ECM8000 or Galaxy - CM-140? Which way to go?

[coffeeman]

Hi all, I'm relatively new to the forum but have done extensive reading here. My recently aquired PB12 Plus/2 is in need of calibrating. So my question is which route to go ifor EQing; the Galaxy SPL meter/mic or the ECM8000. I currently have a RS SPL (analog) meter but still need a good mic to measure the FR across the whole range (I'm the sound engineer at my church and am going to eq the system once I get a grip on this stuff). I can borrow a friends eurorack mixer if I go with the ECM8000 for my home measurements, so this would be the cheaper route. But apart from price, I'm looking for the best setup in using the REW software which I intend to use. From what I've read, I'm under the impression the two units are similar as far as mic performance goes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[brucek]

I would suggest the ECM8000 for your application. It's a fairly good quality full range omni-directional microphone. The fact that the Galaxy is a nice all in one package is fine if you don't have an SPL meter to begin with, but since you do I would get the ECM.

For your church work you can get a nice long XLR mic cable that you can move around and run over to your measuring equipment. The preamp will give you better gain control for the whole procedure..

brucek

[coffeeman]

Brucek,

Thanks for the suggestion. I was leaning towards that route but wanted an opinion(s) from some experienced users here (like yourself). For the church work, I have plenty of cables. Now to start delving into the REW software , hopefully the learning curve isn't that great.

[coffeeman]

Got the ECM mic and the BFD today. Time to figure this stuff out. Anyone think I'm going to have problems using an onboard soundcard. I have a Gigabyte DS3 motherboard and it has the Realtek high definition chip. Any suggestions are welcomed.

[brucek]

The RealTek onboard chipset is perfectly fine. I use it on one of my computers....

See.................

Check Level RealTek.jpg

brucek

[coffeeman]

Great, thanks!

[coffeeman]

My BFD is DOA. Won't stay powered on. Sending it back. Bummer.

[Sonnie]

Yup... a bummer. We don't hear of DOA units too often at all. I can't remember the last one that has had a problem.

[coffeeman]

Yeah, having the holiday off, I was all ready to get things setup. Oh well. I've bought alot of stuff online over the years and this is the first item I've received defective; I guess my time was coming.

[shadowlight]

I am also looking for recommendation on which route to go to calibrate a sub. The one thing that I am not 100% sure on is if I go the ECM8000 route what else do I need to calibrate the system.

Thanks