Development Suggestions
Hi, I just bought the trio of applications for the iPhone, and I'm quite pleased so far. A couple of design things for SoundMeter:
First, calibration needs to be hidden further (I'd suggest at least two finger pokes before it changes parameters). It's far too easy to hit that big calibration button, and by then it's too late, parameters are already changed. Uninstalling and reinstalling to get back to default is a bad work around. I'm not going to want to calibrate this very frequently. I want to calibrate once every few months, so hiding the calibration tool a little would be far better for me. I've only had the application two days and I've accidentally hit calibrate twice. At the very least, make an "options page" or "tools menu" with "calibration" and "restore factory mic defaults" as options.
Second, I do live sound for outdoor concerts where the all important decibel limit is defined as "A weighted (dBA), averaged over one minute". This means I can peak above the limit momentarily as long as the one minute average stays under the limit. What would be very helpful to me is to have an option in the Leq mode to either refresh/restart the average every minute on the minute, or to set the average time frame (in this case at one minute) and have the average reflect the real-time previous minute average (continually rolling in that defined time frame).
What a fine tool that would be for me!
In any case, I'm happy with the products so far, keep up the good work, and thanks for the feedback opportunity.
Cheers,
Matt
First, calibration needs to be hidden further (I'd suggest at least two finger pokes before it changes parameters). It's far too easy to hit that big calibration button, and by then it's too late, parameters are already changed. Uninstalling and reinstalling to get back to default is a bad work around. I'm not going to want to calibrate this very frequently. I want to calibrate once every few months, so hiding the calibration tool a little would be far better for me. I've only had the application two days and I've accidentally hit calibrate twice. At the very least, make an "options page" or "tools menu" with "calibration" and "restore factory mic defaults" as options.
Second, I do live sound for outdoor concerts where the all important decibel limit is defined as "A weighted (dBA), averaged over one minute". This means I can peak above the limit momentarily as long as the one minute average stays under the limit. What would be very helpful to me is to have an option in the Leq mode to either refresh/restart the average every minute on the minute, or to set the average time frame (in this case at one minute) and have the average reflect the real-time previous minute average (continually rolling in that defined time frame).
What a fine tool that would be for me!
In any case, I'm happy with the products so far, keep up the good work, and thanks for the feedback opportunity.
Cheers,
Matt
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Comments
Thank you for your feedback. We'll take your suggestions into consideration.
Ben
1. Provide a date/time stamp either as a window on the measurement screen or applied when the camera function is activated.
2. This one might not be practical, but a similar feature for current GPS location would be useful.
Is the 105db cap a technical limitation of the iPhone or the software?
Also, for every additional 3db over 85db, the maximimum exposure time before potential hearing damage is cut in half, so if calibrated to another meter, would error margin be much more than 3db at higher volumes (say 95db+)?
Lastly, does anyone know if the iPhone's microphone might be damaged by recording sound levels typical of a nightclub, say in the 120-130db range?
Higher sound levels could be measured by connecting an external microphone to a dock connector input device.
Since the input signal will begin to clip at 105 dB, peak, you can expect errors in the average sound level measurement once it exceeds 95 dB (the clip indicator will help you know when there's a problem).
This seems unlikely. The amount of exposure the mic can handle is the same whether you're running SoundMeter on your iPhone or your iPhone is just resting in your pocket.
Ben
I have been using you sound meter for a while.
I really like it and usually leave it on my board when visiting engineers turn up.
I was wondering if in the future there will be any way of linking to my computer (mac) to record the measurements over time (every minute etc) this would be useful as a record for concerts where we could send promoters proof of levels etc...
thanks for your help
dan
Perhaps fixed averaging time could be switched on or off in the SLM options (default being the existing off) with a user entry box for the averaging time. It would be useful to be easily able to set 10 s, 20 s, 30 s, 1 min, 1 h, 4 h, 8 h as the averaging times.
Peter
Peter