SCOPE2 is a meter plugin for visually monitoring audio level dynamics. It combines four display modes—WAVE, RMS, PEAK, and Lissajous—with a loudness meter (LUFS / LRA / True Peak). You can check at a glance on a single screen how much louder or quieter your audio is relative to target levels for Spotify (-14 LUFS) and broadcast (-23 LUFS). It is a measurement-only plugin that does not alter audio; inputs pass straight through to outputs.

Differences from SCOPE (Legacy Edition)

Item	SCOPE	SCOPE2
Loudness	LOUDNESS single simple readout (not LUFS)	Displays INTEGRATED / MOMENTARY / SHORT-TERM / LRA / TRUE PEAK MAX in LUFS. Measurement can also be paused and resumed
Target standards	None	Selecting -14 LUFS (Spotify) or -23 LUFS (EBU R 128) displays the difference from the target and True Peak overshoot
Presets	Headroom buttons only (-18 to -6)	7 factory presets plus user preset saving and exporting. Headroom buttons are also retained
Time axis	Two controls: WINDOW and ZOOM	WINDOW only. The displayed duration in seconds can be read directly
RESET	Peak hold and CLIP	Resets peak hold, CLIP, and loudness measurement all together
Operation hints	None	Hovering the mouse displays descriptions in the InfoBar (in English, or in Japanese when the OS display language is Japanese)
Window size	800 × 480	1100 × 680

If 1100 × 680 does not fit on laptops with smaller screens, or when opening existing projects made with SCOPE, you can continue to use the legacy SCOPE as is.

1. Quick Start

1. Insert SCOPE2 on the track you want to measure, or at the end of your master track.
2. From the presets at the top of the window, select STREAMING -14 LUFS or BROADCAST -23 LUFS according to your delivery destination.
3. Click RESET, then play the track from start to finish.
4. The integrated loudness for the entire song and the difference from the target (such as LU vs -14) appear in INTEGRATED on the right. If TRUE PEAK MAX is red, there are peaks exceeding the target limit.

2. Screen Layout

Header & InfoBar

• The logo and version are at the top left, with the PresetBar to the right.
• The InfoBar below it displays descriptions for knobs and buttons on mouse hover.

Toolbar

• WAVE / RMS / PEAK / LISSA — Switches the central display mode.
• GRID — Toggles grid line display.
• FILL — Toggles the fill underneath waveforms.
• LINK — Links left and right channels (see “Stereo Link”).
• HOLD — Toggles peak hold (retaining maximum values for a set duration) ON/OFF.
• CLIP — Lights up red when a sample exceeds 0 dBFS, and remains lit until clicked to clear.
• FREEZE — Freezes only the central waveform. Peak meters, numerical readouts, and loudness measurements continue running.
• RESET — Resets peak hold, CLIP, and loudness measurements all at once.

Left Panel (Knobs)

• WINDOW — Duration displayed in the waveform area (0.5s to 30s)
• HOLD — Duration peak hold retains maximum values (0.5s to 5.0s)
• FLOOR — Lower boundary of the waveform area (-120 dB to -20 dB, in 10 dB steps)
• CEILING — Upper boundary of the waveform area (0 dB to +12 dB, in 3 dB steps)
• HEADROOM (VU 0) — Reference level for VU 0 (-24 dB to 0 dB). Displayed as a gold dashed line in the waveform area. Buttons above the knob (-18 / -14 / -12 / -9 / -6) let you select common values with a single click.
• ATTACK — Rise speed for RMS display (1 ms to 500 ms)
• RELEASE — Fall speed for RMS / PEAK displays and peak hold (50 ms to 1000 ms)

Center Waveform Area

• Displays audio level dynamics according to the selected display mode.
• The vertical axis spans from FLOOR to CEILING. A gold dashed line appears at the VU 0 position.
• When HOLD is ON, L / R peak hold lines are displayed.

