Meeting Topic: Get To Know Your Gear with Free Test Software
Speaker Name: Peterson Goodwyn, diyrecordingequipment.com
Meeting Location: Zoom, with PNW viewing party at Jack Straw Cultural Center, Seattle USA
PNW Section held its November 2023 meeting on Zoom with Peterson Goodwyn of diyrecordingequipment.com demonstrating absolutely free software for testing audio gear. Since he was on the east coast USA, the meeting was Zoom but with PNW locals invited to a "viewing party" at the Seattle studios of Jack Straw Cultural Center and post-event no-host dinner. Suitable mics, cameras and speakers allowed participation by all. About 17 people came in person (7 AES members) and 47 on Zoom (33 AES members).
PNW Chair Dan Mortensen began with some PNW business and conducted attendee self-introductions. Committeeperson Tom Stiles gave info on the live venue, the non-profit Jack Straw Cultural Center, and committeeperson and event producer Erin Shellman introduced Peterson Goodwyn.
Peterson runs diyrecordingequipment.com, a company that makes audio gear kits aimed at the recording market. He started as a musician, and wanted good recording gear at lower cost. Around 2007, he found the groupDIY.com audio forums (Do It Yourself) and became involved with the DIY audio gear crowd, but felt inexperienced as a drummer with a philosophy degree. So he studied the field, and started selling some simple DIY audio kits. Now they do many kits of varying complexity.
He recognized the need to have test gear to analyze desirable products and develop his own, but also wanted to keep cost down. Lab grade products are great, but very expensive for a DIYer. The past 10 years has seen good development of low-cost test software, but you do need a good hardware interface and your own personal computer. He felt that some gear performs very differently when tested, versus what the specs or common wisdom thinks gear is doing.
First, Peterson showed the Room EQ Wizard software. This is a genuinely free, multiplatform program that not only does room EQ analysis, but has a host of functions suitable for testing hardware. He demonstrated doing frequency response plots, generating test tones and calibrating levels to known analog output levels, as well as spectrum analysis and THD measurements. It also has an oscilloscope function. He noted that the accuracy depends on the hardware interface and most are not lab-grade. However, many are very good and can certainly help with comparative measurements. He uses an RME interface.
Discussions here included problems with kit building, and scripting functions not available here that one might have to pay for with lab-grade gear such as Audio Precision, dScope, or even Quantasylum at the low price end.
Next, several free tools were shown that are VST plug-ins. He ran them on Reaper (which is not freeware). The CMT plug-ins from letimix.com (Test Tone and Threshold/Ratio) allowed testing of a compressor/limiter to show dynamic effects.
Finally, HOFA 4U+ Blind Test does an ABX blind test of 2 files to help you determine if you really can hear a difference.
More discussion asked about testing microphones (another whole topic) which Peterson had not done; and Bob Smith recommended the Hornet Harmonic Pro VST which allows altering the harmonics in a signal for ear training.
Door prize winners were:
Khoi Nguyen-AES Convention swag (Froggy's Fog cup, AES sticker, AES guitar picks) provided by Gary Louie
Tom Stiles - AES Convention Dante swag bag provided by Gary Louie
Tom Hall - b9 stereo mic ruler, provided by Rick Chinn
Zoom attendees were able to keep chatting, while 10 Seattle attendees went to a no-host dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant.
About the Presenter
In 2009, Peterson Goodwyn was a freelance drummer and recording engineer struggling to pay for the great gear he wanted to use for making hit records. Then he found out that with a little patience and research he could build that gear for a fraction of the price of buying it. That revelation led to the creation of diyrecordingequipment.com in 2010 to document the DIY audio projects he found and to encourage other musicians and engineers to build their own equipment. Soon after, the company released the LINE2AMP Re-amplifier kit, the first DIY kit designed specifically to introduce beginners to the world of DIY pro audio. Today, DIY Recording Equipment sells an ever-growing selection of kits to DIYers all over the world. They are committed to brilliant design, affordable pricing, and delightful customer service.
Written By: G Louie
