I was wondering what the group's thinking was on hardware vs Software
FFT's: e.g., Terrasonde Audio Toolbox vs Metric Halo's SpectraFoo

In article ,
Harry Houdini wrote:
I was wondering what the group's thinking was on hardware vs Software
FFT's: e.g., Terrasonde Audio Toolbox vs Metric Halo's SpectraFoo

Well, the Audio Toolbox is a lot easier to use when you're on a lift
hanging over a flown speaker array. Then again, with a small enough
laptop, SpectraFoo might do well enough.

The question you need to ask is what windowing configurations will
they give you, how many bins can you get, and how long will it take
for the low-end components to settle out on a given signal. And you
will find these all vary a lot from box to box.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey wrote:
In article ,
Harry Houdini wrote:

I was wondering what the group's thinking was on hardware vs Software
FFT's: e.g., Terrasonde Audio Toolbox vs Metric Halo's SpectraFoo

seeing as your looking at FOO
you might want to check out the best audio analyais fft/rta and control
package based on mac osx
MacFoh
www.macfoh.com

george

In article writes:

I was wondering what the group's thinking was on hardware vs Software
FFT's: e.g., Terrasonde Audio Toolbox vs Metric Halo's SpectraFoo

It depends on where you're going to use it. If you want to analyze
audio that's already on your computer, SpectraFoo is the way to go.
It's a very cool program (but I refuse to switch to a Mac just to use
it). If you want to check out gear on the workbench or take it with
you in the field, you can't beat a self-contained unit.

Have you looked at the NTI Minilyzer or those Phonic things? Cheaper
than the Terrasonde and might do what you need.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Hey George,

Thanks for your advice! - I had never even heard of MacFoh before;
I'll check it out.

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 20:47:59 GMT, George Gleason
wrote:

Scott Dorsey wrote:
In article ,
Harry Houdini wrote:

I was wondering what the group's thinking was on hardware vs Software
FFT's: e.g., Terrasonde Audio Toolbox vs Metric Halo's SpectraFoo

seeing as your looking at FOO
you might want to check out the best audio analyais fft/rta and control
package based on mac osx
MacFoh
www.macfoh.com

george

Mr. Rivers,

I am indebted to you again for your thoughtful response.

In answer to your question, I am looking for something that will help
me analyze my studio gear 'in house'; I don't need anything 'mobile'
to take on the road with me.

I certainly have a look at the NTI unit.

Thanks!


On 15 Mar 2005 20:48:38 -0500, (Mike Rivers)
wrote:


In article writes:

I was wondering what the group's thinking was on hardware vs Software
FFT's: e.g., Terrasonde Audio Toolbox vs Metric Halo's SpectraFoo

It depends on where you're going to use it. If you want to analyze
audio that's already on your computer, SpectraFoo is the way to go.
It's a very cool program (but I refuse to switch to a Mac just to use
it). If you want to check out gear on the workbench or take it with
you in the field, you can't beat a self-contained unit.

Have you looked at the NTI Minilyzer or those Phonic things? Cheaper
than the Terrasonde and might do what you need.

Scott,

Thanks for your input! I would like to get an accurate picture of
what's going on with my in-house gear, so portability isn't really an
issue. Windowing configurations are more important and would be much
more versatile on Spectrafoo than the 200 X 300 pixel Toolbox! Still,
the heart of the issue is accuracy of measurement and I would be
willing to sacrifice screen real-estate, etc, if it meant more
reliable results.

On 15 Mar 2005 15:44:23 -0500, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

In article ,
Harry Houdini wrote:
I was wondering what the group's thinking was on hardware vs Software
FFT's: e.g., Terrasonde Audio Toolbox vs Metric Halo's SpectraFoo

Well, the Audio Toolbox is a lot easier to use when you're on a lift
hanging over a flown speaker array. Then again, with a small enough
laptop, SpectraFoo might do well enough.

