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1. The three K System scales K 12 K 14 and K 20 share the same reference point an external meter shall read 83 dB SPL C weighted slow when a pink noise signal is played back and reads 0 dBr on K Meter s averaging meter K Meter makes the calibration process simple Here are the steps e Select an appropriate scale K 12 K 14 or K 20 for your mix e Select the RMS averaging mode e Play back pink noise through your monitors using K Meter K Meter has two noise toggles one for the left and one for the right channel Enable only a single channel at a time or your calibration will not be correct e Using an external level meter measure the SPL use a C weighted slow setting on the meter if available of the pink noise being played through the monitors Take the measurement from your listening position e Adjust your monitor gain until the external level meter reads 83 dB SPL e Repeat this process for the other channel That is all You now have a fully calibrated K System You may wish to repeat this process for each scale and make a note of the required monitor gain Then you can easily switch between the various scales in K Meter and apply the appropriate monitor gain Loudness Metering When talking about loudness an important question arises how is loudness measured The human ear is generally most sensitive to signals in the 1 kHz 5 kHz range Frequencies lower and higher than this when played at the same volume le2. referenced to full scale The two units are equivalent It is possible to display loudness levels on a relative scale e g a K System scale in this case 10 the LU unit is used Gating Long quiet passages in a programme will lower LUFS readings For example in a movie dialogue between two characters may contain pauses If these pauses are of significant duration they will lower the LUFS measurement To account for this gating is used to ignore passages that have loudnesses under a given threshold K Meter does not support gating at this time Target Loudness You may encounter two different target loudness levels in loudness literature 23 LUFS and 24 LUFS 23 LUFS is the target loudness for gated measurements while 24 LUFS is the target loudness for un gated measurements Gated measurements tend to be louder because quiet passages are ignored As a result the target loudness for gated measurements is slightly higher Since K Meter only supports un gated loudness use 24 LUFS as your target loudness ATSC A 85 This document published by the Advanced Television Systems Committee ATSC covers recommended practices for loudness metering and content delivery A 85 recommends a target loudness of 24 LUFS un gated measured over the entire duration of the programme for content delivery and exchange For live events it recommends a sliding window measurement that is 3 s 10 s in duration K Meter s ITU Slow mode is idea
3. time 8 67 dBr s Averaging Meter ITU fast or slow integration time 400 ms and 3 s for fast and slow mode respectively e calibration reads 3 01 below full scale for a 1 kHz sine wave at full scale ITU R BS 1770 Averaging Meter RMS e rise fall time 600 ms to reach 99 full deflection with logarithmic response e RMS window 1024 samples e calibration reads full scale for a 997 Hz sine wave at full scale AES 17 13 Glossary AES Abbreviation for Audio Engineering Society www aes org dBFS Abbreviation for decibels full scale A unit for measuring amplitude relative to a full scale digital amplitude expressed in decibels 0 dBFS represents the maximum possible value on the scale while lesser values are negative dBr Abbreviation for decibels relative We don t use the dBFS quantity in this manual since the K System s maximum level is greater than 0 rather we use dBr with reference amplitudes of 20 dBFS 14 dBFS and 12 dBFS for the K 20 K 14 and K 12 scales respectively DA Abbreviation for digital to analog Digital to analog conversion is the process of constructing a continuous analog signal from a discrete digital signal DAW Abbreviation for digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation is a piece of software that acts as a virtual studio often allowing you to record edit and mix audio tracks EBU Abbreviation for European Broadcast Union www ebu ch LU Abbreviation for lo
4. Audio Pluggers K Meter User Manual Contents Welcome To K Meter System Requirements Compatibility Installation and Activation K Meter User Interface K System Metering K System Monitor Calibration Loudness Metering Averaging Modes True Peak Metering Meter Specifications Glossary Welcome To K Meter Audio Pluggers K Meter plug in brings professional level loudness and peak metering to your audio workstation empowering you with the tools you need to ensure your audio sounds its best on a variety of playback systems K Meter combines K System monitor calibration and metering with True Peak detection and standardized algorithms for computing the perceived loudness of your audio These tools help you preserve fidelity throughout mixing and mastering ultimately giving you more time to focus on making the best possible recordings This guide will introduce you to the concepts behind K System metering perceived loudness measurements and True Peak detection We at Audio Pluggers would like to thank you for purchasing K Meter and welcome you to the future of metering System Requirements K Meter has the following hardware and software requirements e Mac or Windows Operating System o Mac OS X v10 5 7 or greater o Windows XP Windows Vista or Windows 7 1 GB of RAM or greater e 50 MB or more of free disk space e Audio Unit and or VST 2 4 compatible DAW Compatibility Mac K Meter comes in two flavors on the Mac an Audio U
