Measuring Software

[TKoP]

Just a curiosity thing... other than TrueRTA and REW, what other "good" and "inexpensive" audio measuring programs are there out there?

And of those that have used both (and I wouldn't imagine there are a lot of those here) any pros/cons between the two?

 

[PaulyT]

I've used them both. I like REW, it's totally free, and has a lot more features. Tiny bit of a learning curve but not bad.

 

[TKoP]

I have a copy of TrueRTA -- i just haven't used it in AGES. And I knew about REW after I needed the TrueRTA, so haven't used it at all.

But, I do have those speakers I just built and wanted to show how much better my speakers than that blowhard Flint with his silly triangle speakers.

 

[Flint]

I like ease of TrueRTA, but it hasn't had a feature enhancement in over a decade and is now seemingly limited compared to other packages out there. It appears the TrueRTA team is behind the Dayton Audio DAT5 speaker electrical measurement package, which is excellent, but not useful for acoustic measurements.

REW is shockingly complete and once mastered is very capable. It isn't perfect and doesn't give 100% consistent results as it relies on the OS for all audio adjustment, but if you learn to calibrate it works great.

If you don't have a mic, preamp and audio interface, I recommend the Dayton Audio Omnimic. It, too, has a learning curve, but it is outstanding for an all in one solution.

Finally, for spot measurements to make adjustments, Dayton Audio makes a calibrated mic for your smartphone and there are dozens of very good live audio analyzer apps out there which are free.

 

[TKoP]

I do have a mic and an external sound card I bought YEARS ago that hopefully still works. However, I never was able to get the darned thing properly calibrated and didn't know why.

I'll probably give REW a try first. I remember that they had lots of interesting graphs (I love graphs) to look at.

 

[Flint]

Yeah, REW can do simple frequency response, impulse response, step response, waterfall, energy dispersion, phase, and more. It is pretty darned complete in what it is capable of doing in the hands of an expert user.