The spectrum of pulses obtained from a suitably designed spherical tissue equivalent proportional counter contains the information necessary to determine dose, dose equivalent, and quality factor in mixed radiation fields. Use of multi-channel analyzers and tedious data reduction can be avoided by means of specially designed operational amplifier circuits described previously. We have investigated alternate methods of operating on the pulse spectrum to achieve direct-reading dose equivalent instruments. These methods include: (a) use of multiple fixed discriminators, (b) periodically varying the discrimination level, (c) periodically varying the gas gain, (d) use of multi-detector systems with biased amplifiers, and (e) use of a single detector with current measurement plus biased amplifiers for pulse weighting. Required gain, discrimination and sensitivity functions for each method have been calculated for typical instrument designs. Advantages and limitations of each system are discussed. The single detector with current measurement and two biased amplifiers seems promising for general use since it reduces both the range of pulse sizes and the range of counting rates which must be handled in a mixed LET field and employs fairly simple circuits.