diff --git a/src/components/record-modal/record-modal.css b/src/components/record-modal/record-modal.css
index ae9d8afcc..41fc90a96 100644
--- a/src/components/record-modal/record-modal.css
+++ b/src/components/record-modal/record-modal.css
@@ -20,8 +20,10 @@
     border: 1px solid $ui-black-transparent;
     border-radius: 5px;
     padding: 3px;
-
+    /* Force these to be on their own render layer because they update often */
+    transform: translateZ(0);
 }
+
 .meter-container {
     margin-right: 5px;
     height: 180px;
diff --git a/src/containers/recording-step.jsx b/src/containers/recording-step.jsx
index 6431ad372..39d928fc3 100644
--- a/src/containers/recording-step.jsx
+++ b/src/containers/recording-step.jsx
@@ -44,10 +44,10 @@ class RecordingStep extends React.Component {
         alert(this.props.intl.formatMessage(messages.alertMsg)); // eslint-disable-line no-alert
     }
     handleLevelUpdate (level) {
-        this.setState({level});
-        if (this.props.recording) {
-            this.setState({levels: (this.state.levels || []).concat([level])});
-        }
+        this.setState({
+            level: level,
+            levels: this.props.recording ? (this.state.levels || []).concat([level]) : this.state.levels
+        });
     }
     handleRecord () {
         this.audioRecorder.startRecording();
diff --git a/src/lib/audio/audio-recorder.js b/src/lib/audio/audio-recorder.js
index b452b1f26..fa5e01882 100644
--- a/src/lib/audio/audio-recorder.js
+++ b/src/lib/audio/audio-recorder.js
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 import 'get-float-time-domain-data';
 import getUserMedia from 'get-user-media-promise';
 import SharedAudioContext from './shared-audio-context.js';
-import {computeRMS} from './audio-util.js';
+import {computeRMS, computeChunkedRMS} from './audio-util.js';
 
 class AudioRecorder {
     constructor () {
         this.audioContext = new SharedAudioContext();
-        this.bufferLength = 1024;
+        this.bufferLength = 8192;
 
         this.userMediaStream = null;
         this.mediaStreamSource = null;
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ class AudioRecorder {
         this.userMediaStream = userMediaStream;
         this.mediaStreamSource = this.audioContext.createMediaStreamSource(userMediaStream);
         this.sourceNode = this.audioContext.createGain();
-        this.scriptProcessorNode = this.audioContext.createScriptProcessor(this.bufferLength, 2, 2);
+        this.scriptProcessorNode = this.audioContext.createScriptProcessor(this.bufferLength, 1, 1);
 
         this.scriptProcessorNode.onaudioprocess = processEvent => {
             if (this.recording && !this.disposed) {
@@ -68,9 +68,9 @@ class AudioRecorder {
 
         const update = () => {
             if (this.disposed) return;
-            requestAnimationFrame(update);
             this.analyserNode.getFloatTimeDomainData(dataArray);
             onUpdate(computeRMS(dataArray));
+            requestAnimationFrame(update);
         };
 
         requestAnimationFrame(update);
@@ -83,7 +83,16 @@ class AudioRecorder {
     }
 
     stop () {
-        const chunkLevels = this.buffers.map(buffer => computeRMS(buffer));
+        const buffer = new Float32Array(this.buffers.length * this.bufferLength);
+
+        let offset = 0;
+        for (let i = 0; i < this.buffers.length; i++) {
+            const bufferChunk = this.buffers[i];
+            buffer.set(bufferChunk, offset);
+            offset += bufferChunk.length;
+        }
+
+        const chunkLevels = computeChunkedRMS(buffer);
         const maxRMS = Math.max.apply(null, chunkLevels);
         const threshold = maxRMS / 8;
 
@@ -105,15 +114,6 @@ class AudioRecorder {
             trimEnd = 1;
         }
 
-        const buffer = new Float32Array(this.buffers.length * this.bufferLength);
-
-        let offset = 0;
-        for (let i = 0; i < this.buffers.length; i++) {
-            const bufferChunk = this.buffers[i];
-            buffer.set(bufferChunk, offset);
-            offset += bufferChunk.length;
-        }
-
         return {
             levels: chunkLevels,
             samples: buffer,