Table of Contents
The Meter view displayed on right side of the Mixer layout provides some features not available to the Meters displayed in the Mixing Desk. For example, there are various types of meter responses, such as peak and RMS that differ in how the visual reacts to the program input. All of the Meters displayed within the Mixing Desk use a peak response type meter which shows you an instantaneous volume value. This type of meter can sometimes be a bit deceptive when it comes to evaluating how loud a track is playing. Sounds with a lot of transient energy can cause these meters to react with very high levels, even though your ear doesn’t necessarily perceive it that way.
This is why many prefer old style VU meters with needles when evaluating relational loudness, as they show an average level over a short amount of time instead of reacting instantly to all of the energy in the sound. While Wwise doesn’t have a VU needle meter, you can change the response speed of the Meter to something called RMS (Root Mean Square), which is an averaging style of meter.
Even better, the Meter view doesn’t have to be connected to the Master Audio Bus. It can be assigned to any of the objects in the Master-Mixer Hierarchy, providing an opportunity to have a large hi-resolution RMS meter on any Audio Bus.
Take a closer look by expanding the Meter view.
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Drag the left edge of the Meter view to expand its size.
At the top you’ll see the number 1 displayed in a box. This is the Sync Group that the Meter is displaying. A Sync Group is like a preset for a Meter assignment as well as its response type. There are 4 Sync Groups available so that you can quickly switch between metering 4 preferred objects in the Master-Mixer Hierarchy. Since the Master Audio Bus represents the final output of Wwise, including the sound effects and the music, it makes sense to keep it assigned to Sync Group 1. Now you’ll assign the Music Audio Bus to Sync Group 2, so you always have a way to isolate metering for the final music output.
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Click the Sync Group button and choose Meter Sync Group 2.
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Drag the Music Audio Bus to the Meter.
To get a sense of the average level of the music, change its meter type to RMS.
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Adjust the meter mode to RMS.
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Play the music and observe the differences between the Music Audio Bus meter displayed in the Mixing Desk and the Meter view.
![[Note]](/images/wwise201/?source=wwise201&id=note.png)
You may need to expand the Mixing Desk view to see the dB values displayed at the top of the meters as shown in the following image.
You’ll see that the display in the Meter view doesn’t appear to go as high in value as the meter in the Mixing Desk, but this doesn’t mean that the volume is lower. The lower meter positions are simply because the short term transients no longer cause the meter to react as quickly.
![[Tip]](/images/wwise201/?source=wwise201&id=tip.png)
You can bring up dedicated Meter views by going to the main menu and choosing View > Meter and then the specific Sync Group you’d like to see.