Joined
·
39 Posts
OK guys, since I have been an REW user for almost a year and have experimented quite a bit, I thought I should make this post.
I have always been confused as to what the ideal target curve should look like, but I have found an answer that works extremely well—at least in my case.
I recently received a room correction software upgrade to my sound processor. It's something like a built-in digital parametric EQ that works across the entire frequency spectrum—an REW of sorts. It shipped with a calibrated microphone. Unlike REW, it does not give the user much control over what it does, but I have to say that the results are amazing. I am experiencing the best sound ever. I really have no more complaints about my system and my tweaking days are over.
Similar to Wayne’s "house curve", one of the philosophies behind this room correction is the concept of "room gain" in the low end, which every room has and recording engineers expect when they mix. Also, it corrects for speaker performance and room interactions and creates a flat curve in the mids and highs which make a huge difference in vocals, guitars, cymbals, imaging, soundstage, sparkle, etc.
What I thought would be helpful to REW users is showing you the curve I get when I measure my corrected system with REW using a calibrated microphone. In my attached REW graph (avg. of 5 positions), note the room gain in the low end, the flatness in the mids, and the roll-off in the highs. One thing that was a little different is the software determined a crossover of 120Hz for my subs/mains, instead of 80Hz. But, if you look at my uncorrected curves, 120Hz visually appears to be the most natural choice for the crossover frequency in my case. I tried 80Hz and others but ultimately 120 really was the best sounding. Your room will vary.
Here are the values for my blue target curve in case you want to experiment. The size of the hump apparently varies with room size, so you may need to make the hump smaller or larger:
15 5
20 8
30 11
50 11
70 8
100 2.5
150 1
200 0
2000 0
8000 -1
10000 -2
13000 -4
16000 -10
20000 -20
Of course, you can use the BFD or a Velodyne SMS-1 on your subs. For your mains, tone controls or treatments may do the trick. If you want to take it to the next level, I have previously used Rane PE-17 parametric EQs (bought on EBay) for my mains with no audibly detectable coloration, noise or distortion added. This is a good way to go. I even found a way to precisely set the filters on the Ranes using REW. See a prior post of mine for the technique.
Also attached are the graphs from my processor software that shows my curves before correction (red) and after correction (green).
Hope this info is helpful.
I have always been confused as to what the ideal target curve should look like, but I have found an answer that works extremely well—at least in my case.
I recently received a room correction software upgrade to my sound processor. It's something like a built-in digital parametric EQ that works across the entire frequency spectrum—an REW of sorts. It shipped with a calibrated microphone. Unlike REW, it does not give the user much control over what it does, but I have to say that the results are amazing. I am experiencing the best sound ever. I really have no more complaints about my system and my tweaking days are over.
Similar to Wayne’s "house curve", one of the philosophies behind this room correction is the concept of "room gain" in the low end, which every room has and recording engineers expect when they mix. Also, it corrects for speaker performance and room interactions and creates a flat curve in the mids and highs which make a huge difference in vocals, guitars, cymbals, imaging, soundstage, sparkle, etc.
What I thought would be helpful to REW users is showing you the curve I get when I measure my corrected system with REW using a calibrated microphone. In my attached REW graph (avg. of 5 positions), note the room gain in the low end, the flatness in the mids, and the roll-off in the highs. One thing that was a little different is the software determined a crossover of 120Hz for my subs/mains, instead of 80Hz. But, if you look at my uncorrected curves, 120Hz visually appears to be the most natural choice for the crossover frequency in my case. I tried 80Hz and others but ultimately 120 really was the best sounding. Your room will vary.
Here are the values for my blue target curve in case you want to experiment. The size of the hump apparently varies with room size, so you may need to make the hump smaller or larger:
15 5
20 8
30 11
50 11
70 8
100 2.5
150 1
200 0
2000 0
8000 -1
10000 -2
13000 -4
16000 -10
20000 -20
Of course, you can use the BFD or a Velodyne SMS-1 on your subs. For your mains, tone controls or treatments may do the trick. If you want to take it to the next level, I have previously used Rane PE-17 parametric EQs (bought on EBay) for my mains with no audibly detectable coloration, noise or distortion added. This is a good way to go. I even found a way to precisely set the filters on the Ranes using REW. See a prior post of mine for the technique.
Also attached are the graphs from my processor software that shows my curves before correction (red) and after correction (green).
Hope this info is helpful.


