Subwoofer question...

Unless you are doing surround mixes, SONAR will have no knowledge of the subwoofer, it will send the same stereo out. All the speaker configuration occurs in hardware after the interface outputs.

Just wire the sub according to the instructions that some with it and adjust it similar to the monitors.
 
Use some commercial CD's to set the starting levels. Something you know what the bass end sounds like. Once you set it, leave it alone.
 
If you have ARC, redo the setup.
 
I luv me some sub woofer....

Automatic Room Correction software. It tries to compensate for poor acoustics in an untreated room so that you can more closely hear the music accurately.
 
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/arc/
 
It listens to the room from the mixing position, and does a set up process sweeping across the frequency band to "fix" the room. Once it has done that, and saved it as the preset, you pop it into the master bus and it "corrects" what you hear as you mix to give you a more accurate rendition of the music.
 
Check it out. Several folks here have it, use it, and love it.....me included.
 
 
I too use an inexpensive sub.... Polk Audio 10". However, adjusting the crossover and levels is not a good idea. When you do that, you are changing what you hear...(ear candy) but the mix you are trying to make will now be biased depending on what you did. Say you added more bass by upping the volume..... you will now tend to mix less bass to compensate. You are making your mixing harder to do when you adjust the levels on the sub. It takes trial & error to get them right, but once you do, let them be.
 
Same deal on moving it. the lower freqs from the sub tend to set up peaks and nulls in the room more easily.... so set it in a spot and forget it. Moving it sets up totally new wave patterns in the room. (that's the easy explanation)

I'd start by asking the question: do I need a subwoofer at all?
 
Do some experiments with sine waves or white noise and a microphone in front of your current speakers. You don't have to record anything, just turn on Input Echo and insert an instance of SPAN so you can see the levels objectively. Set the microphone where your ears would normally be and put it into omni mode if the mic has that feature.
 
Make note of where the output falls below about 3 to 6db below the average. If that's 40Hz then forget the sub and spend that money on something else, like bass traps. If it's 60Hz or higher, then you're definitely missing stuff down there and the sub will help. Just don't feel that you need significant amplitude below 40Hz, because you don't. 
 
Adding a subwoofer will often cause more problems than it solves. If you have a small, untreated room, the sub is probably a mistake. And the kinds of problems it'll introduce are NOT the kinds of problems ARC can help you with.

I once mentioned using a sub in another popular forum and was bashed by the majority of "experienced" engineers!
I really don't use it much, But find it handy to pick out sub sonic artifacts that might slip buy me easily as I am using NSM 10's which are well documented to have poor bass.  I don't use it while tracking or mixing. If I do it will totally throw me off. It obviously changes the accuracy of my listening. I never have a problem getting the Bass right in a mix.   
But It is a handy tool I use once in a while to make sure all is good in the low end of a mix, It certainly "sounds" better than just the NMS 10's by them selves but I see what all these "experienced engineers" were getting at now. 

And I'll probably sound snooty as an Audiophile with a $40,000 turntable in my room, but the truth is, I've never heard a good subwoofer that costs less than $600. There's several of these manufacturers who make awesome subs, but until your sub cannot be identified in your room by any directional or vibrational means, it's not a subwoofer, it's a bass driver.
 
If you can ever hear a set of Polk SRS SDA 1.2 or 2.3TL speakers, you'll see what I mean. These speakers were the flagship of Polk in the late 80's and it's rightfully obvious as to why. These speakers will have smooth bass all the way down below 30Hz (advertised to 12Hz), so I've never needed a sub. I have had subs before I bought the Polk SRS-SDA's, and loved them, but I've heard some lower-end subs that are just thumpy and rumbly. They didn't really articulate the deep, bellowing bass you should hear. 
 
With that said, and I'll be fair about this, a Sub is still quite useful. When I'm dialing in a kick-drum, and want to see how well it's glued to the bass guitar, I do rely on the subwoofer in my car ('06 Acura TL with an ELS surround system co-designed by Elliot Sheiner). The sub is not all that, but I can quickly "feel" specific frequencies on the back of my neck that tell me when the kick is just right.
 
So, I won't discount the usefulness of a sub of any degree, but I will say that to have a sub or two that are going to keep your frequency response very flat, you'll need one that can really move some air to get low frequencies to come through, or you'll miss finding rumble in the background of a mix.
 

Thanks for the suggestion. I do have sound treatment on the walls (might want to get more)... and when I built this house (last year).. I had the studio built in a "shell" so it's soundproofed from construction, electrical is isolated from the rest of the house, etc... I DID run a Room Test with the MSC1 when I first moved it in.... I don't recall the settings.. but I think another test might be in order.. if I can get it running again. =)
 Where can I get Sine Waves for testing? Just play them into a channel in X2 and watch the SPAN meter?
 
Thanks man!
 

bitflipper
I'd start by asking the question: do I need a subwoofer at all?
 
Do some experiments with sine waves or white noise and a microphone in front of your current speakers. You don't have to record anything, just turn on Input Echo and insert an instance of SPAN so you can see the levels objectively. Set the microphone where your ears would normally be and put it into omni mode if the mic has that feature.
 
Make note of where the output falls below about 3 to 6db below the average. If that's 40Hz then forget the sub and spend that money on something else, like bass traps. If it's 60Hz or higher, then you're definitely missing stuff down there and the sub will help. Just don't feel that you need significant amplitude below 40Hz, because you don't. 
 
Adding a subwoofer will often cause more problems than it solves. If you have a small, untreated room, the sub is probably a mistake. And the kinds of problems it'll introduce are NOT the kinds of problems ARC can help you with.

There are test files in DimPro but I prefer to use the MeldaProduction Free Bundle tool MOscillator

+1.
 

konradh
I am prepared to be mocked, but I have always been afraid to add a subwoofer unless I had an acoustic specialist measure the room--similar to the drill bitflipper mentioned.  I have always been afraid that adding a subwoofer would confuse me as to what is really going down in the mix.
 
I know people use them but I don't feel qualified to add one.

I have a cheap sub in a room with no acoustic treatment.  Speakers are not optimally placed.
 
I do the best I can with what I have. I also have ARC which I have run and set up.
 
I have taken the time to experiment and learn the speakers I have,  in the room I have them in, so the mixes are coming out fairly consistent and playable on most systems. That's what matters in the end.
 
If anything..... that ^^^^^... learning your gear and room ... is the key.  With or without a sub.

Thanks, Bit. I didn't realize SPAN was Spectral Analyzer. I'll follow these steps in this other thread. I've got a good real time analyzer.

studio343
Let me follow up with this question.. if I treat my room and run the room analysis/correction software.. shouldn't the need for a subwoofer become moot at that point? The correction will adjust as necessary to compensate.. I just don't know if lower frequencies would translate as well on my monitors. They are some older Event PS5's. Similar to the Event 20/20s from a few years back (but lower price point)...
 
Thanks

 
Not really. If your monitors only go down to, say, 50Hz, no amount of "correction" can replace what isn't there to start with.