"In The Box" Room Tuning

[Howie Smith]

Someone else may have already posted this trick somewhere, but if they haven't... I have a cool little setup that allows me to tune my system quickly. It does not take the place of Smaart, but it works great if you on a time crunch. I call it, "In The Box Room Tuning". Add in a little "Aja" and you are good to go!

The Setup:

Select a mono input channel and name it "REF MIC"

Set the channel Input Gain to 0.0

Do not assign it to anything

Click "INPUT DIRECT" at the top right of screen in Config section

Insert Waves PAZ Frequency (or some time of plug-in analyzer) on the "REF MIC" channel

Go to PATCHBAY and assign "REF MIC" to INPUTS / FOH / Com

Plug your reference mic into Com on the FOH Rack, set the gain knob to the 12:00 position and double check the phantom power switch

Select another mono input channel and name it "PINK"

Set the channel Input Gain to 0.0

Assign "PINK" to L-R (or whatever output(s) you are tuning)

Go to PATCHBAY and assign "PINK" to INPUTS / FOH / OSC

Go to OPTIONS / MISC and verify that the oscillator is set to Pink Noise


Tuning:

***Note - You will need an onboard graphic EQ assigned to the channel you are tuning***

Un-mute L-R (or whatever output(s) you are tuning)

Dial the oscillator level down to -60.0 (lowest point)

Un-mute "PINK" channel

Un-mute "REF MIC" channel

Click on OUTPUTS tab and select the channel you are tuning (VERY IMPORTANT STEP!!! THE GEQ CONTROL ON THE CONSOLE WILL NOT WORK UNLESS YOU CLICK THE OUTPUTS TAB BEFORE CLICKING THE PLUG-INS TAB)

Click the PLUG-INS tab

Select the Waves PAZ Frequency plug-in that is inserted on the "REF MIC" channel

Turn the oscillator on and turn it up slowly until you reach your desired level for your gig

Press the GEQ button (either one, they are between faders 8 and 9) on the console so that the faders are now your graphic EQ bank

The Waves PAZ Frequency plug-in should still be on the screen and you should be able to see all EQ adjustments effecting the plug-in

Tune to taste, and remember to always trust your ears!!! (google: Dr. Charles Paul Boner for info on ideal-room or preferred-listening curves)

Enjoy!

Howie Smith

[janmuths]

Nice one, mate. Makes perfect sense. Would you have a link to these google documents?

I rarely have the pleasure to work with the Venue system, usually just the console provided :-(

Would like to share a trick that I used the other day. Sound-check was in the arvo. Doors open, audience present all day. No time with the PA on my own. Therefore, no chance to play pink noise or sine sweeps. Instead I mono-summed a couple of my reference songs and put them on my iPod. Connected the left signal to the console, the other one to my mbox. Brought up the fader, mono signal on the PA. Connected a measure mic and plugged it in the other input of the Mbox. In PT, I used a stereo track for both inputs (mic left, ipod right). Used the RND Inspector XL analyser and set it to L+R, so that it shows the frequency response of both inputs separately in the same plug in window. With slow response time I could now adjust the house EQ while playing music, rather than noise.

Not the ideal way but it worked. And kept the audience happy. Noise-floor was an issue. Couldn't crank up the PA fully, so I had to get the mic relatively close to the speaker.

I usually do the rough settings with an analyser to save time. Sine-sweeping with FuzzMeasure Pro works well for me. Then the fine-adjustetment by ear.

Hope this may be helpful to someone.

J.

[vikingthor]

what i like during a show to see and to hear if the source is oke:

select an frequentie analyzer plugin. patch this in the monitor direct out. by selcting the solo i can hear what' s going on. and if i go to plugin window i can visually see what i am hearing.

or sometime's i would like it to have on an external screen then use no plugin in the console and route the monitor out to a PT or another daw and select within the daw an analyzer.

i know this is not something to tune a room, but can help great during a show or soundcheck finding problems or making microphone placements.

[Howie Smith]

janmuths - I am assuming you mean google documents on Dr. Boner...

Here is a good article from ProSoundWeb:

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/p..._using_rta_fft

If you google his name, you can find a bunch of info on his research, but the basic idea is to take a look at his ideal-room curve or preferred-listening curve.

[janmuths]

Thanks Howie, am reading it now. Good stuff.

Jan