1.0.0 - A New MiniMeters

Released: Dec 23, 2024

Highlights:

New: Added VU Meter with the following settings:

  • Calibration: Calibrate the input volume to match your target.
  • Channel Selector: Select between Left, Right, Mid (Mono), and Side.
  • Peak: Display a yellow dot when the VU Meter's level reaches the selected value in dBFS.
  • Clip: Display a red dot when the VU Meter's level reaches the selected value in dBFS.

New: VST3/AU/CLAP Plug-Ins for all of modules:

  • MiniMeters - Featuring the new Quad Layout. Plus a separate plug-in for each meter:
    • Waveform (VST3/AU/CLAP)
    • Oscilloscope (VST3/AU/CLAP)
    • Spectrogram (VST3/AU/CLAP)
    • Loudness (VST3/AU/CLAP)
    • Stereometer (VST3/AU/CLAP)
    • VU (VST3/AU/CLAP)
    • Spectrum (VST3/AU/CLAP)
    • Audio Server (VST3/AU/CLAP) - Formally MiniMetersServer

New Multiple Layouts: MiniMeters now has three available layouts:

  • Horizontal (Customizable) - As seen in all prior versions of MiniMeters. Best when used on the top or bottom of your screen.
  • New: Vertical (Customizable) - Best when used on the left or right of your monitor.
  • New: Quad (Limited Customizability) - A simple Layout with Spectrogram, Waveform, Spectrum, and Stereometer modules laid out in a grid with a handy resizer. Perfect for filling a second monitor, or for use within the new MiniMeters Plug-In.

New Presets:

  • MiniMeters can now save presets! Presets store the position and size of the windows and settings of the selected modules.
  • Toggle Auto-Save for the currently selected preset.
  • Quickly swap between different presets with the "Preset" Drop Down menu in the Toolbar.

New Audio Recording:

  • MiniMeters can now record your system audio or audio from your DAW / Plug-In Host directly.
  • This allows capturing audio from the selected audio source.
  • See your most recent recordings by Right-Clicking on the Record button in MiniMeters's toolbar.
  • Recordings are stored in 32-Bit Floating Point WAV files with the sample rate of your system or DAW (when using the Plug-In).

New Audio Clip Capturing:

  • Similar to the new Audio Recording feature, MiniMeters buffers the previous 60 seconds of audio MiniMeters and can be saved at any time.
  • Add the "Clip 10 Seconds" or "Clip 60 Seconds" drag regions in the Toolbar to capture audio and drag it directly into your DAW, Audio Editor, Discord, a File Browser, or anywhere that will accept a WAV file. (Dragging out is not currently supported on Linux)

New Color Maps:

  • Just as Themes change the color of MiniMeters's UI, a Color Map can be selected which selects a gradient to be mapped to volume in the Spectrogram and Spectrum modules, and optionally in the Waveform module.
  • Themes files can define a Color Map inline or a preferred Color Map. Selecting "Use Theme Colormap" from the Color Map selector to use this option. // FIXME: Implement.
  • MiniMeters v1.0 comes with 8 predefined maps for use.

Notable Changes to the Meters:

Waveform:

  • Now shows a Time Code overlay when used in the Plug-In or when using the Audio Server VST3/AU/CLAP Plug-In with the Standalone MiniMeters.

Loudness:

  • Added the following modes: "LUFS: Momentary", "LUFS: Short Term", "RMS: Fast", and "RMS: Slow".

Stereometer:

  • Added an optional Correlation Meter with Single and Multi-Band modes.
  • Added a Point Size option.

Spectrum:

  • Added Target Curve overlay.
    • Drag an audio file over the Spectrum module to load it as a guide.
    • Select the File, Offset, and Spread from the "Overlay" tab in the Spectrum Settings.
  • FFT Size can now be adjusted from 1024 to 16384.
  • Can now be rotated to match the orientation of other meters.
  • Added the option to use the "Mel" scale mode.

Oscilloscope:

  • Now snaps to zero crossings more accurately with minimal latency.

