I just downloaded Youlean's loudness meter and put it on the master track. It reads levels, but it's unaffected by all faders. Obviously I need it to measure the output post fader. What's going on?
All track FX in REAPER are pre-fader. What you need to do is put it in the "monitoring FX" section, a special FX chain that is post-master and not applied to renders. You can open the monitoring FX window for example via the View menu.