anyone ever hear of ARC

  • Thread starter Thread starter eeb
  • Start date Start date
E

eeb

New member
it's a plugin that is supposed to calibrate your software for you room acoustics... instead of acoustically treating your room. It comes with a special microphone to help calibrate the plugin to your room specs..

kinda seems way too good to be true.. I can't imagine it being able to do what it claims

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/Main.html?MainPage.php


unfortunately their website is a piece of junk that's made with frames so you have to go to their site.. click on products and scroll down until you see the ARC thing.
 
Eh . . . its just another way to cheat having bad acoustics. Too good to be true? In a sense, but I'm sure in most cases it does "help". But I've never used it or seen it, so what do I know? LOL
 
There are a few weaknesses in that idea. First, it doesn't account for any coloration added by the mic preamp (and any other circuitry) between the microphone and the software.

But the biggie is that much of the frequency response of the room is an actual property of the room itself, and cannot be changed or adjusted for by what is coming out of the speakers, especially in the bass region. If you are sitting in a spot that nulls the sound at a specific frequency, it will contuinue to null that frequency no matter how loud you adjust it. The nulling is happening because of wave phase cancellation for that frequency at that spot in the room, and without acoustic treatment to change the property of the room, those waves will continue to cancel at that spot regardless of their amplitude.

I won't completly dis that ARC package; it may offer *some* advantages perhaps. But for the $700 it costs, you can get a hell of a lot of acoustic treatment that will probably work better.

IMHO, YMMV, Not valid in NH, etc.

G.
 
I remember using pink noise and a specially made flat response mic to treat the control room. Not sure if it worked very well.

Eck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top