ISO of an iPhone app that can record sound decibel level
April 19, 2016 8:16 PM   Subscribe

Is there an iPhone app that can record sound, date and time, and indicate how many decibels the sound being recorded is at? I have an iPhone 6S.
posted by invisible ink to Technology (3 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: If you're concerned with accuracy you'll want to give this article a read (I was trying to do a similar thing because of a dirt track nearby and wound up finding someone with a decibel meter instead)
posted by jessamyn at 8:20 PM on April 19, 2016


Best answer: what are you trying to do? if you've got a noise problem you want to document, using a standard, common piece of equipment is going to help your case - people are going to trust the results much more than using an iphone.

if this is related to home recording or similar, then 2dB(A) - the accuracy of the best apps in that paper - is actually pretty useful. note that this is for the best apps only. and if you look at the paper in detail then it's clear that "SPL Pro" is the best solution.

the paper doesn't include iphone 6s, which adds some uncertainty. it also mentions this external mic which could help (but isn't cheap). in either case the most likely source of error is going to be the absolute level - if you only care about relative levels (eg are these speakers as loud as those ones?) then you are much more likely to have good results than if you care about absolute levels (eg are my neighbours breaking the law?). and if you can find someone with a sound meter you could do a relative calibration yourself.

in short: simplest, most convincing solution is as jessamyn suggests. but if you're willing to put in some work yourself, an iphone, particularly when calibrated and using an external, good quality mic, could give reasonable data (but i guess we're getting towards the point where if you could do that, you wouldn't need this answer, so perhaps i am wasting your time, sorry....).
posted by andrewcooke at 4:17 AM on April 20, 2016


Best answer: The app, Reporter collects sound and decibel levels when you run a report. How accurate it is, I can't say.
posted by SansPoint at 7:35 AM on April 20, 2016


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