Dialnorm-WLM or MediaMeter?

[subwoof]

Looking to purchase a loudness meter. Any good reason to spend twice as much on the Dolby MediaMeter2 over the Waves WLM? Or is there a better choice than those two? (like to do LEQ-A as well)

Thanks for any opinions!!

[Dallas Taylor]

I've gone through all of them in the past 5 years: LM100, then the DMM, then the DMM2, then the WLM. We've phased everything out except the WLM in all of our rooms. It works better than all of the others at a fraction of the price. I do occasionally run a show through the non real time DMM2 which is nice, but it's not really a mandatory tool IMO unless you need non real time measurements often.

[subwoof]

Thanks Dallas. Good advice.

[emilano]

there's several others. nugen vlm. grimm level view. tc-electronics LM5. v-meters. ppMulator. I liked the grimm except that it doesn't seem to give a valid at85 reading for dialog only (i think it may not have that feature). the dmm2 is nice because of its graph and because you can audiosuite a file to find out its value. its also buggy. I'm still deciding, but overall I think waves wins due to overall value and that it just feels right to me.

[nst7]

For what it's worth, the WLM is included with the Diamond bundle, as well as Broadcast and Production bundle (and Mercury, of course).

I just mention that because it seems kind of pricey on it's own, vs. the sales they're having on the bigger bundles.

[inf0l]

Thought I'd chime in on my experience:

I have WLM as part of the Mercury bundle, and I've demoed the Nugen VisLM and DMM2.

VisLM is nice, and if I didn't already have WLM 'for free', I'd probably choose this one (I like the interface - it feel more 'professional' than WLM which is a little too cluttered for my taste).

DMM2 is a resource hog, and will usually force you to increase your H/W buffer to 256 samples or more (even without any other plugins running!). Additionally, if you open up a project where DMM has previously been placed on your master bus and hit play, audio will often come out distorted...a 'workaround' is to inactivate/reactive the plugin instance, but should you need to do that on a $900 plugin in 2012??? The only redeeming feature of DMM2 is that it has a built-in TP-limiter, but in my opinion this plugin is not worth the money.

Waves WLM has the functionality I need, and although I think that the plugin looks more 'consumer' than 'professional', it gets the job done and, as stated previously, is included in the Mercury bundle (among others) which settled it for me...

[subwoof]

So far, sounds like the WLM is the winner. I think $400 is a fair price for what it does, especially considering the price of the Dolby Hardware. Having LEQ-A and M is a bonus at that price.

Thanks for your input everyone!

[reichman]

I haven't done the exhaustive testing (thanks Dallas), but I got Waves WLM for a huge discount when I re-WUPped my bundles. I think it was $115 in the end.

I am interested in a TP limiter. Will probably demo Nugen soon.

[moofie]

Originally Posted by reichman

I am interested in a TP limiter. Will probably demo Nugen soon.

Gidday,

We demo'd them when they were released a couple of weeks back... they're great, do exactly what they need to and they won't disappoint.

Tom

[mgoorevich]

Nugen is superb. I find it very accurate and bugs free. Also check their ISL limiter btw.