5 Free audio VU meter software for your Windows PC.

If you are like myself who likes to see their music move to an audio visual indicator like a VU meter, you should check out the following software.

I have been using the these software for quite some time now and it’s always interesting to see some like of visual audio activities while the music is playing.

These audio VU meter have been tested to run on Windows 2008 R2 which is the OS that I am currently using. All the Creative USB Sound Blaster sound card that I have is able to work with the 5 audio VU meter software that is listed below. The sound cards are: Sound Blaster E1, Sound Blaster Play, Sound Blaster Digital Music Premium HD, Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 and a cheap C-media chip-set USB sound card.

The 5 free audio VU meter software in no particular order are:

  1. Audio Level Meters  by Paul Marshall (http://www.darkwooddesigns.co.uk/pc2/meters.html)

Available in both Digital and Analog style meter and in a variety of designs to choose from. The animation reaction time of the meter movements I would say is very good. These VU meters are available in both paid and free version. Visit the site to check them out.

I’m using the free digital version.

The colours of some of the bars have been changed to my personal preference.

 

2. Burnsy Enterprises - Windows VU Meter (http://windowsvumeter.sourceforge.net/)

Download link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/windowsvumeter/

This is an analog VU meter that is able to vary the max value of the scale, suitable for low audio volume playbacks. The needle animation is responsive and fast. This meter will only “listen” to the default audio device sound output. If you change the default audio playback device, remember to reload the meter for the change to take effect on this VU meter.

For more information on the VU meter, check out their website.

Here’s how my version looks like. You can change the colours of the scale and background.

3. VUPlayer.com (http://www.vuplayer.com/other.php)

A retro cool looking analog VU meter that you should have on your computer screen. Responsive and fast needle movement. The scale on the meter is fixed. There is no option to calibrate the meter to your audio level. But if just use this for aesthetic purposes it’s not an issue.

Here’s the version I am using:

Version 1.2

4. VUMeter (https://www.ckweb.nl/vumeter_us/index.php)

A free windows’s digital VU meter. I used this VU meter the least often as the meter animation movement is a lot slower than the rest of the VU meters that I have, maybe it’s just my computer that's causing the problem. You can check it out in the link above and try it for yourself.

Here’s how it looks like.

And finally……

5. Orban Loudness Meter (http://www.orban.com/orban/meter/ (old broken link))

Updated Link (17 Mar 2023): http://www.orban-europe.com/downloads/Orban_Loudness_Meter/

This particular digital VU meter is like the King of all VU meter. It has 7 different types of digital VU meter all on one single window running simultaneously. For those who is serious about measuring your audio levels, you should give this a try.

Check out their website by visiting the above link.

This is how is looks like.

Lastly, although this post should be about VU meter, I thought maybe this free Audio Spectrum Analyzer software would also come in handy.

Spectrum Analysis v3.93 (http://www.techmind.org/audio/specanaly.html)

This software is able to run standalone without the need for installation. It is able to display the audio analysis in real-time and the graph animation response is fantastic. You can visit their site to download this free software and give it a try.

VU Meter demo - See how they run..
I've recorded a demo video of how some of the VU meter that i have mentioned above works. You can check it out there:

OK. That’s all I have at the moment. Hopefully, these information can be of some help to someone out there.