Owl:
Volume Assistant
★★★★★
(84)
Dual-Plugin Volume Matching System
Overview
Owl Volume Assistant is a two-plugin VST3 system that measures and matches levels between any two points in your signal chain — without routing, without busses, and without leaving your DAW.
Place Owl Carrier earlier in your chain to measure the source level. Place Owl Receiver later to read that data in real time. One click matches the volume at the Receiver to the Carrier — a 30-second rolling average ensures the correction is musical, not reactive.
2Plugin System
7Meters Per Channel
30sDiff Window
VST3Windows 64-bit
How It Works
Owl Carrier sits before the processing — Owl Receiver sits after. Zero routing required.
Step 1 — Place Owl Carrier
Insert Owl Carrier on any track or bus earlier in the signal chain — before a limiter, before a master bus compressor, or on a send track. It measures the signal at that point and writes level data to shared memory in real time.
Step 2 — Place Owl Receiver
Insert Owl Receiver later in the same chain. It automatically finds the Carrier on the same track using a zero-configuration fingerprint — no routing, no setup. The Receiver displays live meters for both plugins side by side.
Step 3 — Match Volume
Once the Receiver has accumulated ~1 second of audio, the Match Volume button becomes active. Click it to apply a gain correction to the Receiver output that brings it to the same average level as the Carrier. Click Clear to remove the correction instantly.
Step 4 — Read the Diff
The Avg Diff panel shows the rolling 30-second RMS difference between Carrier and Receiver, updated every ~5 seconds. Teal means the Carrier is louder, amber means the Receiver is louder, green means levels are matched.
Owl Carrier
Level Measurement
Measures Peak dB, Max Peak (hold), RMS 300ms, Momentary LUFS, Max Momentary, Short-Term LUFS, and Max Short-Term on every audio block. All seven values are written to shared memory and read by the Receiver at 30 Hz.
Transparent Pass-Through
The Carrier applies zero gain to the signal. It measures and writes — nothing more. Your audio passes through completely unaffected.
Link Status
The Carrier UI shows a glowing status dot: grey when not linked, green when actively transmitting to a Receiver, and flashing red if the Carrier has been placed after the Receiver (wrong order). A Show Owl Receiver button brings the Receiver window to the front.
Zero Configuration
Carrier and Receiver find each other automatically using a track fingerprint derived from sample rate, channel count, and buffer size. No routing, no MIDI, no manual pairing required.
Chain Order Matters
Owl Carrier must appear before Owl Receiver in the signal chain. If the order is wrong, both plugins detect it via play-head position comparison and display a flashing red warning so you can fix it immediately.
One Carrier Per Track
Only one Carrier is allowed per track. If multiple Carriers are detected on the same track, the Receiver shows a flashing warning and suspends level data until the conflict is resolved.
Owl Receiver
Left: Carrier column (teal) — Right: Receiver column (amber). Both measured independently in real time.
Dual Column Display
The Receiver shows two side-by-side meter columns — Carrier (teal) and Receiver (amber) — each with a live bar meter and seven numeric readouts: Peak, Max Peak (hold), RMS 300ms, Momentary LUFS, Max Momentary, Short-Term LUFS, and Max Short-Term.
Avg Diff Panel
A dedicated panel in the bottom bar shows the 30-second rolling average RMS difference between Carrier and Receiver. Only accumulates when both channels have signal above −60 dBFS. Updates every ~5 seconds to reflect stable, musical differences rather than transient events.
Volume Match
Click Match Volume to apply a gain correction to the Receiver output. The correction equals the average RMS difference — if the Carrier is 3.2 dB louder, the Receiver output is raised by 3.2 dB. Click Clear to remove it instantly with no fade or artifact.
Reset All Holds
Clears Max Peak, Max Momentary, and Max Short-Term holds on both the Receiver and Carrier simultaneously — a reset signal is sent through shared memory so both sides reset in the same audio block.
Connection States
The Receiver status bar shows four states: Linked (green), No Carrier found (flashing red), Carrier is downstream / wrong order (flashing red), and Multiple Carriers detected (flashing red). Each state includes a plain-English instruction for how to fix it.
