JohnA Posted July 5, 2003 Share Posted July 5, 2003 I want to pick up a test disk for my system. What is the best one for testing frequency reaponse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnellis Posted July 5, 2003 Share Posted July 5, 2003 John- I have tried different ones. Most of them have been fairly good. But, a local recording studio here in Boulder turned me on to "Sound Check" by Alan Parsons. By FAR the best I've seen. Or rather heard!! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnA Posted July 5, 2003 Author Share Posted July 5, 2003 Parsons certainly has the reputation! Where do I buy it? Amazon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strabo Posted July 5, 2003 Share Posted July 5, 2003 Do they still sell them under a normal label? I have the Alan Parsons & Stephen Court Sound Check 1 and 2 cd's from Mobile Fidelity but they are long out of print. I never opened the second one (more of a collectors item) but I use Sound Check 1 mainly to set my sub, and out of curiosity to check the Forte's frequency response and my room problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted July 5, 2003 Share Posted July 5, 2003 John... are your looking for a CD because you don't want to generate the tones yourself? I ask that as I've been using NCH tone generator ... it's freefor personaly use... you can create your .wav tones and burn them onto a CD in red book format... Just thought i'd give you the option... Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tpg Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 I do the same thing as Formica. It works quite well. I even made my own version of a THX intro. hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Warren Posted July 6, 2003 Share Posted July 6, 2003 ---------------- On 7/5/2003 11:58:42 PM formica wrote: John... are your looking for a CD because you don't want to generate the tones yourself? I ask that as I've been using NCH tone generator ... it's freefor personaly use... you can create your .wav tones and burn them onto a CD in red book format... Just thought i'd give you the option... Rob ---------------- I need a primer on this. I'm still in the analog era when it comes to generating test tones using an old HP *tube* generator. Other than a CD burner, what software is needed? TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artto Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Sheffield Labs has one. I use Dafos on Reference Recordings. If your system can play this at HIGH levels and not blow up, then everything's just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Okay, In my view, the above is very good advice. Let me expand. There are two great sources for cheapo systems which tell you a lot. The NTH sound generator is a free ware program which you can download. It turns your computer into a sine wave generator. You can take the audio out from the computer and feed it to your stereo system. This can be very enlightening. Or, you'll be as confused as the rest of us. John A. had described his experience with putting a pure sine wave into your speakers and hunting around the room for nodes. I recall that in his case it was a matter of using the a.c. mains. Use the NTH though. None the less, be careful with levels. Don't blast it. Just a pleasant level. You can crank in a frequency (start with 200 Hz) and then walk around the room. You should be astonished to find some locatations where there is no sound at all. Yet a few feet away it will be loud. That is the effect of interference and standing waves. This is an introduction to wave mechanics and room acoustics. Do try shifting the frequency up and down. You'll find that the nodes have moved. Nothing is going to make your sweet spot immune from nulls at all frequencies. But you have to do this experiment to believe it for yourself. You will have to find out for yourself that your living room is a major component of your HiFi system. Do not try pumping 30 Hz into your speakers to a point where you hear it unless your are very careful with the level. You can damage the little gems. Sound Check 2 is available out of London. I did not have any success pasting in the URL. Just do a search for "sound check 2" and parsons. You'll get there. This is a very good CD and is probably the best bang for the buck for a beginner, or anyone else. They'll want a credit card and will ship it across the Big Pond. There is an option to buy a built in sound pressure meter. I would not recommend that as an investment. Rather, stick with the Radio Shack sound pressure meter. Here is the good part. Many people want to know how to measure the response of their system at their sweet spot on the couch with some semblance of accuracy. Sound Check 2 has 1/3 octave noise bands. There are well placed annoucements by Parsons or Mr. Court (the co-author). You should be able to take readings off the RS meter in every 1/3 ocatave band and record them in a spread sheet or on a piece of paper. The meter will bounce around and you'll have to eyeball the median. No it is not going to resolve that there is a problem between 50 Hz and 30 Hz. The sine wave test should have shown you the problem. This is not a perfect system of measurement, yet is probably as close as you can get for less than $100 for the CD and an RS meter. I believe it is fair to say that 30 years ago this set up would cost $10,000 or more. There are other interesting bands. During our visit to KAT in Indy I listened to the pink noise in an A-B-X test. There was no reason, to go to the X. A and B sounded identical. It also showed up that one speaker had a faulty connection. Thanks to the mavins for suggesting the above. The two souces, plus your ears, and an RS SPL meter, will let you do some experimentation which will be very enlightening. