ADPTR Audio Metric AB 1.5 [WiN]

• Product: Metric AB
• Developer: ADPTR Audio
• Version: 1.5.0
• Format: VST2, VST3, AAX
• Requirements: Windows 10 or later
• Source: adptraudio.com/product/metric-ab

With the 1.5 update, ADPTR Audio focused on the workflow and usability improvements the community asked for most. The filter bank workflow has been reworked so filters can be enabled and edited with simple click and right-click interactions right on the graph. Loudness matching now lets you toggle the main output meter over to a loudness meter, with a clearer target display, on top of the matching modes Metric already had — matching to the quietest stream, matching every track at once, matching to a specific LUFS target. Sync playback mode adds global offset support for mastering engineers juggling multiple versions of a track, keeping alignment consistent across reference tracks and sessions without having to update everything by hand. You can also set independent display layouts per page now — spectrum meters layered, correlation meters dual, whatever combination actually works for you.

Seamless looping, higher-resolution waveform zoom, better preset handling, RAM playback, a batch of bug fixes. Below is a closer look at three of the workflows that changed the most: sync mode, loudness matching, and the filter bank.

Sync Mode

Sync mode locks a reference track to your DAW timeline. Bounce a rough mix at the start of a session, load it into Metric AB, and compare it against the mix as it evolves — an anchor point for checking whether things are actually heading the right direction rather than just getting used to whatever’s currently playing.

Load the early mixdown, switch playback mode to sync, start the DAW. Hit AB and both mixes play together; skip around the timeline or loop a section and the reference follows. A sync counter shows where the reference will start from — bar one, 0:00:00, by default. Move the DAW playhead to a new position and click Set to change that; Metric AB waits for the timeline to reach that point before starting the reference.

Mastering engineers use this to line every track up in album or EP order, then sync offset each pre-master to its in-progress master. Most DAWs won’t let you cleanly bypass an entire channel strip, so this is often the more practical comparison.

Start offset is a second tool, more like a cue marker. Say the final arrangement’s verse now starts eight bars later than it does in the reference — an added section, a shortened intro, a radio edit — syncing from bar one won’t line anything up anymore. Set the start offset on the reference to begin at, say, the drop, then move the DAW playhead to where that drop lands in the current arrangement and click Set. Now the drops line up and you can AB them in sync. Load the same reference into another slot and repeat for the chorus, or any other section.

Global sync mode is new in 1.5. Click a track’s Global button to add it to the group — the sync offset counter switches from white to orange — then set the offset the normal way. Add more tracks the same way, and adjusting the offset on any one of them now updates all of them. Toggle Global off and a track goes back to its own independent offset.

PDC — plugin delay compensation — handles a different problem. Some plugins add latency, and not every DAW compensates for it correctly, especially on bus or aux tracks. When that happens your mixdown plays back slightly later than your reference. Start playback, click PDC, and you’ll hear both streams at once, which makes the drift obvious. Increase the delay on the B stream until they converge — you’ll hear them flange together and then lock in, like a DJ beatmatching two records by ear. Click PDC again once they’re tight, restart playback, and go back to using AB normally.

Loudness Matching

When two tracks differ significantly in volume, people tend to prefer whichever one is louder — better mix or not. Matching loudness removes that variable.

New in 1.5: click the peak/RMS text on the output meter to switch it to a loudness meter, available on any analysis page. Three readings show up — integrated (a whole-track average, and what streaming platforms use to normalize playlists), short-term (roughly RMS), momentary (roughly peak). The meter scale also has a high-resolution mode, showing detail between about 0 and -18 LUFS.

Matching your reference to your mix, not the reverse, is the right call in most mixing situations — references tend to already be mastered and sitting close to 0 dB, and pushing a more dynamic mix up to match risks clipping. The match controls sit under the main output meter: one button for a single track, one for all of them. Right-click either to pick a mode; releasing the click starts the match. Both streams need to actually be playing or you’ll get an error and have to redo it.

A few other modes worth knowing. Match to the quietest track finds whichever track — including your own mix — is lowest and brings everything else down to meet it, for maximum headroom. Match to LUFS value defaults to -14 (the streaming standard for YouTube and Spotify) but is editable in settings; paired with match-all, it’s a rough preview of how a track will translate once normalized for streaming. And match A to B is useful in mastering specifically — load a pre-master as the reference via sync mode, and toggling AB becomes close to bypassing your whole mastering chain in one click.

Loaded tracks always show their integrated loudness value alongside format, sample rate, bit rate, and length, so you can see exactly what Metric is normalizing against. Reset All Gains, in the match tool’s menu, brings back a track’s original volume; reselecting the mode recalls the match.

Filter Bank

The filter bank is the modern version of an old trick — checking a mix on different speakers, since each one colors frequencies differently. Cut the bass to hear the midrange and check vocal balance. Isolate the highs to check for harshness versus air. Narrow in on a resonant spike or some sibilance.

The spot filter is the headline addition in 1.5. Click anywhere on the graph to place one with a two-octave range, drag to reposition, scroll to widen or narrow it. Right-click anywhere on the graph to bypass. You can also work from the frequency line below the graph instead — drag the node, scroll to resize — which is easier than trying to grab a narrow range directly on the graph itself.

Five preset buttons cover the essential bands: highs, mids, low-mids, bass, sub. They work the same way as the spot filter — drag the boundaries, save your changes as a user preset. Hold shift on the number boxes for finer precision. Click above the graph’s midpoint to select everything above it, below to select everything below — same as the three filter-range buttons above the presets.

Filter slope changes how sharply a filter cuts: 12 dB for something gentle, 48 dB for something steep, 24 and 36 in between. Right-click a preset button to save it, save every preset at once, restore defaults, or run a factory reset. The settings panel — top right icon — shows what loads by default every time you open the plugin, and lets you edit or reset those defaults.

Zoom-link-to-filter works across the spectrum, correlation, and stereo image views: turn on zoom, click link, and switching presets now zooms the display to match. Turn zoom off and the view goes back to full scale.

You can also pair the filter bank with the dynamics module — head to the dynamics page, pick a preset like Bass, click Post Filter, and now you’re hearing only the dynamic behavior of that band. Useful for comparing how a reference handles its low end against how yours does. Toggle back to pre-filter for the full mix.