I found or was pointed at by a fellow monk this
Text Audio Scope.
It requires ESD and is consequently somewhat finicky.
I'd been meaning to sit down to rework it but I haven't
gotten a round tuit yet.
Thanks for the assistance, it showed me the larger part of how to implement a VU meter.
I am well into the process building an integrated audio recording and CD duplication system for which the VU meter is critical. Once it is a bit more workable I will be posting a site about it and providing the howto and code for folks to build their own.