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[djwaudio]

Any recommendations on measurement procedures? 

I'm looking to measure things like IMD, harmonic distortion, noise, headroom, frequency response, etc., much like what manufactures do for individual processing units.

I would just like to "see" what's happening with the whole mastering chain in different configurations. 

[DOMC]

Interesting thread,

I remember reading somewhere about one gear to the next and variance in impedance that can effect tone. ive got three inserts on the crookwood and have pretty much not changed my flow from one bit of gear to the next for a while now.  maybe I should start moving stuff around and listen/test.

[Hermetech Mastering]

Also interested to hear what people are using to measure things. I know the RME DigiCheck software is supposed to be great for measuring the noise floor closely, as it says so in the manual, but never done it that precisely myself. I know the whole chain is normally floating around -90 to -100dB with "regular" settings.

[djwaudio]

I've been looking at the chain with SPAN. http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

It's interesting to see the noise floor, levels of harmonic distortion, and frequency response. Also I looked at the L&R calibration of my compressors with a tone. 

The opto that I use tracks pretty well in deep compression, which is nice to see, even though I never use it that way.  Though, the overall response of the unit has a bit of very high frequency roll-off on one side, starting about 18kHz which I figure is the response of the tubes, but will get some more investigation.

Also, I played with driving each unit in the chain into clipping to see how it responded , veeeeery interesting...

Overall, I'd say things are pretty clean spec-wise, the way I have it set up. Without 16 bit dither, the noise floor averages in the -90dBFS zone in the high-end, and more like -100dBFS at 1kHz. That's with 12 dB of gain with a limiter on the end. Though somehow that seems better than I would expect with tube gear in there. 

[Jerry Tubb]

Excellent suggestion & worthy endeavor Dana!

Happy 2013

JT

[Jim Williams]

The most complete tool for that job would be an Audio Precision System Two or 26xx model. Even an older System One with the DSP options could work. That way all the analog gear can be measured and all the digital interconnects and digital outputs, all at the same time with the newer models. These are the tools the best designers use to create their works.

Then once you detect all the problems, you are left with finding your own solutions, it doesn't tell you how to improve things.

You'll need an EE degree and a few years under your belt for that job.

[djwaudio]

Right Jim, that sounds like a challenge!

[Jim Williams]

Yes it is! You tend to get better at it with practice though. This is the kind of test gear you need to find all the problems, nothing gets by this stuff like it may if you use DSP based analyzers relying on the resolution of your conversion.

The AP will measure and analyze your best conversion too, it's what Crystal and BurrBrown use in their design labs. They are also available for rent if you just need to suss out your system and don't need to own it. It will measure your data jitter at several places too.

However, like all great detectives, it doen't tell you how to fix those problems you found. That is a subject one could write a book about.

[Miguel P. Marques]

I worked briefly with this: http://www.testequipmentconnection.com/63747/Neutrik_A2.php

It is very nice though expensive. Easy to work with also!

[lowland]

The Lindos MiniSonic series look good and seem well priced for what they do:

http://www.lindos.co.uk/test_and_measurement

I've no personal experience of these, but a Lindos person was the regular tech at a studio I worked at in the 90s: he used their top-of-the-range LA100 test set (much more expensive than the MiniSonics) and achieved some useful performance improvements.

[Thomas W. Bethel]

This is what I use in the studio..http://www.nti-audio.com/en/products/minilyzer-ml1.aspx Works GREAT and it is easy to use and get meaningful results...

FWIW