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Putting IK ARC system to the test!
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| maclean |
Hey folks,
First post here, although i've been lurking in the shadows for some time reading your posts so I feel like I already know some of you lol, unfortunitly I couldnt be arsed registing up until now!
Anyway I have this IK ARC system which is a microphone and plugin kit that allows you to correct your room acoustics to some extent.
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/arc/features/
You add the pluggin onto your master out once you have measured your room, and mix away with this correction on, and once your done take it off and render your track as usual and it should end up much more translatable.
Now I have a short work in progress that i am using it on and I really dont know what to think.
I've done two mixes of it one with the correction on (which should sound better to me and craper to most of you) and one with the correction off (which sounds worse to me, but should sound better to you).
The problem is i simply dont beleive that it will sound better to you lot so could you listen to both of these mixes and tell me:
a. Does either mix a or b sound better to you?
b. Does the mix actually sound decent on either at all?
c. Does the mix sound on both?
Thanks alot guys for your help!
Links:
http://soundcloud.com/ryan-5/mixa
http://soundcloud.com/ryan-5/mixb
P.S. this is a work in progress so sorry if its a bit quiet and repetative! |
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| echosystm |
| A sounds better |
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| cryophonik |
"A" sounds better to me as well - it's punchier, has more detail (I especially notice it in the clarity of the bass).
"B" sounds a little muddy and the mix sounds a little "smeared" overall.
Sounds like a good start to a very cool track, BTW! |
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| thecYrus |
"A" has a better balanced mix. but still lacks a little bit lowend imho. "B" has is unbalanced and has too much high frequencies in comparison the lows. but "A" could still be improved by reducing a bit the mids.
but if you want to test this correction thing right. you shouldn't just render with and without the plugin. that makes it useless. you need to "reset" the mixing and start one mix with the plugin and another mix without the plugin. this way you can compare the results as both mixes sound the way you want them to sound.
btw. perhaps you're just too used to the sound of your room and you're trying to mix already with the correction in mind. |
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| RichieV |
any competent engineer will argue that these magic solution plugins are just smoke and mirrors and they just don't deliver. If I had time, i would go dig up a bunch of forum posts on gearslutz by some pretty big names rediculing the ARC system.
But if it works for you, then I guess it doesn't really matter. |
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| cryophonik |
| quote: | Originally posted by RichieV
any competent engineer will argue that these magic solution plugins are just smoke and mirrors and they just don't deliver. If I had time, i would go dig up a bunch of forum posts on gearslutz by some pretty big names rediculing the ARC system.
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It's not a magic plugin. It simply analyzes the frequency response at a given point and develops an EQ curve that compensates for the peaks/valleys of the room at that point. It's essentially a band-aid fix for a bad room, but it can lead to improved mixes. I essentially did the same by blasting a series of sine waves into a reference mic at my usual listening position, recording it, anaylzing the frequency response in Har-Bal, and creating an EQ curve that compensated for the deficiencies in my room. It took several iterations to dial it in and it's certainly not perfect, but it made a huge difference in the quality of my mixes and requires far fewer iterations of listening to my mixes on other systems before I'm happy with them.
| quote: | Originally posted by RichieV
But if it works for you, then I guess it doesn't really matter. |
Exactly. |
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| maclean |
thanks alot for all your input guys.
Nice to see that everyone is saying mixA sounds better, this is the one that has the correction EQ for my room removed, which makes it sound nasty to me but thankfully better to you guys which is what should be the case.
I think you have a point Cyrus, this isn't really a fair test, as having the EQ from the start is effecting all my sub concious eq/compressor/etc tweaking decisions as I go, therfore if I had mixed this from scratch without the plugin on from the start it could have been a very different sounding mix.
@ cryophonik/RichieV
Yeh I read alot of mixed feelings about this thing before I bought it, alot of guys say its , alot say its decent. I am unable to treat my room for several reasons therfore I bought this with the mindset - something addressing the accoustics is better than nothing.
And to be honest it does do a half decent job, for example - with the correction off playing any punchy trance kick drum would sound almost like its hitting twice just because of the sheer horrible accoustics of my room. Flick the correction on and this 'double hitting' effect is significantly reduced. so I don't think its complete rubbish but I also dont think its as good as a treated room either!
The fact that you have all agreed that the mix that sounds worse to me sounds better to you gives me a bit more trust in the end result after using it which is what I was looking for when posting this! so thanks alot guys |
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| adamtrance |
| To me a is better too. What I think you should do is, load a track that you think sounds good and try to mix after that, and even if you hear that the kick is twice as loud you will know you should mix it that way because thats the correct one. Btw, nice kick, where is that sample from? |
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| maclean |
hi adam,
I will maybe give that a shot sometime when Im in the mood, I would like to think that the version with the correction on would turn out better but who knows.
the kick is made up of two kicks. One is Trance 06 highpassed from VEC3 for the 'click' and the other is from a sample pack i got ages ago called 'Techno Trance Essentials by Ueberschall' and the sample is 'bdeTTE30014dance1' for the low 'boom' a bit of compression on the two to glue them and get the boom just right.
I started finding vengeance kicks sounded too harsh after running through my process chains so only use the highs from them. |
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