IK Multimedia Arc

[projoosa]

Is anyone out there using this room correction plugin ? Ive seen massively mixed reviews online - from big 'wows' to a large conceptual slating on the sound-on-sound forum. Would be really good to get some good honest feedback !

Im in rented accomodation so physical room treatment is a bit difficult unless anyoe has suggestions ?

Cheers,
Marc

[nuxnamon]

Arc is a plug-in and requires CPU and you have to insert it on the master channel. it does not function stand alone.. ERGO on the other hand does not require CPU after analysis and can function stand alone, so anything you listen on your system will be corrected, like iTunes, etc.. Plus Ergo comes with hardware which functions as a multi-monitor switch for A/B comparisons and a audio card (although the audio card function is kind of buggy in my experience under OSX).. But the main thing with these room corrections is that it does not replace proper acoustic treatment and should be used as a supplement.. I also live in a apartment and what I did was I used removable velcro for the foam and hung bass traps with nails (nails are ok with my apartment, no different from hanging a painting..) Anyways, ERGO did make a difference in my room acoustics but I think most of the correction was actually done with the treatment that was already in place.. I don't know how it would sound in a room with no acoustic treatment..

BTW, ERGO is like $599 everywhere, but I got it at BH for $450 a while back..

[Jan Holm]

May I suggest another approach - one which I took myself.
Get yourself a cheap measurement microfone like (about 50euro)
http://www.behringer.com/en/products/ecm8000.aspx

Get Room EQ Wizard here Free http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/
Tjeck youtube for tutorials.

I'm soon going the redo my room and wanted to know what kinda troubles
I have to fix. I a big nasty dip at 100hz. Just fooling arround with
the speaker placement helped a lot - but I'm also going to do some
trapping very soon. IK ARC only works in your DAW. When I listen to other
peoples stuff / my music collection I use Winamp and ARC would mess with
my room reference.

[mnmlmike]

I have heard a room with the ARC plug in on it. I will say that it definitely sounded WORSE. Now I'm not saying the goal of ARC it to make your room sound "better" it's to make it sound "accurate"

Soo while whatever was coming out of the speakers was definitely drastically less pleasing to my ears than with the plugin bypassed, it might still be a good tool for mixing. I know after the guy bypassed the plug in the sound was actually pretty solid!

[projoosa]

Arc is a plug-in and requires CPU and you have to insert it on the master channel. it does not function stand alone.. ERGO on the other hand does not require CPU after analysis and can function stand alone, so anything you listen on your system will be corrected, like iTunes, etc.. Plus Ergo comes with hardware which functions as a multi-monitor switch for A/B comparisons and a audio card (although the audio card function is kind of buggy in my experience under OSX).. But the main thing with these room corrections is that it does not replace proper acoustic treatment and should be used as a supplement.. I also live in a apartment and what I did was I used removable velcro for the foam and hung bass traps with nails (nails are ok with my apartment, no different from hanging a painting..) Anyways, ERGO did make a difference in my room acoustics but I think most of the correction was actually done with the treatment that was already in place.. I don't know how it would sound in a room with no acoustic treatment..

BTW, ERGO is like $599 everywhere, but I got it at BH for $450 a while back..

Thanks for this ! I didn't know of this product. I also didnt realise that KRK licence Lyngdorfs Room Perfect which is in the LKyngdorf AVRs... I visited Lyngdorf with work a while ago and they were filling me in on the room perfect algorithm and I had a demo through one of their systems. They claim that its more advanced than the Audyssey MultEQ (used in various AVRs and IK ARC) because it can apply the room correction consistently over a wide listening area whereas MultiEQ is only accruate for a very small listening area. Ive not really tested MultEQ (probably should as its sitting in practically every AVR around here) but the room perfect demo we had was pretty convincing. nuxnamon, how much did you spend on your traps etc if you dont mind me asking ?

The room EQ wizard looks interesting ( read: a lot cheaper !! ). How easy was it to get going with it Jan ? It looks pretty in-depth to say the least !

ta,
Marc

[djsynchro]

Room problems exist in the time domain so acoustic solutions are the first to tackle BUT in even the most high-end-professional-custom-designed studio the final tweak will be EQ, so there is a place for it. In a less than perfect room you should just should to get the mix spot as good as you can get it.

I have read the reviews of the IK system, apparently it's all in the measuring which is no joke. I have read about people not getting good results but solving that by re-doing their measuring. Lastly, a LOT of crap is written on forums, people love to slag things off, and people that do rarely own the hardware they're so critical of, so take it with a grain of salt. On the other hand, magazine reviews tend to be quite positive, after all, they are reviewing their advertiser's products,

Most important thing is using your ears, every piece of pro audio equipment there is gets tweaked by listening tests.
That freeware stuff looks intersting, gonna give it a go.

PS it's true that an accurate monitoring system can sound fairly "boring" if it sounds all pumping and sexy it's probably not that accurate.

[SubFunk]

May I suggest another approach - one which I took myself.
Get yourself a cheap measurement microfone like (about 50euro)
http://www.behringer.com/en/products/ecm8000.aspx

Get Room EQ Wizard here Free http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/
Tjeck youtube for tutorials.

I'm soon going the redo my room and wanted to know what kinda troubles
I have to fix. I a big nasty dip at 100hz. Just fooling arround with
the speaker placement helped a lot - but I'm also going to do some
trapping very soon. IK ARC only works in your DAW. When I listen to other
peoples stuff / my music collection I use Winamp and ARC would mess with
my room reference.

in general a good advice, except the behringer mic for measuring... for around a hundred euros you get this one... http://www.beyerdynamic.de/en/music-per ... 833caf0f44

and that is a serious mic for measuring, which will stay with you for live, just suggesting investing into quality. if you are already feel the need of measuring, then do it properly and not with a mic which is anything but flat.

[projoosa]

Are measurement mics good for recording after you're done using them for measurement ? Presumably they are omni directional and flat-ish response....

[djsynchro]

They're good for your girlfriend when her dildo breaks down.

[projoosa]

They're good for your girlfriend when her dildo breaks down.

TBH she says that nothing but a hypercardioid shotgun really hits the spot...

;D

[Jan Holm]

The room EQ wizard looks interesting ( read: a lot cheaper !! ). How easy was it to get going with it Jan ? It looks pretty in-depth to say the least !
Marc

Pretty easy following the videos on this page. Took me about 30 minutes
to get everything set up and make the first measurement.
http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2009/02/ ... -software/

On the mic selection - get the best you can afford.

[funkyfat]

Hi, I'm using IK Multimedia Arc in a room that has some treatment.
Anyway, I feel my mixes translate a lot better.
I do wish I knew about the other correction software posted on this board before
I purchased IK Multimedia Arc. At any rate I am happy I purchased IK Multimedia Arc.

[Jan Holm]

Hi Funkyfat

Room Eq Wizard is not correction software as such. Just a
tool to show you the problems. After that you have to do
some physical changes to your room / speaker placement ect.

But its actually rather fun to chase the problems found and
try to do something about them.

[SubFunk]

Are measurement mics good for recording after you're done using them for measurement ? Presumably they are omni directional and flat-ish response....

nope.

unless you are using them artistically...

[SubFunk]

Hi Funkyfat

Room Eq Wizard is not correction software as such. Just a
tool to show you the problems. After that you have to do
some physical changes to your room / speaker placement ect.

But its actually rather fun to chase the problems found and
try to do something about them.

yes i know and you are right, just saying to invest into the right place in the long run...