10 month (!) have gone by and still no fix for the broken metering which has been broken for almost four (!) years now.

There are only two reasonable explanations for this epic failure by Brainworx/PA:

1. They don't have the chops to do it right.
2. They don't give a s*#t about their customers.

I can't decide which one is worse, but hey, probably it is a mixture of both. So sad.

I think it's a combo but not a 50-50 split. Something to keep in mind is that not all of their programming is done in-house. Things like Oberhausen are done outside as is the Unfiltered Audio stuff.

Maybe it could be considered the same thing, but I don't think Dirk gives a s*#t about the metering issue, period. I'm not digging back through this thread, but I seem to remember that he all but said that he didn't believe you. I got the impression that they don't think it's a bug or a problem and so they just moved past it.

Unfortunately this is no matter of believe or disbelieve. We are not in church here. In fact it is audio engineering 101.

You really need to do your home before posting regarding this matter. Urgently.

Dude, I didn't say I didn't believe you or that it was a conspiracy theory. I'm giving you my take on how PA/Dirk reacted.

Dude, what you are actually saying with „your take“ is that „PA/Dirk“ have no clue about what they are doing.

Well, that is bold.

And you're making a really good case for why Dirk didn't want to listen to you. Best of luck.

It may be bold but it's the truth. They don't have clue one about their market.

Well, I searched a bit more and it seems they might not have a clue on several things. I came across a youtube video where Dirk personaly presents the "bx_console Tips 'n Tricks". Out of curiosity I watched the 3 short videos and realised he doesn't seem to know much about mixing either. I am not kidding, and I am not trying to insult him or anything as I don't know the person. I just wanted to give the company a last chance and see what they have to say about their own product. Maybe I was missing some vital info. But during the presentation I watched him randomly sweeping filters, removing the attack and body from drums and guitars and being happy with the result. Of course there was no mention of the meters which were randomly and inconsistently bouncing as usual, but I forgot about that when I saw him high-passing the snare at 200Hz "to get rid of the basedrum crosstalk" and then pushing 8.5dBs back at 122Hz to "add some low end". The same goes for other frequencies and sources.
I feel bad for bashing a person I don't know, but when you own a company and publicly expose yourself as a developer and also user of a professional tool, you just have to know what you are doing.

All this feels to me like buying a car from a manufacturer, where the ceo doesn't know how to drive and who's policy is: "I know the speedometer reads 20 when you are going with 50, but it doesn't look like a problem to me. Just drive and don't look at it".

Well, better than my drummer's old volvo where the speed meter is broke and simply shows nothing. When I asked him why he never gets speeding tickets he said: “I drive this beast long enough to feel how fast I'm going.“ The fuel needle is also broke, but when I asked him how he knew when to refill, we ran out of fuel on the highway ramp.

Meteritis

So true.
In my and many other engineer‘s book there‘s basically three
levels : too low, just right, too much.
Probably most records of the 90s sucked because we were
too ****ing ignorant about the science of metering.

Yeah, but having a working meter that could save you from running out of fuel is not a bad thing. At least the nearest gas station was right around the corner.

That's funny and relatable to this story of mine. I'm going OT so only read for a possible laugh if you don't mind. Just a funny drummer story I felt compelled to share.

I remember one ride to band practice in the very old, rusted and barely road legal Mazda belonging to our drummers mom being severely delayed when the general frivolity in the vehicle was suddenly interrupted by the nervous announcement from the driver's seat that a slight ticking sound coming from the back was an indicator we needed to get fuel urgently as the fuel gauge didn't work and that ticking time bomb sound meant we were about to run out. We did run out and one of us had to walk to a fuel station to fill up a petrol container.

The next problem was that our drummer didn't have the key to the fuel cap which ironically was one of the few things on the car that still worked. No problem for our drummer as he had been in this situation before, largely because he could only afford a couple of bucks of fuel at a time. The next half an hour involved removing the back seat to access the fuel hose to the petrol tank. Unscrewing the fuel hose clamp and filling the tank with the meagre amount of fuel our little carry container held and then reassembling the back of the car. Somehow he seemed to prefer this exercise to just getting the petrol cap key of his mom as for some unknown reason it was not kept on the key chain with the ignition key.

