A VU meter measures the average sound output, a PPM (Peak Program Meter) measures the fastest and highest sound peaks. (I think it was developed in the 60s or 70s and was significantly more expensive then a VU meter, which is why you only found them in studios and on high end consumer music items)
LEDs have no moving parts and so respond virtually instantaneously, unfortunately because of this the eye/brain has problems registering the peaks, and so the peak hold LED meter was introduced to solve the problem.
Uses
A piece of Classical music has a very low average volume, but plenty of peaks; a lot of modern music has few peaks, but a high average volume.
If you made a recording of both using a Peak meter, then when you played them back the modern music would be considerably louder then the Classical piece. (The ear focuses on the average volume first)
Consequently recording studios and program makers use both types of meter to make sure they get a nicely balanced sound.
Hope this helps.

Bill

Yeah, thanks for the explanation. I'm still a little bit confused by the use of the PPM meter...

When you say "Peak hold" meter what do you mean? I know that SoundForge has a number at the top that tells the highest peak in the recording...so, for instance, as the song plays, it lets you know when the highest peak occurs. So, at the beginning the song may be at -2.3 DB and then by the end, the peak meter detected the highest peak at -0.2 I'm assuming since it didn't go over zero, that that is a safe level of volume?

"Peak Hold" meters are LED meters which leave the highest level LED segment of a recent peak level illuminated for a second or two, even if the signal has since got quieter.

Hi Ryan,

Here is a quick tip on boosting the volume of your own recordings in Sound Forge.

The biggest problem home recording artists face is making their own CDs sound as loud as commercial CDs without introducing distortion. You must have noticed that your home recorded CDs tend to sound a decibel or two softer than regular commercial CDs.

This issue can be resolved in 3 quick easy steps in Sound Forge.

Open your WAV recording file in Sound Forge.

1. Fix the CD Offset

| File | Process | DC Offset…|
Check = Automatically detect and remove
Check = Compute DC offset from first 5 seconds only
[OK]


2. Run the Normalize process to Peak Level

| File | Process | Normalize |

Peak Level

Move Slider to the very Top = 0dB
[OK]

3. Run the Normalize process to Average RMS Power

| File | Process | Normalize |

Average RMS power

Set the Normalize Slider to –13dB
You may want to move this down to –14dB or –15dB if it gets too loud.

Scan Settings = -50dB
Attack Time = 200ms
Release Time = 200ms

If Clipping Occurs = Ignore (Saturate)--> This is the most important setting to get the high levels!

If you set this to anything else, you will not get the desired loudness.
Short Peaks do not matter.

[OK]

The resulting WAV file sounds just like a commercial recording. It has all the presence and clarity you would expect.


Tapas

Cool, thanks for the tips! I tried the settings and it sounded really good...but there was one time (with a vocal recording) where it clipped on many areas.

also, sometimes even when my recording is no where near the red area, I still receive static in the speakers and I have some pretty decent speakers (they're soundblaster...)

thanks guys and sorry for my bried leave of absence recently.