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Pink Noise versus sweep

nigel_pearson_aunigel_pearson_au Posts: 14
edited April 2010 in dbx Archive General Discussion
Traditionally, speaker testing used a sweep generator until the 70s, when white and pink noise gained acceptance. Devices like the DriveRack (or cheaper Behringer "equivalent") tend to use Pink noise exclusively. Computer software is mixed, but sweep generators seem to be more popular?

Wondering if:

1) anyone knows why, and

2) if anyone thinks Pink noise actually causes more reverb and echoes than a sweep?

Comments

  • GadgetGadget Posts: 4,915
    Traditionally, speaker testing used a sweep generator until the 70s, when white and pink noise gained acceptance. Devices like the DriveRack (or cheaper Behringer "equivalent") tend to use Pink noise exclusively. Computer software is mixed, but sweep generators seem to be more popular?

    Wondering if:

    1) anyone knows why, and

    Well, that is the $64,000 question isn't it?
    How about I let the experts go into greater detail then I can right here..
    http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/equalizing_the_room/
    Note that that is just one part of the study hall available @ PROSOUNDWEB.. this and other sites are listed in the "start here" thread on the opening page here...
    2) if anyone thinks Pink noise actually causes more reverb and echoes than a sweep?

    I think we have accurately described the pitfalls of trying to equ the room now right? We have also, with the help of Bob McCarthy exposed RTA measurement for the tool it is. Perhaps now you can see why, with a tool like the Driverack, that we find useful purposes for the tool set the driverack possesses.

    Pink noise doesn't cause echoes and reverberant fields the room does...It perhaps excites the room more by the shear number of frequencies used at once...but the fact is the tone sweeps will act just like the pink noise, just in smaller increments. You add them all together and you'll get perhaps a larger cumulative effect.

    Perhaps Dennis will chime in here. He is a practitioner of SMAART and a veteran system tuner...he will tell you the facts here.
    Gadget
  • DennisDennis Posts: 801
    I've had a week from hell and it's turning into a weekend from hell so I do not have an in depth answer to the pink noise question right now. All of the various test tones are tools in the tool box, used for different purposes. Pink noise has turned out to be a swiss army knife and due to it's full range characteristics is used for all kinds of applications...in a lot of situations, full range is faster.

    Well, now I have a system I must align and tune in a large tent. Soundcheck at 3ish, guests at 5PM...gotta go.

    Dennis
  • nigel_pearson_aunigel_pearson_au Posts: 14
    Gadget wrote:
    How about I let the experts go into greater detail then I can right here..
    http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/equalizing_the_room/

    Yes, I have read those (and others) - I just don't agree fully with the conclusions :wink:

    ...but the fact is the tone sweeps will act just like the pink noise, just in smaller increments.

    In terms of total energy, yes, but I am also thinking about harmonics, which depending on the "timbre" of the space, will be a complex mix of odd/even. I'm not enough of an engineer yet to theorise how the rooms damping surfaces can be overloaded, but my suspicion is that they can.


    I think I read somewhere that Pink noise became a standard because human ears could roughly balance its tonal blend, but that doesn't explain its popularity in our electronic measurement age?
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