Always on, never in the way
A thin strip pinned to any edge of your Mac. It floats above every window — including fullscreen apps — and never steals focus from OBS, your game, or whatever else you are working in.
1.9 · macOS 26.4+ · Apple Silicon
Meter, tally, and text —
Meter, tally, and text —
always on your screen edge.
flexMeter pins a confidence monitor to the edge of your Mac. Three strips — level meter, tally light, and text display — float above every window, including fullscreen apps, and never take focus from OBS, your DAW, or whatever you are working in.
A working meter belongs in your periphery.
The strip lands where your eye already lives. Saturated color ladder, peak hold that catches transients, motion that registers before your conscious brain decides to look.
Three strips, one chassis
Meter, Tally Light, and Text Strip. Each can be enabled, sized, and positioned on its own. Together they replace a hardware tally, a confidence monitor, and a meter rack with three thin strips of screen edge.
Plus
Meter your output, no virtual cable required
ScreenCaptureKit taps your full system mix — games, browsers, DAWs, Zoom — without installing BlackHole or building a Multi-Output. Uses the system Screen Recording permission.
Standards-grade ballistics
VU is ANSI S4.40-aligned (τ = 65 ms). PPM is IEC 60268-10 Type I — 80% rise in ~10 ms. LUFS is ITU-R BS.1770-4 with both gating passes and 4× oversampled true peak.
Plus
Platform loudness targets, built in
YouTube/Spotify (−14), Apple Music & Podcasts (−16), EBU R128 (−23), ATSC A/85 (−24), ARIB TR-B32 (−27). A cyan reference line on the strip shows your target at a glance.
Pro
Six surfaces to drive it
flex:// URL scheme, WebSocket API (token-authed, origin-checked), OSC over Bonjour, outgoing webhooks, AppleScript, and App Intents for Shortcuts and Siri. Whatever already controls your stream can drive flexMeter.
Install, grant mic access, forget it.
No window to manage. No Dock icon. One menu bar icon opens settings; the strip is the entire interface.
- 01
Install and grant microphone access
flexMeter listens but never records. The permission is needed so CoreAudio can install an audio tap on your selected input.
- 02
The meter appears on your screen edge
16-point thin by default. Floats above every window, follows you across Spaces, stays visible over fullscreen apps.
- 03
Right-click for settings, then forget it
Switch modes, change edges, label channels. ⌘⇧Arrow to reposition. ⌘⇧L to lock click-through. ⌘⇧M to toggle visibility.
VU for feel. PPM for transients. LUFS for delivery.
The ballistics are the ones they are supposed to be. Switch from the menu bar or the right-click menu.
| Mode | Standard | Timing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| VU | ANSI S4.40 | τ = 65 ms · ~300 ms rise | Program contour. The slow-bouncing classic. |
| PPM | IEC 60268-10 Type I | 80% rise in ~10 ms · 2.7 s fallback | Catching brief peaks VU meters miss. |
| LUFS | ITU-R BS.1770-4 | 400 ms M · 3 s S · gated I | Delivery to platforms with loudness targets. |
Six ways to drive it. One thin strip on screen.
Whatever already controls your stream can drive flexMeter. Trigger tally on when you hit Record. Push a segment label from your rundown. Receive a webhook the moment dead air is detected.
flex:// URL scheme
open "flex://tally?color=red"
WebSocket API
localhost:9812 · token-authed · 4-client cap
OSC over UDP
advertises _osc._udp via Bonjour
Outgoing webhooks
on-air / off-air / Air Log / dead-air events
AppleScript
ProPresenter, OSAScript, anything that scripts macOS
App Intents
Shortcuts, Siri, Focus Filters
iPhone Companion
Across the room, on your phone.
Pair a Pro-licensed Mac with flexMeter Companion (free on the App Store). Live levels, LUFS, tally, and an Air Log session timer at 10 Hz. Tap a preset on the cue pad — WRAP UP, ON AIR, BREAK — and the text appears on the host's Mac instantly. Flip to Tally Light Mode and the whole screen goes red.
See the Companion →Pin it once. Forget it's there.
Free is real and not crippled. Plus and Pro both ship two 14-day trials per machine.
One-time. No subscription. No telemetry.