Author Topic: Is My Room Acoustics Screwed? (EQ Pics Included)  (Read 5602 times)

Lydian

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Is My Room Acoustics Screwed? (EQ Pics Included)
« on: March 21, 2016, 11:07:30 pm »
Hey guys so I just bought this omnidirectional mic. It's the Behringer ECM8000. I bought it because I heard that omnidirectional mics were needed to test room acoustic frequencies.

Here's what I did. I got a sine wave sweep and recorded the peaks in waves h-eq. This is what it looked like.



After I did that I recorded the same signal through my room using the ECM8000. I held it up in the same position that I use when listening to my monitors.

Here's what I got.



If these graphs are correct then as you can see my room adds a huge amount of coloration to the 100hz region. It also contains practically no sub bass and another pretty decent dip at the 1k region.

My question is... did I carry out this procedure accurately? When I listened to the sinewave sweep using my ears I was clearly able to hear the dips in my room.

Is there anything else I need to do to test out my room acoustics and now that I'm aware of the characteristics of my room what should I do about it?



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JNKNS

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Re: Is My Room Acoustics Screwed? (EQ Pics Included)
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2016, 11:33:38 pm »
While I can't claim to be an expert in acoustics, I do have a bit of educational background in the field. I can say with 99.9% certainty that you have major room modes issues combined with some sort of comb filtering caused by reflections. The room modes would be the cause of the discrepancies you're seeing in the low/low-mid frequency range (pretty much anything below 200Hz). The reflections would be the problem for anything above that. It looks like your low end is absolutely fucked so you should definitely deal with that first.
 
Room modes occur when the distance between surfaces is (or an integer multiple of) the wavelength of a certain frequency. This causes the waves to bounce back any forth between those surfaces causing 2 problems: 1. There will be a boost in intensity of that frequency at points in the room where the wave is at an antinode (peak) and drastic cuts where it's at a node (point of zero-crossing) 2. The wave will self amplify and therefore it will take longer to decay. While room modes are unavoidable in any room, some rooms are more problematic than others. There are many devices that can be built to deal with room modes such as bass traps but any of them must be designed specifically to deal with the problem frequencies.

I'm currently in the process of studying the field more in depth and would be glad to help you out with your room if you'd like. Just to confirm my theory though, could you please play sine waves of 30, 85, 110 and 140Hz and walk around your room to hear if you notice a difference in volume between different areas?
« Last Edit: March 21, 2016, 11:36:38 pm by JNKNS »

Lydian

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Re: Is My Room Acoustics Screwed? (EQ Pics Included)
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2016, 12:04:27 am »
Considering that my speakers aren't able to accurately produce 30hz I tested the 90-100hz region and here's what I found

Take a look at this picture to help you get an idea.



Here what my room looks like.



« Last Edit: March 22, 2016, 12:10:56 am by Lydian »
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JNKNS

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Re: Is My Room Acoustics Screwed? (EQ Pics Included)
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2016, 03:28:15 am »
Ok if we're gonna do this we might as well do it right. Install this software: http://www.roomeqwizard.com, run a measurement at your mix position and upload the resulting files. Make sure you record the noise profile of your interface and calibrate levels before doing so (it's all explained in the tutorial when you first open it).

Also if that's at all possible, reconfigure your room so that your speakers are facing the length of the room. That will lead to longer bounce paths and therefore less reflections than with your present configuration.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2016, 03:44:41 am by JNKNS »

JNKNS

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Re: Is My Room Acoustics Screwed? (EQ Pics Included)
« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2016, 04:38:48 pm »
I should have mentioned that in the first place but would it also be possible to obtain the dimensions of your room please? ^^

nehlz

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Re: Is My Room Acoustics Screwed? (EQ Pics Included)
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2016, 12:23:33 am »
that mirror is like the perfect hi freq reflector, where on the other side you have shades with many seperate blades that are at an angle and help diffuse the sound.  This could cause high end comb filtering.