Jonathan Gazeley wrote: > Hi folks, > > I'd like to set up sound level monitoring for my office, with periodic > logging. I have a handheld meter but I'm really looking for a way to use a > traditional condenser microphone and USB audio interface to measure the > level with some kind of windowing, and log it periodically to a file (maybe > once per minute). Is there a decent application that can monitor and log > data in this way? > > I'm also open to the idea of just recording a WAV file over 24 hours and > doing the analysis afterwards, with periodic readings from the file. > > Is my approach reasonable, to set up a microphone and use the gain knob to > calibrate it against the handheld meter? > > I don't need amazing accuracy. We've just moved into a large open-plan > office for the first time and it is very noisy (handheld meter says about > 50dB of air handling noise measured at my desk, rising to 60dB when there is > background talking). I want to monitor sound levels throughout the day to > test my theory that people are more noisy in the afternoon, and to get an > overnight control reading with the people gone and only the air handling and > computers running. Hi Jonathan, I think ecasound might be able to serve your purpose. The way it works is your send the signal through a chain with the -ev operator, run the engine for a while, then use the 'cop-status' command, which provides text output with statistics about the audio that was processed. Here's an example of a non-realtime analysis of a .wav file, omitting some irrelevant messages. $ ecasound -i tmh.wav -ev -o null -c ecasound ('h' for help)> start [engine finishes] ecasound ('h' for help)> cop-status ### Chain operator status (chainsetup 'untitled-chainsetup') ### Chain "default": 1. Volume analysis: [1] cumulative-mode 1.000, [2] result-max-multiplier 1.000 Status info: -- Amplitude statistics -- Pos/neg, count,(%), ch1...n Pos 3dB: _______0 _______0 Pos 0dB: _______0 _______0 Pos -0.1dB: _______0 ______17 Pos -3dB: _____717 ____3247 Pos -6dB: ___26347 ___58661 Pos -10dB: __206742 __280703 Pos -20dB: _1177971 _1203440 Pos -30dB: _1035427 __988797 Pos -60dB: __754914 __677400 Pos -infdB: __214307 __211396 Neg -infdB: __107059 ___98364 Neg -60dB: __710105 __641269 Neg -30dB: _1030655 __963146 Neg -20dB: _1162815 _1191367 Neg -10dB: __218110 __291908 Neg -6dB: ___27221 ___61362 Neg -3dB: _____250 ____1563 Neg -0.1dB: _______0 _______0 Neg 0dB: _______0 _______0 Neg 3dB: _______0 _______0 Total.....: _6672640 _6672640 (audiofx) Peak amplitude: pos=0.99997 neg=0.96002. (audiofx) Max gain without clipping: 1.00003. (audiofx) -- End of statistics -- HTH, Joel > Thanks, > Jonathan > -- > Jonathan Gazeley > Senior Systems Administrator > IT Services > University of Bristol > _______________________________________________ > Linux-audio-user mailing list > Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user -- Joel Roth _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user