok _ PEAK HOLD Max Value Meter Attack Hold Release Average Beak RMS Amount Offset 0 ms Ome 400 ms S00ms Meter Hold Reset Speed 0 100 0 5 i 1500 ms 15dB s Ss e ca A Shape R 1 Jj aft L So eee 5 7 h x Je yi dt 5 rear i a i i i 3 7 By u E a 1 i L Er ean i a k iii A Ei Ai i C un MAA i i k kian ma mh Ls 1 ee eer E ee eA LH LO Lo CH Ln on m Peak E RMS More details about these settings are available later in this manual
35. ly remove the plug in components from the folder where you have copied them during install move them to the trash If you want to completely remove all settings and configuration files you can also remove these additional directories that may have been created on your computer e Library Preferences Blue Cat Audio Plug in name and TYPE where TYPE is VST AU RTAS or AAX global preferences e Library Preferences Blue Cat Audio Plug in name license information e Documents Blue Cat Audio Plug in name user data such as presets additional skins and user created plug in data Just beware that these directories may contain user data that you have created Remove these directories only if you wo not want to reuse this data later Using Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro Introduction Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro is an all in one audio levels meter It provides a comprehensive and accurate picture of the audio levels It is also able to generate envelopes for parameters modulation Disclaimer This Plug in is NOT a loudness meter as specified in the ITU and EBU recommendations It is an audio levels meter that measure physical quantities as opposed to perception related quantities Levels Before using the plug in it is important to understand what it is measuring Several types of values are measured and displayed by Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro In a few words e Peak level is the maximum level of the waveform imp
36. m Skins You can get ready to create your own skins in a few minutes You can then share your skins on our website FAQ Automation Output When use the plug in my host application is slowed down and get audio drop outs How can I solve this problem If your host application does not let you select the parameters for which you want to record automation it might be doing some extra work for handling the output parameters generated by the plug in A solution is to disable the output parameters you do not use in the Preset or Global settings Automation Output pane When use the plug in my host application draws many automation curves on the current track and yet I have not touched any control on the plug in How can avoid that If your host application does not let you select the parameters for which you want to record automation it will record automation for all the output parameters generated by the plug in You can disable the output parameters you do not use in the Preset or Global settings Automation Output pane am trying to record automation curves as shown in the tutorials but it does not work What do have to do If your host application lets you select the parameters for which you want to record automation check that the parameters you want to record are enabled You also need to check that the plug in automation output is enabled for these parameters Check the Preset or Global settings Automation Output
37. mmands that are detailed in the next paragraph Icon Name Function Menu Open the main menu i Undo Undo ab Redo Redo Manual User Manual i About About The Main Menu The main menu is available from the main toolbar or if you right click anywhere on the background of the plug in Presets Set Preset Skin Use Global Skin Undo Redo Preset Settings Global Settings Check for Updates Get More Skins Legal Information About e Presets opens the presets menu to manage presets e Set Preset Skin change the skin for the current preset e Use Global Skin use the skin defined in the global settings for the current preset This item is enabled only if a skin has been defined for the current preset e Undo Redo undo or redo the latest modifications This includes all changes made to the current preset settings such as MIDI or automation preferences e Presets Settings open the presets settings window It lets you change the skin MIDI and automation settings for the current preset e Global Settings open the global settingswindow It lets you change the skin MIDI and automation settings that are used by default in all instances of the plug in if not overriden by the current preset e User Manual open this user manual e Check for Updates opens up our website to let you check if any update for this software is available e Get More Skins get more skins for this software e Legal Information browse licensing and mi
