I've recently been spending a lot of time and effort trying to get my control to sound better. However I'm still not happy with what's going on in the low end. I've had some consulation done by Auralex on the phone--the problems I'm hearing confirm their calculations. I'm getting tired of building things though--the room is pretty small to begin with and I'm losing real estate. I was just reading an article the other day on using parametric EQ to tune the response of your monitors and room. Does anyone here do such a thing in their control room? What equalizer units do you think are suitable for the task? Give me all my options under $2000. Any advice or tips you can give me if I do decide to go that route? I'm using Mackie monitors by the way.

thanks,
Brad

Hi Brad,

What exactly do you miss at low frequencies`?
I had the mackies myself (I like them, but i had similar issues)
so I got new monitors (dynaudio BM 15 passive) ..they have more definition to me.

But they can´t solve my main problem as far as romm acoutics are concerned.
So I placed them in other positions (took me 2 days of trial , listen, listen and changes) and built my whole setup (incl. a new working desk with less resonance) around them: since that much less problems, works better!

hope this helps in a way,....
regards,
MuBaud

Brad,

The White Instruments 4400 passive third octave is the eq of choice for many room tuners.

It has plug-in for filters and can be used like a x-over.

Rane manufactures several graphic eq's and some programable EQ solutions that are a pretty close second to the Whites at a lower cost.

MuBaud,

I'm happy with my monitors, but not my room. I have some bad dips and peaks in the low end that my bass traps just aren't handling sufficiently. I'm about to try moving my mix position around this weekend. I know what the most offensive frequencies are--it's just a matter of getting out of spots where they cancel and build up the most.

Brad

Which Rane products do you recommend?

Brad

Brad -

How big is your room? The smaller it is, the more treatment you have to add to nullify the modal boosts. Nasty stuff.

You may need to go with tuned Helmholtz resonators to even out the dips, but they could result in these huge devices to suck up the lows. I would think that broadband absorbtion like Auralex's might not help to the degree that you need - tuned resonators would probably be necessary.

Check out the StudioTips site for a great acoustics mailing list - there's a lot of good info there. Nearly everybody will recommend that you pick up a copy of F. Alton Everest's book, Master Handbook of Acoustics. Doug Plumb of Acoustisoft wrote a chapter on how to analyze a room, based on his great ETF program. If you have a PC, it's worth buying to do room measurement.

Hope this helps,


charlie

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charlie bonnell
www.copperdalton.com


[This message has been edited by CopperDalton (edited 11-09-2001).]

Charlie,

The room is about 7x11 with 8 foot ceilings. Sucks I know. I built some nice 4" thick broadband absorbers out of 6 lb. density mineral wool--the go down fairly low. There are also some Auralex products in the room for bass trapping and diffusion. The front wall has a velvet drape to absorb reflections behind the monitors. Above roughly 300 Hz the room is very tight and controlled sounding--imaging and spacial localization is excellent. It's not overly dead at all and there are no flutter echoes. It's just the low end that blows big monkey turds. Room modes are killing me.

Auralex consultants actually designed some diaphragmatic absorbers to take care of my specific axial and tangential mode problems. However, I am reluctant to build them because I'm not sure I want to give up the additional real estate in the room.

I own a copy of the Everest book and have read it cover to cover a few times. I know...I am an acoustics geek.

How much is that software program?

thanks,
Brad

Brad, what are you useing for monitors? Is it that your mixes are'nt translating very well to other systems?

Brad,

Maybe you need a Mackie mixer. I was once called out to listen to this guys system with a DA7 and 824's. It sounded awful with the DA7 but better with a Mackie 2408 analog console for some reason. Not much better mind you, but better, less fuzzy.

We tried but we couldn't put our finger on what was causing the problem...phase (we checked it), placement, A.C., the moon the stars, etc. We tested every input and output with every kind of source but nothing could make this system sound good ...

Needless to say the DA7 was returned and Mackieguy kept his 2408 and 824's. To this day it still sounds a little fuzzy.

(I hate to say it but,) several of my composer buddies use 824's as their rear speakers.


I'd try this: http://www.dynaudioacoustics.com

Before you do this: http://www.rane.com/seq30l.html http://www.whiteinstruments.com/sp4400.htm http://www.klarkteknik.com/pages/set_products.html


Good luck,

YMMV




[This message has been edited by Leslie (edited 11-09-2001).]

Brad -

Sounds a lot like the problems I currently have in my room - it's about 10'x13', 7' tall. Most of the acoustic problems are in the 90Hz range. This is an ETF graph of the low end in the room:



That hump is at about 87Hz, and the big null at 135Hz, just about where my modal calculations set it. I've learned to mix around it until I move to another place - I'd lose so much room by designing & implementing treatment that it wouldn't be worth the loss of space.

I've tried applying corrective EQ to the DA7's master mix, just as a comparison that I could use during mixing. I haven't really used it though - I just wound up moving the monitors back to increase the bass - as a result of that big null in the low mids, my mixes were bass heavy. Then again, as a bassist, perhaps that's how they should be. |:-)

The BM-15s are on my list of monitors to try, whenever we get out of here (why buy better monitors when the room sucks? |:-), as are the Truth monitors (not those Behringer ones, the ones from the Distressor dudes).

ETF is $150, and there's a downloadable demo. It's very cool, and can work with any soundcard.

If you EQ your monitors, definitely let us know how it turns out.

charlie


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charlie bonnell
www.copperdalton.com

[This message has been edited by CopperDalton (edited 11-09-2001).]