Spectrogram:

  • Rebuilt from the ground up to be clearer and more customizable.
    • Added a new Mode: "Sharper" which now improves the clarity in the time domain.
    • Multiple FFT Size options added: 1024, 2048, and 4096;
    • Added a simple Piano Overlay.
    • You can now select "Mel" as your preferred scale option, in addition to Linear and Log.
    • The can now select the speed of the display. This matches the speed of the Waveform module.
    • Changing the Color Map updates the whole view in realtime.

Improvements:

MiniMeters is now powered by a new graphics rendering engine.

  • MiniMeters v1.0 now uses Metal on macOS, DirectX 11 on Windows, and OpenGLES 3.0 or OpenGL Core 3.3 on Linux.

Audio Engine:

  • MiniMeters is now completely sample rate independent. Previously, MiniMeters would downsample the incoming signal to 44100Hz before displaying the audio.

General:

  • Audio Devices, Themes, Presets, etc can now contain non-ASCII letters without issue.
  • You can now disable auto-save by opening the Preset menu and deselecting "Auto-Save Settings".
  • You can now hide the Reposition Hint in the Toolbar.
  • Added minimize button to the Toolbar.
  • Added a Drag Region to the Toolbar so those who cannot hold Alt on Windows, Cmd on macOS, or Super on Linux can still move the window around.
  • Improved behavior when enabling and disabling modules. This should result in less shifting of modules.
  • MiniMeters's code for interacting with the OS has been rewritten from the ground-up for macOS, Windows, and Linux to allow for new features such as Drag and Drop.
  • MiniMeters now uses .ini files for themes and a custom format ".mms" presets and settings. These should be easier to hand edit when needed.

Operating System Specific Changes:

macOS:

  • Holding Option while launching MiniMeters will open a "Launch Settings" window with additional settings.
  • You can now use Syphon to capture MiniMeters in OBS or your favorite VJ software. More Info: https://syphon.github.io
  • MiniMeters now has traditional app menus in addition to its in-app toolbar.
  • MiniMeters now has an icon in the Menu Bar with common settings.
  • MiniMeters can now appear on top of full-screen applications.
  • It is now possible to select specific audio outputs when using MiniMeters on macOS 14.2 and later.
  • Improved stability on macOS 13 - 14.1 when using Desktop Audio.
  • Visuals no longer stutter while resizing the window.
  • MiniMeters now positions correctly on macOS when display layout or resolution changes.

Windows:

  • Holding Shift while launching MiniMeters will open a "Launch Settings" window with additional settings.
  • MiniMeters now uses an NSIS installer packages.
  • The installer now remembers previously selected options.

Linux:

  • MiniMeters now supports OpenGLES 3.0 in addition OpenGL Core 3.3. Will default to OpenGLES.
  • EXPERIMENTAL MiniMeters now supports Arm-based Linux systems. This includes the Raspberry Pi, however high performance is not guaranteed. Please join the Discord if you are interested in discussing MiniMeters on the Pi.
  • If set, MiniMeters will read XDG_CONFIG_HOME for configurations and XDG_DATA_HOME for audio clips and recordings. If those are not set MiniMeters will check for HOME and store settings in $HOME/.MiniMeters; audio clips and recordings will be placed in $HOME/.MiniMeters/Recordings.
  • Now has a hand-written native Wayland Implementation with fractional scaling support.
    • Please note: Due to Wayland's lack of support for Clients positioning their application windows none of the window-positioning features in MiniMeters are available when using Wayland.

Other Changes:

Terminology Changes:

  • "Audio Device" has been renamed to "Audio Source" throughout.
  • "Peak/LUFS" has been renamed to "Loudness".
  • "MiniMetersServer" has been renamed to "MiniMeters - Audio Server".
  • In the Waveform, "None" has been renamed to "Off" in Channel 2 selector.

Settings:

  • Sliders have been redesigned to be more space efficient.
  • Trim slider now behaves in a more traditional way, hiding the cursor while dragging.
  • Sliders now behave more like many other audio applications.

Bug Fixes:

Experimental Additions / Changes:

  • Added platform support for Raspberry Pi devices. Please Note: I have tested MiniMeters on Raspberry OS on my Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM. It performs reasonably well, if that is the only application you're running and mildly well with light workloads such as YouTube. Your milage may vary when using it on older Pis and other SBCs.

Notes: To download this update head here － Log In and click "Download" under "You own this tool." Or go back to your email where you first got the download link.