38. most host applications will display automation curves close to the original waveform Kick 7 BCTIEGAD oe eS ecopmrpa i aiz i i kaai In the simple example above automation curves show exactly where clipping occurs whereas it is not obvious on the waveform clipping is actually due to the EQ plug in in the first insert in this case Using this technique you can easily and quickly locate the origin of problem even in large projects using complex routings and effect chains Offline Side Chain Just like with MIDI Side chaining you can perform similar tasks offline simply re assign generated automation envelopes to other parameters It can be useful if you want to tweak generated envelopes to exactly match your needs For example you can start with real time side chaining using MIDI for a rough approximation and then switch to automation envelopes that you can tweak offline with more precision Setup To setup automation recording 1 Enable automation for the parameters you are interested in within the plug in with the control setting dialog or the preset settings pane 2 Some hosts will require you to also arm parameters for automation individually 3 Start playback the parameters will be recorded as automation envelopes More information and detailed tutorials for several major host applications are available at this location This manual covers only basic scenarios but we hope that it will give you the
39. ndows XP Theme e Bug fix presets load save did not always work properly in Sonar 5 for some european versions of Windows XP V2 1 2006 09 05 e VST version bug fix some host applications did not see the MIDI output of the plug in V2 0 2006 09 04 e The plug in is now 100 real time thanks to the MIDI output capability generated envelopes can be used to control any MIDI device or plug in e Advanced MIDI control with customizable parameters curve response and MIDI learn e Skinnable User Interface with Blue Cat s Skinning language V1 2 1 support e RMS value e Real time envelopes display e All parameters can now be fine tuned thanks to a text edit popup window that appears when double clicking on user interface widgets e Warning because it now supports MIDI events the DirectX plug in may appear in the Synth or DXi category instead of effects in some hosts Such as Cakewalk Sonar If it does not appear in you host you might want to use our DXi Manager to de activate MIDI features e Warning this new version breaks the presets compatibility and is thus installed as a new plug in If you have a previous version installed and do not want to keep it just uninstall it manually V1 1 2005 01 10 e VST Version released e GUI Improvement now supports non standard DPI Settings e The plug in now also records clip information e The parameters have been simplified e Version info now shown in about box click
40. o reduce the vertical range Once zoomed dragging the graph with the mouse will move it up and down This view is particularly useful to control the generated envelopes when using the plug in as a side chain source Controls Analysis metering and envelope generation settings can be controlled in details in this view AUDIO ANALYSIS Stereo gt Hst20s OUT ENVELOPE Level Hold PEAK HOLD Peak RMS gt Amount ffset Attack Hold Release Average le Max Value Meter o 4100 3 0 0 ms Ome 400ms 500 ms a B 7 Meter Hold Reset Speed F F _ f ki pi 1500 ms 15 d s f ry oy i Oe U Yo 0 So I appeal Reverse A Shape R The main parameters you will want to change to quickly adjust your meters are e The peak Release time to control how fast the peak meter decreases e the RMS Average to control how fast the RMS and crest meters react to signal changes e The history length Hist to define histograms memory Other parameters provide advanced control over the meters to really tweak their response They are particularly useful for envelope generation and side chain control or if you are looking for very specific ballistics Audio Analysis The stereo version offers a drop down menu at the top right of the analysis box to switch between stereo left right and mid side mode In mid side mode the mid channel represents the mono part of the signal and side the stereo part This is useful to monitor
41. of the squared signal To put it simply it is an average value that relates to the energy of the signal The scientific value of the RMS level for a 0 dBFS sine wave as shown in the previous paragraph is 3 dB However audio engineers have been used to calibrating their level meters such as the RMS level of a sine wave is 0 dB This is the reason why the plug in offers a 3 dB boost option It is used by default except for the scientific scale The values expressed in this manual will refer to the audio RMS value with the 3 dB boost Since the RMS value is also a time varying value the plug in lets you manage the ength of the sliding window used to compute the value Since the RMS value relates to the energy of the signal it is a good representation of loudness as a physical quantity Exact perceived loudness is a different thing though since the ear is not equally sensitive to all frequencies But physical loudness is the only quantity which absolute value has a physical meaning inside the DAW since the actual perceived loudness will also depend on the acoustic reproduction system the listening setup Speakers room and amplification level Crest Factor The crest factor also known as peak over average ratio PAR is the difference in decibels between the peak and the RMS levels On the graph below that shows a typical audio waveform you can see how this value relates to the distance between peaks and the average
