# THE_METER > One screen, every meter: LUFS, true peak, dynamics, phase, width and spectrum — in stunning 3D. **Contents.** Each chapter is also its own markdown file: - [What It Is](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/what-it-is.md) - [Why You'll Love It](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/why-you-ll-love-it.md) - [The Interface at a Glance](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/the-interface-at-a-glance.md) - [Controls — In Depth](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/controls-in-depth.md) - [Visual Feedback & Metering](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/visual-feedback-metering.md) - [How to Use It — Real-World Workflows](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/how-to-use-it-real-world-workflows.md) - [Pro Tips & Creative Techniques](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/pro-tips-creative-techniques.md) - [The Companion App — THE_METER Standalone](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/the-companion-app-the-meter-standalone.md) - [Quick Start](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/quick-start.md) - [Specs](https://www.philspeiser.com/manual/the_meter/specs.md) ## What It Is THE METER is your entire metering rack, collapsed into one gorgeous window. Loudness, true peak, dynamics, stereo phase, width, balance, Mid/Side, a high-resolution spectrum and a hardware-style oscilloscope — all of it, all the time, all in one place. No more juggling five plugins to answer one question. THE METER analyzes whatever's running through it and tells you exactly what your audio is doing, with mastering-grade accuracy and visuals you'll actually want to leave open. Here's the part that matters most for your workflow: **THE METER never touches your sound.** It's a 100% transparent, signal-pass-through analyzer. The audio buffer comes in, gets measured, and goes out completely unmodified. That means you can drop it anywhere — on a single track, a bus, or the master — and trust that nothing you hear has changed. All of the value is in what it *measures* and how richly it *shows* it. Under the hood it's the real deal: ITU-R BS.1770 LUFS metering (Momentary, Short-term and gated Integrated), 4x-oversampled True Peak in dBTP per channel, dynamics (PLR and LRA), phase correlation, width, balance, a 2048-point FFT spectrum and a goniometer feed. Those numbers drive a metrics strip along the bottom plus a suite of full-screen visualizers — from a precise 2D analyzer curve to a cinematic 3D terrain spectrogram to reactive festival visuals. It tells the truth about your mix, and it looks incredible doing it. ## Why You'll Love It - **Totally transparent** — analyzes without altering a single sample. Safe to leave anywhere, forever. - **One plugin replaces a whole stack** — loudness, true peak, dynamics, spectrum, phase, vectorscope, width/balance, K-System and oscilloscope, unified in one window. - **Real ITU-R BS.1770 loudness** — Momentary (400 ms), Short-term (3 s) and properly gated Integrated LUFS, the same standard streaming platforms use. - **4x-oversampled True Peak (dBTP)** per channel, with CLIP warnings against your chosen platform ceiling. - **Real-world Platform targets built in** — 19 targets including Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Tidal, EBU R128, ATSC A/85, Club/DJ, Beatport, Podcast and Film/Cinema, plus a dedicated Streaming Platforms preview. - **Visualizers you'll actually want up** — 3D Wavetable spectrum, terrain spectrogram, vectorscopes and reactive Festival modes. - **A deep stereo toolkit** — Stereo Image and Circular vectorscopes, a Playback Check for phone, club, Bluetooth and car, a flashing phase-issue warning, a width-over-time timeline with stats, balance and Mid/Side. - **Plain-language dynamics** — PLR + LRA with status words so "loud but lifeless" is obvious at a glance. - **K-System metering** (K-12 / K-14 / K-20) for a calibrated, musical reference frame. - **CPU-aware** — analysis pauses automatically when the plugin window is closed (unless the companion app is watching). - **Companion app included** — a standalone big-screen version of THE METER that auto-links to the plugin and shows its live measurements in every meter and visualizer on a second monitor, a TV, or a festival screen. ## The Interface at a Glance THE METER is built around a big, full-screen **Visualizer** area and a **metrics strip** along the bottom. - The **metrics strip** is a row of "hardware meter" cards: LUFS, TRUE PEAK, DYNAMICS, K-SYS, PHASE, WIDTH and BALANCE, with a **RESET** button at the right end. The readouts update live, about ten times