Hello Koz,
1) For an external level vu-meter, it is a matter of price.
You can buy expensive vu meter as American Audio DB Display or Dak DB-90, or you can make one by yourself, very cheap with LEDs as this one or this one or even cheaper with analogue display.
2) What do you mean by "The vdj VU meter is really really bad and doesn't really show you when your going in the red" ?
Do you mean
a) the viewer is too slow to show you are going in the red
b) or that its colours are too optimistic and should show as red what is orange?
For a) I suggest you try to optimize your computer settings to save CPU time (removing background tasks, disabel the wifi...), and for b) you can edit a skin to change the colours.
3) For a graphic equalizer display, you have solutions as:
- low cost hardware do it yourself devices as this one,
- hifi equalizers as Kenwood
- or, if you have found a nice equalizer on iPad operating in real time, you can connect a 48-KHz USB sound card to your iPad via the USB dongle included in iPad camera connection kit, and digitize the audio output of the 4-Mx on the line input in of this USB sound card.