Peak Meters

• Displays left and right sample peaks as vertical bars. The scale is fixed from -60 dB to +6 dB. FLOOR / CEILING only affect the vertical axis of the waveform area; the meter scale does not change.
• Bar colors change according to level:

Level	Color
0 dBFS or higher	Red
-6 dBFS or higher	Orange
-12 dBFS or higher	Yellow
Below -12 dBFS	Base channel color (different colors for L / R)

Loudness Panel

• Target standard (dropdown at the top of the panel) — Selects the target standard for your destination: OFF / -14 LUFS (Spotify) / -23 LUFS (EBU R 128). In both presets, the True Peak ceiling is -1 dBTP.
• INTEGRATED — Integrated average loudness of the whole track. Measures all audio since the last reset. When a target standard is selected, the difference is displayed below (e.g., +2.3 LU vs -14).
• MOMENTARY — Loudness over the most recent 0.4 seconds. For checking instantaneous volume.
• SHORT-TERM — Loudness over the most recent 3 seconds. For checking loudness by phrase.
• LRA — Loudness Range (dynamic spread). Larger values indicate a greater difference between quiet and loud parts.
• TRUE PEAK MAX — Maximum peak level, including inter-sample peaks between samples. Turns red when exceeding the target standard (or when exceeding 0 dBTP if target is OFF).
• MEASURED — Elapsed measurement time. Displays PAUSED while paused.
• PAUSE / RESUME — Pauses / resumes loudness measurement.

Status Bar

Displays the sample rate (SR), buffer size (BUF), and channel count (CH).

3. Feature Details

Display Modes (WAVE / RMS / PEAK / LISSA)

• WAVE — Displays the input waveform directly. For inspecting transient shapes and envelopes.
• RMS — Displays average level dynamics over time. Response speed varies with ATTACK / RELEASE, allowing it to be used like a VU meter. Because it averages over time, momentary clipping may not reach near 0 dBFS. Check for clipping using the CLIP indicator.
• PEAK — Tracks peaks instantaneously on rising signals, while RELEASE takes effect only when falling (ATTACK is not applied).
• LISSA — Displays the phase relationship between left and right channels (Lissajous). Shapes closer to a diagonal line slanting up to the right indicate mono, while shapes closer to a line slanting down to the right indicate out-of-phase audio.

Stereo Link

Links left and right channels, displaying the louder channel. Stereo link affects the central display only in RMS and PEAK modes. WAVE and LISSA are not linked because they are intended to show differences between channels directly. Peak meters and peak hold lines are linked regardless of mode.

Reading Loudness Measurements

• Click RESET first: Because INTEGRATED and LRA calculate all audio since the last reset, measuring mid-track will include earlier audio.
• Color of difference in INTEGRATED: Green = within ±1 LU of target / Orange = louder by more than 1 LU / Light blue = quieter by more than 1 LU.
• On the MOMENTARY / SHORT-TERM bars, a lime line marks the target standard position and a white line marks the maximum level since reset. The maximum value is also shown numerically at the bottom right under MAX.
• LRA requires 60 seconds of measurement to stabilize. During this time, it displays WAIT.
• Extremely quiet audio (such as silence) is excluded from the average calculation. Silence between songs will not lower the INTEGRATED reading.
• Stopping playback in your DAW does not stop measurement (it continues counting as long as audio is passing). Press PAUSE during sections you do not want to measure. Press RESUME to continue accumulating values from where you left off.

Difference Between CLIP and TRUE PEAK MAX

• CLIP lights up when an individual sample value exceeds 0 dBFS.
• TRUE PEAK MAX is the maximum peak level including inter-sample peaks that occur between samples (which appear during D/A conversion or lossy encoding for streaming). Even if CLIP is not lit, TRUE PEAK MAX may still exceed the target ceiling.

Presets

There are 7 factory presets that switch loudness target standards and display settings together:

Preset	Description
DEFAULT	RMS display, no target standard. Default startup state
STREAMING -14 LUFS	For streaming platforms like Spotify (-14 LUFS / -1 dBTP)
BROADCAST -23 LUFS	For broadcast (EBU R 128, -23 LUFS / -1 dBTP). 10-second display duration
PEAK WATCH	PEAK display, -6 dB reference. For monitoring peak overshoot
VU -18 dBFS	RMS display, -18 dB reference, stereo linked. For VU meter use
WAVEFORM	WAVE display, 1-second display duration. For inspecting transients
STEREO IMAGE	LISSA display. For inspecting stereo width and phase

Current settings can be named and saved from the preset bar. Saved presets are stored in %APPDATA%\SCOPE2\Presets\. Exporting and importing preset files (.s2p) is also supported.

Automation Parameter IDs

Parameter ID	Description
display_mode	Display mode
window_sec	Display duration
loudness_target	Loudness target standard
floor_db	Waveform area floor
ceil_db	Waveform area ceiling
headroom_db	Headroom (VU 0 reference)
show_grid	Grid lines
show_fill	Waveform fill
show_peak_hold	Peak hold
stereo_link	Stereo link
attack_ms	Attack
release_ms	Release
hold_time_sec	Peak hold retention time

4. Usage Examples

Checking a Master for Streaming

1. Insert at the end of the master track (after the limiter) and select STREAMING -14 LUFS.
2. Click RESET, then play the song from start to finish.
3. Check that the difference in INTEGRATED is green (within ±1 LU) and that TRUE PEAK MAX has not turned red.