42. ol in Sonar tutorial for an example More This manual only covers the basics of Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro Our website offers many additional resources for your Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro plug in and is constantly updated so keep an eye on it You will find below a few examples of available resources Extra Skins We encourage our customers to propose their own skins for our products and we often propose alternative skins to let you choose the one that best suits your needs You can check Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro skins page to get the latest skins Big Meters v3 Product DP Meter Pro Description Original skin set 4 skins modified to support very large meters Author Blue Cat Audio Download Skin BigMeters zip Loudness Meter v3 Product DP Meter Pro Description This package proposes several skins for loudness or peak measurement The giant meters are large enough to be seen from far away There is a PDF file in the main directory which contains both a chart for reference and screenshots of pretty much all the different possible looks you can get with this skin package Author Ngarjuna Download Skin NgarjunaLoudness zip Precise Gauge v3 Product DP Meter Pro Description A complete skin set 3 skins including large and precise meters dynamics metering target volume display Author Hayate Yagami Download Skin PreciseGauge zip Red Box v3 Product DP Meter Pro Description Red Box look for
43. om e www apple com e www digidesign com Installation have installed my software and it is not listed as an application Why What can do How can I launch it Most software you can purchase on this website is plug ins for host applications It means you need another application to use it See the Plug ins Formats section in this FAQ for more information have installed my plug in and it does not show up in my host application What can I do First check that you application supports DirectX Audio Unit or VST plug ins If you are using the DirectX version check that your host application supports DXi plug ins MIDI enabled DirectX plug ins If it does not it may remove it from the DirectX plug ins list some applications such as Sony Vegas 5 and Cool Edit Pro are known to do this In this case use our DXi Manager free utility and disable the MIDI capabilities of the plug in You may need to reinstall the software again before it shows up into your host application For more information about this topic please read our DXi in Sony Vegas tutorial it is applicable to other applications than Sony Vegas If you are using the Direct X version and your host application supports DXi check that the plug in does not appear in the virtual synth or synthesizers category If you wish not to use the MIDI capabilities of the plug in and use it as a regular Direct X plug in you can download the freeware DXi Manager and disable t
44. on logo e Bug fix host may crash when stopping playback and the Off button of the peak meter is pressed e decay time can be set up to 1000 ms V1 0 2004 11 01 First DirectX Version Thanks again for choosing our solutions See you soon on www bluecataudio com PLUE CAT AUDIO
45. on plugin you want to control on another track setup its MIDI inputs or postpone setup for MIDI learn 3 Create a separate MIDI track to carry the MIDI data and connect the the source and destination plug ins 4 At this stage you can use MIDI learn to automatically connect the destination plug in with the source plug in Once everything is setup the parameters of the destination plug in are controlled by the audio level of the source track or whatever other quantity you have chosen More information and detailed tutorials for several major host applications are available at this location The list of tutorials is also available at the end of this manual Tweak Ranges In addition to the Amount and Offset modifiers offered with the transformed envelope you will probably want to adjust the range of the parameters being controlled All our plug ins give you this capability using the MIDI control settings It makes source to destination mapping much easier since you can set the boundaries of the side chain control Control Min MIDI 16 127 Response Using smaller ranges and tweaking response curves is also a way to improve precision remember that MIDI CCs can handle only 128 values Examples Possibilities and applications are endless but here are a few basic examples to get started e Ducking using a reversed peak envelope as the source and gain as a destination you can quickly perform ducking of a track by anot