a second, and give you the whole numeric story at a glance. - The **full-screen visualizer** fills the window with your chosen view — spectrum, stereo field, dynamics, streaming, waveform or festival. - A **floating control panel** lives at the bottom-left. It auto-hides to keep things clean; hover the bottom-left corner (or the ⚙ indicator) to reveal the **Visualizer** menu and the **Platform** selector. - An **eye icon** at the bottom-left corner of the window shows or hides the metrics strip. - A **drag handle** at the bottom-right lets you scale the whole UI to taste. - When a newer version is available, a banner appears at the bottom-right of the window — click it to download the update for free. ## Controls — In Depth ### Visualizer (main view selector) **What it does:** Chooses which full-screen visualization fills the window. Click the Visualizer menu in the bottom-left control panel, hover a category to open its sub-menu, and click the view you want; your choice is saved with the project. The menu label shows the current pick, e.g. "Spectrum - Wavetable 3D". **Range/units:** Spectrum, Stereo Field, Festival, Waveform, Dynamics, Streaming Platforms. **In your music:** This is your "analysis lens." Switch to Spectrum for tone and energy, Stereo Field for imaging, Dynamics for punch vs density, Streaming Platforms for delivery, Waveform for shape. It's purely a display choice — it never affects the audio or the measured numbers. **Pro tip:** Park it on Streaming Platforms during the final phase of a master so platform turn-down/clip risk is always in view. ### Display (the sub-view inside each Visualizer) **What it does:** Picks the specific rendering style within the selected Visualizer. You choose it from the sub-menu that opens when you hover a category in the Visualizer menu. **Range/units:** Spectrum → Wavetable 3D / 3D Terrain / Spectrum Analyzer. Stereo Field → Stereo Image (Lissajous-style vectorscope) / Circular View (polar vectorscope) / Timeline. Festival → 3D Sphere / LED Grid / Infinity Field / 3D Text. Waveform → Oscilloscope / Scrolling Waveform. (Dynamics and Streaming Platforms are single views with no sub-menu.) **In your music:** Same data, different presentation. Use the precise 2D Spectrum Analyzer to read a resonance, then flip to 3D Terrain to *see* how long it sustains. Use Stereo Image for instantaneous phase, Timeline for width over time. **Pro tip:** For surgical EQ work, Spectrum Analyzer + hover crosshair beats any 3D view — the 3D modes are for spotting patterns, the 2D curve is for exact values. ### Platform (loudness target preset) **What it does:** Sets the real-world loudness target used as the reference for the LUFS card (target and difference), the true-peak ceiling behind the TRUE PEAK card's CLIP flag, and the colors of the Scrolling Waveform. Default: Spotify. Saved with the project. **Range/units (LUFS targets, as listed in the menu):** Streaming — Spotify -14, Apple -16, YouTube -14, Amazon -14, Tidal -14, Deezer -15, SoundCloud -14, TikTok -14, Facebook/IG -14, Bandcamp (none — no normalization, so the LUFS card shows 0 as its target), Pandora -14, iHeartRadio -14. Club/DJ — Club/DJ -6, Beatport -14. Broadcast — EBU R128 -23, ATSC A/85 -24. Non-Music — Podcast -16, Film/Cinema -27, TV Commercial -24. True-peak ceilings: -1 dBTP for every target except Bandcamp and Club/DJ (0 dBTP), ATSC A/85 and TV Commercial (-2 dBTP), and Film/Cinema (-3 dBTP). **In your music:** Check a master against the exact destination it's headed to. See how far your Integrated loudness is from target and whether peaks cross that platform's ceiling. Reference only — it never changes the audio. **Pro tip:** Mixing for clubs? Set Club/DJ (-6), then open the Streaming Platforms view to see how hard streaming would turn the same file down — an instant reality check on context. ### K-System mode **What it does:** Selects the K-System reference scale for the VU-style readout derived from integrated loudness. Dropdown on the K-SYS card. The choice isn't stored: it starts at K-14 every time you open the plugin window. **Range/units:** K-14 (default), K-20, K-12. **In your music:** Gives you a familiar, calibrated monitoring frame. K-20 for wide-dynamic material (acoustic, orchestral, jazz), K-12 for loud/broadcast-style program, K-14 for typical pop/rock masters. Display reference only. **Pro tip:** Pick one K scale and stick with it across a project — consistency is the whole point; the value is in judging tracks against the *same* yardstick. ### RESET (measurement reset) **What it does:** The **RESET** button at the right end of the metrics strip clears the running measurement — gated