[PD] vu analog style scale?

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

On 2010-02-03 01:59, ypatios wrote:
> hello
> 
> i understand that for sound level representation in the digital domain, a
> special dB scale is used: The dB full scale (or dBFS). In this scale 0dB
> represents the maximum possible magnitude of a sample before clipping (e.g.:
> |x(n)|=1=0dBFS).
> I noticed the scale on the vu object and it seems it has an analog look,
> meaning it has some 12dB "headroom" above 0dB.
> Now, in most audio software (editors like audacity, plug-ins etc..) level
> meters go usually to 0dB max, and there is just an indicator to notify when
> clipping occurs.
> 
> So what is the use of the analod style scale of vu?

the dBFS has the implicit assumption that there is a "full scale".
this makes total sense  when you have a fixed-point arithmetic, where no
value can go beyond a certain maximum point.
e.g. if you have a 8bit signed signal, the values will always be in the
range of [-127,128], you will never ever encounter a value of (say) 270,
simply because it cannot be expressed in 8bit.

now in Pd we are not using fixed-point math (well, in PDa you do; but
not in "proper" Pd) but floating point math, with the agreement that
values in the range of [-1.0,+1.0] are the equivalent of "full scale".

this has really only a meaning when Pd interfaces with the real world:
e.g. many (but not all!) audio APIs (ALSA, MMIO,...) will take the audio
data as fixed point (e.g. 16bit), which has an absolute "full scale".
[-1,+1] will be mapped to the audio APIs full range.
therefore if you send values between [-2,+2] to the [dac~], you will
notice clipping (because the conversion process between fixed pint and
floating point will have under/overruns).

within Pd you are free to do whatever you want with your signal:
e.g. you can run your internal signals in a range [-1e5,+1e5], and it
will all be just the same (as long as you take care to scale the signals
back into the standardized range before your [dac~]).
there is no "clipping" in Pd [1].

this means, that you can have signals louder than 0dBFS, and this is the
reason why the vu-meters show a little bit of "headroom".
the notion of "headroom" is obviously owed to the normal use of the
meters with sort-of-normalized signals.


fgmasdr
IOhannes

[1] for the sake of simplicity it is; obivously even floats have their
limits, and there is a maximum at about 840dBFS. you probably don't want
a vu-meter that has a range of almost 1000dB where you are usually using
the lower 10%!


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