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Room Calibration process?


jgbsound

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So I've SPL'd the monitors in my room but now, I would like to calibrate the frequency response of my speakers in my studio.   I'm using the Yamaha SM series monitors in a 5.1 setup and was wondering how you guys tweak highs/mids/lows so it's tuned appropriately for your work area?
 
I'm assuming you need a spectrum analyzer, a decent mic, a tone generator and a need for a more honest representation of what your mix will sound like.
 
Is it as simple as sending out tone from the tone generator in Protools, looking at it on the spectrum analyzer as you shift frequencies and tweak the low/mid/high switches on the speakers?
 
Or is there some other special way to tune it?
 
As always I will defer to those with more experience in these matters.
 
 
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when you say "calibrate the frequency response of my speakers in my studio" you mean eq your speakers correct?

In most cases you want to treat your room first. Eq'ing monitors is a not a good idea. If you need to do a LFt/Rt calibration you play a white noise blast and use a spl meter in room to make sure your listening position is centered.

Nice tool to have... Basically You do a wave sweep (free files on the net) and it tells you what freqs are higher.

It will give you a picture of your room and tell you you need to treat it!

I hear more mouth noises and and what not with first reflections and some traps in the room.

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This will work, but as you prob know if your room is middling to smallish you will end up with a whole lot of bass traps etc to get even close to a flat response, and in a lot of rooms it isn't possible to get a flat response no matter what you do.  Here's an alt to Ethan's method: http://www.hometheatershack.com/roomeq/.   The outcome might end up being the same--lots of room treatment.  

 

philp

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Dolby room calibration:

http://pacificav.com/library/Dolby%2051%20productions%20guidelines.pdf

 

Basic room calibration:

http://www.protoolsprofessional.com/2011/04/22/speaker-calibration-tutorial/

 

Detailed discussion on the Gearslutz Forum:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/post-production-forum/229741-standard-mixing-levels-movie-theater-dvd-broadcast-tv-commercials-etc.html

 

 

I think what you're trying to do is tune the room, which is a whole different thing. For that, I'd call in acoustical experts and figure out where all the room nodes are and try to come up with a budget for room treatments and acoustical work. F. Alston Everett's Master Handbook of Acoustics is one of the most significant works on the subject, but be warned there's a lotta math and it's a very, very, very complicated area. 

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Thanks Marc & all,

I've actually already calibrated the speakers, with an spl meter, to78db C weighted. I've also compensated for the.boost by consumer home theaters by boosting the sub +6-7dB higher per the Dolby spec.

I am interested in tuning the room actually. Ill look at that book you mentioned Marc. However, I may just find an acoustical expert to help me as it sounds like pretty heady stuff.

Well this is at least a good starting point.

John

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So I was talking to a buddy over at Vintage King and he recommended this.  Any thoughts on it?  

 

From the demo video, you first run the test on the room in multiple mic positions, then add in their conforming EQ into your monitoring chain, and it does the compensation for your particular environment.  

 

Pretty nifty, if it works...

 

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/arc/

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