mzuther/k-meter

K-System loudness meter according to Bob Katz' specifications

K-Meter

Implementation of a K-System meter according to Bob Katz’ specifications.

About

K-Meter supports mono, stereo and 5.1 surround sound signals. All meters have been thoroughly validated. The average meter reads either RMS levels or ITU BS.1770-1 loudness weighted levels.

K-Meter was featured in an article by NPR Labs. Also, some users have reported that they use K-Meter for teaching, while others use it professionally such as in post-production.

Download

K-Meter can be downloaded in the releases section (you may need to click on "Assets").

I have dropped LV2 plug-in support for good. However, you can still use LV2 - just download version v2.8.1.

Documentation

For documentation, licenses and further information, please see the manual and the directory doc.

FAQ

K-Meter crashes when the plug-in is loaded / opened

1. K-Meter requires a processor which supports the SSE2 instruction set (if you run at Windows 8 and above, it does). On Windows, you might also have to install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2017.

2. K-Meter comes with a folder called kmeter. This folder must be located in the same folder as the plug-in, so please copy it along and try again!

Where are the LV2 plug-ins?

• The last release with LV2 plug-ins was version v2.8.1. You can still download them from the "Releases" page.

The stand-alone version does not work

• Unfortunately, I cannot do anything about it as I did not code this part of the application. The stand-alone works well for me - try using another sound card or deleting the settings file.

Code of conduct

Please read the code of conduct before asking for help, filing bug reports or contributing to this project. Thanks!

License

Copyright (c) 2010-2022 Martin Zuther

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Thank you for using free software!

VST2 plug-ins

Technically, my VST2 plug-ins are not free software. However, I chose to provide them for your convenience. All other binaries really are free software in the sense of the Free Software Foundation.

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries.

k-meter's Issues

Implement ITU loudness weighting

Bob Katz asked me to implement ITU BS.1770 loudness weighting. So let's tackle it...

64-bit K-Meter 2.6.1 VST does not show in Ableton Live, and the stand-alone version crashes.

Hi,

I have Windows 7 64-bit, and using my 64-bit version of Live, the VST configuration of K-Meter 2.6.1 does not show in the plug-in browser. Version 2.2.0 works however. Also, the stand-alone 64-bit version of K-Meter 2.6.1 does not work on my system, it crashes upon launching the application.

Cheers!

LADSPA plug-in?

I would like to use K-Meter in Audacious but unfortunately it only supports LADSPA (and not VST).

Is there any chance that there'll be a LADSPA version of K-Meter in the future?

Expanded Meters

Can you please tell me, what it is with the marked: 'expanded' skin files on it? Is there any finer representation in 'discrete' mode?

Greetings.

Support surround sound

Keith Hersch has asked me to support surround sound (such as 5.1). Shouldn't be too hard to do, although validation might be a little tedious.

Could you please make a LV2 version ?

I was a recent happy user of kmeter using an unofficial LV2 version (that was temporary)... and now it is gone :(
Maybe you could make an official LV2 version ? I don't know how it is doable but according to the discussion here it sounds fairly easy : http://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=11021
Do you think you could make a LV2 version ?

Updating JACK client name...

Thanks for K-Meter. I'm using it in conjunction with Blender when video editing.

I'm wondering if/when you build another version of K-Meter you could update the JACK client name from "JUCEJack" to "K-Meter". This would help when connecting standalone applications inside of JACK Audio Connection Kit. Some other apps have forgotten to change the JACK client name and are labelled "JUCEJack".

Thank you in advance.

K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe not starting Win8.1

I cannot get K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe to run in Win8.1 64bit
I have changed my sound card driver recently
K-Meter (Surround x64).exe will start!
windows events as follows
.....
Application error
......
Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 16/03/2015 3:43:52 PM
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: (100)
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: rodsLT
Description:
Faulting application name: K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x51a661c4
Faulting module name: K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x51a661c4
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000001f4a
Faulting process id: 0x105e4
Faulting application start time: 0x01d05fa3cd6b3275
Faulting application path: C:\Users\rsammut\Desktop\K\kmeter-standalone_1.31\kmeter-standalone_1.31\K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
Faulting module path: C:\Users\rsammut\Desktop\K\kmeter-standalone_1.31\kmeter-standalone_1.31\K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
Report Id: 0b284c0d-cb97-11e4-8290-303a648dfc6f
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:
Event Xml:



