Level Meter

A level meter is a volume-based plug-in (kind of) and one of the most basic and useful tools in your DAW. It is also unique in that it has no effect whatsoever on the sound of your tracks. It is simply used to measure the output levels of your tracks.

A level meter will typically measure two main aspects of a signal: peak and RMS. (There is also a difference between “peak” and something called “true peak,” but in the interest of brevity, I won’t go into detail here.)

Peak simply measures the highest levels of a track. This is useful for ensuring that a track doesn’t clip and become distorted.

Without getting too technical, RMS is a measurement taken of a track using a mathematical equation that determines a sort of "average" volume over time. This is a better representation than “peak” of how the human ear experiences loudness.

A level meter can be used on any track, but it might be most useful on the master output of a session. Metering the master output allows the producer to ensure that the song as a whole isn’t clipping. RMS levels might also be monitored in order to ensure that a limiter isn’t “squashing” the song too much during mastering, a process I’ll cover later.