MatSpencer Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 Hi All, I was just wondering if there was software available that picks up a sound through your laptops microphone or indeed an external mic and then shows you the SPL and the EQ... Cheers, Mat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Jeal Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 Mat, the simple answer to your question is yes most of they all need to use an external measurement mic though. Which one you choose is down to the costs involved and the measurement you want to take. At the bottom of the scale Allen and Heath have a simple RTA(Real Time Analyser) that will give a frequency readout. The problem with that approach is that the readout doesn't really tell you anything about what's actually happening as it can't distiniguish between the room and the speaker system. The better method is to use a dual channel fft system such as SIAsofts SMAART which take an output from the desk and from a measurement mic and compares them, this lets you "window" out room reflections etc and make far more accurate measurements. At the end of the day though no matter how many measurement you take the data is only as good as its interpreter so some training in its use is recommended. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 As Charlie says, there's a little more to it. You can get results up on your laptops screen but..... 1 - how accurate are they?2 - how USEFUL are they?3 - how will you interpret the results? 4 - what will you do about it? 5 - CAN you do anything about it anyway? 1 - Components need calibrating and you need to make sure you are always measuring from the right place, at the right height (what height is this?) And with the correct settings on the equipment (external sound card gain and volume etc) 2 - So how does KNOWING the results help you? 3 - How will you read the results and understand them any different to reading a different set of results? 4 - Do you have any equipment be it electronic (eq,s etc) or let's call them passive items (big cloths and drapes) That you can use to achieve better results or to alter the results to something that you'd prefer to see. 5 - Are things like this actually going to make a difference. Is it cost effective to do this. Is it practical to do this. With passive items, do yo have the facilities, time and permission from people in charge to do things to the room? Perhaps you really did just want to know if such a thing was possible, but I thought I'd go into a little more detail incase you wanted to know how / why / what / whether you have shoes on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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