Name: VU-02
Brand: Desert Moon Audio
Price: 19.00 USD
Availability: InStock

VU Meter VU-02 - Desert Moon Audio plug-in

Analog Volume Unit Meter

See what you are actually printing

VU-02 is a VU meter plugin for Mac and PC: a standards-correct movement with a calibrated 0 VU reference and a clip lamp.

14-DAY FREE TRIAL

Full version, free for 14 days. No payment details needed.

Works with all major DAWs

AU / VST3 / AAX for Mac · VST3 / AAX for PC

Yours forever — no subscription

Instant download after purchase

Where it goes

Four of the places it lives.

Gain staging
Set every track so the needle hovers around 0 VU and the mix has headroom where it counts.
Mix bus
A VU on the master shows the average level a limiter hides.
Bass and kick
The needle’s ballistics show the weight of low end better than a peak meter can.
Every track
Zero latency and bit transparent, so it goes on every channel at no cost.

About VU-02

VU-02 is a standards-correct VU movement with a calibrated 0 VU reference — the slow, averaging kind of meter that shows you loudness rather than peaks. A peak meter tells you whether you are clipping. A VU tells you how loud something actually feels, which is the number you mix to.

It is metering only. Audio comes out bit for bit as it went in and the plugin reports no latency, so you can leave one on every bus without changing the sound or shifting anything in time.

The movement is bolted into the front panel of a piece of 1960s studio gear, in a choice of four finishes, and the whole unit resizes from 0.7x to 2.5x — because a meter you have to squint at is a meter you stop reading.

Key features

Calibrated headroom, 4 to 26 dB
Sets where 0 VU sits below digital full scale. At the default of 18, a −18 dBFS tone reads exactly 0 VU. Change it to match whatever your room and your masters are built around.
Display delay, 0 to 1000 ms
Holds the needle back so meters on busses of different latencies line up with each other. It delays the display only — never the audio.
Clip lamp
Lights at −0.009 dBFS and stays lit until you click it, so a single overshoot while you were out of the room is still there when you get back.
Four finishes
Black, cream, walnut and silver.
Resizable, 0.7x to 2.5x
Drag the bottom-right corner.
Bit transparent, zero latency
It measures and nothing else.

The panel at a glance

Headroom Where 0 VU sits below digital full scale, 4 to 26 dB. At 18, a −18 dBFS tone reads exactly 0 VU.
Delay Holds the display back up to 1000 ms so meters on different busses line up. Never delays the audio.
The dial −20 to +3 dB, red above 0 VU, with real ballistics: needles settle over about a third of a second.
Peak lamp Lights at −0.009 dBFS and stays lit until you click it.
Finish buttons Black, cream, walnut or silver. The dial never changes.

More details

Yes. It's a one-off purchase, not a subscription, and there's nothing to renew. Updates to a plugin you own are free — download the current installer and run it over the top.

Every plugin is sold on its own, so you can buy just the one you want. If you'd rather have all of them, the Everything Bundle collects the whole line for 30% less than buying them separately.

Each license covers up to 4 computers you personally own — a studio desktop, a laptop and a couple of spares. Moving to a new computer? Choose Deactivate This Machine in the plugin's preset menu on the old one and the seat frees up instantly; if that machine is gone for good, contact us and we'll release it.

A purchase covers you, not a studio full of people. If colleagues need it, they need their own copy — that's what keeps a small company like this able to keep building plugins.

Your download link is in the order confirmation email sent at purchase, and in your account under Order history.

Your license key is in the same email. Run the installer, open the plugin, enter the key once and you're done — one key activates up to 4 of your machines.

Can't find the email? Check spam, then search for "Desert Moon Audio". If it still isn't there, get in touch with the address you ordered with and we'll resend it.

Yes — after activation. Entering your license key needs an internet connection once; from then on it works offline — the only other time it goes online is a once-a-day check for a newer version.

If a studio machine never goes online, get in touch and we'll sort out an activation for it.