Metering
PAFL LED Meter
The 12 segment LED metering on the surface of the SQ to the right of the touchscreen displays level metering for the PAFL bus, so will always show metering for what is being sent to the headphone output.
By default, with no PAFL keys active, this displays the main LR mix level.
ⓘ The PAFL LED indicator below the 12 segment LED illuminates when a PAFL routing key or button is active anywhere in the mixer.
Input/FX/Mix/USB Meters
The first four tabs on the ‘Meters’ screen show ‘Input Meters’, ‘FX Meters’, ‘Mix Meters’ and ‘USB Meters’.
• The main coloured meters display levels from -40dB to +10dB.
• Gain reduction meters show level reduction from 0dB to -30dB, this is red/bright red when the compressor is switched in and grey/white when it is switched out.
• The gate active indicators are red/bright red when the gate is switched in and grey/white when the gate is switched out.
Input Meters –
Touch and drag up and down to view all channels in the Input Meters screen.
Touch the Input Meter Source to choose the metering point for all input channels.
Post Preamp = meter is sourced directly after the preamp.
Post EQ = meter is sourced directly after the PEQ.
Post Compressor = meter is sourced directly after the compressor.
Post Delay/AMM = meter is sourced after all processing.
ⓘ Note that meter source settings also affect the Chromatic Channel Metering.
FX Meters –
Includes the dedicated FX Send busses and stereo FX Return channels.
Mix Meters –
Touch the Mix Meter Source to choose the metering point for mix channels.
Post Bus + Ext In = meter is sourced after all channels have been summed, including the mix external input.
Post GEQ = meter is sourced directly after the GEQ.
Post PEQ = meter is sourced directly after the PEQ.
Post Compressor = meter is sourced directly after the compressor.
Post Delay/Fader = meter is sourced after all processing and fader.
ⓘ Note that meter source settings also affect the Chromatic Channel Metering.
USB Meters –
• ‘USB Inputs’ show levels on the USB stream coming into the SQ, and labels these with the highest numbered channel or socket they have been patched to.
• ‘USB Inputs’ show either the meters coming from USB-B (SQ-Drive not in use for playback) or those from SQ-Drive (SQ-Drive is being used for playback).
• ‘USB Outputs’ shows the level and source of signals being sent to USB and SQ-Drive.
ⓘ USB Meters always display the maximum 32 channels of inputs and outputs but only the first 16 apply for SQ-Drive when USB sample rate is set to 96kHz.
Chromatic Channel Metering
The Chromatic Channel Metering displays the information of a high-resolution meter in the space of a single LED. It can depict a much greater range of levels than a traditional meter and behaviour is customisable in the ‘Channel Meters’ tab.
ⓘ The Chromatic Channel Meter source matches the meter source point selected for Input and Mix Meters.
• Touch an ‘Audio Level’ value and adjust using the touchscreen rotary.
ⓘ ‘Audio Level’ values are bound by the level setting of states above and below.
• Touch a colour for an ‘Audio Signal State’ and use the touchscreen rotary to adjust the colour/s for this level range.
Colours = White, Red, Orange, Orange/Yellow, Yellow, Green, Green/Blue, Blue, Blue/Red, Off.
• Touch the ‘Intensity’ value to choose the behaviour of the meters.
Fixed = meter switches instantly between states.
Variable 1 = Meter changes close to the endpoints of its range.
Variable 2 = Meter changes across the whole range.
• Touch the ‘Restore to Defaults’ button to restore settings:
| Upper Nominal | > | +12.0dB | Orange | Variable 2 |
| Nominal | > | +3.0dB | Orange/Yellow | Variable 2 |
| Lower Nominal | > | -20.0dB | Green | Variable 2 |
| Signal Presence | > | -40.0dB | Green/Blue | Variable 2 |
| Active ‘Open Mic’ | > | -50.0dB | Blue | Variable 2 |
| Inactive | < | N/A | N/A | N/A |
RTA’s
There are two Real Time Analysers in the SQ. One is shown in the Meters screen (the ‘Meters RTA’) and the other can be displayed in PEQ or GEQ processing screens and/or shown using Chromatic Channel Metering when in GEQ ‘Fader Flip’ mode (the ‘Channel RTA’).
RTA – Meters Screen –
By default, the Meters screen ‘RTA Souce’ is set to ‘PAFL’ to match what is being sent to the headphone output and 12 segment LED meter. The source can also be switched to a specific fixed channel if desired.
• The most prominent frequency is shown in red.
• Mono mode displays L+R.
• Touch switches or values to select from options or make adjusts using the touchscreen rotary.
Source = PAFL or Fixed Channel.
Fixed Channel = Any input or mix channel.
Mono/Stereo = Stereo 31 band 1/3rd Octave or Mono 61 band 1/6th Octave.
Trim = Raise or lower the metering level.
