OK, you people who defend the MW Leveler...

[beautypill]

...are just plain wrong.

Yes, it's a great-sounding plug --- it's nice to have access to such a sweet Opto-style comp.

But the whole instability "feature" is incredibly annoying and counterproductive if you do this for a living. I have exported mixes to clients that have had the levels all out of whack because the bounce-to-disk print bore no relation to what we were listening to when we mixed.

Any reason that the whole "It warms up!" thing is a good idea --- or really anything but a nerdy gimmick --- is a reason I can't subscribe to. Those of us who use Digital Performer in a professional context... we just want to get our work done and have what is known be known. Y'know? I don't want to have to check my mixes to see how closely they resemble what I thought I was hearing.

Please, MOTU, I beg of you: make this thing stable. The sound is great. Kudos for that. Vintage opto limiting can't be the easiest thing to capture gracefully. Seriously, my hat is off. And yeah, the "warming up" thing was cute and it definitely shows that the R&D staff up there in Cambridge has a cheeky sense of humor, but... please, most of us would be happy for it to just work.

- c

[toodamnhip]

Your beef makes sense to me if what you are saying is correct...I have heard others have non such problem though..hmm...what's the truth? Does it change every pass through a song or what?... "warming up" constantly?

[Mr_Clifford]

Have you tried right-clicking on the VU meter, which brings up a menu to save the current T4 cell state?

I'm mixing a live jazz album at the moment with a couple of MW Levelers and after playing through a track for about a minute, I've been saving the T4 cell state. I'll post back with the results after we bounce the mixes. The 'warming-up' period is dependant on the material that you're running through it, so to be a true emulation it has to go through that stage.

[kassonica]

Have you tried right-clicking on the VU meter, which brings up a menu to save the current T4 cell state?

I'm mixing a live jazz album at the moment with a couple of MW Levelers and after playing through a track for about a minute, I've been saving the T4 cell state. I'll post back with the results after we bounce the mixes. The 'warming-up' period is dependant on the material that you're running through it, so to be a true emulation it has to go through that stage.

+1

I did this the other day and it saves the settings, no need for warm up (at least on my system)

[EMRR]

this problem hasn't bit me yet, and I'm running about 12 channels with it this week. I do believe that you are having 'the problem', though.

[Dwetmaster]

Have you tried right-clicking on the VU meter, which brings up a menu to save the current T4 cell state?

I'm mixing a live jazz album at the moment with a couple of MW Levelers and after playing through a track for about a minute, I've been saving the T4 cell state. I'll post back with the results after we bounce the mixes. The 'warming-up' period is dependant on the material that you're running through it, so to be a true emulation it has to go through that stage.

I tried to right click the VU in vain. Is there something I don't get? where is it stated in the manual?

[EMRR]

Not in the manual, or addendum. Mine all show up with 'automatic memory restoration' already checked. Simply hovering over the meter will generate a left-click prompt.

[James Steele]

I got a reply from someone at MOTU with a workaround:

There is a way to do this.

Wait for the plug-in to get into a warmed up state.
While still playing back, click on the meter - this will bring up a menu.
Choose Save Current T4 Cell Memory.
This is now loaded into the plug-in's memory.
In order for it to take effect you must reset the cell.
This is accomplished one of two ways:
Insert a both a plug-in Bypass On and Off automation event at the start of your sequence (they must be one right after the other).
Or close the plug-in window (you'll have to open and close the window again if you stop playback long enough for the cell to cool down).

[wheever]

I deleted the MWL from most of my mixes because it's such a PITA to deal with, but I went back to some older versions of the mixes that still have the MWL on them and I swear to god the 6.02 version is totally different gain-wise.

The tracks it was used on were HUGELY too loud, drowning out everything else. The difference was not subtle. I had to back off the makeup gain like 3-5db in order to get the tracks back where they belonged. (Using the mixed down track from the same session as a reference.) And the gain jump was definitely coming from the MWL because I could see it was overdriving the inputs on the next plug in the chain that had meters, (In this case Colortone) when it was not before.

I don't know what MOTU is about with this, but a statement on any changes to the MWL seems pretty important to me.

I guess I should ask if anyone else has noticed this. Anyone?

[bongo_x]

I think this has got to be a bug. I've used LA2A's a lot over the years and never noticed any "warm up" volume changing thing. I don't think that's the problem.

bb

[wurliuchi]

I got a reply from someone at MOTU with a workaround:

There is a way to do this.

Wait for the plug-in to get into a warmed up state.
While still playing back, click on the meter - this will bring up a menu.
Choose Save Current T4 Cell Memory.
This is now loaded into the plug-in's memory.
In order for it to take effect you must reset the cell.
This is accomplished one of two ways:
Insert a both a plug-in Bypass On and Off automation event at the start of your sequence (they must be one right after the other).
Or close the plug-in window (you'll have to open and close the window again if you stop playback long enough for the cell to cool down).

Then it must be a bug.

Glad for the workaround. Thank you.

[Eleventh Hour Sound]

I got a reply from someone at MOTU with a workaround:

There is a way to do this.

