I have finally managed to get around to doing a better baseline rew test for my control room, hope I got it right this time. I followed the instructions to the letter but still had a few issues with levels so I am not quite sure it has all worked properly.
The data looks fine.
Also I don’t really know what to expect as the control room is completely without treatment so it sounds pretty horrible.
And it looks equally horrible, in the graphs! Which is good, as your room's problems are clearly visible. At this stage, it is supposed to look horrible.
One thing that has surprised me is how closely the graph bumps correspond to the previously calculated modes. It amazes me when something theoretical then corrresponds to real life.
Yep! It's always nice when theory matches reality. That also gives you good confidence that the theoretical treatment will fix the real problems...
Speaker settings - not exactly sure what to set the controls on the Neumann KH310’s to, so I tried -5db bass and left lowmid and treble on 0.
You seem to be rolling off the bass a little too much, so I'd try a slightly lower setting. The others are fine, for now. We won't know too much about how the high end needs to go until you get a lot of the treatment into the room. It's mainly low treatment that you want right now, but that will have an effect on the highs, so keep your speaker tweaks in reserve until it's clear if you might need them.
Measurement mic was C414 in omni pointed up at 60 deg at the listening position
The 414 is fine for now, but it would be better to get a proper acoustic measurement mic for future tests. The 414 has a rather large body, and it can affect the measurements themselves.
(I marked the floor so I can put mic in the same place next time).
That's the X and Y location in the room, but you also need the Z location: height. All three need to be accurate.
I did calibrate the soundcard but not quite sure I managed to use the calibration properly,
It looks fine.
it was basically flat anyway (-0.5db at 20hz).
At this point in the process, the calibration is pretty much irrelevant, but as you get the room tuned closer and closer to your final goal, it becomes more important.
Any advice on the results gratefully received.
The procedure from here on is actually simple, in principle (but not so much, in practice!): Take a look at the graphs and see what the biggest problems are. Fix those, take another set of readings. Repeat. And carry on repeating until you run out of money, or time, or patience, or wall space for more treatment.
Clearly, your biggest issues right now are modal issues at 43 Hz, 83 and 123 Hz, so deal with those first: Those are very long waves, so you need very large, deep bass traps. Figure out which room axis each is associated with, and put suitable treatment on the correct walls / corners. The treatment you apply for those will also have a nice effect on some of the other low-end issues, but you'll need to take care that it does not adversely effect the high end. You don't want a dead room! You want a balanced room.
One other thing: The good news is that your left and right channels are fairly similar: so you should have a good stereo image. However, your left speaker is slightly louder than your right speaker: you need to turn down the left by about 1/2 a decibel. That's not easy to do at this point, with the room the way it is, so don't try yet. Wait until you have some of the treatment in place.
- Stuart -
- and good to see Stuart / Soundman is on the case for you. The devil is in the detail !