Data Collection

feature author: Paul Halliday

Data collection for audio is the process of recording specific sounds needed to accurately reproduce them in a simulator. Fidelity requirements of the simulator dictate how close of a match these sounds need to be. The FAA qualified the Beech 1900D simulator at Level C, which meant that the audio had to be pretty high fidelity. Sounds such as the engines, flaps, gear, and precipitation had to be as close to the real thing as possible. SimPhonics has precipitation noises in its vast library of sounds, but the aircraft-specific sounds had to be recorded. SimPhonics collected these sounds and others (warning tones, etc.) by riding along on a flight in a Beech 1900D and recording these sounds. These recordings were made with a calibrated microphone and directly recorded to a laptop computer.

For more information regarding sound data collection and FAA qualification, refer to the SimPhonics’ Method of Meeting FAA Level D Sound Requirements TechNotes  publication.