Integrated LUFS, Loudness Range (LRA), Max True Peak and with them PLR — plus the Dynamics view's history, so a fresh pass can begin. The in-view RESET buttons are more focused: in **Streaming Platforms** (top-right) it restarts the loudness and peak measurement; in **Dynamics** (bottom-right) it clears only that view's history and Lowest value; in **Stereo Field → Timeline** (top-right) it clears only the width history and stats. The **R** key works in two views: in Streaming Platforms it restarts the measurement, in Dynamics it clears the Dynamics history. **Range/units:** Momentary button. **In your music:** This is the standard move before judging a master. Reset, play from the very top, let the whole track run, then read Integrated LUFS and Max True Peak. **Pro tip:** Changing Platform doesn't touch the measurement — the target, the difference and the CLIP flag update instantly — so you can compare destinations without replaying the song. ### Metrics-strip toggle (eye icon / H) **What it does:** Shows or hides the bottom metrics strip. Click the **eye icon** at the bottom-left corner of the window (open eye = strip showing), or press **H**. Your choice is saved with the project. **Range/units:** On/off. **In your music:** Hide the strip for a fully unobstructed visualizer (great for performance or creative sessions); bring it back when you need the numbers. The center-screen PHASE ISSUE warning belongs to the strip, so it only appears while the strip is showing. Display only. **Pro tip:** Hit **H** during writing/arranging to enjoy a clean reactive visual, then **H** again at mix time for the full dashboard. ### Control-panel reveal (hover / ⚙) **What it does:** Reveals the floating control panel holding the Visualizer menu and the Platform selector. Auto-hides otherwise. **Range/units:** Hover the bottom-left corner or the ⚙ indicator. **In your music:** Keeps the UI clean during use while keeping mode-switching one hover away. Display only. **Pro tip:** If a control "disappears," it just auto-hid — sweep your mouse to the bottom-left to bring it back. ### UI zoom / scale handle **What it does:** Scales the entire plugin UI. **Range/units:** Drag handle at the bottom-right; 0.5x–3.0x. **In your music:** Size the window and readouts to any screen — tiny on a laptop, huge on a studio display. Display only. **Pro tip:** Scale up to 2x–3x when reading the metrics strip from the mix position across the room. ### In-view interactions (per visualizer) **What it does:** Mode-specific mouse/keyboard navigation for each visualization. **Range/units:** Wavetable 3D — drag left/right = rotate, drag up/down = tilt, wheel = zoom, double-click = reset camera. 3D Terrain — drag = orbit and tilt, wheel = zoom. Spectrum Analyzer — hover = crosshair + frequency/dB tooltip. Stereo Field → Timeline — on-canvas RESET clears width history and stats. Dynamics — on-canvas RESET (or **R**) clears the history and Lowest value. Streaming Platforms — mouse wheel scrolls the platform grid; on-canvas RESET (or **R**) restarts the measurement. Oscilloscope — drag = pan, wheel = zoom, double-click = reset view; ◀ / ▶ change the sweep length; the scope auto-HOLDs when the transport stops. Festival 3D Sphere — drag = rotate, wheel = zoom, double-click = reset camera and resume auto-rotation. Infinity Field — drag = orbit and tilt, wheel = zoom. 3D Text — wheel = zoom, double-click = edit the text. Camera and view positions (Wavetable 3D, 3D Terrain, 3D Sphere, Infinity Field, 3D Text zoom, Oscilloscope) are saved with the project. **In your music:** Inspect detail — rotate a 3D spectrum to find a buildup, read an exact frequency/level off the analyzer, track width over time, or freeze the scope to study a single transient. Navigation only. **Pro tip:** Stop the transport on a tricky transient and the oscilloscope auto-HOLDs — now drag and zoom in to study the exact shape. ### Oscilloscope SYNC & beat division **What it does:** The Oscilloscope sweep is locked to your DAW tempo. Click ◀ or ▶ at the bottom-right of the scope to choose how much musical time one sweep shows; click **SYNC** to show or hide the beat grid and beat numbers. Your division is saved with the project. **Range/units:** 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1 BAR, 2 BAR, 4 BAR (default 1/4). **In your music:** Short divisions zoom in on a single kick or snare hit; 1–4 BAR shows how a groove's envelope moves across the bar. Display only. **Pro tip:** Set 1/4 and play a loop — every beat lands in the same place on the grid, so a transient that's softer or louder than its neighbors stands out immediately. ### 3D Text input (Festival > 3D