REW Room EQ Wizard Help needed

Have an urge to learn, or a calling to teach? Want to share some useful Youtube videos? Do it here!
Post Reply
RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

13 Oct 2018

While I do have an omni directional, pretty flat recording, USB condenser microphone; it has no calibration file.

Does that mean that I either would need a new SPL meter for calibration, or one of their recommended microphones?

User avatar
selig
RE Developer
Posts: 11685
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: The NorthWoods, CT, USA

13 Oct 2018

What Does RoomEQ Wizard (or a forum discussing their products) say? BTW, you can’t create your own calibration file, you’ll have to send it in for calibration (and make sure it’s approved).

As for calibration, that depends on the level of accuracy you need. Unless you’re looking for decibel or sub-decibel accuracy, almost any Omni mic will do.

I’ve been using a stock Behringer ECM8000 for years with FuzzMeasure ($50 USD), and from what I’ve read the calibration difference is negligible across most of the frequency range. If I were charging clients for the work, I’d get a “real” mic and calibrate it so I could provide the best service possible.

But considering many rooms can have peaks/dips a large as ±20dB, and the likelihood of ever getting a room to within even ±3dB is pretty low - a few dB of calibration isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference.


Sent from some crappy device using Tapatalk
Selig Audio, LLC

RobC
Posts: 1833
Joined: 10 Mar 2018

14 Oct 2018

selig wrote:
13 Oct 2018
What Does RoomEQ Wizard (or a forum discussing their products) say? BTW, you can’t create your own calibration file, you’ll have to send it in for calibration (and make sure it’s approved).

As for calibration, that depends on the level of accuracy you need. Unless you’re looking for decibel or sub-decibel accuracy, almost any Omni mic will do.

I’ve been using a stock Behringer ECM8000 for years with FuzzMeasure ($50 USD), and from what I’ve read the calibration difference is negligible across most of the frequency range. If I were charging clients for the work, I’d get a “real” mic and calibrate it so I could provide the best service possible.

But considering many rooms can have peaks/dips a large as ±20dB, and the likelihood of ever getting a room to within even ±3dB is pretty low - a few dB of calibration isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference.


Sent from some crappy device using Tapatalk
From what I understood (with my constantly drifting away ADHD mind), it seems that a USB mic without a calibration file won't be enough.
Other information said, there are microphones where we can ask the manufacturer for a calibration file with the product code (if it doesn't already have an automatic system for that on the manufacturer's website). As long as there's quality control. It's supposed to have sensitivity information and whatnot.

This software asks for either said calibration file, or that we place the omni mic and then with an SPL meter, measure the played pink noise through speakers, and adjust what the software recognizes according to the physical SPL meter, until values match.

Seeing how graphs look, I wasn't overly convinced either, so I guess there's only so much it can do.
But I see now that these are rather good for setting up the studio physically (listening position and speaker placement). A couple of years ago, I was reading about what wood material is best for building speakers, and then I found a blog by some engineers that offered building speakers specifically for studios. That included measuring, taking them apart, and adjusting until the system has the best possible response.

One day I will probably team up with an architect and acoustic engineers, to build a dedicated studio, where everything would be decided in favor of sound. As long as it's not as expensive as a whole house, I'm fine.

Post Reply
  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 14 guests