Using Waveforms with a sound card.

[warpigs330]

I am considering getting an analog discovery, and wanted to try out the waveforms software before I bought it. Almost all of my needs are audio related, and I knew I could hook up my audio interface to waveforms to get started using it. I am also interested in potentially using a higher quality audio analyzer, like a Quant Asylum QA603, with the waveforms software to get very accurate measurements of audio hardware.

I am trying to figure out how to make common audio measurements, like signal to noise ratio, THD, gain, etc. In the waveforms reference manual, https://digilent.com/reference/software/waveforms/waveforms-3/reference-manual ,it suggests that you can make these types of measurements by pressing the + button. But when I press the+ button, I only see vertical and horizontal with the following options. I don't see any options for measuring signal to noise ratio, total harmonic distortion, etc.


I was wondering if there is just something I am missing, or if these features are only available to the Analog Discovery?

[attila]

Hi @warpigs330

Such measurements you can find in the Spectrum and Network Analyzer interfaces.
Users working with such testing have said that sound cards, audio ADCs/DACs are not the best for such measurements, as they have limited bandwidth and no flatness. This why they use Analog Discovery.

[warpigs330]

Thanks a lot for the reply! I was able to find the measurements. And yeah, I figure my cheapo Behringer interface is gonna totally skew the readings, but it is a good way to get comfortable with the tool before buying the analog discovery. The 14 bit resolution of the analog discovery does give me pause for the accuracy of audio measurements, which is why I was also considering using something like the QA403. But the extra features of the discovery (digital logic analyzer stuff mainly) and the decent price will probably mean that it will win me over soon enough.