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speaker/headphone calibration
 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-24 20:04 [#02412263]
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anyone who can reccomend an effective way to do this?

i don't want to go crazy after it, i was hoping for some
homemade tips


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-24 20:31 [#02412266]
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also, how much you rely on stuff like this to make music?

LAZY_TITLE

in which measure? sometimes i remember to consider a couple
of values in the sub-bass - bass area, and going with them
makes things cleaner.

is there anyone who managed to focalize some general, usable
values in the spectrum for simple music tasks, and suceeded
at integrating them in their workflow? i mean without
stopping the tweaks to look at frequencies, making choices
afterwards. that sounds more like work than like flow.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-24 20:39 [#02412267]
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i believe that avoiding to go through all the funny,
unexpected sounds that come across, and working with a cage
like that cuts a good part of the fun. making stuff by chart
rather than making it by ear is the death of music. a
musical suicide both in the listening and in the making
bizness.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-24 20:39 [#02412268]
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don't be shy


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-24 20:57 [#02412271]
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LAZY_TITLE

lol, fuck it already


 

offline vlari from beyond the valley of the LOLs on 2011-04-24 21:07 [#02412273]
Points: 13915 Status: Regular



i'm just going to warn you that elusive might chime in on
this soon


 

offline belb from mmmmmmhhhhzzzz!!! on 2011-04-24 21:14 [#02412274]
Points: 6384 Status: Lurker



step 1, tune ears to f32


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-24 21:16 [#02412275]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to belb: #02412274 | Show recordbag



wut


 

offline belb from mmmmmmhhhhzzzz!!! on 2011-04-24 21:21 [#02412276]
Points: 6384 Status: Lurker



sorry, old injoke. it's meaningless anyway, 32 could be base
anything


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-24 21:47 [#02412277]
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its ok. shit has to be heard anyway to be liked or not.

i wish talks about stuff like this were as popular as
talking gear or about soldering stuff. elsuve should make a
monthly thread, not only about reflection panels

making the ear to this kind proportion if the key of
everything

it's like a hubba-bubba


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-25 13:42 [#02412336]
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no-one?


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2011-04-25 14:26 [#02412350]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker



triple weight vinyl isotope flacs
cryonically treated Okinawan sand stabilized subtweeters
0xBF


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-25 14:39 [#02412356]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to fleetmouse: #02412350 | Show recordbag



now that's a configuration


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-25 15:06 [#02412362]
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i wonder what cunctychucks thinks


 

offline fleetmouse from Horny for Truth on 2011-04-25 21:03 [#02412416]
Points: 18042 Status: Lurker



good old chunty


 

offline cuntychuck from Copenhagen (Denmark) on 2011-04-25 21:27 [#02412418]
Points: 8603 Status: Lurker | Followup to mohamed: #02412362



yeah, i don't like you much either. no reason to get vicious
tho.

im very interested in this since my monitors are the biggest
liars ive ever met. i know a few tricks, but i don't
consider myself a reliable source in the area. i see no
reason to share my (little, if any) knowledge.


 

offline Falito from Balenciaga on 2011-04-25 21:32 [#02412419]
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and now read about aphexs twin words


 

offline freqy on 2011-04-25 21:42 [#02412420]
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no.1 = put thick carpet or curtains up on your walls.

spectral analysis perhaps.?

if you have a nice mic ( akg? or alike)place your mic
central where your head will be and play a slow sweeping
sine wave out your speakers and look at the results on a
spectral analyser ( vst plugin or standalone) then insert a
parametric on the output and tune so the response becomes
more flat. ( might need to be a slow sweep ,as most sine
wave generators create sick digital artifacts when you sweep
fast)

you are then tuning to the response of the mic/preamp
ofcourse.
if you know the response from the manufacturer chart you can
adjust and calibrate to that. if you want it to be flat and
more precise.

but this is pretty much pointless without good sound damping
on the walls.

also if you can move your speakers away for the walls that
helps.

ermm.....and stuff. .

if you have more than one set of speakers. place them
either side of you main l+r and use them to make comparisons
and compensate to make your mix sound nice on both pairs.
even some naf PC speakers can help, allot of people these
days actually listen to music through crap pc speakers cause
they dont know how to hook em up to their main system.

listen to your mixes through your ipod earphones. lots of
people use them. thats probably the best thing anyone could
do actually . lol . as so many people have that exact same
monitoring. , i ainmt got an ipod but makes sense. and i
would definately do that.

