PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Finally got around to building some VU's for my scope setup. It's really nice to be back mixing on real VU's.
Here in OZ we have a very fine publication called AudioTechnology magazine. A well respected industry rag with no crap in it. They've allowed a website to host a pdf of an article they ran which outlines a universal buffer circuit for VU's. So you can use newer cheap DC meters or the older (expensive) AC meters. I was lucky enough to pick up a pair of older AC meters for $0.00

The website is here :-
http://www.jlmaudio.com/VU%20Buffer.htm
Just click on the link that says "Audio Technology DIY VU Article in PDF"

The guys have a kit you can buy but I built mine from scratch on vero board easy enough.

Use the Control Room plugin in scope to send a 1000kHz tone at -12db and adjust the pots on the circuit till the meter reads 0. What this does is keep you on your toes enough that pegging the meter constantly hard will produce slight distortion but pegging on and off won't. It gets you running a hotter mix and makes things interesting. And it is soooo nice to see real VU movement.

Looks a little bit like Siberian homework.

Sorry, just kidding.

nice job.
you are officially an engineer.....

and a true high-ender
toroidal core trafo, lots of empty space, the PSU as far from the circuit as possible, 19" format...

congrats, Tom

Well those meters are very big so I needed a 3RU case to house them. The article has a much more compact version and mentions using a wall wart but I hate those things hence the built in power supply! The power supply is actually way overkill for that circuit but the toroid was one spare I had lying around. Actually I had most of the bits lying around which makes things cheap and it was good to have something to work on while waiting for tapes to arrive from the land of garyb's and scope4live's for the next mix.

if NOW something goes wrong in the mix, it really must be you
cheers, nice job