Welcome to the SoundMeter forum!

benfaber

A sound level meter app for iPhone has been a hugely popular request. Now that SoundMeter is available, you can voice your questions, concerns, praises, and suggestions in this forum.

dsd

Wow, I suggested something and you made it!  Very Cool :-)

I have a gen1 iphone and I guess I should use an external microphone?  What did you use or recommend (part number)?

Thanks and I will buy it as soon as I know whether to buy a mic or get a 3G.

-dsd

benfaber

dsd,

With a 1st generation iPhone, your best bet, for now, is to use the headset mic that came with it. When you plug that in, SoundMeter will use a default sensitivity that should get you pretty close to the mic's actual sensitivity.

Another option would be to make your own little mic, using an electret condenser microphone (ECM) capsule. Since the iPhone's headset connector provides a bias voltage, you shouldn't need to do much more than wire up the capsule to the headset mic input.  You'll need to calibrate it, though.

Ben

chad

I read the FAQ, but don't have another meter to calibrate with. Do you have any suggestions on calibrating the mic?
Any known signals and their corresponding level?

halp pls
kthxbye

benfaber

chad,

If you don't have access to a calibrated meter with which to calibrate SoundMeter, your best bet may be to just use the default sensitivity. If you want to use a third-party headset mic, you'll want to be sure it has a reasonably flat frequency response and find some way to calibrate it.

Ben

wineinger

What is the default setting?  I hit calibrate thinking an auto calibrate was about to happen.  Now I have the sensitivity that is coupled with that calibration. 

benfaber

The default sensitivity values for SoundMeter are:
Built-in Mic:        3.85 Pa/FS
Headset Mic:       2.05 Pa/FS

You can also uninstall and reinstall the app to reset to default values.

supergimp

Awesome app. I work in film sound and don't need ultimate accuracy but need to check balance a lot. This looks useful.

However, I can't seem to change the weighting. It stays on Flat and I can't set A or C weighting. Is this feature supposed to work or am I missing something?

Thanks,

Steve

benfaber

Steve,

Frequency weighting is disabled when using the built-in microphone on the original iPhone. In general, it is recommended to use the iPhone's included headset mic, when working with first generation iPhones. The built-in microphone of the iPhone 3G works quite well, however.

Ben

bigbillpns

I downloaded this morning to my iPhone 3G and the operation seems fine, although a comparison with another SLM showed a difference of about 10 db.  The other unit has not been calibrated for a long time, so I am waiting to do other comparisons before I make a judgement.

I am most interested in having some kind of logging capability, ideally a graph showing fast or slow (average) response or even another line showing peaks. If it could be done at the reading rate that the display (which seems to be a sample per second or better) that would be great in a trouble shooting enviroment.  And the time display (including seconds) should also be included in the image storage.

What are the development plans for this app, what programing might be done by users??

The ablility to correlate these reading with a video or other time notation seems possible, if so, this could be a very valuable tool.

Bill in Pensacola  UWF Physics Lab Manager

benfaber

Thanks for the feedback, Bill.

what programing might be done by users?

Programming by users?  What do have in mind?

Ben