Text) **What it does:** Sets custom on-screen text for the Festival 3D Text performance visual. Double-click the 3D Text view to open the **Enter Display Text** box, type, then click **Apply** (or press Enter); **Cancel** (or Esc) leaves the text as it was. Saved with the project. **Range/units:** Up to 24 characters, displayed uppercase. Default text: "DOUBLE CLICK". **In your music:** Personalizes the performance/festival display. Purely cosmetic. **Pro tip:** Drop your artist or track name in for live streams and content captures — instant branded visuals reacting to your audio. ## Visual Feedback & Metering The bottom strip is a row of "hardware meter" cards: - **LUFS card** — Integrated as the main value, the platform target in the header, plus Momentary (**M**) and Short-term (**S**). Next to the value: **OK** when you're within 1 LU of the target, otherwise the signed difference (yellow or red when you're over, yellow when you're more than 3 LU under). - **TRUE PEAK card** — Max True Peak (dBTP) as the main value plus current per-channel **L** and **R** peaks, with **CLIP** when the max is over the selected platform's ceiling (otherwise **OK**). A channel that crosses the ceiling turns red. - **DYNAMICS card** — PLR and LRA with status: PLR <6 Squashed, 6–8 Loud, 8–14 Good, >14 Dynamic. - **K-SYS card** — selectable K-12/14/20 VU readout (Integrated loudness relative to the K reference) with a green/yellow/red zone bar and **HR** headroom (how far Integrated sits below 0 dB). The readout turns yellow above 0 VU and red above +3 VU. - **PHASE card** — correlation -1..+1 with a gradient bar/marker and status: **OK** (+0.3 and up), **WIDE** (between -0.3 and +0.3), **ISSUE** (below -0.3). Below -0.3 a flashing center-screen **PHASE ISSUE** overlay appears. - **WIDTH card** — width % (0% = mono) with status **MONO** (under 15%), **WIDE** (over 50%) or **EXTREME** (over 80%), plus an **M/S** readout showing whether Mid or Side is louder, and by how many dB. - **BALANCE card** — **C** when centered, otherwise **L** or **R** with a percentage, on a centered bar. The full-screen visualizers go deep: a 3D Wavetable spectrum and 3D Terrain spectrogram; a 2D Spectrum Analyzer (20 Hz–20 kHz log-frequency x-axis, 0 to -72 dB y-axis, smoothing, a peak-hold line, hover crosshair/tooltip); Stereo Image and Circular View vectorscopes (heatmap, trails, MONO/OUT OF PHASE zone overlays, correlation-driven color, BALANCE and STEREO WIDTH meters, and a **PLAYBACK CHECK** panel that rates your stereo image for Phone, Club, Bluetooth and Car); a Stereo Width Timeline (gauge with a PRO range of 30–60%, a scrolling width-over-time graph, Avg/Peak/In Pro stats and an on-canvas RESET); the Dynamics view (large color-coded value — the gap between peak level and short-term loudness — with status word CRUSHED/SQUASHED/DENSE/HEALTHY/PUNCHY, a scrolling waterfall history, plus **Lowest** and **Overall** readouts); a Streaming Platforms grid (all 19 targets from the Platform list, each with a status LED, a bar showing turn-down or boost, and the gain change in dB with up/down arrows; header shows LUFS INT, TRUE PEAK and PLR); a CRT-style oscilloscope (graticule, tempo-synced sweep with beat grid, LUFS, BPM and transport readouts, HOLD on stop); and a loudness-colored Scrolling Waveform. Festival modes (3D Sphere, LED Grid, Infinity Field, 3D Text) are reactive performance visuals. The spectrum displays are tilted +3 dB per octave around 1 kHz (pink-noise reference), so pink noise reads flat. The plugin feeds the display with fresh measurements about 30 times a second. In the Streaming Platforms grid, a green LED means the platform's volume change is unremarkable; orange means a turn-down of more than 3 dB, or a boost that's cut short because your peaks would hit the platform's ceiling; red adds a **CLIP** warning — even after that platform's volume change, your true peak would still sit above -1 dBTP. Bandcamp and Club/DJ don't normalize, so they always read 0 dB. ## How to Use It — Real-World Workflows ### 1. Final loudness & peak compliance before export (master bus) 1. Insert THE METER **last** on the master bus. 2. Open the control panel and set **Platform** to your destination (e.g. Spotify -14). 3. Click **RESET** at the right end of the metrics strip. 4. Play the track from the very top, all the way through — with THE METER's window open (or the companion app connected) the whole time, because analysis pauses while it's closed. 5. Read the **LUFS card** — Integrated vs target (aim for the OK status) — and the **TRUE PEAK card** for Max dBTP and any **CLIP** flag. 6. Too loud or peaks over ceiling? Adjust your limiter/gain, RESET, and run it again. ### 2. Preview what every platform will do to your track 1. Set **Visualizer** to **Streaming Platforms**. 