Phase Tools Meter
The Phase Tools section in the Limiter module provides a real-time waveform display for viewing your outgoing waveform. When Rotate Phase, Invert Phase, or Filter DC Offset is enabled, the effected waveform will be shown in shaded grey underneath the yellow waveform.
By default, the Phase Tools module and waveform display are located after the De-Esser and before the Limiter module. If you would like to have the Phase Tools waveform display your audio waveform at a different point in your Alloy signal chain, simply open Alloy's Graph and place the 'Phase Tools' box where you would like it.
Level Histograms
A level histogram is provided in the Limiter module to provide a view of the audio level as a function of time.
As Alloy processes audio, it calculates the level and displays it on the level histogram. Unlike a standard level meter, the level histogram provides a view of the history of the level over time. The height of the histogram represents the high and low levels of the audio, while the width of the bar indicates the most frequent levels. In the example above, most of the time the level of the audio was around 12-16 dB, although in a few cases the level was as high as -8 dB and as low as -24 dB.
This meter is a powerful tool for applying dynamics. In the case above, we could apply some limiting around 8-12 dB to bring down the edges of the top levels, but we could also apply expansion to bring up the levels that are found in the -24 dB range.
For additional visual feedback, the histogram is displayed in white for regions that are being limited by the Limiter. In the case above, we have a limiter threshold set around -10 dB that is limiting the upper crest of the signal.