Average Slow to Fast = Adjusts the effective number of samples used by the average (bar) meters.
Max/Peak Slow to Fast = Adjusts the effective number of samples used by the max/peak indicators.
Max-Off-Peak = Max displays the higher of either average or peak, Peak always displays peak (which may be lower than the average meters).
LF Damping = When enabled, response is gradually dampened towards the lowest frequency band, to better represent LF output energy.
RTA – PEQ Screen –
The 61 band PEQ RTA uses automatic gain control (pre-trim) to display useful relative levels of frequencies on the PEQ graph. By default, it is sourced from the selected channel and is shown on all input and mix channels.
The average meters for the PEQ RTA can either be displayed as bars, with each meter’s centre aligned with the frequency it represents, or as a line.
• If the RTA Source is using the ‘Fixed Channel’ option and is different to the currently selected channel, the RTA Source channel is displayed at the top right.
• If the RTA for a different channel is displayed because it has been selected by another device (e.g. SQ-MixPad), the RTA source is shown at the top right with a ‘!’ prefix and the RTA meters will be greyed out.
• When displaying bars, the most prominent frequency is shown in red.
• Stereo sources display metering for L+R.
• Touch switches or values to select from options or make adjusts using the touchscreen rotary.
Source = Selected Channel or Fixed Channel.
Follow this device = When enabled, selecting a channel on this device will also select the Channel RTA source
Fixed Channel selection = Any input or mix channel.
Trim = Raise or lower the metering level.
Opacity = Adjusts the opacity of the RTA metering
Average Slow to Fast = Adjusts the effective number of samples used by the average (bar or line) meters.
Bar-Line = Display multiple bars or a single line.
Max/Peak Slow to Fast = Adjusts the effective number of samples used by the max/peak indicators.
Max-Off-Peak = Max displays the higher of either average or peak, Peak always displays peak (which may be lower than the average meters).
LF Damping = When enabled, response is gradually dampened towards the lowest frequency band, to better represent LF output energy.
• Touch the ‘PEQ’ button to return to the PEQ settings.
RTA – GEQ Screen –
The 28 band GEQ RTA uses automatic gain control (pre-trim) to display useful relative levels of frequencies for each band of the Graphic EQ. By default, it is sourced from the selected mix channel.
• If the RTA for a different channel is being displayed through use of the ‘Fixed Channel’ option, the RTA source is shown at the top right.
• If the RTA for a different channel is displayed because it has been selected by SQ-MixPad, the RTA source is shown at the top right with a ‘!’ prefix and the RTA meters will not be visible.
• The most prominent frequency is shown in red.
• Stereo sources display metering for L+R.
Source = Selected Channel or Fixed Channel.
Follow this device = When enabled, selecting a channel on this device will also select the Channel RTA source
Fixed Channel selection = Any input or mix channel.
Trim = Raise or lower the metering level.
Opacity = Adjusts the opacity of the RTA metering
Average Slow to Fast = Adjusts the effective number of samples used by the average (bar) meters.
Max/Peak Slow to Fast = Adjusts the effective number of samples used by the max/peak indicators.
Max-Off-Peak = Max displays the higher of either average or peak, Peak always displays peak (which may be lower than the average meters).
LF Damping = When enabled, response is gradually dampened towards the lowest frequency band, to better represent LF output energy.
RTA – GEQ ‘Fader Flip’ –
When in GEQ ‘Fader Flip’ mode, if the PEQ/GEQ RTA is displaying the currently selected mix (i.e. the mix being controlled by the faders) then the Chromatic Channel Meters will display the level of each frequency band above the fader that controls it. The most prominent frequency is also displayed using the Pk LED’s.
If the PEQ/GEQ RTA is displaying a different channel to the one selected, the Chromatic Channel Meters and Pk LED’s will not illuminate.
Other Metering
• Detailed metering is displayed after each processing ‘block’ and is particularly useful for checking gain staging.
• SQ-Drive metering on the multitrack screen displays either the signal being sent to, or the signal returning from the SQ-Drive, depending on state (recording/playback).
Peak and multi-point peak metering –
As long as a peaking channel has been assigned to a channel strip, there is always visibility of any peaking on the SQ surface to allow potentially destructive peaking anywhere within a channel to be found as follows:
• If a channel is peaking on a channel strip on an inactive layer, the layer selection key will illuminate red.
• With the layer selected, the red peak (Pk) LED on each channel strip uses multi-point sensing to display peaking anywhere in that channel’s processing path.
• By selecting the channel, the red peak (Pk) LED’s next to dedicated processing controls (Preamp, PEQ, GEQ, Compressor) will illuminate when signal reaches -3dBFS at the meter directly following that processing ‘block’. 0dBFS is absolute maximum, so the Pk LED indicates the signal is close to digital clipping at that point.