5. creen space Double click the wood paneling to switch between the two modes Figure 2 K Meter s Expanded Mode Figure 3 K Meter s Collapsed Mode K Scale Dial Selects the meter scale full scale K 12 K 14 or K 20 See K System Metering for more information Average Dial Selects the averaging algorithm to use for the average meter ITU Fast 400 ms ITU Slow 3 s or RMS See Averaging Modes for more information Upsample Dial Selects the peak upsampling rate 1x 2x 3x or 4x For example a 48 kHz input signal will be upsampled to 96 kHz when this dial is set to 2x Note that the upsampled signal is not output by the plug in but only used internally See True Peak Metering for more information Noise L R Toggles Enables disables pink noise output on the left and right channels If only one of these toggles is enabled the other channel is muted When both toggles are disabled audio passes through K Meter as usual Note that in some DAWs audio must be playing through K Meter for pink noise to be output See K System Monitor Calibration for more information Hold Toggle Adjusts the length of time that the peak over indicator holds its position before falling The indicator holds for 10 s when disabled and forever when enabled Level Displays Displays the peak hold and average levels in numeric form to the right of each meter When a clip occurs the peak hold display enters a clip
6. e mail address that you used when purchasing K Meter your serial number and the license signature each on a separate line A sample license file is shown below Place kmeter license txt in the same directory that K Meter is installed in For example Library Audio Plug Ins Components on Mac OS X or C Program Files Steinberg VSTPlugins on Windows Once K Meter has been successfully activated the activation panel will no longer be displayed when K Meter is run If you have difficulty activating K Meter try the following If you are activating K Meter using the activation panel Figure 1 ensure that you are connected to the Internet Ensure that you have permission to write to the directory that K Meter is installed in You may need to log in as an administrator to activate K Meter If your DAW does not allow keyboard input try downloading a free DAW that does Once K Meter is activated in the free DAW it will be activated in all other DAWS as well e If you create the license file manually make sure it is a plain text file e Contact us We re happy to assist you Sample License File your email yourdomain com KMR10 C8H2Z Y24QB Q8XNT 2H4EN MC4CFQCXPK4UfE3vWzW071UxB6F800yhpgIVAMPXs 1 Isf13ZguJvm 3LhV WtjB Sv K Meter User Interface K Meter s user interface can be viewed in expanded or collapsed mode Expanded mode is used to configure K Meter s settings while collapsed mode is useful because it occupies less s
7. have Different genres have different requirements For example classical pieces generally have more dynamic range than pop mixes The K System defines three scales that differ in the amount of headroom that they provide K 12 K 14 and K 20 The K 12 scale is most suited to broadcast material and provides 12 dB of headroom The K 14 scale is used for pop country and rock providing 14 dB of headroom The K 20 scale is used for classical music and provides 20 dB of headroom The choice of a K System scale may also depend on whether you are mixing or mastering As a general rule it is best to leave adequate headroom in a mix prior to the mastering stage This gives the mastering engineer more flexibility since dynamic range is easy to reduce but difficult to add For this reason it is useful to mix using the K 20 scale and master using an appropriate scale for the target medium and genre Each K System scale has a different alignment level meaning that 0 dBr is offset from the top of the meter The alignment levels are as follows 12 dBFS for K 12 14 dBFS for K 14 and 20 dBFS for K 20 While the three scales have a different alignment level they share the same 0 dBr reference loudness In other words 0 dBr on each scale corresponds to the same loudness level when played through monitors that are calibrated according to the K System Consequently your monitors require a different gain for each scale K System Monitor Calibration
8. l for this EBU R128 This document and its accompanying documents cover loudness metering specifications and recommended loudness practices for broadcasters EBU 3341 gives detailed specifications for EBU Mode meters which are based on the ITU R BS 1770 loudness measurement The meters support three types of measurements momentary short term and integrated Momentary and short term measurements are un gated and have sliding windows of 400 ms and 3 s respectively K Meter s ITU Fast 400 ms and ITU Slow 3 s modes are equivalent The integrated measurement is gated and thus cannot be obtained using K Meter The target loudness level is 23 LUFS gated measured over the entire duration of the programme Since the ITU Fast and ITU Slow modes are un gated aim for 24 LUFS 11 Averaging Modes K Meter supports three averaging modes ITU Fast ITU F ITU Slow ITU S and root mean square RMS The ITU fast and slow modes indicate perceived loudness and take into account the ear s sensitivity to different frequencies The two modes differ in the duration over which they are computed The fast mode has a 400 ms window and responds more quickly than the slow mode with its 3 s window See Loudness Metering for details The RMS meter has a flat frequency response and gives you an idea of how much power is in a signal This mode may be useful for comparisons with other level meters which often use an RMS measurement To ge
