Test your PC soundcard

  • Versions: V3.0 (Build 1003)
  • Latest release date: 10 May 2012.
  • Price: Free

Features

PassMark SoundCheck™ is a Windows based application that allows users to test their PC sound card, speakers and microphone. Verify that your sound card can record and playback sounds at various audio sample rates. Check the capability of your speakers to reproduce the highest and lowest frequencies (and your capability to hear these frequencies). Create perfectly formed test tones and loop them back into your sound card to look for distortion using PassMark audio loopback cables. SoundCheck also provides an audio FX test and a surround sound test to analyse those advanced sound card features.

Stereo or mono sound can be recorded and played back at a variety of sample rates and resolutions. SoundCheck includes a built-in tone generator that allows test tones to be generated at a selected frequency and sampling rate. This can be done using waveforms such as sine waves, saw tooth waves, white noise, and square waves. The waveform can be plotted and frequency spectrum graphed in real time using fast Fourier transform algorithms.

  • Test the range of your speakers and hearing
  • Simultaneous sound recording a playback (with full duplex sound cards)
  • A comprehensive help file.
  • Real time waveform display (like an oscilloscope)
  • Real time sprectum display using fast Fourier transforms
  • Adjustable frame rate for slower PCs
  • Selectable sample rates from 5000Hz to 128,000Hz
  • Stereo and mono recording a playback
  • 8, 16 and 24bit recording and playback
  • Input and output data rate measurement
  • Source device selection when multiple sound devices are installed
  • Test tone generation at any frequency and amplitude
  • Tone generation using sine waves, square waves, saw tooth waves, spikes and white noise.
  • SoundCheck generates perfectly formed synthetic waves using the tone generation (rather than playing back recorded wave files)

Compatibility

While all Windows plug and play sound cards (Crystal, Yamaha, Creative sound blaster, ESS, etc..) are compatible, not all sound cards will support the full range of sample rates. Also, not all PC's will have the speed to support a real time display when high sample rates are used. In this case the display Frame rate may need to be lowered.

Important note: Please make sure your mixer settings are correct before trying to record with SoundCheck. See the included help file for details on how to do this. If they are not correct you will get a silent recording.

What's New in V3.0

Click for a larger image
  • 24-bit recording/playback support.
  • Spectrum graph now uses a decibel scale for intensity.
  • Trigger functionality added to waveform graph.
  • Text overlay on graph has had a color change to make it easier to read
  • New option to generate pink noise.
  • Ability to save recordings to wave files
  • Ability to save generated tones to wave files

Loopback example

The following are some examples of loopback testing using SoundCheck.

Loopback output wave - 400Hz saw tooth wave Figure 1.
This is the output wave form - a 400Hz sawtooth wave at 44Khz sample rate.
Resulting input wave Figure 2.
The same 400Hz wave form after passing through speakers and microphone.