Hello,
does anyone know whether the pink noise Nuendo signal generator is suitable for calibrating loudspeakers? Someone recommended the free mda test tone generator to me. Problem is, I get different levels with that compared to the Nuendo one when I set both to -20db.
Best wishes,
Max
How are they different?
mda seems about 5db quiter on my radio shack.
It’s the signal path the exact same?
I think so. I have put it into a mono track, and then route that track directly to the speaker that I am trying to measure. It just accused to me that I should probably just watch the meter in Nuendo. There it only seems 2-3db apart.
So the amount of difference makes it sound kind’a close to a pan-law difference. I don’t really know why it would be that way of course. If your path is exactly the same then there shouldn’t be a difference. It’d really only be if the paths were different.
If I were you I’d hunt down an ‘official’ pink noise file. I think there is one out there, like an “official” one from AES or EBU or something. Maybe from Dolby. I remember reading about it…
On the other hand, if this isn’t for a calibrated and certified room it doesn’t really matter that much probably. What you really want is an even level across all speakers, so even if a signal is different from another one it might not matter - unless it’s balanced differently (which you could check with a spectrum analyzer from iZotope maybe).
Thanks, I will have a look for an official pink noise.
The room is professionally treated, but not certified. In my experience, it does matter though, at what level you monitor.
Yeah, sorry, I might have been a bit unclear.
I didn’t mean that it didn’t matter at what level you monitor, I just meant that you could set the level any way you want using pink noise from either, and then just make sure all speakers measure the same. If the level when you then play back a mix is slightly off you can just offset that using reference level in control room (for example). The absolute playback level is really of no consequence as long as it is a level that’s convenient for you. If your -24LKFS = 80dBSPL or 78dBSPL doesn’t really matter as long as you’re able to work conveniently on that system. That’s really what I meant.
That is a fair point thanks.