SCorey
Guitarhacker
Point #2.... how do you get the mic to pick up the test bursts and NOT play it back like it normally does in Sonar X1? I have never really wanted to NOT monitor the inputs but what Danny says makes sense. I think I have a few slow days here this week so I will turn the DAW on and see if I can figure this out.
The ARC measurement program doesn't have any sort of input monitoring capability, so you need to turn all that off in your sound device's control software. If it is on it will most certainly wreck the measurements. Danny's tip of tapping the mic and making sure you can't hear it when setting up for the measurements is a great one.
Also.... the first time you run ARC's test burst...be sure the outputs are down.... dang that test burst was loud
I suggest wearing earplugs when doing the measurements. Those chirps drive me nuts.
+1! Thanks Steve....I didn't realize this thread was still going on. LOL!
Herb: I've done it two ways. The way Steve mentioned....by simply disabling input monitoring in your soundcard software, and when I have used a console with ARC, I can mute the input and still allow the signal to pass through so the mic is hot, but you can't hear the mic if you tap it.
If you leave the mic hot to where you can actually hear it when you tap on it, you're getting double signals from ARC and if you have any sort of phasing issues after your correction, that's why. It's playing back twice during the correction.
Also, don't forget to try and get your latency as low as possible for the correction procedure. I got mine down to 32 samples ASIO and then it crapped out on me during the test bursts when I was calibrating the "OK" thing...so I increased to 64 and everything was fine. What's weird is, I can run in Sonar at 32 samples 95% of the time depending on the project...but ARC didn't want any parts of that. LOL!
But yeah man, if your mic was hot to where you could tap it and hear it, it was sending out the test bursts again. That's definitely going to jack up your final results. This is where ARC will fail for people and this is why (in my opinion) it has probably gotten a bad rap from a few people. There's no way the people testing this or writing reviews went through all the trouble that I and others have gone through. They simply don't have the time. I'd be willing to bet they weren't as symmetrical as they could have been and did the whole test thing pretty fast. The first time I did it, I did it fast and didn't pay attention to detail. I wasn't happy with my results...but I knew I was
half-@ssing it. The next correction, more in depth but still not as correct as it should have been. The third time, I got it and still have that correction today as well as a few others I've experimented with. They all sound the same for the most part.
I've yet to read a review where someone went through the pains of hell like I have while telling people how they did it and how long the procedure took. SOS stated: "Next comes the room measurement process, which takes about ten minutes." I just laughed at that. Then again, I've stopped reading comments about ARC and I've stopped posting about it as often. If someone doesn't want to believe in it, that's fine by me. They can keep mixing crap mixes if they want to while buying all that ugly room stuff and I'll keep this little gem for myself.
I also don't have to get involved in confrontations from jack-a-lopes that don't know what they're talking about anyway that have never presented a mix worth anything. Not to mention, most of them haven't tried ARC to even say a word. That's what REALLY gets me. If people have tried it and did it right and still failed...what can I say....I'm deeply sorry, you're in the minority. I've never used Ableton Live...I'd look like a fool if I read the stat sheets on it and decided it's better than Sonar or not as good as Sonar without trying it, ya know? You just never know how something works "for you" until you try it and try it the right way.
But make no mistake....if you do it right, it works. I use it in every room I work in with great results. The set up (taping the floor, writing down the symmetrical placements as well as the procedure) should take about an hour and a half or so. It took me 35 minutes to prep taping the floor etc and 40-45 minutes to do the correction procedure. If it's not taking a person that long, they aren't doing it right...and rest assured, those that have reviewed it with negative results, didn't take that long to do it....I'd bet all that I own there.
Even if they did, I'd still want to re-trace their steps to see if they forgot something like leaving the mic hot or forgetting to adjust their latency...or not enough signal at the calibration, or using the wrong mic code, or not positioning the mic correctly at the ears/nose, or not putting the mic straight up or not being symmetrical. There's so much that needs to be considered when making this work correctly, it's easy to see how and why people might give it bad reviews. You can't miss one detail or it will affect the entire process. Worst case scenario...it's a great eq for getting monitors relatively flat just like having someone come to your house and do it for you and in my opinion, this is way more accurate.
-Danny