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Yes, this is a Combinator with a WORKING VU meter (kinda of...)



Had so much fun with this one!

Check out the video of it working:


Of course I had to use the only buttons available that minimally resemble a "needle" (more of a pointer though...)
AND I also had to resort to loopMIDI to achieve this effect but I am sincerely hoping Reason Studio Devs address this situation soon so we will have this and many other possibilities available without resorting to 3rd party software.

Anyone willing to try this I leave here the combinator file:

VU-Meter.zip

[EDIT]
Beware that for this trick to work:
- you will need to install Tobias Erichson's loopMIDI: https://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html
- you will have to manually map the 2 needle buttons to loopMIDI Channel 1 CC 100 and CC 101.

ATTENTION: loopMIDI is a windows app so this will work well in Windows 10. For Mac users, I don't have experience but here are the common instructions on how to make a MIDI loop:

"Setting up Midi ports (loopback) of a Mac.

The IAC bus allows you to create any number of virtual MIDI buses. This driver is built-in to OS X (since OS X 10.4) and can be activated in the Audio/MIDI Setup Utility.

To begin, launch Audio/MIDI Setup and select "Show MIDI Window" from the "Window" menu.

Now double-click the IAC Driver icon and check the option "Device is online" in order to activate it.

Add the ports you need from within this window."
[/EDIT]

Have fun!

Yeah, I'm hoping for some indication meters as well. Even just a little four segment audio indicator, or heck... just a red audio activity dot, would be useful.

Lol nice idea!

Didn't checked it yet, but why loopMIDI?
Coukdnt you just have a audio to CV triggering the needles?

That is really nice thinking! Well played, nemesjs.

It's great to see so many creative ideas being stimulated by the new combi.

Loque wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

Lol nice idea!

Didn't checked it yet, but why loopMIDI?
Coukdnt you just have a audio to CV triggering the needles?

Thanks! That I know of this is the only way to make a panel element of a combinator show movement or activity: by mapping it to an hardware controller or to a loopMIDI CC channel. If you try this from REs inside the combinator the movement or activity does not reflect both ways.
But if you can find another way without resorting to loopMIDI please tell me how

Gardinski wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

That is really nice thinking! Well played, nemesjs.

It's great to see so many creative ideas being stimulated by the new combi.

Thanks! Check out the other VU meter I just posted, this time with LED stripes!

MixerJaexx wrote: ↑

02 Sep 2021

Yeah, I'm hoping for some indication meters as well. Even just a little four segment audio indicator, or heck... just a red audio activity dot, would be useful.

Hopefully we will have a lot more feature in the forthcoming iterations of the development of this new combinator.
Meanwhile check out this other 2 channel VU meter I just posted, this time with LED stripes!

Nice workaround - how’s it look if you use sliders?

Is there a way to "slow it down" to get an average response? Via some kind of CV sorcery maybe?

selig wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

Nice workaround - how’s it look if you use sliders?

Thanks a lot! I tried with sliders and it works the same: The slider goes up and down as expected.
Also, I made another version with buttons simulating a LED stripe that I think came up pretty well. You can check it out in the respective topic here: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=7524466

Anyway I want to also say thank you for a Re you developed back in 2015
Selig Gain: https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... elig-gain/
It's awesome and I love it!

bxbrkrz wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

Is there a way to "slow it down" to get an average response? Via some kind of CV sorcery maybe?

So, I made use of a fundamental Re that allows this effect to be achieved:

Red Rock Sound | RE 180 Dynamic Driver

I believe I already tried to average the signals out a bit by using some of the available parameters:



By maxing them out (as showed in the image above) you get a much more average response, I suppose, or better put: a more slow/damped movement of the "needles".

nemesjs wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

bxbrkrz wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

Is there a way to "slow it down" to get an average response? Via some kind of CV sorcery maybe?

So, I made use of a fundamental Re that allows this effect to be achieved:

Red Rock Sound | RE 180 Dynamic Driver

I believe I already tried to average the signals out a bit by using some of the available parameters:



By maxing them out (as showed in the image above) you get a much more average response, I suppose, or better put: a more slow/damped movement of the "needles".

Great. Your project made me aware of something I've never thought looking into: the motion and speed differences between analog VUs, on various mixing consoles, and standalone.

nemesjs wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

selig wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

Nice workaround - how’s it look if you use sliders?

Thanks a lot! I tried with sliders and it works the same: The slider goes up and down as expected.
Also, I made another version with buttons simulating a LED stripe that I think came up pretty well. You can check it out in the respective topic here: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=7524466

Anyway I want to also say thank you for a Re you developed back in 2015
Selig Gain: https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... elig-gain/
It's awesome and I love it!

You're welcome, I couldn't live without it myself!
I saw the LED trick and it inspired me to try my own version, since I already had an 8 way panner in Thor. And I'm assuming there no way around using loopback MIDI, right?

bxbrkrz wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

nemesjs wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

So, I made use of a fundamental Re that allows this effect to be achieved:

Red Rock Sound | RE 180 Dynamic Driver

I believe I already tried to average the signals out a bit by using some of the available parameters:



By maxing them out (as showed in the image above) you get a much more average response, I suppose, or better put: a more slow/damped movement of the "needles".

