How to Use Audio Meters and Analyzers in Mixing and Mastering

TL;DR: In mixing and mastering, your ears are always the main tool. But ears get tired, brains adapt, and some things are nearly impossible to judge by listening alone. That is where audio meters and analyzers come in. I use them to check loudness, peaks, true peaks, phase, stereo image, and dynamic range. In this guide, I walk you through the audio meters and analyzers I use in every session, from free tools that ship with Pro Tools to paid plugins like Brainworx bx meter and ADPTR Metric AB. You will learn what each one is for, how to read them, and why I never rely on just one.

Why Your Ears Alone Are Not Enough

When you work on a song, whether you are producing, recording, mixing, or mastering, your main tools for judging sound are your ears. That will never change. Ears are what music is made for.

But ears have limits.

After thirty minutes in a session, your brain adapts to whatever you are hearing. A harsh top end starts sounding fine. A muddy low end stops bothering you. You get attached to a mix that would sound off to anyone walking in fresh.

On top of that, some things are genuinely hard to hear. How loud is your master compared to a commercial reference? Is your stereo image falling apart in mono? Are there inter-sample peaks that will distort on someone’s phone speaker? You can guess. But your eyes can measure.

That is why, alongside EQs, compressors, limiters, and other tools, we use audio meters and analyzers. They are the part of the workflow where we check what we are doing with our eyes, not just our ears.

What I Actually Use Audio Meters and Analyzers For

Before we get into the tools themselves, it helps to know what I am actually watching for. I do not just throw meters on the master bus and hope for the best. Each one has a job.

Here is what I use meters and analyzers for in a typical session:

• Loudness levels. How loud does my mix or master sound, measured against a standard that streaming platforms actually use. I covered this in detail in my post on RMS vs LUFS, if you want to go deeper on what these numbers mean.
• Peaks. Where the loudest samples land. This is my main concern during gain staging before mixing. I want healthy headroom, not a mix that is already shouting into the ceiling.
• True peaks. What actually happens after digital-to-analog conversion. At the mastering stage, true peaks are the real number to watch. If you have never thought about this, read my post on peaks vs true peaks.
• Stereo image and correlation. How wide the mix is, and whether it holds up in mono. Laptop speakers, phone speakers, and a lot of club systems still sum to mono. A stereo image that looks huge can fall apart fast if the phase is not right.
• Dynamic range. How much breathing room there is between the quiet and loud parts. A crushed master reads differently than one with life in it.

Each of these can be read, at least partially, on a meter. That is what makes analyzers useful. They fill in the gaps your ears cannot cover on their own.

The Audio Meters and Analyzers I Use in Every Session

Over the years I have picked up a lot of metering tools. Some are free, some are paid, and a few of them have been in my chain for so long that I forget they are there. Let me walk you through the ones I actually open in a typical mixing or mastering session.

1. The Pro Tools Built-In Meter

My DAW is Pro Tools, so the first meter I use is the one that comes with it. Every DAW has its own built-in metering, and most of them are solid for basic level checks.

What I mainly watch here is true peaks. If I see true peaks going above my ceiling, I know I need to work harder with the limiter to control them. For more on how that works in practice, see my guide on how to use a limiter.

2. TBProAudio dpMeter (Free VU Meter)

For gain staging, I reach for a VU meter. My go-to is the free one from TBProAudio. A VU meter ignores the fast transient spikes and shows you something closer to how loud the signal feels, which is exactly what you want when you are setting your levels at the start of a session.

Another nice detail: you can pick from a few different skins, so you can have it match your workflow aesthetically if that matters to you.

3. Waves VU Meter

I also use the VU meter from Waves. It does essentially the same job as the TBProAudio one. Having two options is useful because sometimes I want a specific look or calibration in a session, and having them both installed means I always have the right one for the job.

4. A Free Frequency Monitor with Band Solo

This one sits a bit between a meter and an analyzer. It is a frequency monitor that lets you mute and solo different bands of frequencies, so you can isolate exactly what is happening in the low end or the high end without touching your mix.

You can also listen to just the right channel, just the left, the full stereo signal, or the mono sum. That last part is especially useful for checking mono compatibility. Best part: it is free.

5. IK Multimedia Free Metering

Another free tool in my chain is the IK Multimedia metering plugin. I use it to watch three things at once: peaks, perceived loudness, and RMS. Having all three side by side gives me a fast read on what is going on with level, without having to cross-reference multiple plugins.

6. TC Electronic Loudness Meter

TC Electronic metering is in almost every mastering session I do. I mainly use it to watch loudness on my masters, but it is also great for true peaks. TC has been building these tools for a very long time, and the accuracy shows.

7. Waves PAZ Analyzer

The Waves PAZ Analyzer is one of the first analyzers I ever used, and I still reach for it. It shows peaks, RMS levels, and whether your track is sitting in phase or not. That last part is important. A track that looks fine on a level meter can still have phase problems that will hurt it on mono systems.

8. Brainworx bx meter

The bx meter from Brainworx, available through Plugin Alliance, is what I use for dynamic range. Dynamic range is often overlooked, but it is what makes music feel alive. A master with no dynamic range feels flat even if it is loud. The bx meter tells me, in a single number, whether I still have life in the track or whether I have squashed it too far.

9. ADPTR Metric AB (Plugin Alliance)

This one deserves a longer look because it is the most complete analyzer I use. Metric AB from ADPTR, sold through Plugin Alliance, is the plugin I pull up when I want to compare my mix or master against a reference track. If you have never used one of these, see my post on how to use reference tracks the right way before loading this kind of plugin.

