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Audio Testing Equipment
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:08 pm
by Phoenixcolt
Are RTAs and Oscilliscopes interchangable tools?
Will they generally read out SPL as well or would I need a seperate SPL meter?
I know an RTA is predominantly used to set an eq, to show you where your peaks and valleys are, and I know an Oscilliscope will show you if your sound is clipping but does either do the same work as the other?
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:16 pm
by Phoenixcolt
I don't expect to be higher than this by any means because I am not sure how well my system will do the way it is set up(for sq) but all of the SPL meters I can find only go up to 135 db, which is the threshold of pain for the human ear.
I want to think I can be higher than this if 1 RSd can do 130 but I probably won't be.
What do they use at like a db competition? Just a crazy competition grade spl meter?
Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:19 pm
by Mackenzie
Term lab is what you will need, and is the most acccurate. They are expensive though.
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:05 am
by stipud
Oscilloscope measures electronic output, RTA measures sound pressure with a microphone. The RTA takes it one step further by doing what is called a "fourier transform" on the input signal, which effectively tells you how much of each frequency is present in it.
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:57 am
by Phoenixcolt
So they are not interchangeable.
And if an RTA measures sound pressure with a mic, does that mean it can also measure SPL?
Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:24 am
by stipud
An RTA measures SPL for the full frequency range (i.e. 20Hz-20kHz). I wouldn't trust it as an SPL microphone for bass though, as they get pretty inaccurate under those loads.