The VU meter has indicated the upper end of programme levels for many years.

Review of the VU-More by Dave Foister

As mentioned in the recent review of his equaliser, John Oram's company does not have a huge product range at the moment, but everything he does is that little bit different. What we have here is that rarity, a box with a new idea in it (although no doubt someone will write in and tell us it's all been done before). The Vu-More (sorry about the name) looks like nothing more than a pair of vu meters on a characteristic sculpted Oram blue panel, but a couple of interesting features make it a good bit more than that.

The meters themselves are not without their advantages. They are big and brightly lit, and almost certainly closer to the vu standard than the cheap meters fitted to many consoles, particularly lower down the market, some of which are not fit to mearsure anything but steady tones. The ballistics are good, with not too much overshoot, a fast rise time and a notable lack of wavering about on its way back down. The scale calibrations are not standard, however, which is the first indication that the meters do more than just show signal levels.

Below the normal scale are two unfamiliar sets of figures, one from -70 to -47 and one from -80 to -57. These come into play for the Vu-More's other role, that of measuring the residual hum and noise levels on the lines on to which the unit is patched. As soon as the signal falls below an internally adjusted preset threshold, the meter illumination changes colour from its normal bright yellow to a distinctive green, and an LED at the end of one of the extra scales shows which one to read. The more sensitive, for use in normal professional situations, has vu corresponding to a noise level of 60dBu, while the other range is 10dB higher. Selection between the two ranges is accomplished by moving jumpers inside the unit, which is something I would like to see reconsidered. In the first place, the potential usefulness of this box makes it worth carrying about from intallation to installation, particularly on tour, and the ability to select sensitivity on the front panel would be almost essential for this in order to deal with the different situations one is likely to encounter. In the second place, the way the boards are arranged means that moving the jumpers is just about as awkward as it could possible be; it also involves removing the bottom cover and half the front-panel screws, and having done it once, believe me, you would avoid doing it ever again if at all possible.

The unit switches between normal signal and noise-measuring modes automatically, without , or course, having any effect on the signal path through it-the Vu-More is designed to be insterted between a source and destination, effectively bridging the lines, so any side-effects would be unthinkable. The effectiveness of it buffering is proved by it lack of clicks even when switched on and off. It does, however, make a mechanical noise as it relays switch over to change the function; this almost turns to a clattering as the signal hovers around the threshold and the meters flip backwards and forwards between their two roles, making it worth giving its location serious thought before installation. As supplied, the switch over happens as the background noise and hum level approaches -60, which is obviously well clear of any wanted signals the standard meters would be capable of showing. The remarkable thing is how steadily it shows such low-level signals, making it easy to see when a problem has been solved or at least improved. Its nature also means that it is not possible for sudden clicks or signal to pegstop it while reading noise-it simply reverts to its normal mode.

In between the meters are two large rectangular LEDs, one red and one green which indicate the phase correlation between the two channels, green being in phase and red out of phase. Normal stereo musical material flashes the green LED distinctly and the red one dimly, and this flashing of the red initally made me wonder how much use it was going to be; deliberately introducing a problem, however, showed how clearly it was displayed, with the red LED unmistakably showing something amiss.

The phase indication can be used to check the phase integrity of individual lines, in conjunction with the Vu-More's other main feature, its built-in oscillator. This can be used to inject signal into a .
device whose output is then compared with the original source, immediately showing out-of-phase lines or inverting electronics. The oscillator is switched on and off from the front panel and has a level trim control and its output appears on Bantam jacks on the front panel alongside similar jacks for patching into the meters, overriding the rear-panel connectors. For those with bantam patchbays this is fine, particularly if the unit mounted near the patchbay, but I can't help feeling it would have been even more useful to have duplicated the oscillator outputs on the back so that they could more easily be patched as required

The build of the unit is reassuringly solid, with the unusually thick contoured front panel giving good support and protection to a cabinet which contains more air than anything else. As with Oram's equaliser, the appearance of the whole thing, with its unusual colour and sensible recessed for everything on the front panel, is sufficiently different from the norm to be both distinctive and potentially not to everyone's taste. Its usefulness, however, should appear to most people, particularly anyone who ever has to troubleshoot for hum loops, noisy electronics, or dodgy wiring (somebody else's or course).