The question you need to ask is what windowing configurations will
they give you, how many bins can you get, and how long will it take
for the low-end components to settle out on a given signal. And you
will find these all vary a lot from box to box.
--scott

In article writes:

In answer to your question, I am looking for something that will help
me analyze my studio gear 'in house'; I don't need anything 'mobile'
to take on the road with me.

I certainly have a look at the NTI unit.

I have a Minilyzer and the companion generator, the Minirator. It's an
ideal combination for checking out gear, for troubleshooting and
seeing how good it really is. The Minirator is a pretty low distortion
generator, and the Minilyzer reads THD as well as displays a 3rd
octave spectrum analysis. They have an option, the MINILink, which is
a little circuit board that installs in the Minilizyer that lets you
dump data to a computer through a USB port. I had one on evaluation
for a while and was on the fence about whether I'd use it enough to be
worth ownit it. I decided to let it go, but I sometimes wish I had
bought it.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

Harry Houdini wrote:

Thanks for your input! I would like to get an accurate picture of
what's going on with my in-house gear, so portability isn't really an
issue. Windowing configurations are more important and would be much
more versatile on Spectrafoo than the 200 X 300 pixel Toolbox! Still,
the heart of the issue is accuracy of measurement and I would be
willing to sacrifice screen real-estate, etc, if it meant more
reliable results.

If you're measuring gear, an FFT box is probably not all that useful.
For room measurements it's a wonderful thing, but you can learn more
from the square wave response on a piece of equipment than you'll get
from any fancy FFT box in most cases.

Rooms are prone to narrowband resonances. So are speakers. Most
electronic equipment is not.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message

Harry Houdini wrote:

Thanks for your input! I would like to get an accurate picture of
what's going on with my in-house gear, so portability isn't really an
issue. Windowing configurations are more important and would be much
more versatile on Spectrafoo than the 200 X 300 pixel Toolbox! Still,
the heart of the issue is accuracy of measurement and I would be
willing to sacrifice screen real-estate, etc, if it meant more
reliable results.

If you're measuring gear, an FFT box is probably not all that useful.

I can't get complete specs for it, but Spectafoo looks to be about as
competent as Spectralab.

I built the www.pcavtech.com gear measurement web site with Cool Edit and
Spectralab. I don't recall any complaints about its thoroughness. I presume
that with Spectrafoo and some good audio editor, a similar thing could be
done with a Mac.

Arny,

Really appreciate the input - and your site

I'm not really a fan of the Mac myself, but I have a G3 Powerbook
kicking around that I'd like to put to some good use - hence
SpectraFoo.

Would you happen to know any good reference materials for this
testing/analysis of audio enterprise?

Harry


On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 06:48:34 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message

Harry Houdini wrote:

Thanks for your input! I would like to get an accurate picture of
what's going on with my in-house gear, so portability isn't really an
issue. Windowing configurations are more important and would be much
more versatile on Spectrafoo than the 200 X 300 pixel Toolbox! Still,
the heart of the issue is accuracy of measurement and I would be
willing to sacrifice screen real-estate, etc, if it meant more
reliable results.

If you're measuring gear, an FFT box is probably not all that useful.

I can't get complete specs for it, but Spectafoo looks to be about as
competent as Spectralab.

I built the www.pcavtech.com gear measurement web site with Cool Edit and
Spectralab. I don't recall any complaints about its thoroughness. I presume
that with Spectrafoo and some good audio editor, a similar thing could be
done with a Mac.

"Harry Houdini" wrote in message

Arny,

Really appreciate the input - and your site

Thanks for the encouragement.

I'm not really a fan of the Mac myself, but I have a G3 Powerbook
kicking around that I'd like to put to some good use - hence
SpectraFoo.

Would you happen to know any good reference materials for this
testing/analysis of audio enterprise?

I dunno - www.pcavtech.com mostly displays the FFT parameters that were
used. How do they work in Spectrafoo?