[linux-audio-user] Peak Level Monitor/Limiting

As many of you will know I principally use ZynAddSubFX to generate most of my sounds, so I can't really be sure if this is a Zyn problem or a general one with software synths and mixing. Very occasionally I get high amplitude spikes typically 6dB above the 'normal' peaks. These give a false idea of the signal level so that if I'm not watchful I end up recording at a much lower level that I need to. I have found that if I let these peaks go into limiting, there is no detectable audio effect, and displaying the waveform very stretched in Audacity shows just these occasional spikes neatly clipped. Can anyone suggest a way I can effectively suppress these peaks while actually recording (rather than going back later, checking, then re-recording) or is there a VU type metering program that can be tacked on to jack? -- Will J G