For example, for 18 dB of headroom, set Scale to 18. Scale correlates peak levels to your preferred amount of headroom. Turning down Sensitivity for the slowest response provides a good way to compare average song levels, or sections within a song. Turning up Sensitivity tracks the average level over shorter periods. The Sensitivity control acts like a damping control on the meters, where lower sensitivity averages out the readings over a longer time period. Conversely, if the peak levels are high and the average levels are low, you may need some dynamics processing to even out the dynamic range somewhat. If the average levels are high compared to the peaks, then there may be too much compression or limiting being used. These can provide useful clues about your music. The LED meters in the middle indicate peak signal levels, while the VU meters indicate average signal levels. Grab it before someone at PreSonus decides they should probably charge something for it. Figure 1: This VU meter isn’t just free, it’s useful.
