Level meters overview

To monitor audio amplitude, use the level meters. When you edit individual files, meters appear only in the toolbar. When you mix multitrack files, meters in the toolbar display overall levels, while meters in the Editor panel display track levels.

For stereo files, the upper meter represents the left channel, and the lower meter represents the right channel. For surround-sound (5.1) files, six meters represent the following channels from top to bottom: Left, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround, Center, and LFE.

Level meters for stereo file

A.

Left channel

B.

Right channel

C.

Peak indicator

D.

Clip indicators

The meters show signal levels in dBFS (decibels below full scale), where a level of 0 dB is the maximum amplitude possible before clipping occurs. All levels below that maximum are expressed as negative numbers.

To identify amplitude at a specific point in the meters, position the mouse over that point, and note the value in the tool tip. To the right of the meters, Soundbooth indicates the peak level since playback last began. If clipping occurs, this value is replaced by the word Over, and red clip indicators appear in the meters.

To clear clip indicators and peak amplitude values, click them, or right-click the meters and choose Reset Meters.