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SPL measurement

nigel_pearson_aunigel_pearson_au Posts: 14
edited April 2010 in dbx Archive General Discussion
Last hard questions for a while. Promise :o

I haven't used it yet, but my 260 seems to have the ability to display live spectrum analysis and SPL from the RTA mic input.


1) Does anyone have any idea how accurate this is? Good enough to comply with OH&S measurement requirements?

2) Is there a setting for weighting filters?

3) Assuming that it is accurate with the dbx RTA-M only, can I train or calibrate it for a different microphone?

Comments

  • GadgetGadget Posts: 4,915
    1) Does anyone have any idea how accurate this is? Good enough to comply with OH&S measurement requirements?

    Don't know what OH&S (occupational health & safety perhaps) like OSHA.. but my guess would be no...accurate, yes as far as spectrum analysis within the the confines of the ISO center frequencies.. but what if a frequency in between the ISO centers is peaking well out of the noise standard? A calibrated measurement spl meter will catch it.. the driverack won't.

    We must be talking about a R&R church here? Because spoken word that exceeds safety standards in a church? Hmmm
    2) Is there a setting for weighting filters?

    No...
    3) Assuming that it is accurate with the dbx RTA-M only, can I train or calibrate it for a different microphone?
    The driverack and RTA M mic are NOT calibrated together... the RTA M mics aren't calibrated at all.. they simply provide a reference from one frequency to the next, and without having the mic response plotted you can't even be sure that the resultant auto eq pass is totally accurate... fact is I posted a thread in the FAQ's about reference mics...the consensus is that less expensive mics are fairly accurate in the central body of the sounds, but fall short in the HF and extreme low end, and that they are not consistent from one mic to the next.

    G
  • nigel_pearson_aunigel_pearson_au Posts: 14
    Gadget wrote:
    Don't know what OH&S (occupational health & safety perhaps)

    Yes. Maximum X dB for Y hours, no louder than Z dB after 9PM, et c.
    yes as far as spectrum analysis within the the confines of the ISO center frequencies.. but what if a frequency in between the ISO centers is peaking well out of the noise standard? A calibrated measurement spl meter will catch it.. the driverack won't.

    Aah. I assumed that the dB numbers below the spectra were SPL. Now that I have had a few minutes to play, I see that it is a gain parameter.
    We must be talking about a R&R church here? Because spoken word that exceeds safety standards in a church?

    Heh, Yes, some of the services' music is louder than others! But we do occasionally do an outdoors thingy in a big park when I have a few extra kW of amps/speakers, and have to watch the volume of spoken word too!
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