SpeakerWorkshop again

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I'm trying, once again, to use SpeakerWorkshop to measure some speakers. (It ain't exactly intuitive, to say the least, but the price is right!)

When I tried previously, I started this thread: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23746&perpage=10&highlight=&pagenumber=1

I got some kind of results before, but I don't know if they were meaningful, and I can't remember exactly how I did it.

Reading the old thread, I see that some Audigy sound cards aren't up to the task. The manual that came with the board just calls mine simply "Audigy II". I cannot find any other model number. The OS (Windows) knows it as "SB Audigy [E400]". Will that one work?

I seem to remember also that connecting the mic to the microphone input on the sound card did not work. I've got a mono to stereo adapter for the mic, and I believe I've got it plugged into the line-in socket. The manual has no picture of the connections on the back of the card. The socket is the second from the right, and has a picture of a sort of spider web next to it. How can I tell if SpeakerWorkshop is even hearing the mic?
 
tiroth said:
It's not; your mic requires power for the capsule unless it has a built-in preamplifier. The line-in doesn't provide this. The recommended solution is a mike preamp.


I'm using a mic preamp.

Perhaps I should be more succint. My questions are,

1) Is the sound card I have adequate?
2) How can I tell if the program is hearing the mic?
 
OK, good.

Well, step 1 would be to use a little toy program like sound recorder to make sure that you are, in fact, recording the output.

Beyond that, you are aware of Claudio's great guide, I would read through this until you understand it and come back with a specific problem.

For example, some poeple have trouble with delays, that is a problem that can be readily seen in the pulse response measurement. If you are having a particular problem, I suggest posting a screen shot and describing the problem. At the moment, I don't think you've provided enough information to offer any feedback.
 
tiroth said:
OK, good.

Well, step 1 would be to use a little toy program like sound recorder to make sure that you are, in fact, recording the output.



I don't know what you mean.



Beyond that, you are aware of Claudio's great guide, I would read through this until you understand it and come back with a specific problem.



Yes, I am aware of the guide. Here are my specific questions: 1) is my soundcard adequate or is it one of the Audigy II cards that will not work with SpeakerWorkshop? and 2) do I have it hooked up correctly so that the program hears the microphone?


At the moment, I don't think you've provided enough information to offer any feedback.

What information do you need? As best I know how, I've given the soundcard model number, and I've told you how I have the mic plugged into the sound card. What else can I tell you?
 
I still would very much like to get an answer to my question about the sound card.

I do have it "listening" now. I don't get a very strong signal when I use "analog" input. When I use the mic input, I get graphs that consistently look like the one below. I don't know what to make of it. I can turn the treble all the way down, and the bass all the way up, and it still looks exactly the same.
 

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I had the most terrible time with that software.... took me 40 bucks to build a nice jig and then my soundcard was not compatible, another 60 bucks for a soundcard that will work and i still took forever to figure the damm thing out. but it works well and it is free, i guess that is all that counts right? right? :bawling:
 
speekergeek said:
I had the most terrible time with that software.... took me 40 bucks to build a nice jig and then my soundcard was not compatible, another 60 bucks for a soundcard that will work and i still took forever to figure the damm thing out. but it works well and it is free, i guess that is all that counts right? right? :bawling:

Some gift horses are pretty expensive. But what is the alternative? I really would like to measure the darned things.

Now I'm getting graphs that look different. They rise in a straight line from 1K to 20K, then fall off. I remember I was getting graphs that looked like that the other time I tried to use this software.

The previous time, I did eventually get graphs that seemed to be reasonable. The Ariels measured flat across the midrange and treble. When I reversed the polarity on the tweeter, I got a big dip at the crossover frequency. So, I think I had it more or less working, but I'll be darned if I can remember how I did it.
 
SY said:
Dumb question: are your mixer settings in the Windows control panel correct? That took me longer to figure out than anything else.

I'm out of town until 4th of July, but if you haven't got it working by then and want to come look at my setup, you're welcome to.


Thanks SY! I think I've got the mixer settings right, but who knows? On the "recording" end of it, I have the microphone selected, and nothing else. On the playback side, I have Wave/MP3 selected, and nothing else.

Also, the parameters to the FFT calculation are a big mystery to me.
 
Hello Dave,

When Speaker Workshop works, it works very well and I find almost indispensable. In my opinion, it's definitely worth persevering with this great software!

Firstly, I believe that only the original Audigy line had problems with SW - all Audigy 2 cards should be okay.

Here's my guide to getting the basics going. You don't need any jigs for this, just connect you normal computer speakers to LINE OUT and your mic to MIC, or LINE IN if you're using an external preamplifier.

1, Click on resource/new/signal - give it a name
2, Click on sound/loop record
3, Put your mic a few inches in front of your speaker.
4, Examine the signals called name.in.l and name.in.r shown in the tree pane on the left. The charts become clearer if the timebase is adjusted: right click on the waveform and select chart properties. Click on the x-axis tab and set scale/maximum to 5.
5, Adjust the sliders in your playback and recording control panel until the signal's peaks reach around +/-20K. This allows offers plenty of headroom.

Nice one,
David.
 
Hey daatkins! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It's working! I recorded one set of measurements near the speaker, and another near the port. They look remarkably, uh, like they should.

One more question: When I calculate the FFT, how should I set "Time Range"?

Did I mention, thank you!
 
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