Own Loudness Measurement
The Receiver measures its own output independently of the Carrier data — the amber column reflects what is actually happening at the Receiver's position in the chain, not a copy of Carrier data.
Flashing red warnings guide you to fix chain order or missing Carrier issues instantly.
Use Cases
A/B Plugin Comparison
Place Carrier before a plugin and Receiver after it. Match Volume removes the loudness difference so you can hear the plugin's actual tonal effect — not just which version is louder.
Pre/Post Compression Check
Carrier before a compressor, Receiver after. Instantly see how much gain reduction is being applied and level-match to evaluate whether the compressor is adding character or just volume.
Send Track Calibration
Carrier on the dry channel, Receiver on the wet return. Match levels between dry and wet for precise parallel processing blends without gain staging by ear.
Master Bus Monitoring
Carrier at the top of the master bus, Receiver at the end. Monitor the gain change your entire master chain is applying in real time, and check that limiting isn't costing you more than intended.
Workflow
01Insert Owl Carrier on any track — before a limiter, compressor, or any processing you want to measure
02Insert Owl Receiver later in the same chain — it finds the Carrier automatically, no setup required
03Press Play — the green Linked status confirms both plugins are communicating
04Let audio run for ~1 second until the Avg Diff panel updates with a reading
05Click Match Volume — the Receiver output is corrected to match the Carrier level instantly
06Click Clear at any time to remove the correction — no fade, no artifact, instant
07Reset All Holds resets peak holds on both plugins simultaneously via shared memory
Technical Specifications
The bottom bar shows link status, Reset All Holds, Match Volume, Clear, and the 30-second Avg Diff panel.
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Shared | |
| Format | VST3 |
| Platform | Windows 64-bit |
| Version | 1.0.1 |
| IPC mechanism | Windows named shared memory (CreateFileMapping / MapViewOfFile) |
| Shared memory scope | Track-scoped via FNV-1a fingerprint of sample rate, channel count, and buffer size |
| Thread safety | All shared fields are std::atomic — no mutex required |
| Audio pass-through | Both plugins are transparent — Carrier applies zero gain; Receiver applies gain only when Match is active |
| Measurements (both plugins) | |
| Peak dB | Sample-accurate peak per block |
| Max Peak (hold) | Running maximum since last reset |
| RMS | 300ms RMS window |
| Momentary LUFS | ITU-R BS.1770-4 momentary (400ms) |
| Max Momentary | Running maximum since last reset |
| Short-Term LUFS | ITU-R BS.1770-4 short-term (3s) |
| Max Short-Term | Running maximum since last reset |
| Receiver | |
| Diff window | 30 seconds rolling average, sampled every ~100ms |
| Diff update rate | Every ~5 seconds |
| Min data for match | ~1 second of signal above −60 dBFS on both channels |
| Order detection | Play-head sample position comparison — confirmed after 5 consecutive mismatched blocks |
| UI refresh rate | 30 Hz |
| Receiver window size | 660 × 490 px |
| Carrier window size | 280 × 190 px |
System Requirements
DAW
Any VST3-compatible DAW — Ableton Live 11+, FL Studio 20+, Bitwig, Reaper, Cubase, Studio One, and others.
OS
Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). Mac and Linux are not currently supported — Owl uses Windows named shared memory for inter-plugin communication.
Format
VST3 only. Both Owl Carrier and Owl Receiver must be installed — they ship together in one installer.
Setup
Place Owl Carrier before Owl Receiver in the same track or bus chain. Both plugins link automatically — no routing, no MIDI, no configuration required.
Version
Current release: 1.0.1. Free updates for all future 1.x releases.
License Info
Personal & Commercial Use
Use Owl in any personal or commercial project — music production, mixing, mastering, post-production, broadcast, and live performance.
Single User
One license per user. Install on up to 3 machines you personally own or operate.
Free Updates
All 1.x updates are free. Your serial activates the current version and all future updates in the 1.x release line.
No Redistribution
The plugin binaries may not be shared, resold, or redistributed. Each user must obtain their own free license.
Free
Includes both Carrier & Receiver