Room pic

I'm on one side of a bedroom...I'm shocked when I turn off ARC and hear how awful everything sounds. It has saved soooo many cdr's it has paid itself off.

keneds
Room pic

 
Whoa! One speaker in a corner, one against the wall...that's a big problem right there. A speaker in a corner will boost bass significantly because ANYTHING radiated from the back, being a long wavelength, will bounce off the wall and reinforce what's coming off the front. The left side speaker with its back to the will have a similar problem but to a lesser degree. So right off the bat, you likely have too much bass, and your left and right channels are not symmetrical.
 
If you move your mixing table to the left several feet so it's more in the middle of the room, and move the speakers at least a foot (preferably more) away from the wall, you'll be in better shape.
 
I don't have a permanent studio yet since I relocated, but the mixing "deck" with the monitors etc. is about a third of the way toward the middle of the room, titled at a slight angle so the sound waves hit the wall at a slight angle; the speakers are in about 5 ft from the wall. If I don't turn them up too loud, there's not a lot of reflections. People who listen to what I've posted on my YouTube channel tell me the mixes translate well over just about anything, which of course is my primary goal. 
 
The ARC system is, IMHO, the best of the artificial room correction devices. But like any kind of correction, it is most effective in situations that don't need huge amounts of correction. Take care of the basics first, like speaker placement as noted above, deadening the wall behind the speakers, putting a cloud above you, and bass traps in the corners. That will make a huge difference. Then get a set of accurate (not sexy) headphones, like the KRK KNS-8400, and learn them so you have an alternate reality check.
 
If there is a good mastering suite within driving distance, tell them you want to book half an hour to listen to your music over a really good system. They might even let you do it for free so they can pitch you on mastering your stuff  Take note of how the music sounds different on your system compared to theirs so you have an idea of how you'll need to compensate in the future.
 
I worked with a mastering engineer in Nashville named Randy Kling, he had these $10,000 speakers that were off the hook. I brought in a CD for mastering and knew I was doing okay when it sounded like it did in my studio in terms of overall accuracy, other than a deficiency below 40 Hz that showed up with orchestral bass drums. Of course, his sounded a lot sweeter! But whether a speaker sounds "good" or not is not as important as whether it is accurate.

Yep, as Anderton said...I have centered my speakers in my side of the room. They are away from the wall (not as far as I would like, but close) and I have a perfect triangle formed with my head and the speakers. I have also adjusted the hieght of the speakers so my ear is in between the tweeter and woofer (I use Roland DS8s). Any thing I could do I've done. Then I took great care in doing the 16 mic measurements with ARC2. Listen to him and do all you can first...for sure.

Yes. Mr. Anderton's (and your) advice has my wheels turning. I'm putting together a little floor plan to post for some suggestions on room treatment suggestions, such as base trap placement or the foam block stuff. As well as scheming my next purchase of the ARC2 system.

keneds, you are getting some very good advice and feedback in this thread…I'm learning from it  
 
Kenny

Just an anecdote to reinforce what Anderton said.

I've got a reasonably sized home studio (24' x 15' x 10'), and I've just put up a lot of rigid fiberglass panels in frames holding them about 2" from the wall, which improved things a lot with respect to ring and reverb. I had planned to put in even more of these, but I thought I would listen to some low frequency sound waves in Sound Forge to see whether I should go to the trouble of building some real bass traps.

Wow. Even though I'd read about it, I was not prepared for the result. Walking around the room with a 60 Hz tone playing, I found some large spots where you could barely hear the tone at all, and just as many where it was sickeningly loud. Sitting in my usual monitoring spot, I could hear the 60 Hz tone just fine, but if I lifted my head six to eight inches it practically disappeared!

Other frequencies behaved similarly, but of course the cancellations and reinforcements were at different places in the room. It's hard to see how I could mix anything in this room.

I'm going today to get some material for deep bass traps, and I plan to put up 16 2' x 4' panels. I hope that does it.

Anyone who's interested might check out ethanwiner.com.

A basic idea of what my room layout is... minus the amp, guitars, stands and nonsense. Not sure where to locate room treatment. Input? 😁

I believe you'd want to be in the center of the shortest wall, If that's not an option the center of any wall would be best. I'll shutup now and let the guys who really know there stuff help you. Later if you need help with ARC2 (if you go that route) let me know...I have a lot of good advice saved here I can send you.

I mix to Sony Sound Forge. If I want it louder, I just raise the volume a few db in Sound Forge, after the wav is completed. I haven't noticed any additional noise. I believe I paid 50 bucks for sound forge.