9. nit and a VST 2 4 plug in Both plug ins are universal binaries that support 32 64 bit Intel and PPC processors Windows K Meter is available as a 32 bit VST 2 4 plug in on Windows Installation and Activation Mac To install K Meter on Mac OS X run the K Meter installer and follow the on screen instructions K Meter will be installed into the following folders e Library Audio Plug Ins Components e Library Audio Plug Ins VST These are the typical folders searched by DAWs for plug ins Consult your DAW s manual for instructions on how to use plug ins within the DAW Windows To install K Meter on Windows run the K Meter installer and follow the on screen instructions You may wish to change the directory into which K Meter is installed The default is C Program Files Steinberg VSTPlugins You may need to configure your DAW to scan this directory Consult your DAW s manual for more information Activation When you first install and run K Meter an activation panel will prompt you for your activation information the e mail address that you used when purchasing K Meter and your serial number Email Serial Number Figure 1 K Meter Activation Activating K Meter using the activation panel Figure 1 requires an Internet connection If you prefer it is possible to activate K Meter without an Internet connection by performing the following steps Create a text file named kmeter license txt containing the
10. ped state In this state the peak hold display is colored red and the maximum peak level is shown If a greater peak level is encountered the new peak level is displayed Clicking the peak hold display resets the hold causing the peak hold to fall Use the hold toggle see above to control the hold duration K System Metering The K System was invented by mastering engineer Bob Katz in an attempt to combat excessive compression improve dynamics and encourage consistent leveling practices in the industry Over the past decade recording engineers have been pushing their compressors to the limit to produce louder and louder mixes in the hopes of standing out amongst the crowd The K System takes a different approach promoting increased dynamic range to create interest and reduce listener fatigue To begin using the K System you must first calibrate your monitors to be in sync with the K System meters see K System Monitor Calibration for details This way the K System meters provide a consistent and meaningful indication of how loud a mix is By calibrating your monitors you free yourself to mix according to what sounds natural to your ears If your mix is too loud your ears will tell you If your mix lacks dynamic range and punch your ears will tell you The meters will reinforce what you hear and provide you with a more accurate picture of how loud your mix is The next step is to decide how much dynamic range your mix will
11. t the best understanding of your audio s loudness it may be beneficial to switch between the various averaging modes You may notice that the ITU modes consistently report lower levels than the RMS mode In general ITU and RMS readings are not directly comparable since they measure different things The ITU reading is a measure of loudness while the RMS reading is a measure of signal strength In K Meter the RMS measurement is calibrated according to AES 17 so that a full scale 997 Hz sine wave reads full scale on the meter This requires the raw mathematical RMS of the signal to be increased by approximately 3 dBr True Peak Metering Many peak meters fail to accurately detect peaks in audio signals because they don t detect inter sample peaks peaks occurring between samples Inter sample peaks may be created when a DA converter interpolates between digital samples in order to create a continuous analog signal Inter sample peaks are actually quite common so it is important to detect them K Meter uses True Peak metering to improve the accuracy of peak detection The idea is to generate samples in between the input signal s samples using interpolation K Meter can double triple or quadruple the number of samples in an input signal in order to more accurately detect peaks The K Meter implementation is compatible with the recommendations in ITU R BS 1770 12 Meter Specifications Peak Meter e rise time instantaneous e fall
12. udness unit We don t use the LUFS quantity in this manual since the K System s maximum level is greater than 0 rather we use LU with reference amplitudes of 20 LUFS 14 LUFS and 12 LUFS for the K 20 K 14 and K 12 scales respectively LUFS Abbreviation for loudness unit full scale Loudness measurements calculated according to ITU R BS 1770 are expressed in these units ITU Abbreviation for International Telecommunication Union www itu int pink noise A type of noise where each octave has the same power 14 RMS Abbreviation for root mean square Calculating the root mean square of a signal s samples can give an indication of the power in the signal SPL Abbreviation for sound pressure level upsampling The process of increasing the sample rate of a sampled signal This can be done by interpolating existing samples to generate in between samples 15
13. vel are perceived as being quieter Many factors can affect the perception of loudness the age of the listener the duration of a burst of loudness the overall loudness of a passage and the mixture of frequencies The International Telecommunications Union ITU and the European Broadcast Union EBU recommend using ITU R BS 1770 as a standard for measuring perceived loudness ITU R BS 1770 is based on experimental data and listening tests K Meter s ITU Fast ITU F and ITU Slow ITU S averaging modes use this algorithm ITU R BS 1770 The loudness algorithm in ITU R BS 1770 consists of a series of stages e Pre filter each channel to account for the acoustic effects of the head e Apply an RLB weighting curve high pass filter to each channel e Compute each channel s mean square value for a given sample window e Apply a channel weighting that is greater for rear channels e Sum the results of each channel to produce a single loudness value e Map the loudness value to a logarithmic scale It is important to note that the result of the algorithm is a single loudness value rather than a set of per channel values As a result K Meter s left and right channels will display the same value when using the ITU Fast and ITU Slow modes Loudness Units Loudness levels computed using the algorithm in ITU R BS 1770 are given in LKFS Loudness K weighted referenced to full scale However the EBU recommends using LUFS Loudness Unit
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