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Re: Responses to ambient sound recording

Subject: Re: Responses to ambient sound recording
From: "Rob Danielson" danielson_audio
Date: Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:33 am ((PST))
Hi Raimund--
1 meter it is. Your take on distance might be a little looser from 
what I interpreted. As the goal is to establish file saturation for a 
stimulus that is as close to 64 dBA that a poor person can afford 
($50 meter accuracy of +/- 2dB :-) ), distance seems to have the 
potential to swing the reference significantly.  For example, some of 
the mic Hz response tests I read used .5 meter in anechoic chambers 
and in contrast I would normally use 4 or more meters for testing 
localization and Hz response outdoors.  Those examples compute to a 
difference in amplitude of 18 dB. 
http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-distance.htm Of course, the 
distance of low Hz weighted background ambience is effectively to the 
sound horizon in the field, but we are trying to simulate this 
diffuse source with a speaker that is much closer. Rob D.

  = =


At 3:59 PM +0000 11/30/10, Raimund wrote:
>Hi Rob,
>
>Besides the (minor) potential errors due to reflections off the 
>environment, the distance does not matter for your calibration 
>procedure. This is true as long as you place the microphone and the 
>SLM at exactly the same spot (and keep the distance from the sound 
>source fixed).
>
>If you however wish to quantify the noise that is emitted by a 
>particular sound source, then it is important to specify also the 
>distance (1 meter is a commonly used value such measurements) 
>because the sound level will of course change according to that.
>
>Regards,
>Raimund
>
>--- In 
><naturerecordists%40yahoogroups.com> 
>Rob Danielson <> wrote:
>>
>>  Hi Bob, Raimund, Greg and Prataps--
>>
>>  For several reasons including the ones Bob notes, we know that mic to
>>  speaker distance will make a difference in the critical step of 64 dB
>>  amplitude calibration. I looked through three SLM manuals and
>>  couldn't find anything about what distance to measure isolated, loud
>>  sound sources. (In most applications, measurements are taken where
>>  background levels are perceived). Doesn't 1 meter replicate usual mic
>>  sensitivity test conditions? I looked for a while could not find a
>>  succinct specification, but the distances were all on the order of 1
>>  meter. At this short distance, if I place the sound source and mics
>>  at 7 feet above thick grass, reflection impacts should be negligible-
>>  especially considering my $50 Nady ASM-2 meter is +/- 2dB! I noticed
>>  that some of the more expensive meters we've discussed are +/- 1.5dB.
>>
>>  It would also be interesting to play the same sound samples in one's
>>  sound studio (same speaker) at 1 meter just to see what differences
>>  crop up.
>>
>>  Its #4 on my current test list. I was thinking of using AT4022's and
>>  my SD744T and record level "60.5 dB" at a distance of 1 meter if
>>  anyone wants to get started. Rob D.
>
>


-- 









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