Wait for the plug-in to get into a warmed up state.
While still playing back, click on the meter - this will bring up a menu.
Choose Save Current T4 Cell Memory.
This is now loaded into the plug-in's memory.
In order for it to take effect you must reset the cell.
This is accomplished one of two ways:
Insert a both a plug-in Bypass On and Off automation event at the start of your sequence (they must be one right after the other).
Or close the plug-in window (you'll have to open and close the window again if you stop playback long enough for the cell to cool down).

Thanks for the info James.

[Eleventh Hour Sound]

After having lots of problems with levels jumping, I had inserted some standby automation for the plug in thinking that would solve the problem. (Can't remember where I read it, but I understood that keeping it in StandBy mode would keep it "warmed up"

I finally got tired of fighting it and just pulled in out of my mixes. I recently worked with someone who likes to use and started running in to the same problem again.

That's neat that they finally told us about this undocumented feature.

The only problem is that I think that they skipped the step about where we're supposed to enter the peak rms value of the T4 Memory cell in to our secret decoder ring and enter the result into the MWL offset calculator hidden on their support web page in order to help calculate the location of the bypass On and Off automation event. <grin>

MOTU: Can we please just simplify this plug's steady state performance? THANK YOU!

[magicd]

The MW Leveler behaves exactly like a real LA-2A.

"Warm up time" is important to understand. "Cool off time" is also important to understand.

The MW Leveler models a photo emitter and sensor circuit. The way that circuit works is that input volume over time will saturate the photo sensor. The amount of saturation is based on a number of variables, including how much gain reduction you are applying, the transient nature if the input signal, average signal strength, and time. That's the way the LA-2a worked and that's how the MW Leveler works.

The LA-2A is always adjusting to input, so it is always in "warm up" mode when signal is going through. When signal stops going to input on the LA-2A, the photo sensor starts to cool down. This cool down can last as long as a minute or more. Again, how long depends on the characteristics of the signal before signal stropped coming in.

With DP 6.02, we added a feature to make this a little more managable. The added feature was completed just as DP6.02 was ready to ship, so we didn't get a chance to include documentation on the feature.

If you Control click or right click on the MW Leveler meter, you get a sub menu. The sub menu includes the option to save the T4 state. When you select the save option, you are saving the state as it exists at that moment. So, if you play back one bar of signal through the Leveler and save the state at that point, that would not be the same state as if the Leveler had been getting signal for the length of the song. Remember, the Leveler is constantly adjusting to input signal over time.

One thing you don't do with a real LA-2A is non real-time bounce to disk.

Once you have saved a T4 state, that state will be reset in the Leveler under specific conditions. If you bounce to disk, that causes the Leveler to reset at the start of the bounce. That way, if you bounce from a cold start, the Leveler will already be "warmed up" for the bounce.
If you close the Leveler window, that will reset the T4 state.
If you automate a bypass on the Leveler, the T4 state is reset when the plug-in is un bypassed. So for example, let's say you have a vocal track that comes in half way through the song. You can play back however much of the vocal track you want to get the Leveler warmed up. Save the T4 state at that point. Now automate a bypass for the Leveler that unbypasses just before the vocal comes in. The Leveler will be warmed up when the vocal track comes in.

It's important to understand that the MW Leveler is not an imitation of an LA-2A. It is an actual model of the hardware. It does work the same way as the hardware. If it didn't, it would not sound and behave like the original hardware.
In order to eliminate the warm up and cool down times, that would drastically change the way the Leveler reacted and
sounded. Remember, the way the Leveler is reacting in the first bar of music is not necessarily the way it is reacting after 3 minutes of saturation. Even if we instituted some kind of lookahead feature (which would add significant CPU overhead), where would you want to look ahead to? 30 seconds into the track? Two minutes?

The MW Leveler is a musical instrument. It has it's quirks, and they are identical to the original hardware. If you understand how the device works, it is a very powerful musical instrument. The LA-2A is not the famous device that it is for no reason.

The Save State function will give you consistency for bounces and track playback without having to "warm up" the cell every time.

Dave

[magicd]

After having lots of problems with levels jumping, I had inserted some standby automation for the plug in thinking that would solve the problem. (Can't remember where I read it, but I understood that keeping it in StandBy mode would keep it "warmed up"

No, stand-by mode does not keep the Leveler warmed up when the track is not playing.

If you bypass the Leveler (with no saved T4 state), the cell starts to cool off, even if there is signal present. Therefore, if you are comparing dry to processed signal, every time you bypass and then unbypass, the T4 cell is cooling off then warming back up again.

If you put the Leveler into standby mode, signal is still sent to the T4 cell, while the track is playing, although you are hearing the direct input signal at that point. Stand-by allows you toggle the Leveler on and off without it having to warm up every time you turn it back on.

If you have saved a T4 state, bypassing then unbypassing the Leveler resets the T4 to the saved state.

Regardless of whether you have a saved T4 state or not, going in and out of stand-by does not reset the T4 cell.

Dave