2. Click the on-canvas **RESET** (or press **R**) and play the full track. 3. Scan the grid: each platform shows its gain change in dB (up/down arrows), a status LED and any **CLIP** warning, and the header shows LUFS INT, TRUE PEAK and PLR. Now you can see how Spotify, Apple, YouTube and the rest will treat your master before you upload. ### 3. Diagnose stereo & phase problems (master or wide bus) 1. Set **Visualizer** to **Stereo Field → Stereo Image**. 2. Watch the shape and the **PHASE card** correlation. If the center-screen **PHASE ISSUE** overlay flashes, you've got mono-compatibility risk. 3. Check the **PLAYBACK CHECK** panel: Phone, Club, Bluetooth and Car each get a pass, warning or fail with a short note ("Mono safe", "Check low end", "Off-center"…). 4. Switch to **Stereo Field → Timeline** to see width over time. Click its on-canvas RESET, play the section you care about and read **Avg**, **Peak** and **In Pro** (the share of time spent in the 30–60% PRO range). Stay in Timeline for the whole pass — switching views starts the stats over. ### 4. Judge punch vs density (drum bus, master) 1. Set **Visualizer** to **Dynamics**. 2. Click **RESET** on the metrics strip — it clears both the Max True Peak this view measures from and the Dynamics history. 3. Play the loudest section and read the status word — CRUSHED/SQUASHED through to PUNCHY — plus **Lowest** (the most compressed moment so far) and **Overall**. The DYNAMICS card adds PLR and LRA. 4. If it reads CRUSHED or SQUASHED and you wanted life, back off the compression/limiting, RESET, and watch the value climb. ## Pro Tips & Creative Techniques - **Reset discipline wins.** Integrated LUFS, LRA, Max True Peak and the Dynamics history all accumulate — always RESET before a measurement pass. Switching Platform doesn't need a reset; the target-based readouts update instantly. - **Keep the window open while you measure.** To save CPU, THE METER only analyzes while its window is open or the companion app is connected — close it mid-song and that part never makes it into Integrated LUFS. - **Use M / S / Integrated together.** Momentary catches the moment, Short-term shows the section, Integrated is the verdict. Watch all three to understand *where* loudness lives in your arrangement. - **2D for values, 3D for patterns.** The Spectrum Analyzer's hover tooltip gives exact frequency/dB for surgical EQ; the 3D Terrain reveals sustained resonances you'd miss on a flat curve. - **Catch loudness jumps as they happen.** The Scrolling Waveform colors every moment against your platform target — blue and green when you're under it, yellow, orange and red as you push past — so a chorus or drop that suddenly gets louder lights up instantly. - **Freeze and study transients.** Stop the transport and the oscilloscope auto-HOLDs — drag and zoom to inspect distortion character or clipping-like shapes. - **Judge with K-System.** Pick K-14 (or K-20 for dynamic material) and judge every track in the session against the same reference. - **Leave it up for the vibe.** Hit **H** to hide the strip and run a Festival visual during creative or performance sessions — honest, music-reactive energy feedback that also looks amazing on stream. ## The Companion App — THE_METER Standalone Here's the secret weapon that ships *alongside* the plugin: **THE METER App**, a standalone desktop application that turns the plugin into a full-screen, second-monitor, big-stage metering experience. It's the same beautiful meters and visualizers you get inside the plugin — but freed from the DAW window and blown up to fill an entire display. ### What the app is THE METER App is a lightweight native desktop app for **macOS and Windows**, installed together with the plugins (no browser, no web account). Launch it and you get a big, resizable window (1200×800 by default, scales down to a slim 600×150 strip) with the same Visualizer modes, Display sub-views and metrics as the plugin — Spectrum (Wavetable 3D / 3D Terrain / Spectrum Analyzer), Stereo Field (Stereo Image / Circular View / Timeline), Dynamics, Streaming Platforms, Waveform (Oscilloscope / Scrolling Waveform), and the Festival visuals (3D Sphere, LED Grid, Infinity Field, 3D Text). ### How it links to the plugin (it just works) The magic is that the app and the plugin **talk to each other automatically on the same computer.** Drop THE METER plugin on a track in your DAW, launch the app, and they connect on their own — no IP addresses, no ports, no "broadcast" button to arm. The plugin measures your audio in the DAW and hands its live analysis straight to the app, about 30 times a second. - **Zero configuration.