"i find peak meters inside DAW useless"
 
That pretty much says it all, and it relates to my observation that this VU meter somehow addresses a lack of self confidence.
 
I like VU meters just fine, I use them every day I work. I also use PPM every day. We all know that millions of people use a Peak Program Meter without any trouble.
 
When you say you find them useless it leaves me thinking... :-S
 
I would have left it that but when you say this:
 
"This is where a VU comes handy, it measures the "perceived" level and not the peak so you can judge better how your ear is going to hear the sound, if it peak on the peak meter but has a very low level on the VU you should probably check you mike settings or place a fast limiter on the recording chain because all those peaks you are recording won't allow you to reach the desired final loudness and honestly, why do you want to record stuff you are going to throw away?"
 
I have to respond. Can't help myself.; That's ridiculous. You are basically explaining that, while we are recording with a medium that has a finite ceiling whereby the peaks will smash into an over if we record too loud, that the reason to use a VU meter is so that you can compare what you see on the VU meter with the results that are recorded in the DAW and determine if the only way to turn the input up louder is to strap a limiter on the input so that you can reach a "desired final loudness".
 
I don't necessarily think using a limiter on an input is a yes, or no choice. Sure, I say do it if you want to. In fact, if you strap a limiter on before the input you can pump it right up near 0dBFS and get a lot of loudness without having to throw away stuff. ;-)
 
The ideal of reaching a "desired final loudness" at the very first stage of the production process and the concern about "why do you want to record stuff you are going to throw away" seems like a awkward justification of a weak premise.
 
I can't help but suspect that you don't spend a lot of time on the monitor mix. That's the mix where the musician playing the music, that is being recorded, perceives they are hearing a desired loudness.
 
Anyways... You seem like a nice and sincere guy. I'm sorry that my opinion has conflicted with your interests. I probably wouldn't have reacted if I hadn't taken the time to read your explanations.
 
best regards,
mike
 
 
edit spelling
 
 
 
 

Hi Mike I think there is also a language problem that prevents me from explaining myself correctly.
 
I haven't said that PPM meters are useless but i find useless or at least misleading DAW digital peak meters since they only represent the maximum sample value that is not the same maximum signal value out of the converters (intersample peaks)
 
Analog PPM meters or properly oversampled and low passed digital peak meters are perfectly fine, I simply find a VU more useful, for the reason stated above.
It's not rare for me when I'm in a proper studio to use a 1176 after the preamp, before the AD set very fast to a ratio of 20 to block fast peaks i don't need ( often compressing around 3/5 dBs) before recording.
 
The fact that you have a digital medium that has avery low noise floor doesn't mean you have to use 80% of you headroom to record the fast transient of a snare representing less than 20% of the snare sound energy, this is at least what i always thought it was right and i'm used to do. I may be wrong of course, but i don't think there is a right and wrong way to record music and for me the method brings good results that's why i always suggest VU meters to those who ask how to improve their recordings. After all it comes down to proper gain staging regardless of the metering system used!
 
Saverio

smallstonefan
I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly how to use your VU meter plugin, so maybe you can simplify things form, and use this as an educational opportunity for us all.
 
So, I use a Mackie 1200f for my input device and according to specs, that's +4db. I try to record with my peaks on the Sonar meters at -6db. I noticed when I put VU Meter on a pre-recorded kick, when Sonar showed -6db your plugin was showing 0. This seems correct from what I understand, but I am fuzzy on the "why".
 
so, question #1, are the VU meters simply more accurate and I should use them to target a 0db when recording rather Sonar's meters reading -6db?

 
Well there is no definite "why", your peak meter is reading the maximum sample value at any precise moment, this is useful to avoid digital clips (never let the meter reach 0) and give you an indication of the level of the signal, 6dBs of headroom keeps you safe most of the times.
 
VU are not an absolute unit and are always relative to a pre defined dBFS level, using -18dBFS as reference actually means "a signal that has a quasi-RMS level of -18dBFS is considered the safe level". Since VU meters have a 300ms attack and release time they are unable to capture the peaks, they don't even record RMS, that integration time is an empirically value found in the early days of phone lines because it was fine to monitor the level of a spoken voice and for many (me included) is still the perfect way to estimate the level we humans are going to perceive 
 

smallstonefan
Now, question #2. For gain staging pre-recorded tracks, does the VU meter look at the entre wave form and set the gain once, so you don't have to find the peaks and manually set the trim in Sonar? If so, I see the value in that. Or, as I think I understand it, does it ride the volume as the track plays, which would alter the dynamics of the piece and something I would not want to do.
 
Again, thanks for coming in and I really look forward to understanding this better...

Well the Auto Gain function only consider the highest VU peak found, it doesn't change the dynamics but simply set the gain down or up  of the needed amount to let the maximum peak stay at the predefined level, may it be 0VU, +1 or +2.
The best way to use it is to put the VU Meter in all the tracks you want to trim and engage the AutoGain, let the track play once so that the gain can be set and then keep working as usual.
 
In my workflow while the track is playing the first time to set the correct gain i usually make the first panning and rough fader setting.
 
Saverio

Hi, I'm writing to let you know that we have released a new version of the VU Meter that fixes the VST issues with X3 (or at least it works in the trial :))
 
If you own the plugin you should already have received the update via mail, if not just drop me a line
 
Thank you
Saverio

Thanks Saverio! VST3 is working fine here.