a few questions about room nodes and the dry/wet knob

Answered
Nicholas Brodsky
0

hi,

my rectangular room has low-end room nodes.

1. in SoundID Reference, should i apply 100% wet calibration to correct for those nodes?

2. are there any consequences to applying 100% wet calibration? does the room start to sound unnatural (since every listening environment provides some amount of coloration)?

3. rather than using a flat target, is it better to use a custom profile with high-Q bell curves applied only to the nodes?

4. if the goal of SoundID Reference is a flat frequency response, what's the purpose of the dry/wet knob?

5. let's say i've corrected for my room nodes, and i'm playing [altered] signal through my monitors. are those room nodes canceled out, which means i hear a flat frequency response at my listening position?

6. completely cancelled nodes and a perfectly flat response seems maybe too good to be true. there are also plenty of professional, big-name engineers who don't use calibration, and therefore probably don't have a perfectly flat response in their room. and their mixes still translate really well. why wouldn't these engineers use calibration?

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even though i just started using SoundID Reference, i'm thoroughly impressed, and i just want to say thanks to everyone involved in releasing this product :)

best,

nick

1 comment

Zane
0

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for your post! Apologies for the belated attention to it from our side! 

Thank you for posting your questions! I hope the information provided below will be useful for you:

  1. 1. Keep Dry/Wet knob to 100% to maintain the calibration to the maximum efficiency. Room modes have a non-linear effect on acoustics, and as such, the maximum effect from calibration will be at 100% setting. Take note, however, that some acoustic treatment is still necessary to fully alleviate room mode impact at the listening position, as digital calibration of a sound signal cannot fully eliminate the room mode effect. The calibration profile is generated by evaluating the severeness of room modes present within the measurement area and applying the most efficient compensation in these frequency zones, but a 1:1 compensation via digital means is possible, but improbable. This purely depends on your acoustic environment.

  2. 2. No. The purpose of 100% wet calibration is to maximally flatten the acoustic power of the audible spectrum at your listening position. The flat target is the best reference for your content to sound good in all possible playback environments, if not the best.

  3. 3. Feel free to experiment and build upon the default calibration, if you find it necessary. However, as mentioned before, digital EQ can do only so much. This depends on the severity of the nodes present in the room.

  4. 4. Some users find the transition from uncalibrated to calibrated too hard on their ears. The knob allows for gradual adjustment of the ears and brain to the new sonic profile of the room. In other cases, some users find that 70% setting on the dry/wet knob works best for them, both during work and in checking initial masters in other environments.

  5. 5. Linking back to questions 1. and 3., the FR at the listening spot is digitally flattened as much as possible in the node region. Assuming 1:1 correction in your acoustic environment, then yes, you will hear flat FR at your listening spot.

  6. 6. Completely correct. These professionals either have learned their working environment thoroughly through the years, that any deviation or even correction on their workflow is more disturbing than helpful. Another reason is that a lot of money is spent in building the studio and flattening the FR as much as possible via physical means, i.e. absorbers and diffusion. Flat FR can be achieved purely via acoustic treatment, but this requires careful experimentation, measurements, knowledge of acoustics/psychoacoustics and money for the tools and materials for the installations.

Great to know you are enjoying the product and let us know if you have further questions!

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