Octave
Measurements
2-41
SR785 Dynamic Signal Analyzer
Octave Analysis
What is Octave Analysis?
An FFT measurement measures the power within equally divided frequency bins. Octave
measurements use logarithmic frequency bands whose widths are proportional to their
center frequencies. The bands are arranged in octaves with either 1, 3 or 12 bands per
octave (1/1, 1/3 or 1/12 octave analysis). Octave analysis measures spectral power closer
to the way people perceive sound, that is, in octaves. 1/3 octave analysis with A-
weighting is the most common measurement for acoustics and sound.
To make an octave measurement, the input data passes into a bank of parallel digital
filters. The filter center frequencies and shapes are determined by the type of octave
analysis, either full (1/1), 1/3 or 1/12 octave, and comply with ANSI S1.11-1986, Order3,
Type 1-D. The output from each filter is rms averaged to compute the power and
displayed as a bar type graph. This is a real-time measurement of the power within each
band and is the only available octave measurement. Since the bands are spaced
logarithmically, octave graphs always have a logarithmic X-axis.
In addition to the octave bands, the sound level is also measured and displayed as the last
band in the display. Exponential averaged sound power is calculated according to ANSI
S1.4-1983, Type 0. Broadband Impulse and Peak measurements are made according to
IEC 651-1979, Type 0.
Band Center Frequencies
Choose the number of bands per octave and the start and stop bands for the measurement
within the [Frequency] menu.
The exact band center frequencies are calculated according to the ANSI standard. The
displayed frequencies are sometimes rounded to even values for a simpler display. The
filter shapes are third-order Butterworth with full, 1/3 or 1/12 octave bandwidth.
Full Octave Bands
Full octave bands are defined ranging from 125 mHz to 32 kHz. Up to 11 full octaves
may be measured at one time. The exact centers are given by
Center Frequency
n
=
×
1000
2
for n = -13 .. 5
1/3 Octave Bands
1/3 octave bands are defined ranging from 100 mHz to 40 kHz. Up to 11 octaves (33
bands) may be measured at one time. The exact centers are given by
Center Frequency
n
=
×
−
1000
2
30
3
for n = -10 .. 46
1/12 Octave Bands
1/12 octave bands are defined ranging from 100 mHz to 12.34 kHz. Up to 11 octaves
(132 bands) may be measured at one time. The exact centers are given by
Summary of Contents for SR785
Page 4: ...ii ...
Page 10: ...viii ...
Page 80: ...1 64 Exceedance Statistics ...
Page 158: ...2 78 Curve Fitting and Synthesis SR785 Dynamic Signal Analyzer ...
Page 536: ...5 136 Example Program SR785 Dynamic Signal Analyzer ...