M-Audio Firewire 410

farss wrote on 1/7/2004, 2:43 PM

Just a quick question in case someone know the answer already.
I've noticed when playing audio out from any of the Sony apps the level meters in the 410 control panel read 10dB lower than those in Vegas or SF.

Any clues, the levels sound OK, but look low.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 1/7/2004, 6:02 PM

I think the meters are not calibrated to spec, partly to keep people from overdriving their recording. I noticed this as well. Set up tones, you'll see it dead on -12dB lower.

farss wrote on 1/7/2004, 6:22 PM

Thanks Spot,
I'm a bit new to the audio side of things so I'm glad to hear nothing's broken. Running some tones through it was going to be my next test.

planders wrote on 1/7/2004, 7:22 PM

This behaviour is much like on an analog mixer: set your source and main mix faders at Unity gain (no boost or attenuation by the mixer), set your levels, and the output levels on your main mix are a fair bit lower. Of course, as you add more sources, the net output increases. The mixer has built-in headroom. This certainly happens on my Mackie 32-4, and others I've used.

My Echo Layla does the same thing: source meters match what I see in my SF products, but the output meters are lower.

Of course, it doesn't help that digital levels don't necessarily correspond to a particular real-world volume level, and are entirely dependent on the amp for making your ears bleed...

TorS wrote on 1/8/2004, 2:04 AM

farss,
Deep down in the MM control panel somewhere you can select "consumer" or "professional" level metering. Consumer is -10dB. Professional is zero.
Tor