46. ortant for your DAW and equipment Any value above 0 dBFS means clipping and distortion e RMS level is the energy the waveform important for loudness and your ears The larger the value the louder the signal e Crest factor is the difference between the peak and RMS levels The higher the crest factor the more dynamics the lower the crest factor probably the more compression or clipping Peak level The peak level is the measurement of the intensity of the signal relative to full scale in decibels dB In the digital domain where audio samples are represented with floating point numbers full scale 0 dBFS corresponds to a value of 1 The example below shows two sine waves with a peak value of 1 and 0 5 resp 0 dBFS and 6 dBFS As you can see the peak value is the top value of the waveform When the intensity of the waveform varies over time the peak value changes as well That s the reason why the plug in lets you adjust the attack hold and release time of the envelope following algorithm It manages how fast the plug in reacts to level changes The peak level does not tell you how loud the signal is our hears are more sensitive to the short term energy than the actual peak but it is what your Digital Audio Workstation DAW is sensitive to at the output of the DAW levels above 0 dBFS will clip and result in distortion RMS Level RMS stands for Root Mean Square The RMS level is the square root of the average
47. ou to know the active surfaces of the skin the places where you can click with the mouse the mouse cursor usually changes when you can do something on a control In the default skins delivered with the plug in the cursor changes to a small hand or an arrow to tell you when your mouse Is over an active control Mouse Various mouse movements will let you interact with the controls Mouse Interaction Left Click Left Click Alt Key Left Double Click Right Click Mouse Wheel Mouse Drag Keyboard Action Acquire focus and start dragging or push button Set the value to default Acquire focus and launch the fine tuning edit box except button Set the value to default Increment or decrement the position focus required Change the control position depending on mouse movement except button All control widgets support the following keys note that some of them are caught by the host and thus never forwarded to the control For example in Steinberg Cubase SX you cannot use the arrow keys to control the plug in Keys Common to All Controls Key Up Arrow Down Arrow Left Arrow Right Arrow Page Up Page Down SHIFT Keys Specific to Buttons Key Enter Presets Action Small increment of the position up or right Small increment of the position down or left Same as Down Arrow same as Up Arrow Large increment of the position up or right Large decrement of the position down or left
48. pane and select the parameters you want to record When use the plug in in a project every time I save the project my application shows it as unsaved right away How can solve this issue This plug in produces automation output and some host applications consider that any change to one of the output parameters is a change for the project In order to solve this problem and if you do not use the automation output capability of this plug in you can disable automation output from the plug in settings panel Global or Preset Settings Automation Output pane uncheck all parameters MIDI Output How can enable the MIDI output of the plug in If your host application supports it you can choose to send MIDI CC messages based on the output parameters computed by the plug in The feature is not enabled by default so you need to go to the current preset settings of the global settings if you want to enable this for all instances not recommended and open the MIDI output pane For each parameter you are interested in enable MIDI output and select the appropriate channel and CC number The plug in will then send MIDI messages to the host application Check our tutorials for a detailed explanation of MIDI output routing in your favorite host Plug ins Formats What are DirectX DX Audio Unit AU RTAS AAX and VST plug ins VST Audio Unit RTAS AAX and DirectX plug ins are software components than can be used in Host Soft
49. ral tracks in a same screen Before you read this tutori Read More This tutorial shows how to use our plugins MIDI connectivity within Reaper We use Blue Cat s Dynamics plugin as an example but you can use any other audio plugin which provides output parameters su Read More This tutorial shows how to use the connectivity capabilities of our plugins within Logic We use Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro plugin DPMP as an example but you can use any other audio plugin which provi Read More This tutorial shows how to use the MIDI connectivity of our plugins within Pro Tools We use Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro plugin as an example but you can use any other audio plugin which provides output Read More Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro DPMP ist ein einzigartiges Audio Analyse Tool Es enthalt sehr flexible und anpassbare Audio Meter sowie weiterf hrende Side Chaining Control M glichkeiten dank MIDI Ausga Read More Tutorial How to Use the Free Presets Available on this Website Redo f E Load Save This tutorial shows you how to get and load free presets for your favorite Blue Cat Audio plugin T icion This tutorial uses Blue Cat s Dynamics for the demonstration but is applicable to all our plugins Read More Tutorial Simple Dynamic Stereo Enhancement This tutorial shows how to use the Widening Meter Pro and the freeware Gain Suite plugins to enhance the stereo perception
