I do understand that about the "yellow zone." In the case I'm speaking of I use that marker to know when I am keeping a sub mix w/in a certain window prior to mixing. W/ dotted LED meters, it seems that is the easiest place to register visually and consistently. That way, when mixing, I don't have surprise spikes from cumulative issues as I find myself sneaking the drums up. Confession: I have sort of a crappy drum machine (compared to what's available through a DAW today.) I suspect the samples, though not totally offensive, contain an extraordinary degree of transient spiking. Case in point, most often I can barely get the crash cymbals to an audibly robust level before they are spiking too hard, though the rest of the "kit" seems in balance and w/in limits. I often still have issues w/this even after post EL-8 compression (twice, once at recording, again at mix)
The second place I am finding this important is that when I go to experiment w/ final sound, and give "mastering" my best go, especially for discs w/that ... um ... "radio ready" sound ... I find something often triggers the stereo bus compression too hard, and I think its most often the cymbals.
Hence my metering questions, and this puzzle about how the same loop (solo'd) can vary in levels at the exact same point in the loop. I wouldn't be surprised if the machine was inconsistent, but I wondered if folks had experiences w/ LED meters being prone to this, or perhaps a sound physics issue I can't forsee.
Anyways, thanks for the thoughts
d