1000
2
100
0x80000000000000

29315
Application
rodsLT



K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
0.0.0.0
51a661c4
K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
0.0.0.0
51a661c4
c0000005
0000000000001f4a
105e4
01d05fa3cd6b3275
C:\Users\rsammut\Desktop\K\kmeter-standalone_1.31\kmeter-standalone_1.31\K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
C:\Users\rsammut\Desktop\K\kmeter-standalone_1.31\kmeter-standalone_1.31\K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
0b284c0d-cb97-11e4-8290-303a648dfc6f

.........
Windows error reporting
.....
Log Name: Application
Source: Windows Error Reporting
Date: 16/03/2015 3:43:53 PM
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: rodsLT
Description:
Fault bucket 112882388, type 4
Event Name: APPCRASH
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
P2: 0.0.0.0
P3: 51a661c4
P4: K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
P5: 0.0.0.0
P6: 51a661c4
P7: c0000005
P8: 0000000000001f4a
P9:
P10:

Attached files:
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDB01.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDF28.tmp.appcompat.txt
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDF29.tmp.dmp
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDF79.tmp.WERDataCollectionFailure.txt

These files may be available here:
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_K-Meter (Stereo _50eec9b75fbe54aa8558b4f1e3540b3dcd0d1f8_a88e5193_0605df76

Analysis symbol:
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: 0b284c0d-cb97-11e4-8290-303a648dfc6f
Report Status: 4104
Hashed bucket: f0e24aafec7833ca579d2b73e4a9d8b6
Event Xml:



1001
4
0
0x80000000000000

29316
Application
rodsLT



112882388
4
APPCRASH
Not available
0
K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
0.0.0.0
51a661c4
K-Meter (Stereo x64).exe
0.0.0.0
51a661c4
c0000005
0000000000001f4a





C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDB01.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDF28.tmp.appcompat.txt
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDF29.tmp.dmp
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Temp\WERDF79.tmp.WERDataCollectionFailure.txt
C:\Users\rsammut\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_K-Meter (Stereo _50eec9b75fbe54aa8558b4f1e3540b3dcd0d1f8_a88e5193_0605df76


0
0b284c0d-cb97-11e4-8290-303a648dfc6f
4104
f0e24aafec7833ca579d2b73e4a9d8b6

Performance Issues in Reason 9.5/10

I absolutely love K-Meter and would gladly pay if it was not a free plug-in. I have not seen any other meter that is so simply and elegant.

It causes Reason to click and pop when in a project though and I can not have it constantly in Reason I have to keep adding it to check levels.

Is there any known issues with Reason or any plans to update?

Kmeter not working on Sibelius 7

Hi,

I have been using kmeter 1.30 with Sibelius 5 on Windows xp Professional (32 bit) for a long time with no issue.
Some time ago, I moved to Windows 7 x64 and Sibelius 7 (I have both x86 and x64 versions of the program installed). More recently, I attempted to use kmeter-vst_2.6.1 in both S7's platforms (copying the corresponding platform's version of kmeter to the appropriate vst folder, of course) but while it is seen during vst scanning on S7 startup, it does not appear in the vst's effects list (this happens in both platforms). I also tried version 2.20 with same result. Additionally, none of the standalone 2.6.1 versions can be installed; Windows reports an error.

Thank you in advance for your comments.

K-Meter 2.6 Not Recognized by Windows XP

Hi,

I just tried K-Meter 2.6 but, as a VST Plugin, neither Audacity 2.1.2 neither Ardour 5.3 won't let appear K-Meter as a plugin !

When you install the 2.6 stand-alone pakage, Windows XP doesn't launch it : it says :
"K-Meter is not a win32 valid application", so you can't run it.

Such a pity.

Best regards.

E-Gwen.

Performance issues while the plugin is processing silence

A user of my plugin host, OpenMPT has reported performance issues with this plugin. It seems like it will make sound output stutter and produce a high CPU load whenever its input is total silence. To me that sounds like denormals are generated somewhere in the audio processing path. Observed with both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows VST2 builds.

Implement loudness gating

Bob Katz has asked me to implement loudness gating according to ITU-R BS.1770-2.

ASIO Channel disabling

Is it possible to disable channels in ASIO? I can only change the checkboxes for my asio channels (for example, I can choose between Ch 1-2 or Ch 3-4), but it can not be disabled the specific channel itself.
(...In the case I want only get input and no output).

PS: all in all K-Meter is very cute and useful. Thanks a lot.

