What is the difference between peak and rms

As such, any peak that overshoots the threshold will be compressed. RMS, which stands for root mean squared, works a little differently. The RMS mode responds to the average loudness of a signal. Accordingly, occasional peaks in your audio signal may overshoot the threshold without being compressed. With modern day plugins, some work only in peak mode while others work only in RMS mode.

With some compressors, you have the option to toggle between the two. There are also compressors which allow you to dial in your own setting by telling the compressor the time period over which level changes should be measured. In this instance, a short time period would represent peak sensing. If your compressor allows you to select between Peak and RMS sensing, then you could try using peak sensing on things like drums to make sure that your compressor catches all of the short sharp transients of the kick and snare.

Pretend the graph, above, represents a music signal, as it might be viewed on an oscilloscope. The peak value is the highest voltage that the waveform will ever reach, like the peak is the highest point on a mountain. It is equal to the level of the DC signal that would provide the same average power as the periodic signal.

Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer as to which type of meter to use when and where. Every engineer has his or her preference as to what is expected from a meter block. When choosing a meter, you should consider what you are looking for at that point in your system.

If you are looking to ensure your system is not going to clip, a peak meter may be the best choice. A peak level will change rapidly and you can expect it to peak in most music applications when a drum hit occurs in the mix. True Peak metering is measured in a similar fashion to standard peak metering but represents what the digital audio signal would be reproduced as in the analog world. A true peak meter will generally read higher than a regular peak meter as the waveform will produce inter-sample peaks when translated from your DAW to a speaker.

This type of metering is very useful for mastering as you can more accurately measure how the audio will be recreated in the physical world, which can help you curb distortion and clipping. This metering is also used within audio streaming services to dictate how loud the end result is.

RMS, which stands for Root Mean Square , is an average voltage level measurement for an electrical signal. It is a continuous measurement and when used in terms of speaker systems describes how much continuous power can be pushed through an amplifier.

If the form of the signal is periodic and uniform, then peak values are constant throughout. Consider a sinusoidal wave as shown below. To represent the strength of a signal, often the maximum absolute value from zero or the peak value of the signal is used. Another term used is the peak to peak value. Peak to peak value of a system is the difference between the maximum amplitude in the negative direction and in the positive direction.