Great. Your project made me aware of something I've never thought looking into: the motion and speed differences between analog VUs, on various mixing consoles, and standalone.

I was using Thor for conversion, and all you need is to add a LP filter with a very low frequency (which you can do by driving frequency down into sub-sonic range via a Rotary in the mod matrix).
You're looking for an integration time of 300ms, equal to using 300 ms attack/release on an envelope follower or compressor. That will get you super close to the ballistics of a VU meter, depending on the curve of the attack/release.
The pro of using the filter/lag is it ensures equal attack/release times/curves, the down side is you need to figure out the actual time response yourself, which is easy to do by printing the signal to an audio track where you can "measure" it.
For starters you would also try Pulveriser with attack/release both set around 1-2 o'clock - but there's a bit of lag/delay with the follower in Pulveriser, but that may not matter for a VU meter which is "lagging" by design!

selig wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

nemesjs wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

Thanks a lot! I tried with sliders and it works the same: The slider goes up and down as expected.
Also, I made another version with buttons simulating a LED stripe that I think came up pretty well. You can check it out in the respective topic here: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=7524466

Anyway I want to also say thank you for a Re you developed back in 2015
Selig Gain: https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... elig-gain/
It's awesome and I love it!

You're welcome, I couldn't live without it myself!
I saw the LED trick and it inspired me to try my own version, since I already had an 8 way panner in Thor. And I'm assuming there no way around using loopback MIDI, right?

Yeah, as far as I know unfortunately there is no other way. Anyway people must keep in mind this is just a trick and is meant foremost to gather some attention to this and create a need among users so hopefully that will make Reason Devs take an eye on this and come up with a sleek and smart solution.

Using loopMIDI is absolutely un-pratical and that I know of, mappings of combinator panel elements to outside sources like loopMIDI are not saved when saving the combinator patch...

selig wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

bxbrkrz wrote: ↑

03 Sep 2021

Great. Your project made me aware of something I've never thought looking into: the motion and speed differences between analog VUs, on various mixing consoles, and standalone.

I was using Thor for conversion, and all you need is to add a LP filter with a very low frequency (which you can do by driving frequency down into sub-sonic range via a Rotary in the mod matrix).
You're looking for an integration time of 300ms, equal to using 300 ms attack/release on an envelope follower or compressor. That will get you super close to the ballistics of a VU meter, depending on the curve of the attack/release.
The pro of using the filter/lag is it ensures equal attack/release times/curves, the down side is you need to figure out the actual time response yourself, which is easy to do by printing the signal to an audio track where you can "measure" it.
For starters you would also try Pulveriser with attack/release both set around 1-2 o'clock - but there's a bit of lag/delay with the follower in Pulveriser, but that may not matter for a VU meter which is "lagging" by design!

I remember the dawn of time (before Reason 6) when almost any questions was answered by using Reason only.
Respect

I have an LA2A Combinator that you could add your VU meter to! It is here if you can add your VU to it...

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/19phdvjnt19u ... UW-ba?dl=0

I must say new combinator is a very cool thing that I had not dared to hope RS would develop. I am glad they bring this tool for creativity within the user community.

next level stuff that!

RickRaw wrote: ↑

15 Oct 2021

I have an LA2A Combinator that you could add your VU meter to! It is here if you can add your VU to it...

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/19phdvjnt19u ... UW-ba?dl=0

Thanks! I did just that but with a SURPRISE!
Just watch this new video I just uploaded:



Had to re-scale and do some work on your VU meter display because the knobs currently available on the Combinator are very small and one cannot alter the width and height of the PNG strip file I had to replace in Reason 12 graphic cache to achieve this trick. That's because Reason engine just fetches a new copy of it from the server...

Note: this is just a trick done for the fun of it. I have no intention of further messing around with the contents of Reason files cache. It serves only as a demonstration of how cool it could be if one could have elements animated on the Combinator panel according to CV signals received and also if the users could upload new PNG strips to Reason Studios server to create new panel elements beside the ones provided - those would gain a proper ID and could be used by any Reason 12 user! Just like a web image store site like imgbb.com for ex.

AttenuationHz wrote: ↑

17 Oct 2021

next level stuff that!

Thanks AttenuationHz ! Just minutes ago I took it one level further and placed a VU meter needle instead of the combinator knob as you can read and see on the video I refer on the post above this one

nemesjs wrote: ↑

18 Oct 2021

AttenuationHz wrote: ↑

17 Oct 2021

next level stuff that!

Thanks AttenuationHz ! Just minutes ago I took it one level further and placed a VU meter needle instead of the combinator knob as you can read and see on the video I refer on the post above this one

Awesome! That's what I was thinking you might be able to do, but I see you found your way. Would be cool if there was a custom knob you could use instead of having to edit one of the assets. It would sort the problem of replacing that knob. As well as this it would be easier to accomplish if the mix channel still had the programmer for this type of thing. Lights could be done the same way, assign each frame to a slider.