How can I easily and reliably measure sound (db)

SexyGreyFox · 24 Sep 2013 at 22:30

mattyfez said:
In the words of homer Simpson 'doh'!

That should work perfectly! Dunno why that didn't occur to me!

So some ground rules for testing could be the phone (mic) should be placed exactly (5) feet parallel to the sound hole. And the software used for measuring should be the same.

Yeah, make sure you are always in the same room, position and height with the phone the same distance away using the same plectrum with the same person and the same software.

mattyfez · 24 Sep 2013 at 22:47

Dimple said:
Yeah, make sure you are always in the same room, position and height with the phone the same distance away using the same plectrum with the same person and the same software.

Quite an eye opener, just tested it, 3 foot distance in a quiet room, ambient noise about 27db, strumming hard goes 'off the chart' at about 83db, so a bit more distance, maybe 6 feet think should be able to do some good comparisons!

It's surprisingly sensitive, which is good, for example if someone speaks it jumps to about 60db.

Thanks for the insight!

Fuzz · 24 Sep 2013 at 23:07

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SexyGreyFox · 24 Sep 2013 at 23:19

mattyfez said:
Quite an eye opener, just tested it, 3 foot distance in a quiet room, ambient noise about 27db, strumming hard goes 'off the chart' at about 83db, so a bit more distance, maybe 6 feet think should be able to do some good comparisons!

It's surprisingly sensitive, which is good, for example if someone speaks it jumps to about 60db.

Thanks for the insight!

Noise to one person isn't noisy to another.
For example we've all been annoyed by a barking dog on a Sunday morning while you're trying to sleep but put the most sensitive sound meter next to you and that won't register a signal either.
Last year I was outside a pub while my band were running through a song but I'd taken the ambient noise earlier which was around 80 because I was next to a road.
When the band kicked in the level didn't rise because it was basically background noise but the neighbours standing with me would put their house on the band being louder.
Basically if both cars and band were 80db each then the db would go up by 3db but because the band were lower in volume it was still 80db.