BJR Labs - Stereo Analog VU Meter (RMS)

Boris Ribov - developer from Bulgaria. Hardware & Software

About this plugin...

"From many years ago I searched for a program that can exactly and realy simulate Analog VU level meter. I test many programs and I come to a conclusion thah there is no basic know-how about Analogue Level Meters. So I decided to write my own PLYGUN for Winamp..."

Boris Ribov - software programmer. Developmen & Hardware conceptions. Electronics and Analogue sustems.

FAQ:

Q: What is "Stereo Analog VU meter"? Why I must use it?
A: VU-Meter is not only a pretty plugin. This is a powerful plugin for control level of music phonogram (sound track). It has "old school" style and behaviour exactly like real VU-meters. When use it you can control Winamp EQ preamp volume. That way you can minimize inlinear and inregular distorsions. For best music quality use this VU-meter! For more details see section USE.

Q: Can I make my own VU interface?
A: Yes. The latest version is SKIN based. It meens that you can draw your own backgrounds and panels. All skin pictures must be in BMP format and in same directory. Then you can choose skin directory by right mouse click on VU window and go to the PANEL button. You are able to set starting, ending, and base needle possition, needle width and heigh and some other panel parameters. For more information see section SKINS!

Q: What is RMS? Why VU meter must have RMS mode?
A: RMS is a type of indicator which can registrate loudness of sound. This value is important for chanel balance. If loudness is higer than nominal value, the distorsion factor is big. Especially in MP3 where sound decoder is loses based the distorsion factor is critical. In all loses methods there is no equal between input (encoder) stream and output (decoder) streem. The output streem is calculated using interpolation and prediction.

After SETUP process you need:

Select VISUZLIZATION option by selecting VISUALIZATION from maim menu on Winamp or siply click Ctrl-K from keyboard!
After that you must select "BJR Labs - Stereo Analog VU Meter (RMS) v 1.51".
For more information just click CONFIGURE button.
Select VU mode between:

Stereo Analog VU Meter - RMS
Small Integrated Analog VU

The correct configuration is shown in the next figure:

Configuration dialog

Small VU - common view with WINAMP player and SKIN use:

The design of this skin is copyright (c) 2000 by Tom Klepl. All Rights Reserved.
For full interface compatibility with VU meter, please download "WinAMP Millenium Edition ELITE" skin from www.winamp.com or just make your own! "Millenium Edition ELITE" is the best skin that I ever seen.

By right mouse click on VU windows area you will find next configuration dialog:

This helps you to configure position of VU window, panel style and other alternatives. If you want to make your own VU panel or skin, you must put all panel files in one directory and after that to choose it by pressing PANEL button. Then next dialog box will guide you to choose VU skin directory:

Enjoy it!

Common use application:

Use this plugin to contrrol and tune PREAMP level of Winamp EQUALIZER. Tune the level until evidence of VU scale is near -1dB but not more than 0dB!

LEGEND:

Left chanel VU panel
Right chanel VU panel
Left needle
Right Needle
Left Clip indicator
Right Clip indicator
Close button
VU plugin window
PEAK indicator +0dB
PEAK indicator +1dB
PEAK indicator +2dB
PEAK indicator +3dB
PEAK indicator +4dB
PEAK indicator +6dB
PEAK indicator +8dB

USE:

Be sure to keep PEAK value lower than +6dB and lower than 0dB on PANEL scale! This will decrease distorsions when you are playing MP3 songs!

SKINS:

Example skin files are in

...\WINAMP\PLUGINS\VU_METER\SKINS\DEFAULT

There are several files. The VU_SKIN.INI file is configuration file for some VU parameters. In 'COMMON' section there are some comment parameters for author name, copyright and so on... In others section there are parameters for needle rotation. You may change them to correct needle movement and to adjust it to your BMP panel style.

Function and name of BMP files:

big.bmp - This is a background for big VU
panel_day.bmp - This is a small panel bitmap. Note that this is not all small VU window background!
panel_night.bmp - This is a night style small panel bitmap. At this moment it is unused (reserved for future versions).
window.bmp - Background for small VU window without small VU panel picture.

Parameters in the configuration VU file:

[Common]

Name = THUNDER PRODUCTIONS & BJR Labs.
Author = Jean-Guy Dolbec & Boris Ribov
Comment = Sample Panel Skin

[Small]

Start_Angle = 50
0dB_Angle = 105
End_Angle = 130

[Big]

Start_Angle = 50
0dB_Angle = 115
End_Angle = 130

PUBLISH YOUR PANEL OR SKIN!

When you make VU skin or panel you may publish it in Internet. Just send it to me on the following E-Mail

lz1bjr@yahoo.com

with subject "VU-PANEL". After review every panel will be published in VU-Meter home page, which can be found at:

http://vu.bjr-labs.com

THANKS!

Thanks to all who helped me to make this plugin. Thanks to all who send me feedbacks for any detected problems and errors.

Special thanks to Jean-Guy Dolbec for giving me some good ideas and help me about VU interface.

Rrequirement:

The parameters on development & test PC system were:

CPU : PII (Klamath) 333Mhz - 512kb cache
RAM : 230Mb (but it requite just 1-2Mb of system memory)
VIDEO controler : S3 Savage 3D - 8Mb RAM (video accelerator)
other system parameters are not critical

Minimal System Requirement

After many system tests on different platforms it was founded that the plugin works with

CPU : Pentium (MMX) 166 Mhz - 512kb cache on board
RAM : 16Mb (but it requite just 1-2Mb of system memory)
VIDEO controler : S3 common video board with 1 Mb RAM (not necesary to be video accelerator)
other system parameters are not critical

It workwell on P-IV, P-III, P-II (Celeron with 128kb cache or without cache), AMD K6, K6-2 with 3D-Now, AMD K7, Athlon & Duron...

Interface