Changing the meters’ performance

There are two major factors that determine the performance of meters in SONAR. One is audio latency which you can adjust, within the limits of your audio hardware drivers, in Edit > Preferences > Audio - Driver Settings. The second is the settings in Edit > Preferences > Customization - Audio Meters.

SONAR has configurable meter ballistics that allow you to adjust the rise and fall times of both the RMS and Peak Meters. Out of the box, SONAR ships with industry-standard settings that mimic meter ballistics for common hardware consoles.

To adjust the meter performance, go to Edit > Preferences > Customization - Audio Meters and follow these guidelines:

 

To do this	Do this
Increase or decrease meter refresh rates	Adjust the Refresh rate field. Valid values are from 25 to 250 milliseconds.
Change the decay rate (the amount of time the meter display stays at its peak)	Adjust the Decay Rate value. Valid values are from 1 to 150 milliseconds.
Increase or decrease the amount of time the meter displays a peak value	Adjust the Hold Time value. Valid values are from 0 to 5000 milliseconds.
Adjust rise and fall times	Adjust the Rise or Fall settings for RMS or Peak. Valid Rise values are from 0 to 1000 milliseconds. Valid Fall values are from 0 to 2500 milliseconds.

Here are the default values for the various settings:

Refresh Rate = 40 msec

Peak Hold – Decay Rate = 50 msec

Peak Hold – Hold Time = 750 msec

RMS Rise = 300 msec

RMS Fall = 300 msec

Peak Rise = 0 msec

Peak Fall = 1000 msec

 

See also:

Customization - Audio Meter (Advanced)