Peak Programme Meter - Nagra Modulometer

Nagra Modulometer

The 'modulometer' is a proprietary type of quasi-PPM found on Nagra products. It has an integration time (−2 dB) of 7.5 ms, and a semi-logarithmic scale with an appearance between that of a VU meter and a DIN-type PPM. A stereo version ("double modulometer") uses a meter movement with two coaxial needles.

In typical practice for Nagra analogue tape recorders, Alignment Level is regarded as −8 and maximum level 0. Thus sound recordists using location mixers would typically send a tone at 0 VU or PPM 4 (British) and adjust the Nagra recorder's gain to read −8 on the modulometer.

Some newer digital recorders, e.g. the Nagra VI, have modulometers displayed as bargraphs calibrated in dBFS. For these, Alignment Level is as for any other digital PPM, i.e. −18 dBFS (EBU) or −20 dBFS (SMPTE).