50. s button to activate the MIDI learn functionality When it is activated you can move your MIDI controller and the plug in will automatically set the MIDI Channel and CC Number MIDI and automation settings e Response response curve of the MIDI or automation control from very fast to slow control e Min minimal value of the parameter when MIDI controlled or automated e Max Maximum value of the parameter when MIDI controlled or automated g a 1000 ms Faram 1 Param 2 500 ms Param 3 3000 ms Param 4 2000 ms Param 5 3dB Param 6 3000 ms Param 7 60 dBvs Param amp O 100 Param 9 Normal Reversed Param 10 O 400 Param 11 200 700 Param 12 Param 13 EERE EE CREE HEE THOoRBAAARAAABAABABAaAAAaA GA Boe 14 ase Lima generic screen shot does not correspond to the actual plug in parameters Note if the Min value is higher than the Max value the response curve will be reversed increasing the control value will decrease the parameter value Note if you double click on the parameter text control boxes for the max and min values a fine tuning edit box will appear and let you change the min and max values with more precision Global Control Output Settings MIDI and Automation You can set the same properties for the output parameters as for the input parameters in this case they may trigger MIDI CC messages or generate automation curves when modified Since it s ou
51. s from all MIDI Channels MIDI Omni mode e CC Control Change Number e Learn click on this button to activate the MIDI learn functionality When it is activated you can move your MIDI controller and the plug in will automatically set the MIDI Channel and CC Number MIDI and automation settings e Response response curve of the MIDI or automation control from very fast to slow control e Min minimal value of the parameter when MIDI controlled or automated e Max Maximum value of the parameter when MIDI controlled or automated Note if the Min value is higher than the Max value the response curve will be reversed increasing the control value will decrease the parameter value Note if you double click on the parameter text control boxes for the max and min values a fine tuning edit box will appear and let you change the min and max values with more precision MIDI and Automation Output Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro can also generate MIDI CC Events or automation curves thanks to its output parameters You have access to the same settings for the output parameters as you have for input parameters using the dropdown menu except that you can also enable or disable automation The output parameters MIDI and Automation Menu MIDI Learn MIDI Unlearn Enable Automation Settings The advanced output parameters MIDI and Automation settings window Param 4 MIDI Automa Enable Enable Channel CC Control Autom MIDI 1
52. sc legal documents e About displays the about dialog box The Title Bar In most skins an icon bar is located below the main toolbar The first commands are the same for all plug ins e Smooth Bypass smoothly bypass the plug in just like a power button e Window Opacity reduce the opacity value by turning the knob and make the the plug in window transparent the result may depend on the host application e Show Hide MIDI and Automation Control Settings show hide the buttons that give access to direct MIDI Automation setup for each parameter in the user interface This button will show or hide dropdown menu buttons that popup a MIDI Automation setup menu described here From left to right Controls Examples Here are a few examples of typical controls you will encounter in the user interface of our plug ins slider slider knob button Text control Interacting with Controls You can interact with the controls of the plug in interface either with the mouse or the keyboard Setting the keyboard focus on a control so that it responds to key strokes may be automatic when you pass the mouse over it it gets focus or manual you have to click on the control to set the focus on it Note that all host applications behave differently regarding keyboard handling In some applications you may not be able to use all keys described later in this manual to interact with our plug ins It is usually made obvious to y