Edit: I am able to disable inputs via kmeter_stereo.ini now

K-Meter fails to show in Reaper

Using Reaper v5.24 on Windows 7 32bit. Installed to vst folder and rescanned several times. Does not appear in Reapers list of plugins. Below are the entries in Reaper's vst ini file - note the missing info for K-meter vs trakmeter. This suggests K-meter has failed to initialize properly. trakmeter works fine.

K_Meter__Stereo_.dll=014940D4A20BD201
K_Meter__Surround_.dll=195C53D4A20BD201
libfftw3f_3.dll=4B08E5D3A20BD201
traKmeter__Multi_.dll=5830CA1AA60BD201,1953653099,traKmeter (Multi) (Martin Zuther) (8ch)
traKmeter__Stereo_.dll=62C8FB1AA60BD201,1953653099,traKmeter (Stereo) (Martin Zuther)

RMS integration time depends on sample rate

In the current implementation of K-Meter, the RMS integration time is specified in samples and thus changes according to sample rate. That could be considered a bug.

Stand-alone crashes / Plug-in does not show in DAW

This is a collection issue that hopefully helps to fix the problem that K-Meter crashes on some Windows installations while it runs just fine on many others.

You are very welcome to help me iron this out. But let me make one thing crystal clear:

I run my own shop and my spare time is limited. K-Meter is a fun project, and I can only dedicate so much time to it. Please only join if you are dedicated to find and fix this issue which will mean quite a bit of work and research on your own! You'll also need patience.

On the other hand, I am very grateful if you help me iron this out!

I do not have access to a Windows system that exhibits the problem, otherwise it would have been fixed ages ago. To the contrary: I have tested K-Meter on six systems, from Windows 7 to 10, 32 and 64 bits, one even being vanilla (i.e. a fresh Windows 10 installation with absolutely nothing installed), and the K-Meter stand-alone ran fine on all of them.

Finally, I've got no experience in remote debugging. But I'm willing to learn... :)

Several improvements

Hi,

I'm using your K-meter application for almost 1 year and pretty like it!

Since your app is a first of all - measurement tool - it would be good to implement the next things:

1 - Show momentary value of RMS level in numberic format with refreshing, for example, every 0.5s or 0.25s as it already done for peaks.
2 - Add the ability to change the time of RMS metering and add ability to change the release time of the RMS meter and make it more fast or slow.
3 - Add the ability to callibrate the meter using coeficients.
For examle:
We have -10 dB of input signal. By specifying in seperate text field positive or negative value - we can change overall indicated level, e.q. in case if we set this value equal to -1.8 for Left and -1.6 for Right - the meter will show -10-1.8=11.8 dB for Left channel and -10-1.6=-11.6 for right channel. This will make an ability to calibrate the meter to some reference level more flexible and per channel.

Hope that, my explanation - is clear.

Thanks for the exellent product!

Good luck!

Level bar Bug

Describe the bug

The standalone K-Meter level bar doesn't work properly.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start playing music (player or whatever)
2. Start K-Meter
3. The K-Meter level bars rise up and down all the time (by fits and starts)

Expected behavior

The K-Meter level bars shouldn't display by fits and starts all the time during music play.

Screenshots

gif file with an issue attached

Environment (please complete the following information)

• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
• K-Meter v2.8.1 stand-alone (64-bit)

Did you compile K-Meter yourself? [no]

Additional context

K-Meter closes down Tracktion 5

Hi Martin,

At first. I like the K-Meter. I used it at first for digitizing audio cassettes.
For lining up I put a cassette with 400Hz @ 0dB in the cassette player,
set up the audio editor @ 0dB on the K-Meter (K14) and go!
This was done with an older Cubase version and a Presonus 1394 interface.

But. I have an Issue:

Setup:
ASUS laptop
Windows 7 Ultimate, 32 bit.
Tracktion 5.4.2. (29nov2014)
K-Meter 1.31.0 (VST3)
Mackie 1220 with Firewire interface.

I added the plugin to a channel (does not matter if it has 2 inputs or one).
In the active K-Meter plugin I clicked RMS (with that you set the meter into
stereo) and instead of showing an error Tracktion 5 is closed completely.
Just like that.
I also tried the plugin in the master section of Tracktion 5 and then everything
was OK: you can do what you want

Question:
Is it possible to add a warning and have K-Meter prevent closing down T5?

Thanks for looking into this.

