He’s coming to this from the viewpoint of a musician rather than an engineer, but his methodology is not diminished by this. He’s putting each mic on test in front of the same speaker at the same position, and playing a standard piece of music and a tone sweep through each. He doesn’t have an audio analyser, reference speaker and microphone, or anechoic chamber, so he’s come up with a real-world standard instead. He’s comparing every mic he can find with a Shure SM57, the go-to general purpose standard in the world of microphones for as long as anyone can remember, being a 1960s development of their earlier Unidyne series. His reasoning is that while its response is not flat the sound of the SM57 is what most people are used to hearing from a microphone, so it makes sense to measure the others against its performance.

My own hearing is really at a stage that I don't hear a lot of difference. I've always believed though in post-processing by just listening to the result and then making a few tweaks if the sound does not have enough bass. Chasing after expensive brand names is only for those who can really afford it. That said, I'd love to see a musician on stage with a soda can microphone.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/10/05/just-what-is-tone-in-a-microphone/

#technology #music #microphones

He’s coming to this from the viewpoint of a musician rather than an engineer, but his methodology is not diminished by this. He’s putting each mic on test in front of the same speaker at the same position, and playing a standard piece of music and a tone sweep through each. He doesn’t have an audio analyser, reference speaker and microphone, or anechoic chamber, so he’s come up with a real-world standard instead. He’s comparing every mic he can find with a Shure SM57, the go-to general purpose standard in the world of microphones for as long as anyone can remember, being a 1960s development of their earlier Unidyne series. His reasoning is that while its response is not flat the sound of the SM57 is what most people are used to hearing from a microphone, so it makes sense to measure the others against its performance.

My own hearing is really at a stage that I don't hear a lot of difference. I've always believed though in post-processing by just listening to the result and then making a few tweaks if the sound does not have enough bass. Chasing after expensive brand names is only for those who can really afford it. That said, I'd love to see a musician on stage with a soda can microphone.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/10/05/just-what-is-tone-in-a-microphone/

#technology #music #microphones

He’s coming to this from the viewpoint of a musician rather than an engineer, but his methodology is not diminished by this. He’s putting each mic on test in front of the same speaker at the same position, and playing a standard piece of music and a tone sweep through each. He doesn’t have an audio analyser, reference speaker and microphone, or anechoic chamber, so he’s come up with a real-world standard instead. He’s comparing every mic he can find with a Shure SM57, the go-to general purpose standard in the world of microphones for as long as anyone can remember, being a 1960s development of their earlier Unidyne series. His reasoning is that while its response is not flat the sound of the SM57 is what most people are used to hearing from a microphone, so it makes sense to measure the others against its performance.

My own hearing is really at a stage that I don't hear a lot of difference. I've always believed though in post-processing by just listening to the result and then making a few tweaks if the sound does not have enough bass. Chasing after expensive brand names is only for those who can really afford it. That said, I'd love to see a musician on stage with a soda can microphone.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/10/05/just-what-is-tone-in-a-microphone/

#technology #music #microphones

I'm wanting to replace my four Apple AirTags, since moving back to Android, so I'm closely watching developments around these tracker devices. But rather than buy something that requires a finder to, by chance, have a specific app installed to locate my lost/stolen tracker, I want it to be part of the generic Google Find Device network (like the AirTag works with all Apple devices).

To date, at least two other popular 3rd party brands have announced their Google Find Device trackers, but they don't seem to be available yet to purchase.

So, now finally Samsung has finally announced their new tracker tag BUT it appears to only work with Samsung's SmartThings Find service. Even though we have more Samsung phones circulating inside my country than Apple phones, I really don't want to get locked into a single brand again (even if I have a massive credit available to use with Samsung from buying my Galaxy S23 Ultra phone). I'm going to have to seriously weigh this up against the other Google Find Device offerings.

"The Galaxy SmartTag2 only works with SmartThings Find and won't be compatible with Google's upcoming Find My Device network" - this is rather a showstopper for me.

On the plus side, Samsung has dramatically improved the battery life (but I'm actually fine with around 10 to 12 months). I'm also a bit concerned about the size, as I currently carry one AirTag inside my wallet, and Samsung's tag is looking a bit too large for that.

So I'm really very 50-50 around the Samsung offering. I'm going to first watch a few reviews about all of these new devices before deciding.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/galaxy-smarttag2-big-improvements-still-limited-to-samsung-devices/

#technology #trackers #SmartTag2

I'm wanting to replace my four Apple AirTags, since moving back to Android, so I'm closely watching developments around these tracker devices. But rather than buy something that requires a finder to, by chance, have a specific app installed to locate my lost/stolen tracker, I want it to be part of the generic Google Find Device network (like the AirTag works with all Apple devices).

