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JoaCHIP Quick Meter (beta)


screenshot

Visual audio analyzer based on the following design ideas:

Recognizability & Having a Fixed Reference

The meter aims to be preset based rather than being freely customizable. This may seem like a sad limitation, but the idea is that, if you visit someone else who are also using this meter, you will immediately be able to recognize which display mode is used without first going through the whole preferences section. A bit like how many sound studios keep a pair of NS-10 speakers around. It's not because they're good, but rather that every studio technician knows them.

Simplicity

Not offering a plethora of exotic adjustments prevents inexperienced users from ending up with a bad configuration. And when installing the plugin on a new system, no transfer of settings or presets will be needed.

Minus Infinity

Most meters in the software world tend to use logarithms, which means you cannot see all the way down to -inf dB (complete silence). Quick Meter uses the x^3 formula, thus offering the full range from +8 dB down to silence - without squeezing the important area around 0 dB together as much as many other similar plugins out there.

More To Come

This visualizer is my lab for strange experiments. The "Amplitude" view is an example of this: It shows a histogram over how loud each sample is. Whether this is useful or not is hard to say. Some day I might change or remove it.

Modes

Currently the following modes are available:
  • Spectrum: Standard frequency analysis of the signal in mono from 20 to 20000 Hz.
  • Low (bass): Frequency analysis of the mono signal from 5 to 200 Hz. Because of the length of super deep bass waves, the update rate is lower than usual.
  • High (treble): Frequency analysis of the mono signal from 2000 Hz and all the way up.
  • Amplitude (volume): This view shows how much of the signal is loud vs. soft. It tends to be able to reveal things like distortion and compression. The actual purpose is not yet fully understood.

Download

Windows VST 32/64-bitv167Download
Apple AudioUnit 64-bitv167Download
Apple VST 64-bitv167Download

Apple install guide

Version history

  • v185: Now using vertical blank (vsync) for smoother screen update.
  • v167: First beta version.


Website by Joachim Michaelis