Topic: Field Audio Analyzer

[NOLAfishwater]

For people doing on the fly mixes. This could be a solution if it be mounted in a box for field use. It appears that it is 12V DC. I personally would love to find a way to incorporate this in to my rig.

http://www.smarthome.com/76497/Velleman-K8098-Audio-Analyzer-Kit/p.aspx

[runonce]

I think that's for speaker level input...?

[NOLAfishwater]

page 11 shows that it can be connected to Line Out.

http://www.vellemanusa.com/downloads/0/illustrated/illustrated_assembly_manual_k8098.pdf

[NOLAfishwater]

looks like you would have to have one per channel.

[NOLAfishwater]

this looks pretty crappy but could do the job for $99

http://fearlessnight.com/1301

Spectrum analyzer frequency display bands (each band is a bar graph column):
 Band     Frequency
1    12 - 37 Hz
2    37 - 61 Hz
3    61 - 85 Hz
4    85 - 110 Hz
5    110 - 134 Hz
6    134 - 183 Hz
7    183 - 256 Hz
8    256 - 378 Hz
9    378 - 598 Hz
10    598 - 964 Hz
11    964 - 1575 Hz
12    1575 - 2795 Hz
13    2795 - 4749 Hz
14    4749 - 7678 Hz
15    7678 - 12073 Hz
16    12073 - 20000+ Hz

[NOLAfishwater]

here's a smaller screen

http://www.waitingforfriday.com/index.php/Real-Time_Audio_Spectrum_Analyser

[NOLAfishwater]

another one which looks way too big for what we do but still very cool

http://www.youritronics.com/forum/audio-spectrum-analyzer-v2-1-description-t169.html

[Gutbucket]

Could drive one of these from the headphone monitor output of the recorder.  A two channel recorder without provision for soloing monitoring one channel or the other could use a simple mono cable from the headphone out to the analyzer to monitor the mono sum.  If you wanted the option to monitor each channel individually, a simple switchable passive summing box could allow selecting between monitoring L (solo), R (solo), or the mono sum of the two.  Most multi-channel recorders have provision built-in for selecting which channel or channel combinations are output to the headphone monitor, so those would need nothing more than the correct cable. 

[myke2241]

why not just use a ipod touch or iPhone. far cheaper and more feature rich

[OOK]

why not just use a ipod touch or iPhone. far cheaper and more feature rich

My question would be accuracy...  Lots of stuff on the iphone seems gimmick'ish to me...  your depending on an internal microphone that really isn't set up for recording music to give you an accurate picture of recording music.

 peace OOK

[John Willett]

why not just use a ipod touch or iPhone. far cheaper and more feature rich

My question would be accuracy...  Lots of stuff on the iphone seems gimmick'ish to me...  your depending on an internal microphone that really isn't set up for recording music to give you an accurate picture of recording music.

 peace OOK

I use the iPhone 4S with the micW i436 measurement mic.

The App on the iPhone is "Analyser" that can incorporate a frequency compensation for the iPhone's response - these are an in-app purchase and are available for several different mics.

[NOLAfishwater]

what about for a line in?

[DigiGal]

why not just use a ipod touch or iPhone. far cheaper and more feature rich

My question would be accuracy...  Lots of stuff on the iphone seems gimmick'ish to me...  your depending on an internal microphone that really isn't set up for recording music to give you an accurate picture of recording music.

 peace OOK

I use the iPhone 4S with the micW i436 measurement mic.

The App on the iPhone is "Analyser" that can incorporate a frequency compensation for the iPhone's response - these are an in-app purchase and are available for several different mics.

I started a similar thread awhile back...  http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=152808.msg1934689#msg1934689

Never pursued it further because Chris Church brought up some concerns with using iOS devices for this type of application. 

Would love to see more info John regarding your experience in this area if you have a chance.

[myke2241]

why not just use a ipod touch or iPhone. far cheaper and more feature rich

My question would be accuracy...  Lots of stuff on the iphone seems gimmick'ish to me...  your depending on an internal microphone that really isn't set up for recording music to give you an accurate picture of recording music.

 peace OOK

actually it is pretty darn close. are you mainly looking for standing frequencies? you can also use the line or head phone out from your deck. I used a iPhone to set and check levels for about 50 rooms (each had their own recording device) at very large medial conference that ran 5 days. i have also seen front of house walk around with a Spectrum analyzer on their phones. The tools that are available are top notch and you would be doing yourself a disjustice by not trying out some of these tools.

i kind of disagree with Chris Church. there is a huge difference between running desktop OS vs a mobile OS. a Mobile OS is very light weight and apps built to run on those mobile platforms have to be very efficient. most take advantage of hardware acceleration for graphics.  none of the audio apps i used run all that slow on a iPhone 3g. mobile devices are getting more powerful everyday. being most are cheap (you may already own one) and small why not take advantage of what they can do.

[cybergaloot]

I have a pile of free audio analyzers on my Android LG Lucid and they are interesting but so far haven't been particularly useful. Mostly just eye candy. I haven't found an external mic for it that looks like it is made for measurement.