53. se references and make decisions about your levels accordingly Song Crest Factor Sometimes you may be interested in measuring the crest factor for an entire song the overall peak to average ratio Be aware that the average crest factor is not the value that you are looking for it is the average of locally computed crest factors which is different The crest factor of the entire song Sometimes wrongly called dynamic range or DR is simply the difference from the maximum peak value and the RMS average provided that you have reset these values before playback So if your maximum peak is 0 dB the crest factor will simply be the opposite of the average RMS value Offline Analysis In order to display the statistics for an entire song you can play the entire song into the meter while listening to it But this will take some time So if your host application allows it you may want to use offline rendering and read the values after processing you will be able to read the statistics for the whole song almost instantly Real time side chaining with MIDI One of the particularities of this plug in is that you can reuse the levels of a track to trigger effects on other tracks using MIDI Setup Setting up your DAW for such of applications depends on the way your host handles MIDI routing but the principle remains the same on most platforms 1 Instantiate the plug in on the source track setup its MIDI output 2 Instantiate a destinati
54. t Bug Fixes e RTAS Fixed parameters control with EUCON control surfaces in Pro Tools e Fixed user interface issues in Final Cut Pro X e Fixed MIDI CC i o issues with 64 bit VST e Fixed user interface display issues in Wavelab on Mac e Fixed keyboard stealing issue in Digital Performer 7 on Mac e AAX RTAS on Mac Fixed audio engine freeze or error issue with Pro Tools on some Mac configurations Note this new version can be installed side by side with the previous version for backward compatibility reasons Installing this new version won t break your previous projects V3 5 2011 07 11 e Output data rate MIDI CC or automation can now be customized from 20 to 500 Hz e Increased the default output data rate from 20 to 50 Hz for smoother side chaining and increased meters precision e All meters can now be reset with a single button e Envelope graphs can now be zoomed e Windows improved settings dialog loading time e Mac user interface performance improvement up to 30 lighter on cpu V3 42 2011 02 10 e Fixed keyboard focus stealing issue in Pro Tools and several other host applications V3 41 2010 11 29 Fixed incompatibility issues with older presets in the previous version V3 4 2010 11 18 e Added custom K 10 scale support e 64 bit Mac VST support e User interface enhancements new look and feel and improved readability e Faster user interface loading e Reduced memory footprint e Improved MIDI
55. tions e New integrated presets manager e Load save presets from the plug in s user interface e Organize presets with folders e Customize the default preset e Exchange presets easily e Automation range and response curve can now be customized for each parameter in and out e Automation and MIDI settings channel MIDI learn etc are now accessible from the main user interface e AAX plug in format is now also supported on Windows Pro Tools 10 2 required e Audio Suite support for the AAX version for offline levels measurements in Pro Tools Improvements e Increased levels range 120 dB e Increased maximum levels value range for overshoot measurement up to 10dB e Peak average precision has been improved e Use hold values and crest factor for transformed envelope generation e Simplified transformed envelope generation e New presets to get started faster e Plug in name has been shortened for a clearer display in mixer view for most host applications e The windows installer now automatically detects the most appropriate VST install path e License is now shared between plug ins types register only once for all formats e Improved value display in fine edit window e Improved parameters display on control surfaces Optimizations and Performance Improvements e Improved parameters precision now stored as 64 bit e More compact presets format uses less space and loads faster e Smaller binaries on Mac dropped PowerPC suppor
56. to see the skin change Skin file path C Progam Files Blue Cat Audio Skins Default default xml Output data refresh rate 20 Hz The output data refresh rate can also be customized for all instances of the plug in It controls the refresh rate of non audio data produced by the plug in parameters curves It also controls the refresh rate of output MIDI CC messages or output automation data The higher the refresh rate the better precision but also the higher cou usage some host applications may also have trouble recording MIDI data at high refresh rates The default value is 50 Hz Global Control Input Settings MIDI and Automation The plug in offers a couple of settings that affect the way it is controlled by MIDI messages or automation While the first settings only apply to MIDI control the Control Response Min and Max settings apply to both automation and MIDI control For each parameter you can define a default MIDI channel and CC number You can then control the plug in with an external MIDI controller or one of our plug ins that generate MIDI messages The settings below are available for each plug in parameter MIDI Settings e Enable MIDI enable disable the MIDI control of the parameter e Channel MIDI Channel for the parameter control If set to 0 the plug ins will accept Control Change Messages from all MIDI Channels MIDI Omni mode e CC Control Change Number e Learn click on thi