To date, at least two other popular 3rd party brands have announced their Google Find Device trackers, but they don't seem to be available yet to purchase.

So, now finally Samsung has finally announced their new tracker tag BUT it appears to only work with Samsung's SmartThings Find service. Even though we have more Samsung phones circulating inside my country than Apple phones, I really don't want to get locked into a single brand again (even if I have a massive credit available to use with Samsung from buying my Galaxy S23 Ultra phone). I'm going to have to seriously weigh this up against the other Google Find Device offerings.

"The Galaxy SmartTag2 only works with SmartThings Find and won't be compatible with Google's upcoming Find My Device network" - this is rather a showstopper for me.

On the plus side, Samsung has dramatically improved the battery life (but I'm actually fine with around 10 to 12 months). I'm also a bit concerned about the size, as I currently carry one AirTag inside my wallet, and Samsung's tag is looking a bit too large for that.

So I'm really very 50-50 around the Samsung offering. I'm going to first watch a few reviews about all of these new devices before deciding.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/galaxy-smarttag2-big-improvements-still-limited-to-samsung-devices/

#technology #trackers #SmartTag2

I'm wanting to replace my four Apple AirTags, since moving back to Android, so I'm closely watching developments around these tracker devices. But rather than buy something that requires a finder to, by chance, have a specific app installed to locate my lost/stolen tracker, I want it to be part of the generic Google Find Device network (like the AirTag works with all Apple devices).

To date, at least two other popular 3rd party brands have announced their Google Find Device trackers, but they don't seem to be available yet to purchase.

So, now finally Samsung has finally announced their new tracker tag BUT it appears to only work with Samsung's SmartThings Find service. Even though we have more Samsung phones circulating inside my country than Apple phones, I really don't want to get locked into a single brand again (even if I have a massive credit available to use with Samsung from buying my Galaxy S23 Ultra phone). I'm going to have to seriously weigh this up against the other Google Find Device offerings.

"The Galaxy SmartTag2 only works with SmartThings Find and won't be compatible with Google's upcoming Find My Device network" - this is rather a showstopper for me.

On the plus side, Samsung has dramatically improved the battery life (but I'm actually fine with around 10 to 12 months). I'm also a bit concerned about the size, as I currently carry one AirTag inside my wallet, and Samsung's tag is looking a bit too large for that.

So I'm really very 50-50 around the Samsung offering. I'm going to first watch a few reviews about all of these new devices before deciding.

See https://www.androidpolice.com/galaxy-smarttag2-big-improvements-still-limited-to-samsung-devices/

#technology #trackers #SmartTag2

The Wavacity project by Adam Hilss is a fork of the original Audacity. It looks and feels just like an older version of Audacity (specifically, 3.0.0). But the trick here is that he’s managed to get it working with WebAssembly (WASM) so you can run it in your browser. Impressively, it even works on mobile devices. Though the Audacity UI, which already carries the sort of baggage you’d expect from a program that’s more than 20 years old, is hardly suited to a touch screen.

The linked article contains a link to open the app in your browser. It will also open in a mobile browser, but the interface is not optimised for touch. The links to his other projects, will also take you to his GitHub project page, where the source code for this project can also be found.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/10/05/audacity-runs-surprisingly-well-in-your-browser/

#technology #opensource #audio

The Wavacity project by Adam Hilss is a fork of the original Audacity. It looks and feels just like an older version of Audacity (specifically, 3.0.0). But the trick here is that he’s managed to get it working with WebAssembly (WASM) so you can run it in your browser. Impressively, it even works on mobile devices. Though the Audacity UI, which already carries the sort of baggage you’d expect from a program that’s more than 20 years old, is hardly suited to a touch screen.

The linked article contains a link to open the app in your browser. It will also open in a mobile browser, but the interface is not optimised for touch. The links to his other projects, will also take you to his GitHub project page, where the source code for this project can also be found.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/10/05/audacity-runs-surprisingly-well-in-your-browser/

#technology #opensource #audio

The Wavacity project by Adam Hilss is a fork of the original Audacity. It looks and feels just like an older version of Audacity (specifically, 3.0.0). But the trick here is that he’s managed to get it working with WebAssembly (WASM) so you can run it in your browser. Impressively, it even works on mobile devices. Though the Audacity UI, which already carries the sort of baggage you’d expect from a program that’s more than 20 years old, is hardly suited to a touch screen.

The linked article contains a link to open the app in your browser. It will also open in a mobile browser, but the interface is not optimised for touch. The links to his other projects, will also take you to his GitHub project page, where the source code for this project can also be found.

See https://hackaday.com/2023/10/05/audacity-runs-surprisingly-well-in-your-browser/

#technology #opensource #audio