Audio level metering in capture

mdsh wrote on 11/14/2002, 5:53 PM

I'm doing some capture of analog sources via a Dazzle analog->firewire converter. The audio source is broadcast quality (from BetacamSP) at 0dBu but the Dazzle requires domestic -10dBu so I'm putting a Pro Interface (ballanced 0dBu to unbalanced -10dBu) between the two.

The problem is, I want to be able to line-up the Pro Interface so that the audio is ballanced correctly and is of the correct level to ensure no overloads etc. There does not appear to be any way of checking the audio level (or video level for that matter) in VidCap30.

Is there something I'm mising?
If not can level metering in the capture be added to a wish list?
And also if not then is there an application that can display the audio (and video) levels for a live firewire source?

Thanks in advance.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/14/2002, 7:35 PM

Firewire signal is already digitized, so monitoring/modifying it at that point is rather, umm ... pointless. The place you need to monitor/modify it is before it goes into the Dazzle converter.

mdsh wrote on 11/15/2002, 1:00 AM

Thanks for the answer but you seem to misunderstand.

I want to moniter the firewire output of an analog to digital converter so that I can modify the INPUT to the digitizer. This is the ONLY way one can ensure the firewire output contains audio (and video) of the correct levels.

So, does anyone know how to monitor the audio level in a firewire stream?

Thanks

jetdv wrote on 11/15/2002, 10:34 AM

The newest beta version of scenalyzer has an audio level meter which shows the level of the signal coming in over the firewire. You will have to ask for the most current beta version from the author.

Scenalyzer website

musicvid10 wrote on 11/15/2002, 10:58 AM

You can try Paul Marshall's excellent and free standalone audio meters here:
http://www.darkwood.demon.co.uk/PC/meter.html

mdsh wrote on 11/17/2002, 9:35 AM

Thanks for the two suggestion, I tried them both but the one from http://www.darkwood.demon.co.uk/PC/meter.html only displays the audio level from the Microsoft audio mixer and not from a firewire input, and the one from Scenalyzer has VU meters that have no scale so its fairly impossable to know what they are displaying.

I wonder if VV4 will have decent input monitoring in the capture package?

Any other suggestions would be gratefuly received.

Tyler.Durden wrote on 11/17/2002, 1:39 PM

Hi Mark,

You might consider finding the peak levels in your tapes, and digitizing a section to see where the levels fall in Vegas...

If you can set the output levels on the betacam playback to peak properly, you shouldn't have any issues unless the Dazzle output is off. Whether or not *that* is an open question, you might want to check levels in Vegas anyway; because whatever you use to monitor may differ from Vegas.

MPH

mdsh wrote on 11/20/2002, 10:24 AM

Yeh, capturing a test recording and playing it back in Vegas is currently the way I'm setting the levels. It wastes time though, which is a shame when incoming meetering should be so easy.