A+B switching between a high quality recording that has the
same type of music content as your own, ...and use a high
qual parametric to adjust to make them match.

just a few things.



 

offline dave_g from United Kingdom on 2011-04-25 23:18 [#02412427]
Points: 3372 Status: Lurker



I remember reading about subwoofer positioning once. The
trick was to put the sub on your chair and crawl on the
floor to find where it sounded loudest then put the sub
there.

I suggest you have a look at Sound On Sound magazine for
lots of good tips (back issues are mostly online for free)
http://www.soundonsound.com/


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 00:04 [#02412431]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to cuntychuck: #02412418 | Show recordbag



which tricks?


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 00:20 [#02412433]
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i'll begin moving speakes away from walls when i use them,
and see what it does. i noticed that music sound different
from an angle to the other of the room, where the speakers
are placed. but that's all the test i did. i recently put
the subwoofer on a higher piece of furniture and the
difference from headphones increased. all is placed in the
angle of the room, near the wall.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 00:21 [#02412434]
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i cant take pics


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 00:24 [#02412435]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to freqy: #02412420 | Show recordbag



carpets sound reasonable


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 00:37 [#02412437]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to freqy: #02412420 | Show recordbag



i don't have a mic but i see what you mean by doing eq
tests. i thought about doing something like that with a
limited number of instruments, like making a sound off a
certain instrument and listen to headphones and speakers and
adjust from there. but i just thought about that.

thanks for sharing that. i'm not gonna do something like
making ipod listenings to. making eq comparison is a neat
trick, but sounds like something i couldnt do.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 00:42 [#02412438]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to dave_g: #02412427 | Show recordbag



where the fuck i put the subowoofer?? who knows.

in the meantime, i'll have to find proper carpets

not to die suffocated when august comes in


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 01:20 [#02412442]
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see if apparently simple task like accomplishing the ears to
a sound by recreating the way you want it to sound into the
place you happen to be, have to take so fucking effort.
fucking sick, to be realistic.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 01:32 [#02412443]
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and i don't say it just cos a cannibal movie is playing on
my tv


 

offline elusive from detroit (United States) on 2011-04-26 02:53 [#02412444]
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what are your design goals? what is it you are hoping to
accomplish?

e.g., do you want a neutral room for mixing? or are you
recording? if the former, i could assist.


 

offline belb from mmmmmmhhhhzzzz!!! on 2011-04-26 05:27 [#02412448]
Points: 6384 Status: Lurker



...and it begins


 

offline freqy on 2011-04-26 06:06 [#02412453]
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how about carpet tiles? easy to apply and cut up around
doors.

you can put a subwoofer anywhere , but usually put up front,
its not as directional like high frequencies. so the brain
dont mind too much bout placement, nor will your
neighbours.lol.



 

offline jnasato from 777gogogo (Japan) on 2011-04-26 06:59 [#02412455]
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Calibrate chyo MIIIIND, myaaAAAAAAn.

CHYO MIIIIIIiIiIIIiIiiiiIIND.


 

offline melack from barcielwave on 2011-04-26 10:21 [#02412463]
Points: 9099 Status: Regular



what freqy said > using calibration mic (flat response) +
white noise (all frequencies there) then calibrate your
parametric EQ to make the spectral as flat as possible


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:01 [#02412471]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to elusive: #02412444 | Show recordbag



what you mean by neautral

i want to make the speakers sound the closes possible way to
my heaphones


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:03 [#02412472]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to freqy: #02412453 | Show recordbag



carpet tiles are cool at a first google sight :)

in fact the sub is slighly in the back.. keep those tricks
comin


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:05 [#02412473]
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yes that matter run parallel to the rest, inevitably


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:11 [#02412474]
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now that concept is synthetized it's more comprehensible

how much do that trick matters in terms of percentage
compared to the rest?

is it necessary to buy a calibration mic just for that?
sounds good, but i don't wanna buy a calibration mic just to
find out the sound in the room is improved by 0,1%. how much
it's related to putting the carpet tiles? relate the
arguments in that direction please. note that i'm willing to
catch my headphones' sound, cos it's where most of my
recording happening.



