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#1
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Hi guys,
is there any rule or lecture how to calibrate a subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfield environment. How do you setup up the fase switch (0, 180), crossover frequency and volume of the subwoofer? Is the only good way with a spectrum analyzer or can it be done by ears? TIA. Drumsix |
#2
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Drumsix wrote: is there any rule or lecture how to calibrate a subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfield environment. About the only "trick" I've run across is to put the subwoofer temporarily in the position where you normally listen, play some music through it, and walk around the room listening for where it's the loudest. This isn't as simple as it sounds because it may be difficult to get the subwoofer up at head height (most say just put it on a chair - assuming you hear bass with your butt) and there may be some places where you can't get your head where you could put the speaker. But it's a start. How do you setup up the fase switch (0, 180), crossover frequency and volume of the subwoofer? So that it sounds best. Is the only good way with a spectrum analyzer or can it be done by ears? Most spectrum analyzers aren't very accurate at low frequencies, so it's best to do it by listening. A spectrum analyzer might help you to tell if you've created a "hole" in the frequency response by having the crossover frequency set incorrectly, but generally the manufacturer of the speaker will recommend a crossover frequency. Start with that and listen for anything missing. Bear in mind that a truly accurate subwoofer is quite expensive and is worth getting some professional help in setting it up. If you have a department store subwoofer, chances are it's only going to reproduce a narrow range of frequencies, mostly giving more thump to your bass drum sounds. They're placement is less critical because they do less for the total sound, and pretty much just require your judgment in how much thump you like. |
#3
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Mike,
thanks for your advice. I'm from holland, and my english is not fluent so I don't really know what you mean by "department store" subwoofer. When I read your reply the only best thing for me to do is listen how the sub sounds best, do a mix ( usualy 24 track) and listen out on it on differnt audio systems (car, home set, etc) and see if the sound is what I expected it to be. (talking about a long sentence). I bought it because my nearfield monitors where a bit thin on the low end. I only put a bit of sub volume know to my 2.1 system and the overall sound on other systems is allready better. Greetz, Drumsix "Mike Rivers" schreef in bericht oups.com... Drumsix wrote: is there any rule or lecture how to calibrate a subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfield environment. About the only "trick" I've run across is to put the subwoofer temporarily in the position where you normally listen, play some music through it, and walk around the room listening for where it's the loudest. This isn't as simple as it sounds because it may be difficult to get the subwoofer up at head height (most say just put it on a chair - assuming you hear bass with your butt) and there may be some places where you can't get your head where you could put the speaker. But it's a start. How do you setup up the fase switch (0, 180), crossover frequency and volume of the subwoofer? So that it sounds best. Is the only good way with a spectrum analyzer or can it be done by ears? Most spectrum analyzers aren't very accurate at low frequencies, so it's best to do it by listening. A spectrum analyzer might help you to tell if you've created a "hole" in the frequency response by having the crossover frequency set incorrectly, but generally the manufacturer of the speaker will recommend a crossover frequency. Start with that and listen for anything missing. Bear in mind that a truly accurate subwoofer is quite expensive and is worth getting some professional help in setting it up. If you have a department store subwoofer, chances are it's only going to reproduce a narrow range of frequencies, mostly giving more thump to your bass drum sounds. They're placement is less critical because they do less for the total sound, and pretty much just require your judgment in how much thump you like. |
#4
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
is there any rule or lecture how to calibrate a subwoofer in a 2.1 studio
nearfield environment. The only way to know which sub location is best, and what sub volume level and phase setting is best, is to measure as accurately as possible. You cannot use a typical third octave analyzer for this because the peaks and nulls in small rooms are very narrow at low frequencies. Look at this graph, measured in a 16 by 10 room - note the peak/dip pair at 110 and 122 Hz where the response varies a staggering 32 dB across a range smaller than one musical whole step: www.realtraps.com/art_response.gif This is what you're up against, and the only way to set up a subwoofer to make the most of this VERY TYPICAL situation is to measure at 1 Hz or finer resolution. This graph was plotted using 1 Hz tones (which took a while), but now I use the ETF and R+D software from these guys (which takes only a few seconds): www.acoustisoft.com You'll never get the response even close to flat unless you also treat the room (bass traps). But you can at least make it better with careful positioning and setup, and that requires being able to measure accurately. --Ethan |
