Well, I've got the Radio Shack mike / analog meter. It's "good enough", and it's a lot less money than a "calibrated" microphone. It's even got a tripod socket on the bottom so you can set it up and get out of the way. I was originally thinking I'd do all of this with test tones and watching the little meter swing back and forth by hand. But if everybody's raving about this software, then I guess I should give it a try. But, I think I'll wait until I have a working laptop.

(My laptop screen is currently dead, the fourth failure of this Omnibook 500 since I got it a year ago. HP let me take 75% of the value of the old laptop toward purchase of a brand new one, so I have an Omnibook 510 (with built-in wireless Ethernet) on its way.)