VU Meter

VU Meter, in Monitoring, displays the level of each channel of an audio bus, with peak, RMS and peak-hold indications.

Connections

Connect the signal to Audio. The channel count follows the incoming bus. To listen and meter at the same time, branch the source to both the meter and the normal audio destination. There is no audio-through outlet: inserting only a meter at the end of a chain does not route sound to the speakers.

Levels is a value-list output containing three linear-amplitude numbers per channel: peak envelope, RMS envelope and held peak. For two channels its order is [peak0, rms0, hold0, peak1, rms1, hold1]. These are not dB values; the graphical meter converts them for display. The envelopes include release smoothing, so Levels is not a list of instantaneous audio samples.

Workflow

Place the meter before or after an effect to compare signal levels, or monitor a multichannel Audio device bus. Keep the containing interval executing while observing it. The meter measures levels; it does not attenuate, limit or prevent clipping. Adjust gain in the source, effect or destination when a signal is too loud.

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