User Manual

WAVELAB
8 – 172 Metering
When to use the Bit Meter
• To check whether dithering is necessary or not.
As a rule, if you’re playing back or mixing down to 16 bits, and the Bit Meter shows that
more than 16 bits are used, you should apply dithering.
• To see the “actual” resolution of an audio file.
For example, even though a file is in 24 bit format, only 16 bits may be used. Or, a 32 bit file
may only use 24 bits (in this case, the “below” segment would not be lit). For this purpose,
the Bit Meter is best used in “Analyse selection” mode.
• To see whether a “zeroed” plug-in still affects your signal, or whether a plug-in
uses 16 bit internal processing.
Making settings for the Bit Meter
To adjust the Bit Meter settings, select “Settings…” from the Options
pop-up menu or click the “tool” icon.
The dialog that appears contains the following settings:
Setting Description
Colors You can adjust the colors of the meter segments, grids, background, etc.
by clicking the corresponding color buttons.
Bit hold time Determines for how long peak values are held (by the outer meters, by de-
fault shown in dark green).
Bit display Determines how the bits are displayed:
In “Intuitive mode”, the absolute value of the signal is displayed. The bar
graphs will go higher with higher signal levels, similar to a common level
meter (although the range will not work the same way).
In “True mode”, the meter shows the direct mapping of the bits, but since the
actual values may be negative, there is no intuitive relationship with the level
(a negative value may use a lot of bits, even though its absolute value is very
small). This mode is useful if you instantly want to check the full range, since
all bits will quickly be displayed, regardless of the audio signal level.