SoundHound,

You could always do a print-screen, paste the image into your favorite graphics program, and save it from there. I forget the key sequence: Alt-PrtScr, or Ctrl-Alt-PrtScr, or something like that. One captures the entire desktop and the other captures just the active window.

BTW, which do you think is better for my purposes: this RTA program or an actual RTA, such as the Audio Control one? I have the AudioControl, but if the software version is more versatile, it might be worth it to switch.

Jeff

It depends on if you have a measuring microphone that is flat enough to do the measurements. The RealRTA does give 1/24th octave resolution which is basically as good as a frequency response plot. It also has a "chirp" function where you can do a frequency response sweep quickly across the entire frequency band. For $99 it is a bargain I think. Personally, I like software implementations because they are more upgradable. And in addition, the RealRTA program does have a function to calibrate for the deficiencies of your soundcard in frequency response.

I have used a Panasonic condenser microphone capsule available from Digikey electronics (www.digikey.com) part # P9959ND that is accurate to less than 2db in the extreme high end. In the low end and midrange, it is within 1db, even down to below 20Hz. Of course you will need to power it but this involves nothing more than a 9 volt battery, a 2k2 ohm resistor and a 220uf capacitor (to isolate the DC from the sound card input). You will also need a 100k ohm resistor after the capacitor to discharge the DC, so the input of your soundcard doesn't have to do this!


[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited August 24, 2003).]

I have a calibrated mic and battery powered mic preamp to go with it, so I guess I should get off my duff and get a copy of TrueRTA.

As Jeff indicated, you can do screen capture of the active program by pressing Alt-PrtScrn. This copies a bitmap to the clip board which you can paste into your favorite image editor. I use a screen capture utility called Screen Seize that I got from PC Magazine. It allows greater control over what you can capture, from the full screen, the active program window, current dialog box, or any area of the screen thay you select with the mouse.



[This message has been edited by Ellen (edited August 24, 2003).]

SH, I just came upon TrueRTA, and was going to try the free demo to see if I like it. Could you share the details about that little circuit you described so I don't have to drive to Jeff's and steal his mic whenever I want to use it?

Thanks!

-Joe


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Remember the Intellivision?
http://www.gotmaille.com/nostalgia/

The bass on the organ recording is very nice. At my normal bass level, set by ear, it blends beautifully with the higher frequencies. Having some fun, I raised my subwoofer output to about twice it's normal level and proceeded to shake the floor! Very Sweet!

Overall, that's a great two-channel recording. Playing that back gives a great sense of space without even needing surrounds. Please feel free to post more examples.

One question: What was your recording path and mic set-up? That's only if you can give away your secrets...

Can you “import” your “exported” number sets into Excel or some other spreadsheet/database that has graphing capabilities? That way you could have multiple sets of information posted in varying colors in just about any two or three dimensional graphing style, even within the same graph/chart, to make direct visual comparisons. If you are savvy enough to enter formulae into your spreadsheet, graphs displaying differentials, etc. are possible.

[This message has been edited by bestbang4thebuck (edited August 17, 2003).]

Even if now, Excel is very smart at how it inputs data. If the exported data is CSV (comma-separated values) or space- or tab-seperated, Excel should be able to make sense of it.

Jeff

Joe:

It's very simple, and if you order the mic capsules ($2.50 or so each) you can request a Digikey catalog which has the circuit drawn out with the mic capsule listings. Basically you want to run a single conductor shielded cable (up to around 15') from the "hot" tab on the mic and the "ground" tab (the ground tab you will see is connected to the shell of the mic capsule. Run the +9VDC through the 2k2 resistor to the "hot" lead and the -9VDC to the ground. At the junction of the resistor and the cable on the "hot" side, place the 220uf cap with the + side toward the 2k2 resistor. On the (-) side of the capacitor run the 100k resistor from there to ground. The output that goes to your soundcard is taken from across this resistor. It's much easier than it sounds! Your soundcard will need a microphone input because the microphone does not have it's own preamplifier.

There are really no secrets. The three omni directional microphones were placed at the front of the chruch, about 15' apart from each other, and 10' in the air on stands. The mics have low end response that goes WAY down since they are pressure type mics. The mics were fed to a mixer that was designed by a high-end audio designer friend of mine who designed the just released "Tampa" microphone preamp by M-Audio. It sounds very smooth. The center mic was split between the left and right channels and the stereo mix was run into a DAT recorder running at 48Khz 16 bit. The bitrate conversion was done in ProTools using the highest quality setting which is a non-real time process that takes about 6 hours for a CDs length of stereo to be converted.

I have tons of good organ recordings I've made through the years. Unfortunately I only have 10MB of webspace that I can upload to, otherwise I'd be happy to post as much as people can stand. If you can think of a solution, I'm game.



[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited August 17, 2003).]

I'd be willing to pay the cost to burn and ship some CDs. I'm a huge fan of organ music, as well as organs themselves. Some of the organs in the churches we saw in Ireland were amazing.

-Joe

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Remember the Intellivision?
http://www.gotmaille.com/nostalgia/