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 ---------------- On 7/6/2003 6:51:42 AM John Warren wrote: I need a primer on this. I'm still in the analog era when it comes to generating test tones using an old HP *tube* generator. Other than a CD burner, what software is needed? ---------------- John... a direct answer to your question is no other software is needed other than Windows, NCH, and a CD burning application. The NCH software is actually quite simple to use... and gives you the option of playing the tones through the soundcard (ok if your PC is plugged into your system) or saving them to a file which you can burn on a CD (what I do) From the Tone menu... select the type of test-tone (pink noise, sine wave, etc...) , mono/stereo (use mono for SPL), specified duration if you want to burn it as a track, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Once youve created a tone, you can edit all the values by double clicking on each item... such as frequency or duration (I use 10sec tones). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Once the tone is what you want, you click the file menu, and you can "save as wave" ... choose a file name the makes sense to you, like "sine-00020hz-10s" ... etc... Once you've created all the tones you want... then you open you CD burning software and burn a "music CD". If your CD player can read text CDs I suggest you choose that option (you have to choose burn at once to un-grey the box). When you have over 60 tones on your CD, it's hard to remember which is which... Good luck... Rob PS: BBB would be proud of my wallpaper... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted July 7, 2003 Share Posted July 7, 2003 Forgot to mention... if anyone wants an easy set of 1/6th octave .wav tones of 10sec duration, I have a zip file of mine of about 2.3MB for the 65 files (12.5Hz to 20000Hz). I'm willing to post them... just need someone to host the file. (maybe Justin? ) Post here if interested... Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Warren Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 ---------------- On 7/7/2003 10:51:30 PM formica wrote: Good luck... Rob ---------------- Rob-Thanks for taking the time to explain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnellis Posted July 8, 2003 Share Posted July 8, 2003 John- Because this CD is virtually out of print, I will be happy to make you a copy and send it to you. Afterall, the recording studio here in Boulder was kind enough to do the same for me. The CD is currently in storage. We're in the process of moving. So if you can wait 30 days or so that would be great. It would also be good to have for future reference as well. It does so much more than generate signals. It really is a wonderful tool. Here is a link which describes the functions and contents of the CD. http://www.interstudio.co.uk/sndchk.htm Anyway, shoot me an email with your address and I'll send it to you as soon as I can. John P.S. Yes, you can still buy it. But, it will cost you. The cheapest I have seen it is $39.99. I've also seen it as high as $129.99. Do a google search. "Sound Check Alan Parsons". You'll see what I mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsmyforte Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 ---------------- On 7/8/2003 7:51:03 PM johnellis wrote: John- Because this CD is virtually out of print, I will be happy to make you a copy and send it to you. Afterall, the recording studio here in Boulder was kind enough to do the same for me. The CD is currently in storage. We're in the process of moving. So if you can wait 30 days or so that would be great. It would also be good to have for future reference as well. It does so much more than generate signals. It really is a wonderful tool. Here is a link which describes the functions and contents of the CD. http://www.interstudio.co.uk/sndchk.htm Anyway, shoot me an email with your address and I'll send it to you as soon as I can. John P.S. Yes, you can still buy it. But, it will cost you. The cheapest I have seen it is $39.99. I've also seen it as high as $129.99. Do a google search. "Sound Check Alan Parsons". You'll see what I mean. ---------------- may i also have a copy of this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Warren Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Isn't copying CDs and distributing the contents "illegal"?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 I use a another freeware signal gen program from Vincent Burel: http://www.vb-audio.com and the tool looks like this. Very cool app. Marvel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabulousfrankie Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 The NCH tone generator is a great cheap way to makes tones for yourself. I have Stryke's Basszone which works great for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabulousfrankie Posted July 9, 2003 Share Posted July 9, 2003 Also forgot, there are towns downloadable here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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