Metering
Spectra
Loudness & analysis metering, redefined.
$129 $65Intro offer one-time purchase
Overview
Spectra is a loudness and audio analysis meter for broadcast, mastering, and recording. Drop it on a master bus, or run the macOS standalone against a live feed, and it shows exactly where a program sits against whatever delivery target it's being mixed to — a broadcast spec, a streaming platform, or a podcast target. It never touches the audio: what goes in comes out unchanged.
At its core is an ITU-R BS.1770-5 loudness engine, checked against the official EBU Tech 3341/3342 conformance test vectors and cross-checked sample-for-sample against libebur128 (155 comparisons, zero failures). The same code path runs live or offline, so a reading taken while mixing matches the reading taken again on the finished file — with a project accuracy bar of ±0.1 LU against the reference vectors, enforced by the test suite on every build.
Every meter — numeric loudness tiles, True Peak, VU, spectrum analyzer, scrolling spectrogram, goniometer, and compliance panels — lives on one freely arranged dashboard. Twenty-five panels can be moved, resized, added, or removed, and any arrangement can be saved as a preset.
Mono and stereo through to 5.1, 7.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.4 and 9.1.6 are all measured, with per-channel weighting to ITU-R BS.1770-5 Annex 3 and LFE excluded from every integration. Three of the factory layouts are built for surround, giving the per-channel bars the width they need to be read at twelve or sixteen channels.
Key features
ITU-R BS.1770-5 / EBU R128 loudness engine
Momentary, Short-term, Integrated loudness and Loudness Range (LRA), gated per spec.
True Peak (dBTP)
4×/8× oversampling FIR reconstruction — not linear interpolation — alongside Sample Peak (dBFS) with an Over latch.
PLR / PSR and VU
Crest-factor readouts, plus an analog-style VU meter with IEC 60268-17 ballistics.
Spectrum, spectrogram, goniometer
Real-time spectrum analyzer, scrolling spectrogram, and goniometer for stereo image and frequency content.
Fully freeform dashboard
25 panel types on a 24×16 snap grid; drag, resize, add, or remove any panel. Ships with 11 factory presets — three of them surround — plus user-savable custom presets.
13 built-in delivery targets
EBU R128, ATSC A/85, ARIB TR-B32, OP-59, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Netflix, Amazon Music, TIDAL, Deezer, Podcast, and Music Reference −14, with live Compliance, a Compliance Matrix (pass/fail and trim-to-hit across every target at once), and Streaming Preview.
Five built-in color skins
Modern, Amber, Aurora, Classic, and Tricolore, switchable instantly, with an independently customizable accent color.
One-click QC report export
PDF, JSON, and CSV together from one dialog.
Band Loudness
K-weighted level across ten octave bands (31.5 Hz–16 kHz), highlighting whichever band is currently driving the loudness.
14-day full-featured trial
One-time-purchase license, no subscription. Offline .gbc license file — no account, no node-lock, no telemetry.
One dashboard, arranged your way.
25 panel types on a 24×16 snap grid. Eleven factory presets ship with the plugin, and any arrangement you build can be saved as your own.
Panels being placed on the snap grid.
Five skins.
Five built-in color skins, switchable instantly, each with an independently customizable accent color.
Formats & platforms
| Format | macOS | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Standalone application | Yes | In progress |
| VST3 | Yes | Yes |
| Audio Unit (AU) | Yes | — |
| CLAP | Yes | Yes |
| AAX Native | Yes | — |
AAX is built for macOS only. On Windows the installer ships VST3 and CLAP.
System requirements
| macOS | Windows | |
|---|---|---|
| OS version | macOS 12.0 Monterey or later | Windows 10 version 1607 or later, 64-bit |
| CPU | Apple Silicon or Intel (Universal binary) | 64-bit Intel or AMD |
Try Spectra.
Full-featured for 14 days, no card required.
$129 $65Intro offer one-time purchase. Your license file is emailed the moment payment completes.