In the modern era of "loudness wars" and digital headroom, the VU meter remains one of the most enduring and vital tools in audio production. While every DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) comes with built-in metering, they almost always default to digital peak metering. Peak meters tell you if your audio is clipping, but they don't tell you how loud the audio feels to the human ear.
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In the analog world, 0 VU usually equals +4 dBu. In the digital world, there is no standard voltage, so we must calibrate the plugin. In the modern era of "loudness wars" and