Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store
SoundMeter for iPhone
Do you need to make basic sound level measurements? For example, do you want to prove that your next door neighbor really is playing music loud enough to make your ears bleed?Faber Acoustical is coming to your rescue with their US$19.99 SoundMeter for iPhone. They discovered that both the built-in and headset microphones of the iPhone have a flat enough frequency response to make them useful for measuring sound levels.
To quote the technical part of their press release, "SoundMeter measures average sound levels with fast, slow, and impulse time weightings. Peak, maximum, and equivalent sound levels are also available. All sound levels may be measured with Flat, A, or C frequency weighting." Got that?
Faber notes that SoundMeter doesn't meet ANSI or IEC standards for precision sound level meters, but it works very well as an inexpensive level meter for hobbyists. They recommend not using the built-in mic on first-generation iPhones (the headset may be used instead), and SoundMeter should be calibrated prior to use.
Faber Acoustical also produces two other really impressive iPhone apps, SignalScope and SignalSuite. SoundMeter for iPhone is available in the App Store now (click opens iTunes).
[via prMac]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Karsten said 10:33AM on 8-13-2008
is there also a tool that only shows some basic information like dB...would be nice to see how loud it really is sometimes. buying soundmeter would maybe be a bit too much for this simple purpose ;-)
Karsten
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brian said 10:36AM on 8-13-2008
I'd buy this in a second... except I have a first-gen phone and I lost my stupid headset. D'oh!
Karsten -- what's the name of the tool you mention, is it in the App Store (or is it for jailbroken phones) and how much is it?
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Galley said 11:00AM on 8-13-2008
If it's too loud, you're too old. Rock on!
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DAJ said 11:11AM on 8-13-2008
"SoundMeter should be calibrated prior to use."
So do we need to buy a sound meter to calibrate it first -- seems a bit odd!
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Steven Sande said 10:26PM on 8-13-2008
No, there's a built-in calibration function so you just need to use that function in SoundMeter before doing any other measurements. It's shown on the website.
TUAW Steve
windex said 1:22PM on 8-13-2008
As an acoustician this is pretty exciting. Of course for any actual testing I'll use a proper type I SLM, but this will be handy for approximations here and there.
I'm sure they could program it to meet ANSI standards with an appropriate mic, but I assume there are pre-amp and sampling issues.
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Matt Heerema said 2:22PM on 8-13-2008
Only goes up to 105 dB? Bummer.
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GQmacguy said 9:15PM on 8-13-2008
Yeah I know, I was a little disappointed when I saw that. I'm generally working at a little bit higher dB than that. ;-)
Karsten said 7:15PM on 8-13-2008
brian, i didn't say it exists yet...i just wondered if someone knew an app like this ;-)
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Think Adrian said 6:05AM on 8-14-2008
Not a pretty app, though.
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Pat said 1:02PM on 8-14-2008
It would be awesome if they incorporated some sort of location mapping, so that you could save the location of where that loud noise is happening. Then you could really give it to the noisy neighbours.
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kaykhanittha said 4:29PM on 8-14-2008
it's a bit expensive !
http://www.iphone-3g-mobile.com/APPLE-IPHONE/FIND-AND-DOWNLOAD-A-FREE-SOUNDMETER-FOR-IPHONE-APPLE-3G-MOBILE
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