glossary
VU meters show average behavior; peak meters catch fast level spikes.
A VU meter responds slowly and is useful for judging average level, musical body, and balance. A peak meter reacts quickly so short transients do not slip past unnoticed.
Because they use different ballistics, the same signal can look calm on a VU meter and dangerous on a peak meter.
Use VU-style metering when setting operating level or comparing the body of vocals, bass, guitars, and buses. Use peak metering when avoiding clipping or checking transient headroom.
Neither meter replaces loudness metering for delivery decisions, because LUFS adds perceptual weighting and longer time windows.
A healthy mix can have a stable average level and still leave room for peaks. Reading both views helps you avoid over-compressing just to make one meter behave.
Meter Core keeps timing-aware level information visible so gain staging and delivery checks do not compete.