Somehow how I endured regular events like this and more on an almost daily basis and even went pro with these guys for 6 months. I should write a book about it with the storys I have. It could become the next Spinal Tap.

I'll read that book for sure. ;-)

Likewise!

what i undesrtand is only drummer have cars ?

They have the ones with broken meters. ;-)

Someone has to drive the bass players around...

So I sent off an support ticket asking about the meters and finally understand what's going on.

The biggest confusion is based on how the VU meter works. Sending a -16dBFS signal shows up as +4dBu. Most engineers know that +4dBu is the same level as 0 VU. You can see the attached graph for a visual representation. But the issue is that a signal that shows up +4dBu does not show up as 0 VU, it shows up as -6 VU. I was told that this was due to a "dump facility".

A "dump facility" is simply a negative offset. So the meter will actually display a value that is 6 Volume Units lower than it actually is. So a 0 VU signal actually displays as -6 VU. This was originally a feature that was found on the Neve VXS (the console modeled for bx_console N) They kept it for the plugin to increase the resolution of the meter because during development they found their signals to max out the meter without the "dump facility". How this feature made it to the other console emulations is something for Brainworx to explain. My guess is just preference and consistency.

In closing to understand the current metering, +4dBu = 16dBFS. This is supposed to show 0 VU, but with the "dump facility" it will display as -6 VU. Also I was told that the, "standard transition of voltages to samples is at -18dBFS = 0 dBu".

I was told that a update is in the works that will allow the user to click the brainworx logo to have a pop-up window appear that allows individually calibration of the meters. So that solves all my personal issues. I'm very excited and glad to finally hear this issue being worked on.

So... basically, this could be fixed with a skin?

PA bx_console interfaces are png files. By example, on Mac, they are on /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/bx_console SSL 4000 E.component/Contents/Resources

The mainfile to modify would be BackgroundE.png

Anyone here is good with photoshop?

Thank you for the update.

Finally.

Did they say something about the two other issues with the metering (VU meter and PPU meter do not correspond, meters don't reflect changes by the input gain knob) ?

Even if someone was to make the change to the graphic file it won't work on a Mac. There's a thread around here where someone did a clean-up of bx_Townhouse and offered it up for use via pm'ing him. Turns out it won't work on a Mac and screws up the plugin.

I use it on Mac every day and it does not screw anything up.

You must not be using ProTools then. My fault I should have mentioned that the aax version has the issue as mentioned in this thread: BX Townhouse Alternative GUI for Mac users

Not sure what you mean by the input gain issue. Just ran a test tone and the meters are following the gain changes from the input gain knob.

Regarding the two meters corresponding is because of the "dump facility". If you take away the dump facility they match up correctly. Here is what I found while testing and it was confirmed by them that this is all correct.

bx_Console SSL 4000 G with dump facility
-00dBFS Signal = +10 VU = 20dBu (Max Digital Level before Clipping)
-07dBFS Signal = +03 VU = 13dBu (Max Level shown on most VU Meters)
-10dBFS Signal = -00 VU = 10dBu (Internal Calibration Level)
-16dBFS Signal = -06 VU = 04dBu (4dBu traditional converts to 0 VU)
-18dBFS Signal = -08 VU = 02dBU (Some systems calibrate at -18dBFS)
-20dBFS Signal = -10 VU = 00dBu (Some systems calibrate at -20dBFS)

bx_Console SSL 4000 G without dump facility
-00dBFS Signal = +16 VU = 20dBu (Max Digital Level before Clipping)
-10dBFS Signal = +06 VU = 10dBu (Internal Calibration Level)
-13dBFS Signal = +03 VU = 07dBu (Max Level shown on most VU Meters)
-16dBFS Signal = -00 VU = 04dBu (4dBu traditional converts to 0 VU)
-18dBFS Signal = -02 VU = 02dBu (Some systems calibrate at -18dBFS)
-20dBFS Signal = -04 VU = 00dBu (Some systems calibrate at -20dBFS)

I feel like Plugin Alliance took a big dump facility on these plugins by not updating them