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Author Topic: New wave of USB rta mics  (Read 6762 times)

peter dakin

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New wave of USB rta mics
« on: February 08, 2014, 07:49:00 AM »

Came accross one of these the other day, seems like a great quick and easy setup for a mobile Smaart rig, minimal cabling etc.

http://cross-spectrum.com/measurement/calibrated_umik.html

Anyone acutally used one?

Frequency measurement report is ok, not amazing, but not horrific either.

Thoughts apreciated.
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Tom Bourke

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Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2014, 08:50:30 AM »

I do not see a way to get a proper dual input for FFT calculations.
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Ivan Beaver

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Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2014, 08:59:05 AM »

Came accross one of these the other day, seems like a great quick and easy setup for a mobile Smaart rig, minimal cabling etc.

http://cross-spectrum.com/measurement/calibrated_umik.html

Anyone acutally used one?

Frequency measurement report is ok, not amazing, but not horrific either.

Thoughts apreciated.
How do you figure "minimal cabling" as compared to a regular smaart rig.  You need a cable to go from the mic to the input in either case and a cable to go from the output to the input of the system-in either case.

OK the only cable you don't need is to a interface-but how would you get Smaart to work without an interface?

Maybe if you just using RTA-which is a waste of Smaart.
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Ivan Beaver
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peter dakin

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Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2014, 09:14:41 AM »

I do not see a way to get a proper dual input for FFT calculations.
I wasn't planning on using above mic/setup for FFT calculations.
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Lyle Williams

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Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2014, 04:12:04 PM »

I don't see the problem for FFT.  But you would still need another interface for your original reference signals.

Edit: ok, having thought about it for more than 15 seconds...  The usb mic and the reference signal are not sampled by the same clock.  Not ideal.
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Ivan Beaver

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Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #5 on: February 08, 2014, 08:12:43 PM »

I wasn't planning on using above mic/setup for FFT calculations.
So you were going to use Smaart and not use the FFT? 

Seems like a waste of money to me.  Yes the RTA in Smaart is good-but using an RTA for what purpose?

I certainly hope not for system alignment--------------------
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peter dakin

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Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2014, 06:12:19 AM »

So you were going to use Smaart and not use the FFT? 

Seems like a waste of money to me.  Yes the RTA in Smaart is good-but using an RTA for what purpose?

I certainly hope not for system alignment--------------------

No not for system alignment, my topic was more a query on the quality of the actual microphones, rather than my working methods. For system tuning/time alignment I'll stick with my current RTA mic "de jour", an interface and however many cables.

My thought process was more along lines of once a show was up and running, a quality USB mic might be a welcome (tidy) addition, especially for shows/tours where you're a support engineer with minimal system/desk access and negligible time.

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Lyle Williams

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Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2014, 07:35:04 AM »

For a whole bunch of things it would be great.  Including the digital interface means that the calibration could be done in absolute terms, not relative.
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Ryan Bouma

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Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2014, 05:31:11 PM »

I own this mic in your link. I enjoy using it a lot. I am more of a home audio enthusiast than a PA enthusiast. I use it to take IR measurements, which the software I use then provides a frequency response. The microphone is very similar is size/looks to my Behringer ECM8000. Although this seems to have a better response than the berry. The calibration from Cross Spectrum is very nice for my purposes, which desire +/-2db accuracy from 10hz to 20khz. Not many PA applications would have that kind of requirement, so not sure the calibration is so useful.

My only beef with it, is the length of the cable. It's 1.2m iirc. That's not so useful. Sure, you can get a longer cable, but I haven't done that yet.

I personally don't have a need for dual channel FFT. I can get phase alignment with an IR. Although it possibly takes me longer and I have to figure out the delay myself.

If there's anything you'd like to know about it, I can try and help.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: New wave of USB rta mics
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2014, 05:31:11 PM »


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