Auto-incrementing Signal Test Levels in SoundCheck

Explore how to automatically increment signal test levels using SoundCheck’s loop functionality. This technique is perfect for displaying measurements across a range of signal test levels, determining voltage-to-SPL relationships, or assessing distortion once a target level is reached.

Additional Resources for SoundCheck

Detailed explanations of how to use SoundCheck can be found in the SoundCheck manual.

Video Transcript: Auto-incrementing Signal Test Levels in SoundCheck

SoundCheck’s loop functionality offers a lot of flexibility, for example you can use it with sequence logic for pass/fail or yes/no scenarios, or to run tests in a loop and perform statistical analysis. 

However, one of my favorite applications of this feature is for auto-incrementing the test signal level. This is useful, for example, to display measurements across different test signal levels, to ascertain the  voltage required to achieve a specific sound pressure level or to measure distortion of a device once a desired sound pressure level is achieved. 

In SoundCheck, when you create a loop, a memory list value called “loop index” is created and the steps are indented  in the sequence editor. 

In the step configuration window we can control the level at which the tests starts, and the increment amount. Here, I’ve  set it to start at 100mV and increment in 100mV steps. This loop runs a total of 5 times and I have a table to reflect the test level for each cycle. 

Now, let’s make sure our stimulus is using our incremental level. Open the stimulus step, and select “Memory List Selection” in the “level” section. Click on the dropdown and navigate to “loop index”, and change the axis to the Y-axis selection. You may get a prompt after doing this to disable the preload stimulus when using a memory list selection to control your test level. We do this by unchecking the “Preload Stimulus” option in the  “Overall Sequence” configuration. 

Now let’s run the sequence… 

This table here displays the test level at every loop and our frequency responses, THD measurements, and recorded time waveforms are displayed for all 5 test runs. 

Check it out, and if you have questions, please contact the Listen Support team.