Reply To: Speaker Calibration Software

[Patrick BonierModerator]

I bought the ARC 2.5 System several months ago, but never got around to setting it up in my studio. I was talking with a buddy of mine about it yesterday, and finally decided to set it up this morning. I haven't used it for mixing yet, but I found the analysis that the software did to be very enlightening, and it explained to me why I have been pushing certain frequencies in my mixes.

On my Yamahas I had a pretty big dip around 100 (5db!) and then again about 3db in a couple spots in the hi-mids, as well as some spikes around 250 and 400. Similar results on my KRKs, which shows that the problem is the room, not the speakers.

I was able to do separate profiles for my Yamahas and my KRKs, which is a nice feature. I usually set up some gobos when I'm tracking, so tomorrow, I'll set up the gobos and do profiles for both sets of speakers with the gobos in place.

I tried it out with Warren's mix of "Wide Awake" and was pretty impressed with the improvement after engaging the ARC.

I know that Graham Cochrane uses the ARC system, which is one of the reasons I bought it when it went on sale a while back. I think it was under $150 and it came with a measuring mic.

So, bottom line, my opinion is that it is well worth it. I am also planning on buying the Sonorworks headphone plugin.