Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - IK Multimedia ARC System vs Acoustic Treatment???

doncaparker · 5th February 2009

I'm a hack basement hobbyist. I have about a dozen Ready Bags filled with OC 703 hung on the walls in my recording area, at all of the spots that conventional wisdom says they should be (corners, first reflections). These clearly helped, but I was still having a significant low-mid problem, and there were few remaining opportunities for improving the room (I guess I could have hung a cloud, but there is already a drop ceiling).

I bought the ARC system, and I must say, it has made a noticeable difference. I'm still getting used to not hearing that familiar mud, but I like what I hear so far.

The thing that really helps with the adjustment is being able to feed reference CDs and other music through the ARC plug-in. I just route the computer audio through my ITB mixer, into Reaper, then apply ARC to the master bus. Until they come out with a stand-alone version, this is a reasonable and easy way to get everything to go through the ARC.

I wouldn't recommend this plug-in for a completely untreated room, but when you apply a fair amount of treatment and still have problems, I think this is an OK way to address them.

5th February 2009	#103
doncaparker Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2007 Posts: 1,238	I'm a hack basement hobbyist. I have about a dozen Ready Bags filled with OC 703 hung on the walls in my recording area, at all of the spots that conventional wisdom says they should be (corners, first reflections). These clearly helped, but I was still having a significant low-mid problem, and there were few remaining opportunities for improving the room (I guess I could have hung a cloud, but there is already a drop ceiling). I bought the ARC system, and I must say, it has made a noticeable difference. I'm still getting used to not hearing that familiar mud, but I like what I hear so far. The thing that really helps with the adjustment is being able to feed reference CDs and other music through the ARC plug-in. I just route the computer audio through my ITB mixer, into Reaper, then apply ARC to the master bus. Until they come out with a stand-alone version, this is a reasonable and easy way to get everything to go through the ARC. I wouldn't recommend this plug-in for a completely untreated room, but when you apply a fair amount of treatment and still have problems, I think this is an OK way to address them.