Levels, VU Metering & monitoring

VU ("volume unit") metering is a useful tool to ensure the levels coming into the audio input are not too soft, nor too loud. This is important for both sampling from the audio input, as well as using external audio as oscillators in the synthesizer and DJ FX looping.

To enabled or disable VU metering and incoming audio monitoring, while in the sampler or vocoder, press the play button.You should hear any incoming audio mixed down to mono. In the case of the vocoder, you should hear the vocoded audio, rather than the original audio. Since the sampler records only audio in mono, mixing down to mono can reveal any phasing issues.

• Levels that are too soft may need lots of digital amplification, which may result in a noisier end result.
• Levels that are too loud will cause "clipping" (where the level is so loud that your Woovebox can no longer accurate measure it, which can result in crackles pops or bursts of noise).

Interpreting and using the VU the metering

The VU metering occupies the bottom half the screen and displays the incoming signal's amplitude for the left (upper strip) and right (lower strip) channels. LEDs are lit up from left (inaudible) to right (very loud / clipping) depending on how loud the signal is in each channel. Any maximums (spikes in the signal) will remain lit for 1 second.

Ideally, you should change the output level on the source so that the right-most LED for a channel is lit up rarely by spikes, while the remaining LEDs are lit up.

If you see a steady signal, but are not hearing anything, this can mean that there is a bias in the signal; a small voltage offset that is always present in the signal. This would require further trouble-shooting, for example by changing a faulty cable or solving grounding or ground loop issues.

Finally, please note that VU metering is not reflected in the Wooveconnect device mirroring for reasons of bandwidth reduction.