Room Analyzer / EQ

Dega

Dega

New member
Morning all and Happy Friggin' New Year!

So . . . back in the day (way back) when home stereos and speakers were the size of a Buick, I had an equalizer with a spectrum / frequency analyzer. You hooked up a good mic - the EQ would generate a "white noise" pattern and you would adjust the EQ to flatten the meters and poof walah you had the stereo set up for your room. My question is . . . Is there a modern digital DAW equivalent to this? If it matters, I am using Sonar Producer and looking to test / fix what I believe is probably a fairly crappy room. I currently mix in headphones but when I throw the mix on a CD and play it in the car it ain't so good. I have a fairly decent set of monitors but my mixes are worse with those so, again, pretty sure it's the room and looking to fix it.

OK boys - tear up this noob but please educate me in the process.

Thanks
 
Google Room EQ Wizard. It is a freeware (okay, donation) program that allows multiple types of analysis. You will need a proper measurement microphone. The Behringer ECM 8000 model works great and there is even an included calibration file in the software. You will find out, however, that using an EQ to tune the room will not give very satisfactory results. EQ doesn't fix nodes or comb filtering so treating the space is probably going to be necessary.
 
Seconding that -- EQ'ing a room actually makes the system *less* accurate. It might make a more pleasurable listening experience (think 'home theater') -- but there is absolutely no substitute for fixing the space.

Even shooting the space -- If it's untreated at this point, it's a waste of time. If you're in a square-ish or rectangular-ish space with no broadband treatment, it's almost guaranteed that the room is in nasty shape (basically, all rooms are unless they were built for the purpose). A "base application" of broadband traps (IME, that's a dozen 2'x4'x4" traps -- 2 in each corner to trap floor-to-ceiling and one in each high-side corner concentrating on the mix position) should be in place before it's even worth setting up a mic to analyze the space.

That dozen traps will make a difference -- It might not be enough to make the space reasonable, but I'd certainly expect a "night and day" difference.

THEN you can shoot the room -- But again, you're not going to be trying to EQ it into submission -- You can inspect the graph and then get more broadband (or specific band if need be) absorption to tackle whatever is left.

The nice thing about broadband panels is that you really can't overdo it... It will only get you closer and closer to "perfect" (but it'll never be perfect - And that's okay - No typical room will ever really be perfect).

Heck, I have the equivalent mass of around 36 2'x4'x4" panels in here -- and I'm "quite happy" with it although again, it's not perfect (don't get me wrong - it's pretty darn good).

Blah blah blah, get some decent treatment in the space first -- Then worry about measuring.
 
Thank you both! The nature of the internet being what it is now a days that is exactly the kind of useful info I was not expecting to receive! I will spend some time researching and applying room fixes first and then work my way back to testing from there . . . THANKS AGAIN!
 
You could start your search right here! :D

At the top of this section there's a couple of sticky's,,,, Well worth a read! ;)

Happy new year :guitar:
 
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