How to tune SPQ card in MTRX Studio

[nedd]

In a few days I wil receive MTRX Studio and one of the most important parts of it is built in SPQ. So I was wondering how did you guys who own MTRX or Studio did go on tuning the speakers?
What apps, hardware, microphones you used?
Did you play sweeps and pink/white noise from Renderer app for setting the Atmos? I also have 7.1.4 so that will be most important part to tune it right.
I would also assume that once you use SPQ for the processing all other sources like Dolby Atmos Renderer (delay) and AVR (for playback of movies, Tidal...) should be turned back to zero?
I have UMIK-1 USB mic (with REW) and also Studiosixdigital Audio Tools with iAudiointerface and mic, where should I start? Measure the sweeps and create EQ curves to compensate? Then apply the curve, run the sweeps again and tweak until the line close to the flat?

[nedd]

Nobody?!

MTRX Studio arrived today, if anyone would share any tips on the Tuning or anything else that has to do with MTRX (Studio) and is handy in the set up process, please do respond. Thanks!!

[reichman]

I'm following since I just recently set up my 7.1.4 mix room with Metric Halo hardware. So far I used my caveman skills to pink the room to a calibrated level using the signal generator in the renderer and an SPL meter. I also used the ATSC test tones. Then I designed a single-sample timing loopback test to calculate speaker delay to the mix position. THAT was ear-opening. Just run a series of impulses one by one to all the speakers and record them at the mix position, then measure the difference between what you played and what you recorded and adjust the delay compensation in each speaker. But obviously, these are the first two very basic steps. Post back here when you learn more. Thanks!

[Rich Breen]

Personally I like Fuzzmeasure Pro and an Earthworks M30, but Room EQ Wizard will do basically all the same stuff for a lot less money (free), and for room measurements you can get by with a much less expensive mic (though it should be purpose-designed). Studio Six Digital also makes a very powerful suite that can be used on an iphone or ipad with an external interface and decent mic. These systems use time-windowed sweeps to derive impulse response - they are quite different from just 'pinking' the room and give you much more accurate measurements in addition to a picture of what the room is doing over time - some of these packages allow you to place multiple mics in different locations and average them in a single measurement, though you can do the same thing with Fuzzmeasure (and I think REQW) by just moving a single mic around and averaging the measurements after the fact.

There's tons of info about using these kinds of measurement packages out there on acoustics forums; I'd take a look over at Ethan Winer's forum or the Room EQ Wizard's forums.

[nedd]

Thank you Nathan & Rich,

I will check Fuzzmeasure Pro. Like I mentioned above, I did some measurements with REW and UMIK mic and that helped to determine speaker delay, which also made huge difference once put into DARenderer. In two months, after some minor renovations, the real acoustician will come to do proper measurements and tuning, but until then I would definitely like to do some basic ones and also "experiment" with SPQ curves.

[Frank Kruse]

Obviously not as cheap as the mentioned tools but I much prefer Smaart for tuning the b-chain as you have a live display of what's going on and don't have to re-sweep every time you made an adjustment. You can also load an x-curve overlay to the RTA for final overall tweaks.
Delay fine-tuning is also super-easy with the live IR display.
Can recommend...especially in a room with 20+ atmos speakers a sweep-based measuring app can be quite a slow down.

That said, REW & Fuzzmeasure are great tools for waterfall displays etc. to find/tweak acoustic issues of the room but for final tuning Smaart is very comfortable.

I think there's also a Smaart extension for one of the iPad/iPhone apps that give you the transfer function display. An RTA is really not very good for tuning the room. Just use it for final overall x-curve adjustments

F.

[nedd]

Thank you Frank, I just checked Smaart's website (rode) and saw that they give now 90 days demos period so that might comes handy. Don't know about the limitations but probably enough to get some basic measurements. Are you measuring one mic position per speaker or more?

[Frank Kruse]

Originally Posted by nedd

Thank you Frank, I just checked Smaart's website (rode) and saw that they give now 90 days demos period so that might comes handy. Don't know about the limitations but probably enough to get some basic measurements. Are you measuring one mic position per speaker or more?

Wow 90 days is pretty cool. Yes one speaker at a time at mix position but you can also average over an area that you want to optimise for. The coherence info is helpful to disregard inconclusive areas because of "pollution" from noise sources in the room etc. Much more meaningful info than an RTA that just shows you what the mic picks up incl. the leaks that might be there from outside sources that color your measurement.

[Rich Breen]

FWIW, Studio Six Digital's package includes (for an in-app purchase) a set of licensed SMAART tools. Don't know how complete it is as I haven't used it.

[nedd]

Thank you Frank and Rich.
I downloaded Smaart8 demo and tried it out, but it is very powerful and complex program so I will need to spend some time with it first to get familiar with all the options and possibilities it has.
Just want to be sure that I am doing the measurement properly, but in the first try couldn't figure it out.

Smaart in AudioTools app offer some basic Smaart RTA with single channel module. It is affordable (€54.99) but then it is not possible to install on my old iAudiointerface on iPod touch.
On the newer iPhones and iPads it could work but again microphone is a problem and I can not use old interface as it has 30 pin dock connector. And I tried UMIK-1 with Audiotools on new iPhone and ipad but it doesn't work reliably and StudioSixDigital won't fix this as they sell their own microphones.

I also tried Fuzzmeasure, but their demo is so limited that you can't load microphone calibration and can not make more that two measurements. It is useless demo but app looks very clean and simple, like that.

So far only REW is usable but hopefully will find some more time soon to dive into Smaart8 and get that to work.