FAQ

Common questions about Cota — its status, accuracy, formats and how it relates to the Orbit app.

Is Cota out yet?

Not as a full release — Cota is in Early Access / beta (build 1.0.0-beta.4). It's real and usable, but features, pricing and platform support may still change before launch. Beta testing is open, so you can apply on the Cota site to get in. A one-week closed beta round was run earlier; testers who completed it get an early-access discount.

What's the difference between Cota and Cota Lite?

Cota Lite is free and gives you Gauge metering with the full ITU-R BS.1770 engine — metering is never gated, so the loudness and true-peak numbers are identical to the paid edition.

Cota (£149 launch price, was £199) adds everything around the meter: the Dashboard, the 3D Spatial view, the spectral terrain (RTA), the remote view, report export and audio passthrough.

See Cota vs Cota Lite for the full comparison table.

How accurate is it?

Very. Cota is built to be measured, not claimed, and it sits well inside published EBU R128 / ITU-R BS.1770 tolerance. Worst-case errors are 0.04 LU for momentary and short-term, 0.06 LU for integrated, 0.17 dB for true peak and 0.05 LU for LRA — all comfortably within limits such as ±0.1 LU. The full figures are in Requirements & Formats.

Which DAWs and formats does it work in?

As a plugin, Cota ships in CLAP and VST3 on macOS and Windows, plus AU on macOS. That covers Reaper, Logic, Ableton, Nuendo and most other hosts. You can also run the standalone app to meter a WAV file or a live audio input without opening a DAW at all.

Is there AAX?

Not in this beta round. Full AAX support is planned later this year, alongside a second beta. If you work in Pro Tools' native format, watch for that round — for now you can use the standalone app.

Does it do Atmos? How high does it go?

Yes. Cota's Spatial view provides 3D spatial metering from stereo (2.0) up to 9.1.6, so it's built for mixing in Dolby Atmos as well as stereo. That covers the full bed-plus-height layouts you'll use in a surround session.

Can I monitor on my phone?

Yes — that's the remote view. Cota serves its live meters over your local network, so you can open the address in a browser on any phone, tablet or laptop on the same LAN and use it as a monitoring station. Nothing to install on the second device.

How does it relate to Orbit?

Cota is the same loudness implementation the Orbit app uses — Orbit's loudness footer reads "Powered by Cota". If you already trust Orbit's loudness metering, you're already trusting Cota's engine. See Loudness, powered by Cota in the Orbit docs.

Where next

• Overview — what Cota is, in short.
• Features — the Gauge, spectral terrain, spatial metering, Dashboard, remote view and reports.
• Cota vs Cota Lite — what's in each edition.
• Requirements & Formats — platforms, plugin formats and accuracy.