Here is what Metric AB gives you in one window:

• Frequency spectrum analyzer. You see the entire frequency response of your signal, and you can compare it directly to a reference. Useful for catching a low end that is bigger than you thought, or a top end that is missing.
• Correlation section. This tells you how mono-compatible your signal is, or put another way, the phase relationship between the left and right channels. If the correlation dips below zero, you have phase issues that need attention.
• Stereo image. You get a visual of how wide your signal is across the spectrum. In one of my sessions, you can see I made everything below 50 Hz mono. That is a common mastering move, because low frequencies in stereo waste energy and can cause phase issues on vinyl or club systems.
• Dynamic section. This is where you see the dynamic range of your mix or master. Are there peaks and valleys, or is everything sitting at the same level?
• Loudness section. Exactly what it sounds like. How loud your mix or master is, measured against your reference.
• Frequency band listening. You can solo specific frequency bands to hear exactly what is happening in a particular range, without affecting your actual mix.
• Dual display mode. This is where the reference comparison really shines. Your track and your reference are shown side by side across all these measurements, so you can spot differences instantly.

Why I Always Use at Least Two Analyzers

Here is something that took me a while to accept: different analyzers will show you slightly different information about the same signal.

That is not a bug. It is how the math works. Different plugins use different algorithms, different integration times, and different weighting curves. None of them are lying. They are just giving you different views of the same signal.

That is why, most of the time, I keep at least two analyzers open and take something close to an average of what they tell me. If both TC Electronic and Metric AB say my integrated loudness is sitting around minus 13 LUFS, I trust that reading. When one says minus 13 and the other says minus 10, I stop and figure out why before I make any decisions.

This is especially important with loudness readings. Knowing exactly how loud a track is helps me dial in the limiter properly. If the track needs more level to sit with a reference, I push the limiter. When it is already louder than it should be, I back off. Without a reliable loudness reading, you are just guessing.

What Meters and Analyzers Actually Do for Your Workflow

Zoom out for a second. What are we really doing with all these tools?

Audio meters and analyzers measure the health of your mixes and masters. They help you make better decisions when you are equalizing, compressing, limiting, and balancing. These tools catch problems that are hard to hear, like inter-sample peaks or phase issues, and they give you an objective reference point that does not care whether your ears are tired.

But meters are not the boss of your session. They are assistants. Sometimes a meter will show you something that looks scary, like a correlation reading that dips low, and the track will still sound great. Other times, everything looks perfect on every meter and the mix still feels off. That is when you have to trust your ears first.

Take what the meters show you into account. Use them as a second opinion. But do not let a number override what you are hearing.

Your Turn: Take Inventory of Your Metering Setup

Before you close this tab, do something quick. Open your DAW and make an inventory of the audio meters and analyzers you already own. You probably have more than you think, both in your DAW’s stock plugins and in the free bundles that came with your interface or other software.

Then, if there are gaps, go grab a few free ones. TBProAudio’s dpMeter is a great place to start for a VU meter. IK Multimedia has free options. Your DAW’s built-in meters are usually better than most people give them credit for.

Once you have your metering setup sorted, your mixing and mastering decisions get a lot sharper. You stop guessing about loudness, phase, and headroom, and you start making informed choices.

Key Takeaways

• Audio meters and analyzers do not replace your ears. They help you catch things your ears cannot measure, like true peaks, integrated loudness, and phase issues.
• Different meters will show slightly different readings for the same signal. Keeping at least two analyzers open lets you average the information and trust your decisions.
• Several excellent metering tools are free, including TBProAudio’s dpMeter and the meters built into your DAW. You do not need to spend a lot to get reliable readings.
• For serious mastering work, a full analyzer like ADPTR Metric AB gives you loudness, frequency spectrum, stereo image, correlation, and reference comparison in one window.
• When a meter and your ears disagree, trust your ears. Meters are guides, not referees.

Related Articles

RMS vs LUFS: What Is Loudness and How to Measure It. What loudness actually means, the difference between RMS and LUFS, and the streaming platform targets every producer should know.

Peaks vs True Peaks in Audio. Why your digital meters can show a clean signal while your master distorts on someone’s phone, and how to set your limiter to avoid it.

What Is Gain Staging (And Why Your Mixes Need It). How to manage your levels from the start of a session so every stage of your chain works the way it should.

How to Use Reference Tracks the Right Way. Why level matching your reference is essential, and how to compare without falling into the loudness trap.

How to Use a Limiter. Parameters, common mistakes, and the limiter plugins I actually use in real mastering sessions.

Mastering Chain Plugin Order. Where each processor belongs, including where to place your meters and analyzers in the chain.

Ready to Go Deeper?

Reading meters is one part of mastering. The full picture involves dozens of decisions per session, from gain staging to final true peak limiting, and every one of them benefits from proper metering. If you want to learn the complete workflow I use on every master, check out the Pro Audio Mastering Course.

Inside the course, I walk you through real mastering sessions, show you exactly how I read my meters, and explain how I make the call when the meters and my ears do not fully agree. By the end, you will have your own system for using audio meters and analyzers confidently.

Learn more about the Pro Audio Mastering Course →

If your focus is more on the production and mixing side, the Music Production Masterclass covers the full process of turning an idea into a finished mix, with metering worked into every stage.

About the Author

Adrian Milea is a Mixing and Mastering Engineer, Music Producer, and Educator with over 25 years of experience. He has releases on Armada Music, features in DJ Mag, and teaches producers worldwide through his courses at adrianmilea.com.

Until next time, Stay Cool and Make Great Music!
-Adrian Milea