hi all, i've recently got ARC 2 from IK.
 
however, after my setup i took a listen to The Eagles: Hotel California from their album Hell Freezes Over; this is one of my test tracks when auditioning systems.
 
The funny thing i am hearing is when the floor tom / conga comes in after the guitar solo, the new "corrected" sound seems to have been translated to a kick. The tail of the tom seems to be lost and replaced with quite deep kick tone. If i "un-correct" ARC, i get back the familiar tom sound. 
 
would any ARC System users pls kindly advice... thank you all in advance.
 
i'm using the Yamaha HS8 in a fairly treated room.
 
many thanks again.

I find that ARC is finicky. Making the measurements is the most daunting as keeping all the points symmetrical is not easy. I decided to physically measure my area and use bits of tape and placed them where I wanted to set the microphone so every spot I set it, was as precise as I could make it. I did more measurments than the minimum as well and found it to have greater accuracy.
 
Maybe I'm wrong on this, but on the third edit button there is a big knob. It was set to -6db. I set it to 0db and found that to make a difference as well with low frequency response. It seems that all ARC is doing is clearing away irrelevant frequencies and making what you hear more clear. I always go back and forth though with it on and off.
 
I would continue to use references though. I'm not sure I would listen with in on though. Like any other tool, you can't solely depend on it.

keyzs
 The funny thing i am hearing is when the floor tom / conga comes in after the guitar solo, the new "corrected" sound seems to have been translated to a kick. The tail of the tom seems to be lost and replaced with quite deep kick tone. If i "un-correct" ARC, i get back the familiar tom sound. 

I found that using ARC,or any other room correction tools does make some things sound a little different,that's because it's already been corrected in someone elses listening environment using tools much the same as you and I,so the listening should be done without correction in most cases.

Guitarpima
 
I would continue to use references though. I'm not sure I would listen with in on though. Like any other tool, you can't solely depend on it.

BobbyT
 
I found that using ARC,or any other room correction tools does make some things sound a little different,that's because it's already been corrected in someone elses listening environment using tools much the same as you and I,so the listening should be done without correction in most cases.

Hi guys, thanks for the heads up... i guess this tool and listening practices are still new to me. i'll use it for a while and see how mixes translates elsewhere. 
 
if there are other suggestions, pls do continue to advice.
 
once again, many thanks...

I don't think it's supposed to make your monitors sound good for normal listening like stereo speakers.

Mosvalve
I don't think it's supposed to make your monitors sound good for normal listening like stereo speakers.

@BobV, ahhh.... i get it.... i guess its meant to be used for "my room" corrections during the mix stage of production and then when taking the mix out to other places, the ARC that was installed in "my room" will not be there. Hence "my mix" should translate well... (i hope... )
 
as such, for critical listening of completed fully mastered material in "my room", ARC should not be on as it was done in another room with other forms for treatment in "those rooms". i guess it does make sense now...
 
as i have had ARC only for the weekend, i will continue to try it out further.
 
many thanks again all.

Arc does work , but I found it needed some tweaking ,  In the end it is about how your mixes translate.
    For myself I found it over-corrected.  For example I use the Equator D8's  a very clear detailed speaker ,
I found it took away the high mid / high end clarity , so I boosted that backup with a user curve,
  I have a dip at 70 htz and at 500 ,   I had to change that correction to about 1/2 .  
     I had done detailed measurements many times but this was the best way to make It work.
I finally just went with a hardware eq  , used eq wizard and adjusted and am extremely happy with the results
in translation .  ( I do have a very well treated room , this was to do the final tweaks)

@David, thank you for your advice. 
 
initially when the room was setup it was tested with REW. the response was not too bad with the small amount of treatment i had; RT60 was really tight; apologies i dont have the original results. i will surely do the room test again when i have a little more time. however, the biggest null i had was at about 150Hz and seriously quite a huge boost at 70Hz. i did a little shifting of the speaker stands and the null got closer to the 0db line. however, the boost at 70Hz remains unaffected. 
 
i was thinking of getting the HS8S sub, however i wanted to give ARC a try. Another issue is the room is seriously small; 14ft x 11ft x 8.5ft and at one corner, there is a huge wooden cabinet. Not sure at this moment if the sub could solve the problem or become a huge nightmare instead... 
 
for now i'll probably experiment with ARC while still mixing the old way until i'm more accustomed to the "corrected" sound. 
 
once again many thanks all. Cheers!!!

I too have found ARC 2 somewhat frustrating.  After a second, very detailed, measuring process, the mixes still translate with too much low end (i.e., while monitoring with ARC 2, there is not much bass, but after mixing down, the bass is too heavy in other listening environments).  I find that making a "Custom" correction algorithm doesn't make that much difference (trying to extend low frequencies so as to get a more accurate representation during mixing).
 
I find this particularly annoying, and am considering breaking out my old ERGO unit, which always translated into very accurate mixes.  For all of IKM's puffery about ARC 2, I am not at all impressed.
 
I'd take any advice - without trying to hijack the thread!
 
 

I'm interested in this thread because I own the ARC 2 system.  It's been a godsend for me, but I've discovered that I've been confused at times by the change in sound.  I found, one day, that I had inadvertently left it in "virtual monitor" mode on the boom box setting, and once I had set it to "flat" for my monitors, everything went back to normal.  So... check your settings if anything seems amiss.