Use Your Phone as a Second Meter Screen for Logic Pro, Pro Tools, and Ableton (Free)
By David Payette · audio engineer, professional musician · About →
You don’t need to spend $149 on a metering plugin to put your meters on a second screen. You also don’t need to buy a second monitor. Your phone is already next to you, and Auxfeed already runs on it for free. This is the workflow that nobody quite tells you about: drop the plugin on the master bus, open the app on your phone, and your iPhone or Android device becomes a dedicated meter display showing momentary LUFS, peak, RMS, and stereo correlation in real time.
This page covers how to set it up, why it’s a meaningful workflow change, and how it compares to the dedicated tools (Decibel by Process Audio, Youlean Loudness Meter, MiniMeters).
The pain this solves
Look at your DAW screen right now. Count how many vertical strips of pixels are taken up by metering plugins. There’s almost certainly a Youlean instance on the master, maybe a stereo correlation meter, maybe a Pro‑L 2 or Ozone Maximizer with its own meter cluster, maybe a Pro‑Q 4 spectrum overlay. Every one of those plugins is competing for the screen real estate where you actually want to see your tracks, your automation lanes, and your mixer.
Working engineers have been complaining about this for years. There’s a Production Expert article titled “How I Reclaimed My Screen From Metering Plugins” that walks through one engineer’s solution: offload everything to a second device. The Decibel meter plugin from Process Audio exists because of this exact pain — they sell you a $75 to $149 plugin that mirrors metering data to a free phone app over Wi‑Fi.
Auxfeed does the same thing. It also costs zero dollars.
What you get on the phone
The Auxfeed receiver app shows the audio you’re streaming from your DAW with a live meter view. On the free tier:
- Stereo peak meters — calibrated, with peak hold.
- Momentary LUFS — live readout, the same thing your Pro‑L 2 or Youlean shows in their momentary box.
- Stereo correlation — phase relationship between L and R, with the same wide‑to‑mono sweep most plugins display.
On Auxfeed Pro:
- Integrated LUFS — for full‑track loudness measurement (the spec value you set against Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, broadcast targets).
- Loudness Range (LRA) — dynamic measurement.
- True peak (dBTP) — for inter‑sample‑peak‑safe deliveries.
- Mid / side / mono / solo L / solo R monitoring — the full A/B toolset for mix bus diagnosis.
- Platform loudness targets — pick Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube, Amazon Music, broadcast — get a green/red indicator when integrated LUFS hits the target.
- 3‑band EQ — quick tonal reshape on the receiver side without a return plugin.
The free tier is enough for most reference checking and translation work. The Pro tier covers the full delivery‑prep workflow.
Setup
- Install the Auxfeed plugin in your DAW. AU, VST3, or AAX. Free download. Restart the DAW.
- Install the Auxfeed app on your iPhone or Android phone. Free on the App Store and Play Store. No account needed.
- Drop the plugin on the master bus. Post‑fader so what you see on the meters is what’s actually leaving the bus.
- Open the app. It scans Wi‑Fi automatically. Tap your computer’s name in the source list.
- Rotate the phone landscape. This is the meter‑bridge layout — wide stereo meters across the screen, big LUFS readout in the middle, correlation strip below. Designed to be readable from across the desk.
Stand the phone up against your monitor with a $5 phone holder. Now you have a dedicated meter display that doesn’t compete for DAW screen space.
Why this is a meaningful workflow change
A few things you only notice after living with it for a few sessions.
Your DAW screen reclaims real estate. Drop the master Pro‑L 2 / Pro‑MB / Youlean instance entirely (or at least collapse it). The mix‑bus EQ and limiter still need to live somewhere; the visualization of what they’re doing moves to the phone.
Your eyes go to the right place. When the meter is on the phone next to your monitor, glancing at it costs no context switch. When it’s a window inside the DAW, you have to find it among 30 other plugin UIs.
