02-Dec-2020, 09:18
I haven't used REW but I do seem to remember first setting up an analog graphic equaliser something like 40+ years ago using a vinyl test disc with a suite of test tones at third octave intervals and making my measurements with a hand held sound pressure level meter. I made the initial set of measurements with each band of the equaliser set to 0 dB, adjusted those settings based on my measurement results, played the same suite of test tones again and remeasured, and found it rather easy to tell whether I'd made an improvement and whether I needed to refine my adjustments a bit further. Way back then REW wasn't even a twinkle in its software designer's eye.
It is actually possible to measure the frequency response of a system without using software that generates its own test tones. You just need a way of measuring actual sounds in your environment and I'd suggest that there are a lot more sound measurements made every day of environmental sounds than there are of test tones generated by the software used to make the measurement. People working in health and safety, as I did for some years prior to my retirement, are actually interested in the frequency spectrum and sound pressure levels of noise in the workplace for hearing protection purposes and they aren't interested in the slightest in the levels of test tones generated by their measurement tools because the one sound you can bet that people in the workplace aren't being exposed to is test signals from someone's measurement system. If it's possible to measure noise from machines operating in a workplace, it's certainly possible to measure things like white noise or specific frequency tones played on an audio system from a CD or from audio files on your own hard drive.
Have you ever tried using something other than test tones generated by software like REW? That shouldn't be possible if you're right and all measurement software uses its own test signals but strange as it may sound, there are people who want or need to measure things like the frequency response of actual real life sounds for reasons other than speaker design or correcting the frequency response of audio systems and there is software which allows them to make such measurements. There's absolutely no reason why that software can't be used with signals like white or pink noise or a suite of specific test tones at specified frequency intervals, and before and after measurements are actually quite easy with those options.
Audio measurement options are nowhere near as limited as you seem to think.
It is actually possible to measure the frequency response of a system without using software that generates its own test tones. You just need a way of measuring actual sounds in your environment and I'd suggest that there are a lot more sound measurements made every day of environmental sounds than there are of test tones generated by the software used to make the measurement. People working in health and safety, as I did for some years prior to my retirement, are actually interested in the frequency spectrum and sound pressure levels of noise in the workplace for hearing protection purposes and they aren't interested in the slightest in the levels of test tones generated by their measurement tools because the one sound you can bet that people in the workplace aren't being exposed to is test signals from someone's measurement system. If it's possible to measure noise from machines operating in a workplace, it's certainly possible to measure things like white noise or specific frequency tones played on an audio system from a CD or from audio files on your own hard drive.
Have you ever tried using something other than test tones generated by software like REW? That shouldn't be possible if you're right and all measurement software uses its own test signals but strange as it may sound, there are people who want or need to measure things like the frequency response of actual real life sounds for reasons other than speaker design or correcting the frequency response of audio systems and there is software which allows them to make such measurements. There's absolutely no reason why that software can't be used with signals like white or pink noise or a suite of specific test tones at specified frequency intervals, and before and after measurements are actually quite easy with those options.
Audio measurement options are nowhere near as limited as you seem to think.
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