How to reduce minimum meter level

[EinExperte]

Hi all,
I’d like to know if it’s possible to set a lower minimum metering level than the usual one.
No matter what meter type I use, the minimum observable level is about -55 dBFS.

I don’t know what exact dynamic range Ardour supports internally, but export to 24 bit WAV offers a dynamic range of about 145 dB. I’d like to be able to see levels down to about 97 dBFS (16 bit).

Is there any way to have a meter with that property?

Thanks,
Christoph

[x42 (Robin Gareus)]

The default Ardour peak meters are intended to be used while tracking and hence focus on the area -20 … 0 dBFS using the IEC-268-18 scale.

@EinExperte

I don’t know what exact dynamic range Ardour supports internally,

All internally processing is performed using single-precision floating-point arithmetic (with a theoretical dynamic range of over 1500dB).

@EinExperte

I’d like to be able to see levels down to about 97 dBFS

You have to resort to the numeric display of the level for the full range.

Note however that the numeric readout of the of the the level meters is constrained to treat levels < -320dBFS as silence and clamped at +40dBFS at the top. But that is a non-issue for the range that you’re interested it.

@EinExperte

Is there any way to have a meter with that property?

Ardour’s digital peak meters cannot be customized, you’d have to use a plugin.