You can put the phone where you actually want it. Behind your monitor controller. On a tabletop stand. Across the room. Wherever you’d put a tablet if you owned one. Phones are unreasonably good at being a small dedicated display.
The phone keeps showing meters when you walk to the back of the room. This is the second‑listening‑position trick, but you don’t have to lose your meters when you do it.
How this compares to dedicated metering tools
Decibel by Process Audio. $75 (Spring 2026 sale price; $149 list) for the desktop plugin. Free phone companion app. Mirrors meter data over Wi‑Fi or USB. Runs on iOS and Android. Strong dedicated metering plugin lineage with platform target presets and a polished UI.
The honest comparison: Decibel is a mature dedicated metering plugin with features Auxfeed does not have (Decibel’s plugin lineage and presets are deep). Decibel mirrors meter data — calculated values from the plugin — to the phone. Auxfeed mirrors the audio itself and computes the meters on the phone. That distinction matters in two ways: (1) Auxfeed gives you the audio AND the meters, so the phone can be a listening device too; (2) Auxfeed is free.
If you want the dedicated‑metering‑plugin features and you’re happy paying for them, Decibel is a great product. If you want the meter bridge for free and you also want the audio on the phone, Auxfeed is the answer.
Youlean Loudness Meter. Free desktop plugin with paid Pro upgrades. Owns the keyword “LUFS meter free.” Does not mirror to a phone — it’s a desktop plugin only. You’d run it on your DAW screen, which is what we’re trying to get away from. Pair it with Auxfeed: Youlean for delivery‑validation work, Auxfeed for the real‑time meter glance.
MiniMeters. Desktop‑only standalone meter app. Highly customizable, popular with mastering engineers. Same constraint — it lives on the desktop screen, not on a phone. Auxfeed complements rather than replaces it.
Logic’s built‑in meters. Functional but cramped on a single screen, and the post‑fader master meter is small unless you open the dedicated Multi Meter window. The Auxfeed phone bridge is a way to get a much bigger version of the master meter without committing screen space.
What this is NOT
- Not a metering plugin replacement for delivery work. If you need an offline integrated‑loudness measurement saved to a session preset for QC archive, Decibel and Youlean Pro have polished workflows for that. Auxfeed shows the integrated LUFS live (Pro tier) but isn’t a delivery‑validation tool.
- Not a spectrum analyzer. Auxfeed shows level meters and stereo correlation, not a frequency‑axis spectrum view. SPAN, Pro‑Q 4, and Voxengo SPAN cover that bracket.
- Not a phase scope or vectorscope. Stereo correlation is a single value; if you need a full goniometer, that’s a different tool.
- Not a substitute for your reference listening environment. It’s a meter display and a listening device — but it’s a phone with consumer headphones or speakers. Use it for the workflow benefit, not for final mastering decisions.
Combine with the other Auxfeed workflows
Once the plugin is on the master bus and the phone is connected, the same setup powers:
- Listening on AirPods or Bluetooth headphones from the couch. Walk away from the desk; the phone follows you with the audio + the meters.
- Sharing the live mix with a client across the internet. Same plugin, different listener. The 6‑digit share code drops them into the same session.
- AirPlay to a HomePod or Apple TV. From the iOS app, hit AirPlay and route to any AirPlay target.
The phone meter bridge is one of three high‑value workflows that emerge from a single plugin install. There’s no extra purchase needed for any of them.
Try it
Download the plugin. Install the iOS or Android app. Drop the plugin on the master bus. Open the app, tap to connect, rotate to landscape. Five minutes start to finish.
If you’re currently paying $149 for Decibel just to get meters on a phone, you should know there’s a free path that also gives you the audio.
See also:
- How to check your mix on Bluetooth headphones — same setup, different use case.
- Share a live mix with a client — same plugin, remote listener.
- AirPlay from your DAW — once you have the audio on the phone, AirPlay is one tap away.