CR Treatment and Tuning---The home stretch!!

[Soundman2020]

Ahh, what the hell.... let's add a couple more, to give Frank some bragging rights here.

It's generally accepted that a home studio where the overall frequency response is within +/- 10 dB across the spectrum, is about as good as you can expect. So how does Frank's place stack up on that front?

It looks like this:

FRANK-REW--FR--20-200--range-highlight--1..24-01.jpg

You can see that I have highlighted part of the graph in darker shade, containing the highest and lowest peaks within that rectangle. Take a close look at the red text box, over on the far left hand end. It says that the rectangle covers a range of 15.63 decibels. In other words, +/- 7.8 dB! So Frank's room is accurate to within plus or minus 7.8 dB, from about 31 Hz up to 22 kHz. Not bad at all!

Oh, but wait! The graph above is shown at 1/24 octave smoothing, and the specs actually say that you should look at it with 1/3 octave smoothing, because that supposedly better represents human hearing resolution (I don't agree, but that's what the specs say...). Damn. So I got that graph wrong.
OK, so let's smooth it some more, to 1/3 octave...

FRANK-REW--FR--20-200--range-highlight--1..3-01.jpg

So what does that red box say now? Well, gee, to me it looks like it says "7.86 dB" That's the full range, so that means +/- 3.93 dB.

Let that sink in a sec, Frank! When viewed at "normal" smoothing, your room is BETTER than plus - minus 4 dB, across the entire spectrum.

----


(PS. We ain't done yet! It can still improve....)


- Stuart -

[Stadank0]

Seems I may be setting the bar high for future do-it-yourselfers such as myself!


Not to worry, John's latest presentation from Taiwan will forever keep me humble. .

All kidding aside, the news is quite welcome. These things are not easy to build.....

By the way...The room sounds good!

[Stadank0]

I am curious, would it be fair to say that 1/6 octave smoothing is as good as I'm going to hear it, or 1/12?

[Soundman2020]

By the way...The room sounds good!

That's music to my ears! Squiggles on a graph are one thing, but actual human ears listening to real music are another. If it is meeting your expectations, then all is well.

I am curious, would it be fair to say that 1/6 octave smoothing is as good as I'm going to hear it or 1/12

That's a real good question, and there's no simple answer, unfortunately. It's different for different parts of the spectrum, and different for different people. Some do have better hearing than others. It even depends on the music itself: Some music has more noticeable detail in the lows, some has more detail in the highs. But as a general rule, I normally look at at 1/48 to 1/24 octave smoothing as being about right for the judging the low end, 1/24 to 1/12 is about right for the mid range, and 1/12 to 1/6 seems to be good for the high end.

In REW, there are three different smoothing modes that attempt to simulate what humans actually hear. Here are all three applied to your data:

Variable Octave Smoothing: (Starts at 1/48 in the low end, up to 1/3 in the highs, IIRC)

Frank-REW--FR-20-20k--variable-smoothing.png

Psycho-acoustic smoothing: Varies according to an algorithm that supposedly is a close match for average human hearing perception.

Frank-REW--FR-20-20k--psychoacoustic-smoothing.png

And ERB smoothing: I haven't looked into this one much, so I'm not sure what it is based on:

Frank-REW--FR-20-20k--ERB-smoothing.png

But no matter which way you look at it, your room looks great for all of them!

- Stuart -

[Stadank0]

That's music to my ears! Squiggles on a graph are one thing, but actual human ears listening to real music are another. If it is meeting your expectations, then all is well.

I know I'm the only one hearing it with my own ears with regards to the forum, but when you consider how that room sounded untreated...Yeah, its come a long way. The room was pretty much unbearable in the beginning. A big boomy echo chamber of chaos. That was never its intended state of course, but a solid example of what treatment can do.

In the end, my ears definitely matter more than the graphs. There's still some things I'm hoping to iron out, but my confidence is high.

Now all I want moving forward, is magic outta you! no more extraneous building projects! That's for suckers...

[Stadank0]

Check your email when you get a chance...Dont miss the first, its the best part.

[Stadank0]

Hey all! No updates this week, but I heard back from Stuart, so I'm back on track...Should start seeing some more pics by early next week. Next up is the cloud!



Stuart, are you leaving the space under the window unfinished for now? Thanks...

[Soundman2020]

Stuart, are you leaving the space under the window unfinished for now? Thanks...

Right. You'll probably need the space to move your sub around, as we hunt for the best location. Once we find that, then you can finish off that area. Probably just insulation and fabric on a frame.

- Stuart -

[Stadank0]

Hey all,

Just wanted to give a quick update....Should have some trim pics and cloud construction pics up by this weekend. Ran into trouble with cabling issues and had to rethink my routing layout.

Nothings ever easy!

[oslthom]

Looking forward to your ceiling cloud design, Frank!

Your build runs very simultaneously to mine, and I've been quietly lurking here for most of it. Your ideas and Stuart's input has been very helpful, as you've often taken questions straight from my mouth.

Can't wait to see how your room looks once it's all done.

Keep up the good work, buddy! You're almost there

[Stadank0]

Thanks Pal!


There's a reason I've been mentally blocking the electronic side of things(including cabling). Its always a can-o-worms!.... Just took a serious deep look at DAW mix controllers, cause I'm going to be mixing in the box for now. I thought I had one picked out, only to find that it and every other option out there is riddled with bugs and issues..I dropped back and punted by sticking with what I currently have, cause its reliable and it works.

I fear I'm getting on Stuart's nerves with this nonsense as well......

[oslthom]

I'm sure Stuart will tell you in no uncertain terms if that should ever become the case .

[Stadank0]

Sorry for the delay all! Cable testing ran all weekend....Wah, waahhhh.

Think I sorted it though. So, work will definitely recommence this week...

[Stadank0]

Popping holes in walls today. Progress marches on!

In the meantime here is a simple track I made to stress my cables. And maybe I had some fun while I was at it....Maybe!!! I added as much processing and i/o as I could and nothing blew up soooo.....Awesome!!!

No mixing or mastering to speak of, so its a rough mix. Just something to pass the time instead of biting your nails...

https://soundcloud.com/stadanko/ua-apollo-x-test-drive

[Soundman2020]

Neat! I like it.
Strange name for a song, though....

Time to stress some clouds, next!

- Stuart -