I've had good experience with The Waves Dorrough Meter Collection, on sale now for $99 http://www.waves.com/plug...kuoyq5sxAUEaAkmV8P8HAQ

Using a patch point and/or aux track should not be necessary. I use a send from my Master Bus to VU meters on my old Tascam frequently. If the send is Pre-Fader (Post button not lit), the output level will not follow the bus Volume control.
 
It will, however, follow the bus Input Gain, and if you have LinkPFSendMute=1 in AUD.INI (default is 0), it will follow the Mute button as well.

This may also be a dumb question, but how does one invoke "direct outs" in Sonar, or am I calling it something else?  Also, I don't see any way to select Post or Pre on the Master Bus unless one uses "new aux track" or "patch point", or by using Insert Send Assistant and assinging the output and selecting pre-fader?  All three of those result in the same additional display on the Master Bus that allow those things.
 
Thanks guys!
Wade
 
 
 
 

OK, I see what you mean now.  The screen grabs are great, thanks for your effort on this.

I'm struggling with a similar issue: I want to add a meter plugin post master fader (otherwise it only shows the level before the fader - moving the fader will change the level of the exported mix regardless of what the meter says). How do you add a post fader effect on the master channel?  

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