57. tput you cannot set the channel to MIDI Omni so you must choose a channel Output parameters can also generate automation curves in most host applications You can enable automation for any output parameters you are interested in see the Enable Autom checkbox Blue Cat s Plugen Gle Control Output Parameter Name Enable Enable Channel CC Autom MIDI 1 16 0127 All Parameters E E 1 Out Param 1 1 Out Param 2 Out Param 3 Out Param 4 0 dB Out Param 5 0 dB Out Param 6 0 dB Out Param 7 60 dB Out Param 8 60 dB VOCE UN a io Out Param 5 60 dB a FOoRBAAABAAA GA E E E E E E E E E E ca 10101101001 Out Param 10 No Clip t generic screen shot does not correspond to the actual plug in parameters Note if the Min value is higher than the Max value the response curve will be reversed increasing the control value will decrease the parameter value Note if you double click on the parameter text control boxes for the max and min values a fine tuning edit box will appear and let you change the min and max values with more precision The Current Preset Settings Window In this window you can change the settings for the current preset of the current instance of the plug in only Preset Skin You can choose to use the global skin setting or to change the skin for the current preset This way you can have different skins for different instances of the plug in in the same s
58. ute the RMS value Decreasing the value will make the RMS meter react faster to the incoming signal and increasing the value will turn the RMS value into a longer average more stable over time Please note that this also impacts the crest factor value in a similar way as it is computed with the exact same duration Histogram Drag the histogram knob to change the integration time This controls the memory duration for the histogram If you want a long memory you can push it up to 1000 seconds Clicking on the button on the right will reset the memory for all histograms just like clicking on a histogram Peak Hold The temporary hold meters for all levels including the crest factor can be customized here Set the Reset Speed to 0 dB s if you want these meters to keep track of the maximum value forever Output Envelope Generation The Out Envelope box is dedicated to the transformed envelope for parameter modulation and side chaining It can also be used to monitor any value on the history view in addition to regular peak and RMS curves OUT ENVELOPE Level Hold Peak RMS Amoun i T 10 I fo 1 Choose the value type levels peak RMS levels hold Peak RMS hold Crest crest factor Crest Hold crest factor hold 2 For level or level hold value types you can blend peak and RMS levels together to compute the transformed envelope 3 Apply an offset moving up and down and an amount increasing or decreasing ampl
59. v3 including 4 skins for both the stereo and mono plugins Author Blue Cat Audio Download Skin RedBox3 zip Tutorials Many Tutorials are available on our website They cover a wide range of topics and host applications You will find below a list of tutorials that are related to the Blue Cat s DP Meter Pro plug in An updated list is also available online Tutorial Automation Envelopes Generation in MOTU s Digital Performer 7 This tutorial shows how to reuse the envelopes generated by our plugins with output parameters in MOTU s Digital Performer 7 host software As of today Digital Performer does not receive MIDI events f Read More Tutorial Customize the Colors of your Plugins This tutorial shows how to customize the FreqAnalyst Pro plugin s user interface by changing the color of the displayed curves It is a very basic skinning tutorial All you need to know is how to exp Read More Tutorial Connecting Plug ins with Groups in Cakewalk Sonar imi oF DPeak Maiar Pro 3 Seren 1 i This tutorial shows how to reuse the envelopes generated by our plugins with output parameters in Cakewalk Sonar using groups Other techniques exist using MIDI or Automation curves but this one ha Read More This tutorial shows how to use the DP Meter Pro plugin DPMP in Cakewalk Sonar in order to modify the parameters of an effect on a track according to the envelope of an other track
