Waves (Native) Dorrough Meter Collection Stereo, from Waves

I recognize that you might think, "these guys are crazy" to try and recommend to me a metering add-on for several hundred bucks.  That's kind of what we thought until we started using them.  These have become a serious work-horse tool in our studios when we are recording any kind of acoustic music, acoustic instruments, acoustic ensemble with bleed among the instruments, or really anything where multiple mic technique is being used.  The ability to visually understand the phase problems that you are phasing and at the same time compare extremely accurate level metering gives you the kind of informational feedback that you need to make your microphones positioning, miking choices, or even pan and mix decisions in a very informed way.  While we aren't advocating anything crazy like not using your ears, these meters do a lot more informing than you might think that they could.  While they aren't bad too look at, this is not just another pretty face!

• Superfast Peak Response
• Sum and Difference Energies for Optimal Stereo-to-Mono Compatibility
• Left/Right Phase Correlation
• Displays Number of Overs
• Peak and Average Level Relations
• Three Selectable Styles: Horizontal (280D/240D), Vertical (380D/340D), and Arc (40AES/EBU)
• Three Selectable Sizes: Extra Large, Large, and Small
• Selectable Reference Levels
• Switch Between Display Sizes and Styles with the Click of a Mouse
• 40dB Scale in 1 dB steps
• Mono & Stereo Components

When it comes to meters, you want readability. You want musicality. And most of all, you want accuracy. You want The Waves Dorrough Meter Collection.

• Meter Style Vertical, Horizontal, Arc
• Meter Size S, L, XL
• Reference Level 20dB AES, 18dB EBU, 14dB
• Peak Auto, Hold, Reset
• Overs Display, Reset
• Meter Mode Phase, Sum/Diff, Left/Right
• Phase Error LED
• Overs Error LED

Clear and comprehensive, Dorrough Meters are renowned for their unique ability to paint a detailed picture of true loudness. That’s why Dorroughs are used in more advanced production facilities than any other. 

Displaying both average and peak levels and in a single readout, Waves Dorrough Meters are the only meters which actually let you see the density of the sound.

When it comes to meters, you want readability. You want musicality. And most of all, you want accuracy.  You want The Waves Dorrough Meter Collection.

The Waves Dorrough Meter Collection features models of Dorrough’s most popular loudness meters: 280D/240D, 380D/340D, and 40AES/EBU. Developed in association with Dorrough Electronics, they provide precision loudness monitoring for every conceivable audio scenario. As Input Meters to attain optimal recording levels, as Group/Auxiliary Meters to achieve optimal group loudness, or as Master Output meters, the Waves Dorrough Meters do it all!

Dorrough Electronics designs and manufactures precision audio and video monitoring devices. For over 20 years, Dorrough has pioneered new technologies in audio signal processing and monitoring for the broadcast, motion picture, and recording industries.

Dorrough Electronics founder Mike Dorrough grew up with a love for radio and an insatiable desire to understand how sound devices worked. In the early 1960's, Mike worked as a sound mixer for a recording company owned by radio icon Casey Kasem and Bob Hudson. During that period, he devised a revolutionary Multi-band (or “Discriminate”) Audio Processing system. By achieving optimum relationships between frequency, time, and amplitude in the complex waveform, Discriminate Audio Processing provided greater loudness with no reduction in fidelity.

The initial success of Discriminate Audio Processing led Mike to a position with Motown and later to RCA Records. Realizing that his system had even greater implications for the broadcast market, in 1965 one of his first Multi-Band Composite Audio Processors was installed at a popular LA radio station.

In 1971, Mike decided to set up his own factory to produce his processors, and launched Dorrough Electronics. Within a few years, a variety of terms widely used in the audio field today like “Multi-band Processing,” “Psycho-Acoustics,” “Relative Audio-Power to Peak Amplitude,” and “Sound-Density” would either be coined or popularized by Dorrough, to describe the effects and benefits of the Discriminate Audio Processor.

Dorrough realized that the perceived loudness of sound is a mathematical function of time and amplitude, and the Dorrough Loudness Monitors grew directly out of the Discriminate Audio Processor. Using patented technology developed to give broadcast and recording engineers a true indication of loudness as perceived by the human ear, Dorrough Loudness Monitors graphically display audio power. Because Average and Peak readings are based on a real-time waveform analysis, the degree of processing, compression, and even distortion are indicated by the relationship between the average and peak indicators.

For his many contributions to world of professional audio, in 2000, Dorrough was honored with a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.