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Building A VU Meter (A Really BIG One)


d'Arsonval

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For quite sometime, I've wanted to find a place to expose some of

the things I've built over the years. Recently, I've been able to sort

through a "ton" of photos, and get them somewhat organized on-line.

 

The URL below may be subject matter this forum will find of interest.

 

Titled, "Building A VU Meter", it may even be the worlds largest.

 

http://www.pbase.com/visual_first/building_a_vu_meter

 

If you're an Audio Aficionado, you may need to pop some popcorn

before you begin checking it out.

 

Have Fun.

 

John

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0010001110000111110000011111000011111100001110

0000011110001111111110000111100001111001111000

 

Does one "hear" in analog, or do we hear in digital?

 

Do we see in "pixels", or do we see at a certain frequency?

 

fatusstratus, I "hear 'Ya.

VU does stand for Virtually Useless.

 

mike42,

Thank You!

As far as "what was this thing for?"

 

It was a challenge of one's personal skill and knowledge. Nothing more.

It's Art! And it actually works too.

(Nothing more.)

 

Happy Thanksgiving,

 

John

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Since responce Velocity of a mechanical meter is affected by inertia, the meter would be completely useless. It would miss most of the peaks because the needle and armature are way too heavy to respond quickly to transient peaks. You could use it as a Multimeter or something that doesnt need to ride peaks, but you should really see an optimologist if you need something that big to be seen. If you needed big, then a digital VU with large LED banks would blow away a mechanical meter for accuracy.

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Since responce Velocity of a mechanical meter is affected by inertia, the meter would be completely useless.

 

 

Not accurate if you wanted to use it in a studio for serious recording... but that doesn't appear to be the purpose of the project. It is a display unit. Art.

 

@John: Excellent job! Well documented and quite interesting. Thanks for posting the pictures.

 

regards, Jack

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WRGKMC,

 

I tend to forget the linear thinking at times with the "electronic minded".

 

Presenting a process, or steps in building a model of a Panel Mount VU Meter to say,

a woodworking group, or a pack of machinists would have seemed even more dangerous.

They would have told me all about the discrepancies in the poor exterior finish,

or highlighted the lathe chuck marks still visible on the hardware fasteners.

 

So, I exposed it to this crowd instead. And wonders never seize. LOL

 

"It's too Big!" They exclaim.

 

I still have yet to read from the wisdom of the crowd on some other forums

where the "spec" is... regarding the chosen color of a VU Meter face by early generation

manufacturers. I gave up looking. I couldn't find it.

 

In the meantime, Thank You for all the kinds words.

At some point I will have a video posted showing the meter's actual performance

for the armchair enthusiast, and of course for the driven EGO of its builder.

 

Thank you all again,

 

John

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I think it's very cool. Nice work all the way around as far as I can see. :thu: My only disappointment is that there is only one - there should be two for stereo. :lol::D

 

As for the naysayers, well it seemed obvious to me it was intended as a display/artistic piece and not as a practical piece of working gear. I think there may be a limited market for more of these to museums and maybe in corporations. Imagine having a pair of those in the front office of a radio station or recording studio, or for a flashy trade-show display. :cool:

 

How about a giant ribbon mike next?

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Does one "hear" in analog, or do we hear in digital?



Do we see in "pixels", or do we see at a certain frequency?


 

 

ooh, good question - I don't know. I suppose neuroscientists might need to answer that one and I don't even know if they are fully sure.

 

I mean our eyes use individual rods and cones, so I guess the raw data acquisition is in pixels though that doesn't address the level detection...I dont know if thats more discrete or continuous

 

but I've also heard there is all kinds of crosstalk which is why some optical illusions work the way they do

It's weird though when you think about it - digital is really a special case of analog

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I am attaching a very old article about VU meters. Enjoy!

 

This file is a pdf, so when you download it, you will have to rename it to remove the .mp3 file extension. I did this to get around the file size limit for attachments.

 

regards, Jack

 

.

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Man on the Moon?

AMAZING!

 

Jack, finding this "Electronics" reprint? Pretty Darn Close!

 

Two very enlightening facts are revealed in your PDF file.

 

1) The meter face is not a "meter face". It's a Scale Card.

 

2) The color of the scale card is Cream Yellow.

 

It may seem frivolous to most reading this thread, but you've help

answer a question that's been unanswerable for me until now.

 

I'll make the adjustments in my photo page to reflect this new information.

 

Excellent job! Thank you.

 

I scrolled back on this thread and noticed I never posted the YouTube URL

showing a very primitive "raw video" of the device actually working.

 

Here it is for anyone interested: http://www.youtube.com/user/electricalapparatus

 

Thanks again Jack.

 

And here's to the Holiday season for everyone.

 

John

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