Acourate ?

[RaymondfromFrance]

Dear DIY Friends.

I just purchased the book written by Mitch Barnett :

Accurate Sound Reproduction Using DSP.

This book was recommended to my by a french person on a french audiophile forum.

I have a hard time understanding what "exactly" I need to start following the mesurements in the book ?

What I have is this :

PC AMD A6 6400 k APV with Radeon HD Graphics 3.90 GHz
8 GO RAM 64 BITS with a Solid State Hard Drive.
I have a simple Xonar Sound Card ASUS Xonar Se Interne 5.1 canaux PCI-E - (5.1 canaux, 24 bit, 116 DB, 110 DB, 24 bits/192 kHz, 0,00251%)

Windows 10
RME Digiface USB
2x Alientek D8
2x Line Array speakers with 12 medium and 21 tweeters each one
I need to buy a microphone but the one recomended in the book
Behringer ECM 8000 only costs 30 euros/USdollars.

Is this a good mike ?

I also need a mike pre amplifier, what should I purchase ?

and a Sound Level Meter,

I will buy the Galaxy Audio Check Mate CM 140

Then the book says :

Acourate (le logiciel) uses ASIO as the audio driver and protocol to communicate directly with the sound card or external Analog to Digital, Digital to Analog (A/D D/A) converter bypassing windows audio subsystem. It is recommended that the A/D D/A converter employed use an ASIO driver, typically supplied with the A/D D/A converter, ASIO4ALL can be used if one's converter does not have an ASIO driver. The recommended default sample rate value for taking acoustic measurments should be setto 48 kHz.

Whaoo, this part makes me a little bit confused.

Is there anyone that can help me ?

After the initial setup has been done,

I feel that looking at the book that

this is feasable, although I am not a technical person.

I will try.


Hope that you are all well in spite of the viruses.

All the best, Raymond.

 

[planet10]

Behringer ECM 8000

Is this a good mic?

It is a decent cheap mic. It needs to be calibrated. Uncalibrated typically OK from 100-10k, maybe down to 50

I also need a mic pre amplifier, what should I purchase ?

Look at one of the simplesemi-pro USB/Firewire/Thunderbolt interface. They typically have 2 mic ins, (or line level) into ADC and DACs.

dave

 

[RaymondfromFrance]

Thank you.

I do not feel like paying only 30 dollars or euros for a mic that I will make all these measurments with, what else can I find for under 100 bugs that will be a good deal for money and quality. I have also seen the Dayton Audio EMM6 for 65dolars. Is there another one that is a better deal ?

 

[adason]

If you buy umic-1 from minidsp, it comes with calibration file you download from their page
Umic connects to computer directly using usb, no preamp or voltage source needed.

 

[Draki]

Using usb mic, like the umic-1, is not the best solution because of the internal AD/clock...

Get an analogue mic (ECM8000, with the caveat Dave mentioned, or Sonarworks XREF20 with the cal file) and a USB soundcard like Focusrite 2i2.

 

[planet10]

Thank you.

I do not feel like paying only 30 dollars or euros for a mic that I will make all these measurments with, what else can I find for under 100 bugs that will be a good deal for money and quality. I have also seen the Dayton Audio EMM6 for 65dolars.

The dayton is very much similar to the Behringer. Both need calibration. These are the guys that do reasonable calibration. Cross·Spectrum Labs - Sound | Vibration | Engineering

There should be something similar in Europe. Shipping to & from the US would likely cost more than the test.

When i was looking at for the above i had a quick brush with a test that said, if the cal file is the one given is probably less useful than none. The guys above test your specific mic.

The miniDSP product could well be the best budget mic. If you do not have to use the mics serial number to get it, it is unlikely to be any better.

Have you got the mic yet? For 30€ is a good price.

dave