** The app keeps looking for a running THE METER plugin and connects as soon as it finds one. If the plugin isn't open yet, the app simply waits and links up the moment you load it. - **Self-healing.** Close the plugin, change projects, or reload your DAW and the app reconnects automatically when the plugin comes back — no relaunching, no fiddling. - **No audio routing to set up.** You don't feed audio into the app separately. It displays exactly what the plugin is metering, so what you see on the big screen is always in lockstep with the track the plugin is on. - **Works with the plugin window closed.** While the app is connected, the plugin keeps measuring even when you close its window in the DAW. - **One measurement, one RESET.** The loudness and peak measurement lives in the plugin. To start a fresh Integrated LUFS / Max True Peak pass, click RESET in the plugin window — the app follows. - **Same-machine link.** The app and your DAW run on the same computer (the connection is a fast local hand-off, not a network stream), so there's nothing to configure on a router or Wi-Fi. The app follows one plugin at a time, so run a single THE METER instance while the app is open. ### Why producers will love it - **Get your meters off the mix window.** Park the full dashboard and visualizers on a second monitor (or an iPad/TV mirrored from your machine) and reclaim all that DAW screen real estate for your session. - **Mastering at a glance.** Run the Streaming Platforms grid or the LUFS/True-Peak dashboard huge on a dedicated screen while you work — compliance is always in your peripheral vision. - **Big-stage and stream-ready.** Throw the Festival visuals (3D Sphere, LED Grid, Infinity Field, custom 3D Text) onto a venue screen or into your stream/recording — gorgeous, honest, music-reactive visuals driven by the *real* audio you're playing, not a fake animation. - **Read the room.** Scale the window to fit anything from a laptop corner to a wall-mounted studio display, or shrink it to the slim ultra-wide strip and tuck it above your tracks. - **Ultra-wide & multi-view.** In the slim/ultra-wide layout the app offers panoramic single-purpose readouts (Terrain Spectrum, Scrolling Waveform, Stereo Field, Spectrum, Loudness, Oscilloscope) and can show several at once in a ROW, COL or GRID layout — perfect for a meter bridge that lives across the top of your screen. ### Setup in 3 steps 1. Install THE METER (the installer puts the app and the plugins on your macOS or Windows machine) and launch the app. 2. In your DAW, insert the THE METER plugin on the track, bus or master you want to watch, and make sure it's processing audio. 3. That's it — the app connects automatically and starts mirroring. Pick your Visualizer/Display mode, drag the corner to size it to your screen, and send it to your second monitor. **Tip:** Run the *plugin* small inside your DAW for quick reads, and keep the *app* big on a second screen for the deep-dive visuals and full metrics dashboard — best of both worlds, perfectly in sync. ## Quick Start 1. Insert THE METER on your master bus (or any stereo track you want to analyze) — it's transparent, so it won't change a thing. 2. On first launch, log in with your philspeiser.com account to activate it. 3. Hover the bottom-left corner to reveal the control panel and set **Platform** to your target (e.g. Spotify -14). 4. If the metrics strip isn't showing, click the eye icon at the bottom-left corner of the window (or press **H**). 5. Click **RESET** at the right end of the metrics strip. 6. Play your track from the top with the plugin window open and read the **LUFS** and **TRUE PEAK** cards. Done — a real, standards-grade loudness and peak read, set up in seconds. ## Specs - **Plugin type:** Transparent metering & visualization (signal pass-through analyzer — does not alter audio). Requires a stereo (2+ channel) signal for meaningful analysis. - **Formats:** **VST3 and AAX** (macOS and Windows), **AU** (macOS), plus the THE METER companion app for macOS and Windows, installed alongside the plugins. - **Version:** 1.3. - **CPU note:** Lightweight and CPU-aware — analysis pauses automatically when the plugin window is closed, unless the companion app is connected. - **Companion app:** THE METER Standalone (v1.3) for macOS and Windows. Auto-links to the running plugin on the same computer and shows its live measurements in all meters and visualizers in a resizable big-screen window (default 1200×800, min 600×150). Receives data at ~30 Hz; no manual connection or audio routing required.