[rickcr42]

Yeah,the rickaraptor is going to pump some life into the DIY forum if it kills him (or his wife whacks him upside the head)

So why I never thought of this before beats the crap out of me but I made my very own Test Tone CD today for evaluating some of my projects from hell.Sine waves,sweep tones,wrble tones,and some music clips from jazz,classical,vocal,rock,metal,female voice.With enough imagination you can burn a CD that will give any system a big time workout and best of all -PORTABILITY !!!!!
Means I can take it with me to set up systems for freinds.The way I once did this was to output the signal from software generators or Cds from the computer to the device under test then back to the computer to a software scope or spectrum analyzer.I am thinking now that a handheld scope with a portable PCDP and one test disc would make a nice addition to my "Ricmeisters travelling fix or or break it beyond all recognition repair kit"
I have links to software signal generators,sweep tones,software scopes and spectrum analyzers if anyone has interest.

Rick C "proprietor of Rick's I will repair your crap for free but if it blows up you are on your own" Formerly Rickmeisters Home theater and Audio System Consultant,

 

[livingplasma]

I only have an MD with some individual sine waves from about 1Khz down to 10Hz, including a slow sweep (subwoofer testing and integration with system mainly). No oscillascope, just an RS SPL meter. I used NCH Swift Sound tone generator to create the sine waves, I doubt the recording is very accurate level wise since my computer's soundcard is crap and my MD's frequencyy response specs claim +-3dB variation as well as the level meter on it displaying slightly different levels in the lower frequencies.

BTW, post those links please

 

[crk]

Hmmm..... any chance of a copy being posted somewhere......
crk
ps posted as in posted??

 

[skippy]

i use a homemade one too. i use cooledit to make most of the test signals. i've got test tones, slow sweeps, warble sweeps, white noise, pink noise, and test tracks

anyone want to post a list of the tracks they use on their test cd?

 

[rickcr42]

OK guys first installment,the first is for uncompressed wave files,big ass download but I do it after I go to bed with Gozilla.The second is for compressed MP3 files

http://focus.ti.com/docs/tool/toolfo...er=APASOFTWARE

http://www.marchandelec.com/sweeps.htm

next up is the above mentioned signal generator and one from marchand,click FG at marchand

http://www.world-voices.com/software/nchtone.html

http://www.marchandelec.com/

I will add more tonight as an edit,as some know I recently lost all my links and not a few programs so I am still rebuilding my personal data base (four friggin years worth

)

couple of sites with a boatload of links,go easy here guys,the initial tendency is to download everything in sight and then what do you have ? way too many programs doing the same thing.Download one,learn it,if you do not like it ****can it and try again,enjoy

http://www.wssh.net/~wattsup/audio/

http://www.termpro.com/programs/archive.html

 

[bpm2000]

yup, ive been using a cooledit generated test cd for some time now... although it was just 1hz increment stuff for subwoofer testing..

 

[aos]

I have that audio cd test, for about US$25 from guys on Canadian east coast. Has the progression from 0 to 120dB, 1dB every seconds, for about 20 or so frequencies. Meant to test hearing but can be used for whatever you need.

Though you have much more flexibility if you design your own wav's. I for one would like a 5-minute track with 1kHz at 0dB, to use to calibrate volume control for different headphones before doing comparison tests of headphones and/or amplifiers.

 

[thomas]

have you thought of building a simple signal generator?

I once built a simple signal generator that used about 4 opamps (741, had crap slew rate, but if you used somthing better it would be much better) and a few passives... ouptuted all the basic waveforms and had a pot for adjusting frequency....

 

[rickcr42]

Of course , but it is still useful to have test CDs.I use the Stereophile test CD a lot and now I can compliment it with my own disc.Next up I may order the Bass test disc from stryke.com (home of the bass list,a speaker building list)

 

[Gluegun]

Speaking of bass-testing CD's...

http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/Sub-...How-Low-2.html

 

[ppl]

Yes Rickcr, I to use the Stereophile Test CD's #1 and #2 alot, Thanks for the links to the other Sound files. I also think having a colection of test tones on CD is good to have since thay can be used with almost any CD playpack system and you will not have to Connect all kinds of signal gen's to the system a Neat prospect indeed.

 

[eric343]

If you go buy a copy of Nuts & Volts there's some nice handheld O-Scopes to be had for ~$100.