Regards,

Harry

Band limiter for average section

"Regardless of the sampling rate, meter version K-20/RMS is band-limited as per SMPTE RP 200, with a flat frequency response from 20-20 kHz +/- 0.1 dB, the average section uses an RMS detector, and 0 dB is 20 dB below full scale. To maintain pink noise calibration compatibility with SMPTE proposal RP 200, the meter's bandpass will be 22 kHz maximum regardless of sample rate." (Bob Katz on http://www.digido.com/level-practices-part-2-includes-the-k-system.html)

Seems like I'll have to shell out $50 to get RP 0200-2002 (http://store.smpte.org/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=RP+0200-2002).

Meter read-out needs validation

When coding of the K-System meter has been finished, I'll have to validate the meter's read-out.

A Sonar project saved with K-meter is dead

First, thanks for this plugin, which is great.
I love Sonar but the meters are not great and needed K-Meter for K-20 / K-14 / K-12.

I tested K-Meter 64 bit VST Stereo for Windows with Sonar Platinum (= Sonar X4 64).
It works well when using it.

However, a project saved with the plugin can't be opened again, it will crash Sonar and launch FaultReporter.exe. So in effect, if you forget to remove K_Meter before saving the project, you can kiss your project goodbye.

K-Meter 1.31 LV2 suddently stopped working

K-Meter LV2 suddently stopped working yesterday, I don't know where to look.
It is quite a rough crash :

jalv.gtk http://code.mzuther.de/kmeter/stereo

lilv_world_load_bundle(): error: Error reading file:///usr/lib/lv2/cabbage_Effects-todo-withparams-MultiReverb.lv2/manifest.ttl

piles of crap like above about lilv (!?) and then :

Plugin: http://code.mzuther.de/kmeter/stereo
UI: http://code.mzuther.de/kmeter/stereo#ParentUI
JACK Name: K-Meter (Stereo)
Block length: 1024 frames
MIDI buffers: 32768 bytes
Comm buffers: 131072 bytes
Update rate: 2 Hz

lv2_freewheel = 0.000000
lv2_latency = 0.000000
metering_mode = 1.000000
averaging_algorithm = 1.000000
expand_meter = 0.000000
peak_meter = 0.000000
peak_hold = 0.000000
mono_input = 0.000000
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Do you have any idea of what I could do to help you narrow the issue ?

K-Meter fetches JACK ports improperly

Describe the bug

When configuring K-Meter (standalone) for use with JACK, the list of 'outputs' appears to be a list of client output ports and the list of 'inputs' is a list of client input ports; however, selecting an 'output' does not connect the named client's output to K-Meters input ports, but rather attempts to connect K-Meter's output port to that client's (often non-existent) input port.

Take the following image for example - 'system has both input and output ports, so it appears in both input and output dropdowns.

However, this problem becomes apparent when looking at the 'strawberry client'. This client only has output ports, but is listed in the K-Meter output dropdown as opposed to the input dropdown.

Steps to reproduce

List all steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Start K-Meter
2. Set device type to 'JACK'
3. Attempt to connect

Expected behavior

'Output' and 'Input' client lists are swapped.

Environment (please complete the following information)

• OS: Gentoo x86_64
• Plugin (not really a plugin): Precompiled K-Meter standalone for stereo (sha256: 5b021e3f007a04749774bd994b538e56b1656ffb92ba418ae8eb6c9ab9806cb2 kmeter_stereo_x64)
• JACK version: JACK2 v1.9.14 (jackdmp version 1.9.14 tmpdir /dev/shm protocol 8)

Did you compile K-Meter yourself? no, I don't want to deal with JUCE right now.

Bug: HiDPi not scaling

Describe the bug

K-Meter is not scaling with HiDPi enabled.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start kmeter with either Standalone or vst2 with HiDPi

Expected behavior

Should scale interface appropriately to screen DPI settings.

Screenshots

Environment (please complete the following information)

• OS: Linux Kernel 5.11.0-7614-generic, Pop! OS 20.10, GNOME 3.38.3, X11
• DAW: Carla2 64bit
• Plug-in: kmeter-linux64-vst2_2.8.2

Did you compile K-Meter yourself? NO

Ballistics for "highest average level"

Should the "highest average level in the last 10 seconds" be derived from the true RMS level (i.e. without ballistics) or from the slow-responding RMS level (i.e. with ballistics)? In other words, should the meter mark the highest "hidden" RMS level or the highest "visual" level?

I have already tried to contact Bob Katz, because the specs in his book "Mastering Audio the Art and the Science" (2nd ed.) and on his website (http://www.digido.com/level-practices-part-2-includes-the-k-system.html) remain unclear to me:

"Averaging section: An additional pointer above the moving average level represents the highest average level in the last ten seconds."

Icon request

It would be nice, if K-Meter builds gets an own icon.