[HAL]

Here is another idea for a speaker measurement system.

In this month's AudioXpress magazine, pg. 36, Matthias S. Brennwald wrote an article about MATAA software tools for speaker system measurements.  These are scripts that run on either MATLAB for Windows or on Octave for Linux.   He has scripts that are used that can be downloaded from the website www.audioroot.net/matta.html.  The article is at the website along with the scripts.  This is freeware for use.

The idea is that MATLAB is a standard engineering software tool, and there are student versions available.  This is used in many engineering schools, so showing students in High School is a great thing.  Octave is freeware for Linux OS.  Depends on the student and their software background as to which they might choose.  Now all the students could experiment with speaker measurements with their speaker designs. 

A decent full duplex sound card, Behringer ECM8000 mic (the software can take mic calibration data from folks like Kim Gerardin at Wadenhome Sound to correct the measurements, this costs about $40) cables and mic preamp will complete the setup.

I was able to use my laptop running XP, with an Echo Digital Audio Indigo I/O soundcard with MATAA and MATLAB 7 to run the scripts. 

Just a thought.

[S Clark]

I can't predict the computer skill levels of students at different schools.  I know that at our school, only a few of the guys might be skilled in anything other than windows.  Also, we have to train the teachers on the systems.  I may just try to raise the money for a Clio lite system, just because Danny uses Clio and could help us out with it.  I could then take it from school to school.--- But never say never, and freeware is definitely a selling point, but with multiple groups, support and ease of use are of highest importance.