Analog VUmeter is a visualization plugin designed for XMMS music player that provides an analog representation of sound level in a simple and easy-to-read manner.
The original idea for Analog VUmeter came from a similar plugin for Winamp called "Homeboy analog VU meter", and the concept of how to write a plugin for XMMS was taken from the MSA plugin. Initially, the goal was simply to create something that looked like a real analog VU meter. However, as development progressed over time, the focus shifted to making the plugin more useful as well. As a result, what the user sees is a visualization of the dBFS value for sound. This represents the RMS value of the sound level as compared to a reference value of (2^16-1)/2. The values displayed range from 0 dBFS (highest) to -91 dBFS (lowest).
To use Analog VUmeter, certain requirements must be met. These include having XMMS version 1.2.9 or higher installed, as well as Gtk and Gdk version 1.2.10 or higher and Gdk-pixbuf version 0.21 or higher. The installation process differs depending on whether a global or local installation is preferred. For global installation, root privileges are required. After configuring, making, and installing, the skins can be copied to the appropriate directory. For local installation, the process is slightly different, with the skins instead being copied to a specific directory within the user's home directory.
Users are advised to remove any default skins from version 0.9.1 or earlier, as they may not behave as expected due to changes in the calculation routine. The latest release includes several changes and improvements, such as a worker routine that calculates dBFS values, a new option for defining the minimum dBFS value in skins, and the implementation of a clipping "led". Additionally, the plugin no longer crashes if the default skin is missing, and the skin loader will use the other title bar image if one is missing.
Version 0.9.2: N/A