Hi, I’m using SQ6 with Waves Server One, controlled using SuperRack v14. I noticed that the level in Waves SuperRack is always at much lower than the sound meter in SQ6. It makes signal processing in Waves really hard since the audio level is really low (setting threshold, see the graphs,…)
Although the level in SuperRack is low, I don’t see any difference when I engage or disengage the channel Insert. Therefore, I think that there must be some kind of a gain increase at the end of the channel signal processing in SQ, after the insert, thus increasing the signal level.
Can someone please help me clarify this? And also how to fix it so that visually I can have a good level to use on SuperRack.
Levels are normally shown in dB, which are a relative measurement (negative dB is “how much quieter than a reference level is this signal”). In digital, the reference level is often the maximum data level, rather than anything to do with actual sound levels.
So you might have a signal that is in 16-bit samples (values up to 32,767) that gets converted into 24-bit samples (values up to 8,388,607) by just copying the value. Say your signal was 16000 in 16 bits, that would be about -3dB. But your signal of 16,000 in 24 bits would show as -27dB. If you convert it back to 16 bits in the same way, it’ll be back to -3dB. Because the dB just says “how much smaller than the maximum is it” and the maximum is changing. (Going from 24 bit to 32 bit would also take -3dB to -27dB, due to how dB is calculated.)
Of course, this assumes that it’s what is happening here. It seems likely, but it’s entirely possible for dB to be calculated in some other way for a digital signal, or for the conversion between bit sizes to make other changes. Basically, if it sounds okay, it’s probably okay.
Hopefully that helps clarify. But I can’t help with fixing it visually, sorry. It would be great if SuperRack would allow setting the range to be able to match the associated console, but I understand how something like that could be overlooked.
Both levels match, it’s just the scale. Mind that for Superrack the maximum (full scale) is at 0dB and for the SQ6 it is showing 0dB at around -18dB fullscale.
