Room Correction for 2 Channel?

[mojave]

Bruce, thanks for the mic chart.

For those interested in a mic, the Behringer and Dayton mics are available calibrated from 5Hz-25kHz from Cross-Spectrum Labs. A premium calibrated Dayton mic is $85 and includes polar response, sensitivity, noise floor, frequency response, and a mini-CD with the data.

[josh358]

There is a HUGE amount of information available on forums like this, AVS, the web sites of companies like RealTraps, GIK, etc. And the Master Handbook of Acoustics is a great tool. If one is so inclined and willing to learn and ask questions and more questions, they can accomplish a LOT without hiring an outside consultant. I am not slamming outside consultants and IF you can find a REALLY good one, they can be quite helpful. But for some situations, one can make great sonic improvements if one is willing to invest some time and energy.

Agree completely. I've noticed though that when I recommend a book, most people don't read it. :-| They do seem to appreciate tips, e.g., try a diffuser here, etc. But few seem to want to learn enough to make full use of the available tools, or maybe it wouldn't matter anyway because of the WAF problem.

[NorthStar]

The best recommendations are the ones we are willing to practice ourselves.

* I am recommending that you read this thread right here.

** I am recommending that you listen to Jazz as a soul relaxer.

[igufi]

I see ...

* I guess we'll have to wait till next Summer before we finally find out about the new Multichannel pre/pro from Emotiva, the XMC-1, with integrated TacT Correction & EQ System (RCS flavor; but I'm not sure if it is the 2.2XP version, or perhaps an even more improved version).

Here: http://emotiva.com/xmc1/spec_sheet.pdf

And the main thread from over at the Emotiva Lounge:
http://emotivalounge.proboards.com/i...&page=1#364886

And finally the Podcast: http://emotiva.com/podcasts/012712/EmoCastMix.mp3
{Taken from here: http://emotiva.com/news/ }

The spec sheet does state the TacT version being "TCS 3e Dynamic Room Correction", so it should be the mkIII of Theater System Control-series?

[NorthStar]

I'm not sure, as this is totally new for TacT and Emotiva
to join forces together in this new alliance partnership.

It is mentioned some places about RCS, but our guess is that it is:
TacT Multichannel (7.2) Room Correction System.

* I did ask Emotiva more precise details regarding TacT implementation
in the XMC-1, plus other things like DACs (how many of them), etc.,
but they are not responding to our questions just right now.

Cheers,
Bob

P.S. TCS mkIII makes a lot of sense.
{Theater Control System.}

[ironmine]

Iron (you don't mind me shortening your name?)

I am not (yet) entirely convinced by DRC for reasons I will post on later but would like to understand what you're curently doing with Foobar and you PC .. Very interesting..

Frantz,

I just placed a microphone in my sweet spot and measured first the "left channel+sub" using Room EQ Wizard, then for the "right channel+sub", separately. For each channel I did a total of 5 measurements - in the initial strictly central position of the mic, then moving it 5 cm to the right, 5 cm to the left, 5 cm to the front and 5 cm to the rear. I used for each channel the results averaged from these 5 locations. The measurements were done with sweep tones from 15 Hz to 250 Hz.

Thus, I got two measurement files, which showed to me the problematic areas. REW offers filters (settings for different EQ types) to counteract the resonances, but you can adjust them manually, if you wish. Then you export filter impulse responses to wav files. After than you can upload them to any convolver which you use in Foobar, or you can program your favorite equalizer instead (REW shows how to do it).

When Foobar plays, room correction happens "on the fly".

I do not aim to correct anything above 250 Hz. Even in the range below 250 Hz, I apply filters which do not fully eliminate the resonances (the resulting sound would be too sterile and boring), they just bring them 4-8 dB down and usually it is enough.

Initially, I wanted to have only "passive" room correction, and I built 7 DIY bass traps (10-15 cm, made of rock wool) and 2 5-cm side panels and 2 10-cm SBIR panels and 2 5-cm ceiling clouds. But, much to my reget, they turned out not to be enough for bass problems (even though they fixed nicely other acoustic issues). And so, I had to study and implement the above described "active" DRC. I am quite pleased with this "active+passive" combination, so far. Of course, as an audiophile, I always want even better sound, so I gravitated to this forum

I have an idea that cannot leave my mind already for quite a while. Do you think that we should try to measure/correct each channel separately, or perhaps the better approach would be to try and measure/correct mid/side channels? The thinking is that music always plays through 2 channels simulateneously...

[edorr]

Frantz,

I just placed a microphone in my sweet spot and measured first the "left channel+sub" using Room EQ Wizard, then for the "right channel+sub", separately. For each channel I did a total of 5 measurements - in the initial strictly central position of the mic, then moving it 5 cm to the right, 5 cm to the left, 5 cm to the front and 5 cm to the rear. I used for each channel the results averaged from these 5 locations. The measurements were done with sweep tones from 15 Hz to 250 Hz.

Thus, I got two measurement files, which showed to me the problematic areas. REW offers filters (settings for different EQ types) to counteract the resonances, but you can adjust them manually, if you wish. Then you export filter impulse responses to wav files. After than you can upload them to any convolver which you use in Foobar, or you can program your favorite equalizer instead (REW shows how to do it).

When Foobar plays, room correction happens "on the fly".

I do not aim to correct anything above 250 Hz. Even in the range below 250 Hz, I apply filters which do not fully eliminate the resonances (the resulting sound would be too sterile and boring), they just bring them 4-8 dB down and usually it is enough.

Initially, I wanted to have only "passive" room correction, and I built 7 DIY bass traps (10-15 cm, made of rock wool) and 2 5-cm side panels and 2 10-cm SBIR panels and 2 5-cm ceiling clouds. But, much to my reget, they turned out not to be enough for bass problems (even though they fixed nicely other acoustic issues). And so, I had to study and implement the above described "active" DRC. I am quite pleased with this "active+passive" combination, so far. Of course, as an audiophile, I always want even better sound, so I gravitated to this forum

I have an idea that cannot leave my mind already for quite a while. Do you think that we should try to measure/correct each channel separately, or perhaps the better approach would be to try and measure/correct mid/side channels? The thinking is that music always plays through 2 channels simulateneously...

You can do the same using Amarra's build in equalizer on a Mac. However this equalizer works in stereo only.

[josh358]

I have an idea that cannot leave my mind already for quite a while. Do you think that we should try to measure/correct each channel separately, or perhaps the better approach would be to try and measure/correct mid/side channels? The thinking is that music always plays through 2 channels simulateneously...

Because of interference between the speakers, you'll get frequency combing if you try to measure more than one channel simultaneously. Since this is highly dependent on the position of the listener and even where a sound is panned, and since it apparently doesn't occur in quite the same way with a human head present as with a microphone -- and since different channels have different response aberrations -- I think it makes more sense to measure the channels one at a time. It also differs between the ears thanks to interaural crosstalk, which isn't necessarily a bad thing since the brain tends to reject response aberrations that differ between the ears (or interpret them as spatial information -- HRTF effects and combing from room surfaces).

One of the advantages of surround is that it minimizes combing, particularly in the all-important center channel.

[audioguy]

I just learned that I am a Beta Tester for DiracLive software. I will be running it in my Music Server PC. If this works the way I hope it will, no more TacT 2.2XP.

[RBFC]

I am definitely paying attention to this one. Please let us know when you've had a chance to run it through its paces. Will it be available for Mac?

Lee