In Summary

Although most DAWs have their own way of bypassing chains of audio plugins for decision-making, none do what is really needed for meaningful choices: loudness and delay-compensated monitoring. We check out one tool that can do it all…

Going Deeper

The Loudness Deception

In most cases, our beloved audio processing (be it in plugin or hardware form) is there to make things sound better. What better actually is is down to the engineer to decide, but there are some pitfalls when making those decisions. One is loudness; processing invariably changes the loudness to some extent, and as most know, the ear is predisposed towards liking louder things. We can use devices’ output level to offset this, but juggling their levels whilst trying to ignore delay-induced jumps isn’t ideal.

MeterPlugs Perception AB

There are a number of ways to A-B test between processing states, although the ease with which that can be done with chains of audio plugins can vary from DAW to DAW. Doing that without audio dropouts from audio plugin latency, and without unintended changes in level as well isn’t always straightforward.

Perception AB from MeterPlugs is an audio comparison tool for either mixing, mastering or both. Using Pre and Post instances that straddle either end of an audio plugin chain, Perception AB gives engineers not only a way to compare with and without processing, but also to do so with seamless level matched audio without dropouts from plugin delay.

Perception AB lets you:

• Compare before and after with level-matching.

• Quickly A/B test effects with plugin delay compensation.

• A/B test individual channels in the context of the whole mix.

• Hear what your processing really sounds like.

• Compare with reference tracks at online streaming levels.

Ian Shepherd, creator of Perception AB explains the thinking behind it:

Perception AB instantly and automatically matches the level of the music you're listening to, allowing you to hear past the “loudness deception” and make clear, real-world decisions about the best possible sound for your music, quickly and easily. You can bypass entire processing chains to make before and after comparisons of EQ settings, compression and more while mixing or mastering. You can even bypass external analogue gear!

In the video we show how Perception AB can be used across masters, before delving into the possibilities it can bring for interrogating track processors’ effects as well. We show how its loudness matching ensures less biassed decision-making, and how its delay compensation between Pre and Post instances can avoid jarring jumps during playback. We also show how multiple instances of Perception AB can talk to each other to achieve multiple track bypass in a single click.

Perception AB Key Features:

• Bypass any processing chain.

• Fast A/B testing.

• Automatic loudness matching.

• Plugin delay compensation.

• Optimized for mixing - new Bypass All function.

• Multiple loudness matching modes.

• Easy bulk insertion.