Improvements on the mixer?

[JoeC]

Hey guys. Longtime lurker, first time poster. Let me try clear up some inaccuracies in this thread if I may.

- 32-bit float (or 64-bit float) doesn't have infinite headroom but the ceiling is so high - about 1500db over 24-bit 0 - you'll never clip anything by accident, so generally speaking it's not worth stressing over. One exception is that some audio plugs don't process internally at 32-bit, some Waves plugs for example, will clip at 24-bit 0. If you maybe use some older freeware plugs, test them to make sure they process at 32-bit. The easy way to test them is to pass audio through a plug at +15/+20 or something and see if it's output is audibly distorted / clipped or not. Offset the gain with the channel fader obviously, so not to distort the master.

- Accurate channel metering would be (is) the same 24-bit scale you see everywhere else, that's all. Nobody would scale a meter to a 32-bit float scale for obvious reasons. All of the metering you see in any DAW's and plugins is (if calibrated) for the 24-bit scale.

- While metering on mixer channels is much less necessary in floating point daws due to that really high ceiling, they still serve an occasional purpose. While perhaps not relevant to Orion (not sure) most of those other products allow assigning channels directly to hardware outs, which means (like with a master or sub-master) you'll need accurate post-fader metering, and maybe clip indications, just before the hardware. Another example might be inserting hardware processors like comps into a plugin slot, again, you'll need accurate metering there because it's going directly out to hardware, not passing through the master bus yet... until the signal returns to the channel.

Sending an inserted hardware device a -3 digital signal is equivalent to (assuming your converters are calibrated at -18) sending a +15 signal on the analog scale, which is generally way too hot, so metering comes into play there, how digital peak meters relate to analog levels.

I hope that helps to clear some of it up.

[Mark]

That's quite a way to introduce yourself Joe

Anyway, welcome and thanks for the interesting first post

[JoeC]

Thanks. I read the long discussion and I thought I could maybe help clear some of it up so... attempted anyway.

[Junction-Earth]

I agree with Mark... very nice and informative post JoeC.
Thank you!