iPhone GadgetFrontier Decibel App vs Castle Smart Sensor

As a location sound recordist, sometimes it's important for me to illustrate that ambient noise on-set is not acceptable, or, to measure decreases in ambient noise after things like refridgerators are switched off and generators moved further away. Knowing the level of ambient noise present can also influence the choice of microphone for a given location. One thing I didn't realise is that the app is also accelerometer aware, so you can flip the iPhone upside down to better position the built-in mic and the display also flips to remain easily readable.

This app cost me 59p, and I would recommend it for those who don't need a highly accurate decibel reading. Also note that the iPhone built-in mic will overload from 100dB but that's fine for measuring ambient noise in places that are supposed to be quiet anyway.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• iphone
• decibel
• apple
• app store

[miker71]

Indeed, I noticed this after the upload. If I find the time I'll also compare with C

[sinbin365]

it's limited by the iPhone mic to 105dB

[mattialmostmusse]

The Decibel application uses unweighted dB. The Smart Sensor is set to use dB(A). Thus the comparison is irrelevant. It would be interesting to see the Smart Sensor set to unweighted. Is that possible?