I’ve started usign Smart Bypass, but it seems that the meters are after Bypass - in other words the VU meter is now showing me what I’m listening to, rather than the actual levels that would be rendered.
That doesn’t seem to sensible to me - can’t the meters show the actual levels rather than those being monitored ?
“Smart Bypass” is before all a tool to compare sound by ears, not by meters. To “bypass” the effect of loudness on perception. This has no effect on rendering.
Just an observation: maybe it reflects the realities of what you would normally see in a hardware transfer console incorporating real VUs. For example, that’s how most are set up: to show the signal being monitored … although sometimes it is selectable or there are may be a second set to monitor the signal path on another bus.
FWIW, this is how our transfer console monitoring is set up. The VUs show the signal being monitored.
PG is also correct in that VUs are not always a good indicator of relative loudness, particularly in bass heavy programs.