First go at REW. Does this look ok? Or am i doing something wrong?

[Timoxx4]

Hi guys.

Here is my first attempt at REW and i am just after some suggestions and help on how to make the best of my situation ?

Here is my subwoofers only response. 100hz xover. 4 TC2+ 12" subs in an IB in the floor. Yamaha 3800 as pre pro into a Behringer Ultra Curve Pro.



Here is my mains only.



Sub and mains together.



And here is sub only predicted results by REW.


These are the filter settings to get the above curve.

Cutoff 100Hz 24dB/Octave
Target level: 75.0dB
Filter 1: ON PEQ Fc 155.2Hz Gain -11.5dB BW Oct 0.111
Filter 2: ON PEQ Fc 106.2Hz Gain -11.0dB BW Oct 0.200
Filter 3: ON PEQ Fc 136.8Hz Gain -8.5dB BW Oct 0.167
Filter 4: ON PEQ Fc 34.8Hz Gain -6.0dB BW Oct 0.333
Filter 5: ON PEQ Fc 188.8Hz Gain -5.5dB BW Oct 0.067
Filter 6: ON PEQ Fc 24.6Hz Gain -2.5dB BW Oct 0.250


Is 6 filters too many ? And how would i go about getting a house curve in there ? And should i boost that dip at 30hz and the area between 40hz and 100hz or would it be best not to do any boosting ?

Any tips or recommendations on how to do things better would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys.
Tim.

P.S. Here is my REW setup.
Sound Blaster live 24bit external sound card. Windows XP on laptop.
Behringer ecm8000 plus 802 pre amp.
New RS analogue spl meter.

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I assume you're using this Ultra Curve Pro...

...and not this one?

Yeah, you don't need most of those filters (thanks for posting them, by the way - most people don't). Four of them are above the crossover frequency, for instance. In addition, many of them are too narrow, what I call "notch filters" that can degrade sound quality. Under the "Filter Tasks" icon to the left of the REW screen you can change the upper limit of the peak-finding operation from 200 Hz to whatever your crossover frequency is.

If you applied a house curve to the Target Curve, it would nicely take care of most of the area between 50-90 Hz that is under the Target with little or no boost needed. You might want to take a look at my two "sticky" house curve articles (return to the REW Forum main page) to find out how to determine an appropriate house curve for your room, and how to load it into REW.

Regards,
Wayne

[Timoxx4]

Yes the top one is the same Ultra Curve as mine.The DEQ2496.

I have had a read of your article (On Minimal EQ, Target Levels, and a Hard-Knee House Curve (long) about 5 times and am starting to get the idea, i think Still not quite sure what i am doing.

So do i just play a 100hz sine wave with sub and mains and then a 30hz sine wave and see how much volume increase on my AVR it takes to make the 30hz tone to sound the same loudness as the 100hz tone then use that slope as my house curve ? Do i do that before or after applying the REW filters for a flat 75db curve ?

And seeing as my cross over is at 100hz what do i do with that peak at about 115hz if i am to only eq below 100hz ? That peak would mean my 100hz sine wave would sound quite loud so my 30hz sine wave ( which is in a null) would end up needing WAY too much boost to find out what my house curve should be ?

I guess i need a bit of guidance as to what steps i should take in this area still ?

Thanks.

[Timoxx4]

Ok so i have had a bit of a go at a house curve and some EQ. What do you think ?

So here is my house curve and the filters i cam up with in rew.


Equaliser: FBQ2496
null
Cutoff 100Hz 24dB/Octave
Target level: 75.0dB
Filter 1: ON PEQ Fc 28.9Hz Gain 3.0dB BW Oct 0.333
Filter 2: ON PEQ Fc 34.0Hz Gain -7.0dB BW Oct 0.333
Filter 3: ON PEQ Fc 62.5Hz Gain 4.0dB BW Oct 0.500
Filter 4: ON PEQ Fc 103.8Hz Gain -6.0dB BW Oct 0.250
Filter 5: ON PEQ Fc 24.9Hz Gain -3.0dB BW Oct 0.250

House curve

30 7.0
40 4.8
50 3.0
60 1.4
70 0.3
80 -0.1
90 -0.2
100 0.0

And here below is the actual in room response after punching the filters into my Ultracurve and adjusting them a bit more.



Here is a 15hz to 20,000hz sweep



I think my house curve might be a bit too steep though as the higher frequencies seem a bit on the thin side. But it sounds not too bad.

Is there anything i might be missing that could have been done differently ?

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

So do i just play a 100hz sine wave with sub and mains and then a 30hz sine wave and see how much volume increase on my AVR it takes to make the 30hz tone to sound the same loudness as the 100hz tone then use that slope as my house curve ? Do i do that before or after applying the REW filters for a flat 75db curve ?

Sorry to take so long to get back to you, but it looks like you've pretty much figured it out. You get 100 Hz and 30 Hz to sound like they're at the same volume, take SPL meter readings at the two frequencies - say, 75 dB for 100 Hz, and 81 dB for 30 Hz, for instance. The difference would be your house curve, 6 dB in that case. So that's where you would start experimenting.

If the upper bass seems weak then yes you've probably got it too steep. Try reducing the slope a dB or two and see how that sounds. Once you get the upper bass sorted out, you might try experiment with shelving below 30 Hz and see how you like that. Mine's currently at ~28 Hz; others have said they like it at 25 or even 20 Hz (although with your subs appearing to have strong output below 20 Hz, trying to shelve at 20 Hz would get you no shelving at all!).

Regards,
Wayne

[Timoxx4]

Thanks for that Wayne.

So what dose shelving do exactly ? I am not quite sure what that is ? Dose it boost or cut below 30Hz ?