Using as a VU Meter

Under the VU meter specification, rise time and fall time are both 300 ms. The VU -18 dBFS preset (both ATTACK and RELEASE set to 300 ms) provides similar behavior. If you want to follow North American convention, set VU 0 to -20 dB.

5. Requirements

Item	Details
OS	Windows 10 / 11 x64, macOS 11 or later (Apple Silicon / Intel)
Format	Windows: VST3 (64bit) / Mac: VST3, AU
Supported DAWs	DAWs supporting VST3 or AU
Audio I/O	Mono / Stereo
Sample rates	44.1 kHz to 192 kHz
Window size	1100 × 680 (fixed)
Latency	None (audio passes through completely unprocessed)

6. Installation and Uninstallation

Installation (Windows)

1. Extract the ZIP file.
2. Copy the SCOPE2.vst3 folder to the following location:
   C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
3. Launch your DAW and perform a plugin rescan (if you copy while the DAW is running, changes may not take effect).

Installation (Mac)

1. Extract the ZIP file.
2. Copy SCOPE2.vst3 to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/ and SCOPE2.component to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ (where ~ represents your home folder. In Finder, choose “Go” → “Go to Folder…”, paste the path, and press Return. If the folder does not exist, create it).
3. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities → Terminal), paste the following 3 lines one by one, and press Return:

   cd ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins
   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine VST3/SCOPE2.vst3
   xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine Components/SCOPE2.component

4. Launch your DAW and perform a plugin rescan (if you copy while the DAW is running, changes may not take effect).

Uninstallation (Windows)

Delete the copied SCOPE2.vst3 folder. To also delete saved user presets, delete %APPDATA%\SCOPE2\ as well.

Uninstallation (Mac)

Delete the copied SCOPE2.vst3 and SCOPE2.component files. To also delete saved user presets, delete ~/Library/SCOPE2/ as well.

7. Troubleshooting

• INTEGRATED is lower or higher than expected
  • Audio from before the last reset is mixed in. Click RESET, then play only the section you want to measure.
• INTEGRATED remains ---
  • Audio of sufficient length has not yet been received, or the incoming audio is extremely quiet. If PAUSED is displayed, click RESUME.
• LRA displays WAIT
  • This is shown during the first 60 seconds after measurement starts. This is normal behavior, not a defect.
• Waveform is not moving
  • Check if FREEZE is turned ON (only the central waveform freezes).
  • Check whether audio is playing on the track, and verify that the plugin is inserted on the correct track.
• CLIP indicator will not turn off
  • The indicator is designed to remain lit. Click CLIP or press RESET to turn it off.
• Plugin does not appear in your DAW
  • [Windows] Check that the folder was copied to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\, and ensure you performed a plugin rescan in your DAW.
  • [Mac] Check that files are correctly copied to their destinations (VST3 to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/, AU to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/), verify that you ran the Terminal commands, and perform a plugin rescan in your DAW. If the AU plugin does not appear in Logic Pro or other DAWs, restart your Mac.
• macOS displays “is damaged and cannot be opened” or “cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified”
  • Run the Terminal commands described in the Mac steps of “6. Installation and Uninstallation”.

8. Notes

• This product is distributed free of charge (freeware) “AS IS”, without support.
• The source code is proprietary and not public.
• All copyrights to this product belong to Tonecraft Tokyo.
• Modification, reverse engineering, redistribution, and resale of this product are strictly prohibited (please download from the Tonecraft Tokyo official website).
• Free for both commercial and non-commercial use.
• This product uses JUCE, Noto Sans JP (SIL Open Font License 1.1), and JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font License 1.1).

9. Disclaimer

• This product is provided “AS IS”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement of third-party rights.
• Tonecraft Tokyo is not liable for any damages arising from the use of, or inability to use, this product, including but not limited to loss or corruption of project files or audio data, equipment malfunction, lost working time, or lost profits.
• Operation is not guaranteed for every combination of DAW, operating system, and hardware.
• Specifications may change, and the product may be discontinued, without notice.
• Use this product at your own risk. Back up your projects before important work.