Is there anyway to capture and record every sound wave or acoustic noise in a room and distinguish them one from the other using db equipment? If so what type of equipment
Is there anyway to capture and record every sound wave or acoustic noise in a room and distinguish them one from the other using db equipment? If so what type of equipment
QUOTE (bknight+Sep 3 2008, 08:25 PM)
Is there anyway to capture and record every sound wave or acoustic noise in a room and distinguish them one from the other using db equipment? If so what type of equipment Hi bknight,
Your question is bit too vague for me to understand exactly what you want ie; what kind of room, dimensions, contents, objective, accuracy etc.
I mean in simplest terms get your self a recording device with a mic and record the room. The more sensitive your recording equipment, the more noise you'll record.
In regards to separating sound waves, there are software tools which differentiate frequencies but were designed for music and sound design purposes which might not be accurate enough for you.
Can you expand on what you you require?
Neither did I understand the question. And by the way, what do you call a "db equipment"?
Distinguish sounds and noises one from another: this is very complicated! I would say: not a single hope nowadays in the general case. One wouldn't even know how to define what is one sort of sound and what is a different sort.
What does commonly exist for over two decades is put microphones at several places in a room where you expect sound and noise sources, and subtract the signals very precisely so that unwanted noise sources are wiped from the desired signal.
The typical use (if not the only one...) is in a broadcasting studio where the speaker has a microphone, and the air conditioner (or any source with a precise location) another. The air conditioner noise is then subtracted from the broadcast signal.
This needs a very exact subtraction, as the human ear wants at least 20dB improvement and rather 50dB. Worse, noise propagation from the source to the speaker's microphone varies in time, for instance when people move in the room. Propagation also depends heavily on the frequency.
The answer is called an adaptive filter, as it adapts its response in real time by "measuring" (difficult) how much of the noise gets into the useful signal. The standard method is a "Kalman filter".
Have a look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalman_filter
Distinguish sounds and noises one from another: this is very complicated! I would say: not a single hope nowadays in the general case. One wouldn't even know how to define what is one sort of sound and what is a different sort.
What does commonly exist for over two decades is put microphones at several places in a room where you expect sound and noise sources, and subtract the signals very precisely so that unwanted noise sources are wiped from the desired signal.
The typical use (if not the only one...) is in a broadcasting studio where the speaker has a microphone, and the air conditioner (or any source with a precise location) another. The air conditioner noise is then subtracted from the broadcast signal.
This needs a very exact subtraction, as the human ear wants at least 20dB improvement and rather 50dB. Worse, noise propagation from the source to the speaker's microphone varies in time, for instance when people move in the room. Propagation also depends heavily on the frequency.
The answer is called an adaptive filter, as it adapts its response in real time by "measuring" (difficult) how much of the noise gets into the useful signal. The standard method is a "Kalman filter".
Have a look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalman_filter
First thing that occurred to me when I read the question was a Spectrum Analyzer and an O-scope.
QUOTE (uaafanblog+Sep 18 2008, 08:44 AM)
First thing that occurred to me when I read the question was a Spectrum Analyzer and an O-scope.
Steinberg's Wave Lab has both of these tools in one package, also TC Waves has a decent tools for cutting out unwanted noise and to some satisfactory degree (with much tweaking and depending on what you want) separating soundwaves via eq etc
There are probably even better tools in the high end ranges but I have never used them (can't afford them) I'm not sure what bknight is actually looking for.
Steinberg's Wave Lab has both of these tools in one package, also TC Waves has a decent tools for cutting out unwanted noise and to some satisfactory degree (with much tweaking and depending on what you want) separating soundwaves via eq etc
There are probably even better tools in the high end ranges but I have never used them (can't afford them) I'm not sure what bknight is actually looking for.
QUOTE (Sinister Utopia+Sep 18 2008, 10:02 AM)
Steinberg's Wave Lab has both of these tools in one package, also TC Waves has a decent tools for cutting out unwanted noise and to some satisfactory degree (with much tweaking and depending on what you want) separating soundwaves via eq etc
There are probably even better tools in the high end ranges but I have never used them (can't afford them) I'm not sure what bknight is actually looking for.
I'm not sure what he's after either but if money isn't an option then ...
Tektronix Webpage would be the place to go.
There are probably even better tools in the high end ranges but I have never used them (can't afford them) I'm not sure what bknight is actually looking for.
I'm not sure what he's after either but if money isn't an option then ...
Tektronix Webpage would be the place to go.
Hi All,
BK, You've got some good input already, so I'll just add that since you've specified 'acoustic' then you'll probably want some good microphones (as wide a freq range as possible up to 40KHz) and some type of low noise amplifier (which should include some noise reduction that Enthalpy mentioned). You can then use a computer program to look at the sound (preferably in the frequency domain,like a spectrum analyzer, as an o-scope can be more confusing). There are programs out there that can do this and much more. Your cost will mostly be from the sound equipment.
Also, you might want to sound proof the room in question from any outside noise, for simplicities sake.
Sounds like fun, though.
Peace,
Ron
BK, You've got some good input already, so I'll just add that since you've specified 'acoustic' then you'll probably want some good microphones (as wide a freq range as possible up to 40KHz) and some type of low noise amplifier (which should include some noise reduction that Enthalpy mentioned). You can then use a computer program to look at the sound (preferably in the frequency domain,like a spectrum analyzer, as an o-scope can be more confusing). There are programs out there that can do this and much more. Your cost will mostly be from the sound equipment.
Also, you might want to sound proof the room in question from any outside noise, for simplicities sake.
Sounds like fun, though.
Peace,
Ron
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