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John Meyer was one of the first people to analyze contemporary problems in large-scale sound reinforcement from a purely scientific standpoint. For example, Mey

by telekid 12y ago

John Meyer was one of the first people to analyze contemporary problems in large-scale sound reinforcement from a purely scientific standpoint. For example, Meyer and and his friend and colleague Bob McCarthy created the SIM [1] audio analyzer, which allows sound designers to optimize systems using tools other than their ears. [1]: http://www.meyersound.com/product/sim/sim3/ http://www.meyersound.com/product/sim/sim3/ EDIT: if anyone has any interest in the topic of sound system optimization, I can elaborate a bit. These days, system tuning can be an incredibly cool and very scientific process.

Sone7 12y ago
What can be achieved in a home set up with a DAW, a mic, and free tools? Is there any point?
- nitrogen 12y ago
  For sound reproduction, check out Room EQ Wizard ( http://www.roomeqwizard.com/ http://www.roomeqwizard.com/ ) and the open source DRC ( http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net/ http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net/ ). I have personally contributed to a commercial analysis system (link on my web site) as well. For noise modification, I'm not aware of anything widely available, but you could start by experimenting with simulating different spaces by adding reverb tuned to remove the frequencies naturally reflected by the room (wild guess).
  - Sone7 12y ago
    :D Thankyou
- telekid 12y ago
  Getting into the physical meat of it is tough, since most of the tools we use (measurement microphones, high-quality AD/DAs, software, etc.) are expensive. The theory can be a bit more accessible – though like most things, it often doesn't click for people until they get a chance to do it themselves. The industry standard textbook, were something like that to exist, would be Bob McCarthy's "Sound Systems: Design and Optimization: Modern Techniques and Tools for Sound System Design and Alignment." [1] It's dense, but a great read, and should be accessible for people with a decent knowledge of the concepts behind FFT and basic signal analysis. If you're just looking to play around a bit, you could try downloading a demo of SMAART 7 [2] from Rational Acoustics. It's basically a soft dual-channel FFT analyzer. We use it to compare a generated signal (usually in the form of pink noise [3]) with a returned signal (a copy of that signal sent to a speaker and returned to the analyzer through a reference microphone.) By comparing these two signals, we learn basically all we need to about how sound is acting in a given space: we know it's latency; it's frequency response due to signal processing, the physical nature of the speaker cabinet, and air loss; and it's phase response due to the same. The difficult part of the process is interpreting that data and using it to make informed decisions about how and where to modify signals and speaker positions. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Systems-Optimization-Techniques-Alignment/dp/0240521560 http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Systems-Optimization-Techniques-... [2] http://www.rationalacoustics.com/store/smaart.html http://www.rationalacoustics.com/store/smaart.html [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_noise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_noise
  - jozzas 12y ago
    Is this somewhat similar to how Audyssey's MultEQ (which my surround receiver has) works? What is your opinion of that product? I can't imagine it uses a very expensive microphone. The receiver was only about $500.
rasur 12y ago
Yes, very much so - please do - I've done a bit of live sound engineering in the past, so am interested to hear more on SSO, thanks!

by telekid 12y ago

Sone7 12y ago

What can be achieved in a home set up with a DAW, a mic, and free tools? Is there any point?

nitrogen 12y ago
For sound reproduction, check out Room EQ Wizard ( http://www.roomeqwizard.com/ http://www.roomeqwizard.com/ ) and the open source DRC ( http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net/ http://drc-fir.sourceforge.net/ ). I have personally contributed to a commercial analysis system (link on my web site) as well. For noise modification, I'm not aware of anything widely available, but you could start by experimenting with simulating different spaces by adding reverb tuned to remove the frequencies naturally reflected by the room (wild guess).
- Sone7 12y ago
  :D Thankyou
telekid 12y ago
Getting into the physical meat of it is tough, since most of the tools we use (measurement microphones, high-quality AD/DAs, software, etc.) are expensive. The theory can be a bit more accessible – though like most things, it often doesn't click for people until they get a chance to do it themselves. The industry standard textbook, were something like that to exist, would be Bob McCarthy's "Sound Systems: Design and Optimization: Modern Techniques and Tools for Sound System Design and Alignment." [1] It's dense, but a great read, and should be accessible for people with a decent knowledge of the concepts behind FFT and basic signal analysis. If you're just looking to play around a bit, you could try downloading a demo of SMAART 7 [2] from Rational Acoustics. It's basically a soft dual-channel FFT analyzer. We use it to compare a generated signal (usually in the form of pink noise [3]) with a returned signal (a copy of that signal sent to a speaker and returned to the analyzer through a reference microphone.) By comparing these two signals, we learn basically all we need to about how sound is acting in a given space: we know it's latency; it's frequency response due to signal processing, the physical nature of the speaker cabinet, and air loss; and it's phase response due to the same. The difficult part of the process is interpreting that data and using it to make informed decisions about how and where to modify signals and speaker positions. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Systems-Optimization-Techniques-Alignment/dp/0240521560 http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Systems-Optimization-Techniques-... [2] http://www.rationalacoustics.com/store/smaart.html http://www.rationalacoustics.com/store/smaart.html [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_noise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_noise
- jozzas 12y ago
  Is this somewhat similar to how Audyssey's MultEQ (which my surround receiver has) works? What is your opinion of that product? I can't imagine it uses a very expensive microphone. The receiver was only about $500.

rasur 12y ago

Yes, very much so - please do - I've done a bit of live sound engineering in the past, so am interested to hear more on SSO, thanks!