Paul Winkler wrote: "I could swear I remember seeing an old tube compressor that had a gain reduction meter with "more" to the right, so it moved in opposition to the corresponding VU meter. No idea what model it was, and this was about 6 years ago so I could be mistaken. I wonder how consistent this is in the world of hardware? maybe I'll pop a question on rec.audio.pro." I built a tube compressor like that, an Altec436c. The 'gain reduction' meter measures the bias current of the vari-mu valve, which is reduced when gain reduction is required. The meter goes from right to left. (Any other way would require more circuitry, so I think it may just be a lucky accident.) Talking of meters, don't some phase meters often go left *and* right from a centre point to show averaged phase difference between the channels?