Room compensation EQ...

AntonHunter

Right. I tend to mix on headphones mostly and use my (cheap) monitors sparingly as I'm in a less than ideal room with less than ideal monitors. I know the answer to this is actually going to be to treat the room properly and buy some better speakers, but...

After watching this video, I got curious about corrective EQ for impefect monitoring situations (which mine definitely is). I've taken some rough measurements initally to see if I could figure out how to use the REW software, and see what kind of impact it could have. Created an impulse response from the corrective EQ filters that REW created, and then loaded that into an IR loader in Reaper. Pretty pleased with how much better it sounds already, so I'm convinced to do a more deep dive down this path.

Right, that's the backstory, my question is...

I use my monitors for general listening at my desk, it'd be good to do two things:

1. Route all the audio from my macbook through some corrective EQ so that the speakers are flatter for everyday use.

2. Not have to rely on having the IR loader on the Master strip in Reaper, because then it affects the headphones too and interrupts my workflow.

Any suggestions for a way of achieving this that doesn't cost much? 

Musicwolf

Or a hardware solution such as this?  £250 including the measurement mic.

I toyed with this solution but ultimately bought a Neumann MA-1 measurement mic to unlock the DSP capability of my KH80s. The MA-1 cost about £200.

As you indicated, the real answer is to do as much as you can with physical treatment first, but that's not always possible in a domestic environment.

AntonHunter

Ah nice, DSP in the speakers would fix that, and those Neumanns look ace, if a little pricey right now. Added to the GAS list for sure...

Supportact

Not sure if you've seen it already but @grappagreen did a big thread on a similar topic a while back including some discussion of the REW software. Might be some useful stuff in there:

 https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/247877/mix-room-acoustic-treatment-let-the-fun-again-begin-update-12/p1

AntonHunter

Ah fantastic, thanks for that, I'll have a dig. I definitely read it, but not since starting to think about my own space.

Supportact said:

Not sure if you've seen it already but @grappagreen did a big thread on a similar topic a while back including some discussion of the REW software. Might be some useful stuff in there:

 https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/247877/mix-room-acoustic-treatment-let-the-fun-again-begin-update-12/p1

octatonic

I have a Trinnov with ATC and Kii Three monitors, so I am very much down the room correction rabbit hole.

I am mixing an album at the moment and I have turned all the room correction off.
I know my room and my monitors, I am getting better result without it.

It does have its uses, especially working in immersive, but for mixing stereo rock music my preference is to disable room correction.

AntonHunter

octatonic said:

I have a Trinnov with ATC and Kii Three monitors, so I am very much down the room correction rabbit hole.

I am mixing an album at the moment and I have turned all the room correction off.
I know my room and my monitors, I am getting better result without it.

It does have its uses, especially working in immersive, but for mixing stereo rock music my preference is to disable room correction.

Interesting. I did wonder whether learning the room/monitors would ultimately be preferable to using on corrective EQ, so that's really good to hear your perspective. I think at the moment I'm relying on headphones still mostly, and using the monitors for different perspectives, so ultimately hearing it in a few different ways can only be a good thing (also have some trashy hi-fi speakers set up), to check mix translation etc. 

Bod

My room is pretty bad, especially in the low end where there's a huge hump around 110Hz.  I don't have the space for bass traps, and my desk is in the corner of the dining room with a patio door on one side, and there's nothing I can do about that sadly.  I borrowed a calibrated mic and used SonarWorks to try and correct, but found that my mixes were much worse.  It set me back 10 years as I was so used to it without.  That might have changed if I'd persisted, but I couldn't really get the improvement I wanted and just got frustrated with it.

I surmise that corrective EQ is great if you have minor issues after treatment, but expecting it to compensate for bigger room issues is probably too big an ask.

I'll do any critical listening on headphones until I can get my own space.

basslord

I'd echo the sentiments here that you don't want to room correct too much. + or - 2dB in certain problem frequency bands is OK, but if you make massive corrections much bigger than that, it can just lead to so many other issues since you're working with such a 'distorted' profile.  Adjustments that you make to a mix within those bands will not translate in a true way. 

It's better to acoustically treat the room to as good a place as you can (which will never be perfect anyway unless you have a large, well shaped space), and then use room correction for the last bit.

MrTee

I think I may have asked in a previous thread on the same lines, has anyone used slate vsx for this purpose? Seem to remember it wasn’t that highly thought of, but lately a friend has used it on some mixes and they sound amazing, and I’m tempted