Adobe 22011292 User Guide - Page 38

24 CHAPTER 2 Looking at the Work Area Level Meters The incoming signal from your selected sound card(s) is represented as the peak amplitude in decibels, where a level of 0dB is the absolute maximum before clipping occurs. If clipping does occur, the clip indicator to the right of the meter will light up, and remain lit. Clicking on the clipping indicator at any time resets it. Yellow peak indicators will "stick" for 1.5 seconds before resetting to allow for reading of the peak amplitude. When displaying stereo audio, the top meter represents the left channel, and the bottom, the right. To close the Level Meters window when it's floating, click on the "X" control in its title bar. To get rid of the Level Meters window when it's docked, right-click on its grab bar and select Close from the pop-up menu. Or, you can simply uncheck the Show Level Meters item on the View menu to close it in either docking or floating mode. Right-click on the Level Meters window to call up a menu with metering options: Monitor Record Level This option activates the Level Meters and starts monitoring the recording source. This is useful for setting input levels before recording. To stop monitoring, press the Stop control or tap your spacebar. You can also start and stop monitoring by double-clicking on the Level Meters. Show on Play and Record Selecting this option causes the Level Meters to operate during the playback or recording of audio. Clear Clip Indicators If clipping occurs (i.e., incoming audio is greater than 0dB), then the Level Meter's red lights come on and stay on until cleared. Choose this option to reset the red lights. You may also click on the Clip Indicators (at the right edge of the Level Meters) to clear them. Note: The clip indicators will always light if clipping occurs, but if Adjust for DC is enabled, the indicators may light up when the audio has a DC offset. Adjust for DC Many sound cards record audio with a slight DC offset, which means that the center of the waveform being recorded is not at the exact center of the waveform display, but a little above or below it. This can dramatically throw the level meters off since the amount the waveform is displaced could be interpreted as a constant sound that loud. To compensate, make sure this menu item is checked. The recording meters will dynamically adjust to the DC offset, and display the true amplitude of the signal in decibels. Show Valleys Just as the yellow indicators show peak levels, if Show Valleys is chosen, valley levels (minimum amplitudes) will be marked as well. This gives a good indication of the dynamic range of the audio. If the valley indicators are close to the peak indicators, the dynamic range - the difference between the quietest and loudest sounds - is low. If they're spread far apart, the dynamic range is high. 120dB Range With this option checked, the range of the Level Meters is 120 decibels.