Behind The Mixer

Learn Church Audio Artistry | Church Sound

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iphone appiPhone apps are available to do almost everything.  Here are the four iphone apps you should consider adding to your toolbelt.

1. SoundMeter: SoundMeter turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a handheld sound level meter. The iPhone’s built-in and headset microphones are suitable for basic sound level measurements, but external microphones may also be used.

As far as spl apps go, this one has the best rating.  Some of the spl apps don’t even measure past 100 dB regardless of weighing.

2. SignalScope: SignalScope turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a powerful real-time spectrum analyzer and oscilloscope. Easily measure audible frequencies in SignalScope’s Spectrum tab.

A few other spectrum analyzers are available but the quality and functionality isn’t nearly as good.

3. SonicTorch Pro: Turn your iphone into a flashlight, or as the Brit’s call it, a torch.  I know it’s not a noise generator or an impedance calculator but every sound guy should have a flashlight!

4. TuneORama: It might not be our place to help with guitar tuning but if you’re on stage when there is a tuning problem, it could be a nice tool to have.

There are quite a few pro audio apps available but not many with good ratings.  I was extremely surprised at the number of pro audio apps with 1/3 of the ratings being negative.  In fact, I didn’t list any pink/white noise generators and there didn’t seem one without a fair number of negative reviews.

Question(s): What iPhone audio app do you use?  What type of audio app would you love but currently isn’t available.

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  1. I’d downloaded AudioKit earlier this year, but didn’t care for the FFT display. There’s no dB scale on the screen, so you can’t tell if one frequency is 20 dB louder than another, or if it’s 10, 5, ect.
    I had been looking for apps that gave a dB SPL display on the FFT. Found some that are listed in dBFS, but didn’t want that.
    Today, I obtained the SignalScope Pro. It has an SPL scale on the side of the FFT, where every division is initally 20 dB. You can pinch and zoom in. The app is open in my phone now, zoomed in to a 0.02 dB scale for every left-to-right bar.
    With AudioKit, the FFT is set up to show 0Hz, 2K, 4K, 6K, all the way up to 20K, for every vertical line. There’s not much room for the first 2000 Hz. of the audio spectrum.
    Like a standard frequency responce graph, SignalScope starts out at 20, and goes up to 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, then repeates the pattern for 200-1,000, and also for 2K-20K. As you zoom in, you can scroll left-to-right also.
    The SPL meter in AudioKit has no weighting options, or response time options. SignalScope gives you (switched the screen to the meter to look at it) Flat, A, and C weighting, Fast, Slow, and Impulse responce times, Level type choices of LP, and Leq.
    AudioKit gives you a Min, Max, and a current SPL metering. SignalScope gives you current, Max, and Peak readings.
    SignalScope Pro gives you more. But, that’s to be expected, seeing that it costs 67 dollars more than AudioKit. I found myself liking the simplicity of AudioKit’s display better, but the options available in SignalScope makes it more of a pratical tool for me.
    Next…………… an IPhone mic/line interface.

    Reply

    • Hi Quaid,
      I know this is an old thread, but I just found it. Sounds like you had Audio Kit in linear mode for the spectrum display. Set it to Log and 2kHz is displayed much like the other app you mentioned.
      Mark

      Reply

  3. Great site bro… Use it a lot for my team. Any usefull Droid apps you know of? iPhone/pad is not gonna be ‘it’ for me and i am willing to defend that :-) But in my search for usable things in my phone/pad i usually hit and get stuck with mac format. Keep up the good work!

    Reply

  4. Audio Kit is a collection of four tools for iOS which are essential for those working in audio, sound and music. A real time Spectrum Analyser, a Scope to display waveforms, an SPL (Sound Pressure Level) Meter, and a Signal Generator producing sine waves, white noise and pink noise.

    All of these tools are in the one app, you don’t need to buy any additional options, and Audio Kit is available for a reasonable price.

    Suitable for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch 2nd gen.

    http://store.sinusoid.com/software/iphone-apps/audio-kit.html

    Reply

    • I’ll add that with the increase in the use of iphones and especially ipads, I expect to see more sound/audio app’s. For anyone considering buying any audio app, check out the market, check product reviews, and then make your decision.

      Reply

  5. What apps on the IPad do you recommend that do these same functions? I purchased Garageband on my IPad and I seriously hate it because it’s not a whole lot like Garageband on a Mac computer. I’d love to find a good recorder on the IPad so I can see the difference in sound quality between my IPad and my Compaq. Ideas?

    Reply

    • I don’t have any to pass on. maybe another reader can give a suggestion. Nick? Nick? Ooooh, hey, how’s it going!?! I never caught your last name when I was out there on Monday night. (Just caught your twitter retweet of Dustin’s tweet.) I’m looking forward to leading the training this Saturday!

      Reply