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What's up fellas?
I was wondering if anyone has any feedback on the new IK Multimedia product that functions as a plug-in on your master and 'corrects' problems with your room.
I am using Mackie 824's and Yamaha NS-10's but I'm in a small room that is far from accurate, so I'm trying to identify a solution for more accurate monitoring.
I find myself going into the next room over a lot these days and listening from there- seems to help my identify any frequencies that are poking out of the mix too much easier than if I listen directly to the speakers.
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I don't believe this unit is out quite yet. I just spoke with IK regarding it last week and I hope to have my test unit in the next couple weeks. It is a great idea you just have to make sure to bypass the plugin before you bounce, otherwise you will be applying your room correction to your mix. Another option would be the Drive Rack units from DBX or the Behringer Ultracurve, both of these are hardware units that provide both Real Time Analysis as well as EQ Correction. I prefer the DBX unit but the Behringer piece does work well, I just have a tough time supporting a company such as Behringer. I highly recomend using one of these units as you get a real time readout of your output as well as being able to measure and correct your room. Almost every one of my clients has one
As soon as I get my hands on this thing I will let you all know.
Cheers!
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Waylo, even with a good room that trick of going into another room is a good one and I use it all the time.
I'm not sure how the correction plugin would work since one of the problems with a bad room is how nodes interfere with the freq response. In this case moving around will change the freq spectrum and a static plugin could not solve that. I'm sure it has some uses though.
This is why I'm a fan of having my moniters very direct, within arms length, it helps take some of the room problems out of the situation.
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I believe the idea here is that you set your RTA microphone in the listening position to correct for any possible issues in the mixing position. Of course you could move it around and check to see what happens. Personally I use the waves RTA with a dbx RTA omnidirectional microphone to check what is happening in my room. Slowly but sure I am treating certain resonances, but time and money and space etc are always difficult. Someday I hope to have a proper room, but at least I am able to "see" what is going on more. Hope this helps!
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I've seen Jesse use the 'stand in the hallway' or 'put the head below the workbench' techniques successfully since the Florida days. It seems a bit unconventional but it does work, so I've nicked the approach. I also use the monitors in a near field configuration.
One method to reduce the amount of bass traveling into the physical structure of your room is to decouple it by using speaker stands that are hollow and fill them with sand. The pressure differential between the top and the bottom of the column of sand dissipates some, not all, of the low frequencies. This however won't do much for the standing waves that are created by the by the bass frequencies traveling from the speaker cone into the room, so bear that in mind.
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One last thing, good rooms are a great advantage to have and can be costly, but with enough experience you can compensate to a certain extent. Experience usually means having produced a good number of tracks and listened back to them on a variety of systems, from the boom box to the car stereo.
Having said that, I will probably look into an Auralex solution in the near future to add to the 'quick & dirty' things that I did to the room. At the back of my room I have a large bookshelf and there is carpet on the floor, along with a large couch. Not quite the 'room within a room' solution but it's the best I can manage at this time.
