Setting digital output level

Setting the digital output level is useful if you are not able to set the output level using any other method or if you want to experiment with the output level to get optimal performance. If WinMLS controls the Windows mixer, you should just read the rest of this  section for your reference, but not adjust the default digital volume.

The digital output level is set from Measurement->Settings... by clicking the Levels tab as shown below.

In the example above, only the sine sweep level is enabled because sine sweep is selected as excitation signal. It may be changed by the user as shown below, where it is changed to 0 dB.

This means that the output level is increased by 10 dB, from –10 to 0 dBFS.

On most sound cards the digital level should be set as high as possible (0 dBFS) to get the best quality measurements (except if MLS is selected as excitation, then it should be set no higher than -13). But for many applications it does not matter much to the measurement quality if it is set to 0 dBFS or –40 dBFS. Therefore the digital level can be used to control the output level in this range. You can set the digital level to a low number to make sure the output level will not be too high, and then increase it if it is too low.

Note that this Measurement->Settings… dialog does not have to be closed for the changes to take effect. If you start a measurement while it is open, the current settings will be used. Click the  button to close the dialog keeping the current settings.