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Old 06-05-2021, 05:45 AM   #83
beingmf
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Jazz City
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After comparing a lot of settings and techniques since my last post in this thread, I think I'm now fully able to answer the initial "question": Sonarworks Negatives.

My room isn't perfect, and there's only a limited amount of acoustic treatment I can put up (door/window/full-length built-in wardrobe on the back wall), and that amount I've likely exhausted if I still want some space to work in here.
So room correction software to the rescue. I started with Sonarworks some 2 years ago and felt, in comparison, that the sound in the room had improved significantly. Suddenly it was more fun to mix and compose. Yet something didn't feel 100% right. A/B'ing on other systems still presented me the flaws of my efforts which I thought sounded good in the studio. At least that's why you buy Sonarworks in the first place, right?

Then I got new headphones and a new headphone correction software, which again painted a completely different picture of what was going on sonically. I was totally confused to say the least and demo'd ARC3 out of interest. Not only did it sound tighter, but it also introduced only 32 samples of latency in the monitor FX chain. Bought this, sold Sonarworks including the microphone.

That last part in italics is the crucial one, which makes me come back to the "Sonarworks Negatives" question: the downside of Sonarworks, in my opinion, after testing hundreds (exaggerated) of measured profiles, is their measurement approach. You point the (cheapish) microphone horizontally and angled at the center between the speakers.

In ARC3 the only requirement is the (approximate) position of your respective measurement point. The mic shoots horizontally 90° at the front wall or - and this exactly was my revelation - it is simply angled 90° upwards (as "usually" those measurements were and still are made.). Furthermore, ARC3 builds its measurement/profile upon a room size/geometry template, which you need to choose at the beginning. In my case, I selected "project studio", the smallest room with a shorter distance between the measurement points.

I was shocked when I first heard the profile created with a Beyerdynamic MM1 (with cal file) pointing upwards. I never heard such clarity and such details in this room, no, not even on those speakers (Tannoy 10" dual concentrics with sub). Seriously, I was almost crying.
Opening the mix project from the day before finally broke the Sonarworks camel's back. I immediately knew what to change and what to do, I questioned not a single mix decision! Rooms, distortion, filters, compression ... incredibly easy and, above all, fast to dial in. EQ steps of a fraction of a dB: night and day. Let alone the choice of plugin (or outboard) colour: before it was "OK, A is nice, but B is also not bad, and C as well". Now it's "A definitely is the wrong tool. B? Perfect - let's go for it!"

So the next time you wonder why your mixes don't come out the way you'd expect them to - consider room treatment and a correction software which allows you to use 3rd party mics at 0° or 90°. It's the best spent money EVER!
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