 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:15 [#02412475]
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i say 'relate' to simply put some light upon the relation
between causes and effects. many times just watching
something reacts, and the way it reacts, makes it that the
solutions come to surface.


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:17 [#02412476]
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ps all these post in a row suck, sorry about that


 

offline melack from barcielwave on 2011-04-26 11:24 [#02412477]
Points: 9099 Status: Regular



i think the easiest way to make your spakers sound the
closest to your headphones, is getting the frequency
response graphic of the headphones, and then making the
calibration mic + white noise (or better sine tones, one
by one) operation to get an equivalent graphic


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:31 [#02412478]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to melack: #02412477 | Show recordbag



matching it visually is nice. curious to see what i do
usually hear, so to hear what i usually don't see! OK...

now where do i start? how do i get the graphic response of
the headphones?
doing the same test with a sound analyzer (there's one in
logic)?

i suppose i'll have to find out if they rent calibration
mics out there. i'll actually bump this thread when its time


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:32 [#02412479]
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Fav+ thread

REAL SHIT!!


 

offline melack from barcielwave on 2011-04-26 11:34 [#02412480]
Points: 9099 Status: Regular



flat response mics are not that expensive for what i know,
althought i had same problem as you and wasnt bothered to
get one (and still dealing with shitty sound, just learning
to arrange it by different speakers listening). or maybe you
can just lend it from some studio or sound school you know.

it is pretty effective method, for what i know, (sound
engineers i know used it even in live events) althought what
you are doing is adapting your speakers to specificiteiieeis
of the room, whats its great for listening and mixing, but
maybe not when you take your music out to other rooms. so
maybe it would be better first to adapt your room (as freqy
said) to avoid strange frequency shit and then calibrate the
speakers.


 

offline melack from barcielwave on 2011-04-26 11:36 [#02412481]
Points: 9099 Status: Regular



for frequency graphic of your headphones just make a quick
search over internet, it should be easy to get (it should
also be in the information sheet of your headphones)


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:58 [#02412482]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to melack: #02412480 | Show recordbag



althought what
you are doing is adapting your speakers to specificiteiieeis

of the room, whats its great for listening and mixing, but
maybe not when you take your music out to other rooms. so
maybe it would be better first to adapt your room (as freqy

said) to avoid strange frequency shit and then calibrate the

speakers.


claro. thats why im trying to make you come together with
this, maybe we can make a standard. sounds to me like you
can save years of music life by doing that


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 11:59 [#02412483]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to melack: #02412481 | Show recordbag



information sheets... where are them?

*opens google*


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 12:04 [#02412484]
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while i search.. to summarize. it's like you want to talk
with a person, and there is another person or more that you
have to deal with before. just for the time needed for that
info to arrive to the person you want to talk, it gets
distorted. the more time passes, the more it gets distorted.
plus the other variables, like free
interpretation/adaptation of language, political ideas, and
bullshit. for sound, it's the same.



 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 12:06 [#02412485]
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*but in a smaller scale.

deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep


 

offline melack from barcielwave on 2011-04-26 12:08 [#02412486]
Points: 9099 Status: Regular | Followup to mohamed: #02412483



information sheets comes in the box of your headphones,
telling you all the 'sound caracteristics' of the headphones
(frequency response, signal noise ratio, etc etc)


 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 12:09 [#02412487]
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not sure i still have it



 

offline mohamed from the turtle business on 2011-04-26 12:10 [#02412489]
Points: 31145 Status: Regular | Followup to mohamed: #02412484 | Show recordbag



and thats why i need the sound to be NEAR. to be the truest
expression of what ima trying to do


 


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