Weird Meter Behavior - or is it normal?

[Salvatore Sorice]

Using current Sonar Version: 2025.09 (Build 038). 

Maybe it's always been this way, but today I noticed that the Playback Meter in the Inspector view is oddly different than in the Track view. Not sure how to explain, but the meter in the Inspector does not visually "agree" with the one in the Track View. It's "missing" some of the bars that fill the meter as sound is played (only showing the peaks), sometimes it only shows one meter bar (in this video sometimes only the right bar is displayed at a lower volume), and sometimes a single bar remains when play is stopped. 

Is this normal behavior? Could I have some weird setting enabled?

 

[msmcleod]

The meter options are likely different.

The "missing" bits you're seeing are the peak holds.

There are a BUNCH of different metering options, and it looks like you've got the inspector / console view set to different settings (which is a perfectly normal thing to do).

For example, here's the options for the playback meters within the Inspector:



There are equivalent options in the Console View and Track View,  for Record, Track, Bus and Hardware Output metering.
 

[Salvatore Sorice]

Thanks Mark. I thought I had them set to the same settings. Will check when back at my PC. 

[David Baay]

3 hours ago, Salvatore Sorice said:

I thought I had them set to the same settings.

Inspector is showing Peak only, and Console is showing Peak + RMS.

Incidentally, thanks for alerting me to the release of Pianoteq 9, I was just on their site a week ago to check and miseed it by a few days.

@msmcleod I can repro the OP's screenshot showing that the lowest meter segment in one channel of the Console meter in Peak + RMS mode sometimes stays lit indefinitely after playback is stopped. I used Pianoteq 9, like the OP, and have not confimed with other VSTs or pure Audio tracks.

 

[Salvatore Sorice]

8 hours ago, David Baay said:

Inspector is showing Peak only, and Console is showing Peak + RMS.

Incidentally, thanks for alerting me to the release of Pianoteq 9, I was just on their site a week ago to check and miseed it by a few days.

@msmcleod I can repro the OP's screenshot showing that the lowest meter segment in one channel of the Console meter in Peak + RMS mode sometimes stays lit indefinitely after playback is stopped. I used Pianoteq 9, like the OP, and have not confimed with other VSTs or pure Audio tracks.

 

@David Baay - enjoy Pianoteq 9 - my favorite piano synth! @msmcleod - I set everything to Peak+RMS and now the meters all agree. Must have missed some settings (thought they were all the same), as navigating those Meter Option menus involve a lot of clicks! Still getting the occasional low meter segment staying lit as David confirmed.