Tuning a control room.

[sluttygearhere]

Sorry if this is a redundant question. I did a search on it for a while and couldn't quite find the answer I was looking for.

I am wanting to tune my control room, or more or less see what the issues are right now.

My question is, how do you go about checking for issues? I do a lot of live sound also and so I am assuming that I would just run some pink through there with an RTA mic at the mix position and see what it looks like, the same way I would in a concert hall. Am I right in thinking this, or are there more in depth tests I need to run or equipment I need to see what's really going on. I am not planning on using EQ to fix like live btw, in case anyone was thinking that. I am just wanting to know what freq's I need to treat at.

Thanks so much for your help in advance.

Hope you all are having a great week so far.

-- Ben

[matt thomas]

you will probably need bass traps, this is the norm in smaller rooms.

There is some free software you can get, and together with a computer, an omni mic and a full range speaker you should be able to measure it easily

ETF, Windows, $150

FuzzMeasure, Mac, $150

Room EQ Wizard, Windows and Mac and Linux, Freeware

This article from ethan winer explains how he uses ETF

I hope that helps

narco

[gainstages]

in addition to paying attention to frequency response, you'll want to pay attention to the decay time overall, and at various frequencies. you can use some of these software programs to measure that also if you want. I didn't have that capability in my system - just frequency measurement so I basically tuned my by ear. Then, to make sure I was really in the range I thought i needed to be, I used a 1 second broadband clip of noise played at a high volume through my speakers and then used a live mic in the room to record that and the ensuing decay. By then analyzing the waveform in my DAW I was able estimate the RT60 (decay time). not perfectly accurate, but certainly good enough to use as a general guide.

[larrykane]

regarding checking for isues a realtim even 31 band is not narrow band enough to identify bass nodes (peaks caused by room shape) At the real traps website there is a simple program or file of incremental sine waves you can play from you DAW or pc which has the entire range of bass tones up to maybe 300hz. (if you can't find it PM me and i will email it to you) You can then, using a db meter (even a cheap one like radio shack) play each tone while walking around the room and see where the notes are loudest. You will be amazed and possibly shocked at how certain freq' are real hot. You can then more accurately know how to place your bass traps, whichever type you make or buy. The higher freqs of course are easier to treat generically and there is much written about that. Also see Bob Gold's website about building traps it's pretty good. I recommend you use a test volume similar to the level you plan to work at. I also highly highly recommend you use earplugs whiledoing all the testing-I did not and suffered from that later.

Originally Posted by sluttygearhere

Sorry if this is a redundant question. I did a search on it for a while and couldn't quite find the answer I was looking for.

I am wanting to tune my control room, or more or less see what the issues are right now.

My question is, how do you go about checking for issues? I do a lot of live sound also and so I am assuming that I would just run some pink through there with an RTA mic at the mix position and see what it looks like, the same way I would in a concert hall. Am I right in thinking this, or are there more in depth tests I need to run or equipment I need to see what's really going on. I am not planning on using EQ to fix like live btw, in case anyone was thinking that. I am just wanting to know what freq's I need to treat at.

Thanks so much for your help in advance.

Hope you all are having a great week so far.

-- Ben