Here is a recording with an image captured from a Wav Editor. The red line represents the level where the threshold setting should be when I apply compression on the signal in thatfile. I never understood this: how do you calculate where you need to set the Threshold? You can see there is a 0 to 1 view on the meter in the editor. But in compressors, the 0 is on top, so that's a complete reverse, and you express the threshold like - xx db. But how to figure that out from the editor view?

 

Typically that doesn't make sense, because threshold is just one of many parameters that affects the peaks. You should also be able to just switch the scale from these linear values to dBFS or whatever you want. That being said, it's usually dB = 20 × log₁₀(V).
When your line is at 0.4 (?), this would be 20 × log₁₀(0.4) dB ≈ -8 dB.

 

Oh now I get it...those values that Editor shows are complete crap. Is that Gold wave? I didn't know it does it that way.
Olaf is right, that's how that would be calculated if I remember correctly.
But I would get a sample editor that shows reasonable values. Not some imaginary "1 is the loudest, zero is no sound".
I like Acoustica. Wavelab is great too. Sister site could help
But IMHO it is more practical to use a compression plugin you can monitor in realtime.
Could there be an option in the preferences to switch to another scale in Gold wave?

 

Last edited: Jun 26, 2026 at 8:34 PM

Yes, Its like Olaf said.
However due to the secret real attack time of the compressor and the secret amount of compression really applied after this time, you are still not going to really get what you want other then by just trying out.

 

Last edited: Jun 26, 2026 at 8:38 PM

Thanks! I will try to check again, but couldn't figure out how to switch the units on the left side to something different. It is Goldwave indeed. Can you mention any other free software that displays the correct unit type? I only need it to check where the threshold should be. This is needed for a guitar compressor pedal. I found one that is adjustable precisely and has a built in meter. I already calculated the attack and release that I need to set, but from Goldwave I couldn't figure out the Threshold setting. By the way, this is the meter of the guitar pedal, the Threshold setting should be determined for this:

 

The range from 0.0 to 1.0 is the full dinamic range of your audio stream in dB. It depends on a bit depth. If you work at 16 bits it is 96 dB, at 24 bits it is 144 dB etc. This scale is logarithmic (exponential) rather than linear. I don't know the formula but it is something similar to the formula Olaf wrote.

EDIT: Why do you use such a mathematical approach? In most cases it is meaningless. Nobody calculates a treshold, an attack and a ratio. We mostly think about a compressor as a complicated (sophisticated) volume knob and use it by ear. By a compressor you "form" the gain of an audio without unwanted artifacts (and may be with artifacts which are wanted).

 

Last edited: Jun 27, 2026 at 7:38 AM

I'm not really familiar with GoldWave, but in Audacity it's easy:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/track_control_panel_and_vertical_scale.html#Vertical_Scale
You can switch between the default linear scale and both linear and logarithmic dB.
However, there is no single "correct" scale and linear -1..1 is perfectly fine for the waveform. That's why it's the default option.

 

My case is special this time. I need to direct the signal into a chorus pedal, that has very little headroom in the BBD chip. Peaks make it go distorting. I want to sort out the peak problem with a compressor before it. I calculated what attack-release times are needed to avoid that, I studied where the threshold should be according to my pedal chain settings. But I did not know how to adapt the observed setting from the editor to the compressor. That would be possible to do precisely, considering the recent compressor has the meter.

I will try the calculation mentioned here. I found a way to set the threshold empirically as well, but since I discovered how easy it is setting the attack/release based on the editor, if I know the method to adapt the values I see for threshold as well, that can make my workflow much much faster and easier.

You may ask why not reducing the input volume in the chorus: tried that, that way the background noise will become too disturbing. The pedal makes a nice chorus sound but the limits it can handle the signal without "problems" are quite tight.