The VEA Detector and Dynamic Range Controller of the invention more accurately measure constant or non-constant, periodic or aperiodic, signals and the use of such measurements to control the upstream and/or downstream processing of program signals, including without limitation audio, video, and power program signals. The invention uses an antilog module acting within the context of a log domain circuit such that the “averaging” at an integrator is linear, not logarithmic. However, since the detection is within the log domain, the dynamic range of the VEA Detector is exponentially larger.