The render meter is not in LUfs? Is it RMS or peak dbfs? Where is this indicated anywhere? So the render meter and the main meter are not in the same scale?
Then I found another BIG one. My Dell has wavMaxx audio upgrade. This has an enhancer in a tray menu. It was selected to not load on start up. I had no idea it was still active in the background. It seems every play back of mp3 was being bass boosted then?So all my audio files are making boomy noises and yall cannot even hear it as I am.
Yeah, many computer systems will have "enhancements" under the Windows sound settings. Enhanced stereo, Space, EQ, etc. ALL of those things need to be turned off unless you need them. EXample, one set of my headphones are woefully deficient in bass, so I have an EQ curve with a few dB of bass increase. If I have to use those headphones, my ASUS will apply bass boost when I plug in the headphones, but I ONLY use them on that system. Any other headphones would be way overblown.
As for the peak meter on Reaper, what the is measuring is how many bits are used for the largest wave in the file. In a 16 bit file, you have from 0 to 65,535 levels. The max dB is thus mathmatically set at 98dB. Unlike an analog system, this means there is no 65,536 or 65,537th level available for the wave if you over load. Thus the wave becomes square at the top, completely flat That's also the reason everyone wants to go to 24 bit words. That give a maximum 144dB of S/N and 16,777,215 possible levels.
Your LUFS measurement is much closer to the outer RMS meters, which you will see are lower than the peaks.
Yes, its more complicated than an analog meter that just pops up and down. But that's just the nature of digital audio.
One last thing, using LUFS for a single track is pointless. It is ONLY relevant to the final mix file. From what I have looked at, the SWS LUFS measurement will not measure the master track until it is rendered.