60. vailable from the main menu see the Plug in Settings chapter for more details MIDI and Automation Settings Menu Most skins also provide the ability to change MIDI and automation settings for each parameter directly in the main user interface When this feature is activated using the corresponding title bar button dropdown menu buttons appears next to main controls Clicking on this button shows the MIDI Automation settings menu MIDI Learn MIDI Unlearn Enable Automation Settings e MIDI Learn launches MIDI learn mode for the control touch your MIDI controller and the control will learn from it the MIDI channel and CC number To end the learn mode reopen this menu and deselect the option e MIDI Unlearn deactivates MIDI control for this parameter e Settings launches the advanced settings panel described below This controls the settings for the current preset Andvanced MIDI and Automation Settings You can completely customize the way the plug in is controlled by automation and MIDI For a global view of all parameters at a time you can use the Plug in Settings window for the current preset which is available from the main menu Control Control Control Min Max MIDI 165 127 Response eo 5 linear OB 3dB MIDI Settings e Enable MIDI enable disable the MIDI control of the parameter e Channel MIDI Channel for the parameter control If set to 0 the plug ins will accept Control Change Message
61. ware such as Cakewalk Sonar Steinberg Cubase or Wavelab Sony Vegas Logic Pro Garage Band Ableton Live Pro Tools in order to perform some MIDI and Or Audio real time Processing tasks To be more precise what we usually call directX plug ins is actually a DirectShow Filter VST is owned by Steinberg DirectX by Microsoft while Audio Units is the property of Apple Computers and RTAS and AAX are owned by AVID How can I use your plug ins Download and install a host software then download and install the plug ins from our page They will appear in the host effects menu If you are using a DirectX host with our MIDI controllable plug ins and they do not show up in you host list you might need to use our freeware DXi Manager Note that our plug ins are sometimes shown in the MIDI controllable audio effects or soft synths sections in some host applications Where can find a host There are many commercial or freeware hosts that will suit your needs You can find a long list of applications here You can also use demos of Cubase Wavelab Ableton Live Tracktion or Sonar software which are usually available on the companies websites On the Mac Garage Band is part of the system and can be also used to host our Audio Unit plug ins What are the main differences between DX VST RTAS AAX and Audio Units VST is a protocol that works on several platforms Mainly Windows MacOS BeOS and some Linux platforms use it as well
62. whereas DirectX is Microsoft Windows only and Audio Units are available only on the Mac RTAS and AAX are available on Mac and PC but only for Pro Tools products AVID AAX plug ins are compatible with Pro Tools 10 and higher whereas RTAS versions are compatible for Pro Tools 10 and lower versions What is the difference between DXi and DX effects DXi effects are MIDI controllable DirectX plug ins It s the same as DX effects plus MIDI control Which version VST Audio Unit RTAS or DX should I use in my host application Here is a list of host software and the version we recommend you to use Many other applications are supported check your application user manual to choose the best version AU stands for Audio Unit and DX for DirectX Host Application Plug in Version Cakewalk Products Sonar Projectd5 DX sony Products Vegas ACID Soundforge DX for old versions VST for new Steinberg Products Cubase Nuendo Wavelab VST Mac or PC Ableton Live VST Mac or PC Adobe Audition any EnergyXT VST Magix Samplitude VST Avid Digidesign Pro Tools RTAS Apple applications Logic Pro Logic Express Garage Band AU Cockos Reaper VST Mac or PC In general we recommend using VST over Audio Unit on Mac when both are supported particularly for the plug ins that can output automation or MIDI CC messages Where can find more information about this topic e www steinberg net e WwWw microsoft com e www kvraudio c
63. yed with colors that correspond to the scale chosen in the level meters view It is possible to check quickly if levels are right thanks to their color You can customize these scales to create your own green yellow red limits Clicking on a value will reset this value for all channels Clicking on the dB button at the right of a row will reset all values for all channels For the mono and surround versions of the plug ins clicking on the channel name lets you rename it The stereo version automatically renames the channels when changing to and from mid side mode In case of clipping signal above 0 dBFS a clipped message will appear on the clipped channel Clicking on it will reset the clip status for all channels Level Meters The level meters view displays peak and RMS levels as well as their histograms It is also the place where you can customize the scales and color ranges 1 Peak and RMS meters for each channel with temporary hold meters 2 Histograms peak histogram in red and RMS in yellow Clicking anywhere on the histogram will reset all histograms for all channels including the crest factor The integration time length for the histogram can be changed in the controls view 3 Select the meters range 120 60 or 30 dB 4 Choose the scale e Scientific dBFS scale with no RMS boost RMS meter is calibrated to 3dB for a sine wave e RMS 3dB dBFS scale with 3dB RMS boost RMS meter is calibrated to OdB

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