#5
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Drumsix wrote: thanks for your advice. I'm from holland, and my english is not fluent so I don't really know what you mean by "department store" subwoofer. It's not a matter of English, it's a colloquialism. What I was referring to was an inexpensive subwoofer designed to use with a cheap home stereo system or computer speakers. Over here, those generally sell for $50-100, then there's a pretty big price gap before you get to speakers that have reasonably flat frequency response in the 20 to 80 Hz range. When I read your reply the only best thing for me to do is listen how the sub sounds best, do a mix ( usualy 24 track) and listen out on it on differnt audio systems (car, home set, etc) and see if the sound is what I expected it to be. (talking about a long sentence). That's secondary. First, just listen to some CDs that you're familair with, both with the subwoofer and with the subwoofer switched off. That way you can tell what it's doing, and whether it's enhancing the sound in a good way or a bad way. I bought it because my nearfield monitors where a bit thin on the low end. I only put a bit of sub volume know to my 2.1 system and the overall sound on other systems is allready better. If it lets you hear a range that you can't hear without the subwoofer, and that if, by making adjustments that affect that range (or the balance with it) you can make better mixes, then it's doing its job. With some subwoofers that have a large reonance peak, there isn't much you can do in the mix to change what you hear coming out of it. No matter what goes in on the low end, pretty much the same thing always comes out. That's not accurate, but it annoys the neighbors and people in adjacent cars. g |
#6
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Mike,
With your sentence, "It's not a matter of English, it's a colloquialism", it becomes a matter of English (haha). I haven't got a clue what the collo... word means? I use Alesis Monitor One nearfields an a Samson Sub88, attached to a tascam Dm24 Digital mixer and a Nuendo recording setup with RME soundcards. I'm well aware of the fact that I don't own a Preffesional Studio. I use it for mixing my own bands and for mixing some other bands. Mostly live gigs. The track that Ethan Winner suggest in an other reply on this subject is obviously a good one, but is more for a proffesional studio (I think). I'm mostly on the road an when I have the time for some mixing, I want it to be as good as my equipment and time let it to. As you suggested I played some tracks that in my opinion sounds great (from classical and bigbands to rock (sacd)) and from there on I tweaked the sub for what I thought is the best sound. But with all self adjustments you never know if its the right way as a standard. That's why I posted this question. When I switch the sub on I hear and feel some more air to my mixes. It's not that I use it for more bass, but the lower end doesn't sound as thin and packed anymore. So in that opinion I think the sub is doing his work. (or her work, bass for me is something as a gracious female, but let's stay on topic). The main thing (among others) for me is that my base drum and the bass guitar sound more like a pair to me than two different instruments. Greetz, drumsix "Mike Rivers" schreef in bericht oups.com... Drumsix wrote: thanks for your advice. I'm from holland, and my english is not fluent so I don't really know what you mean by "department store" subwoofer. It's not a matter of English, it's a colloquialism. What I was referring to was an inexpensive subwoofer designed to use with a cheap home stereo system or computer speakers. Over here, those generally sell for $50-100, then there's a pretty big price gap before you get to speakers that have reasonably flat frequency response in the 20 to 80 Hz range. When I read your reply the only best thing for me to do is listen how the sub sounds best, do a mix ( usualy 24 track) and listen out on it on differnt audio systems (car, home set, etc) and see if the sound is what I expected it to be. (talking about a long sentence). That's secondary. First, just listen to some CDs that you're familair with, both with the subwoofer and with the subwoofer switched off. That way you can tell what it's doing, and whether it's enhancing the sound in a good way or a bad way. I bought it because my nearfield monitors where a bit thin on the low end. I only put a bit of sub volume know to my 2.1 system and the overall sound on other systems is allready better. If it lets you hear a range that you can't hear without the subwoofer, and that if, by making adjustments that affect that range (or the balance with it) you can make better mixes, then it's doing its job. With some subwoofers that have a large reonance peak, there isn't much you can do in the mix to change what you hear coming out of it. No matter what goes in on the low end, pretty much the same thing always comes out. That's not accurate, but it annoys the neighbors and people in adjacent cars. g |
#7
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Drumsix wrote: With your sentence, "It's not a matter of English, it's a colloquialism", it becomes a matter of English (haha). I haven't got a clue what the collo... word means? From some dictionary web site or other: An informal words, or phrase of conversational language that brings color to everyday speech and a friendly, conversational tone to writing; many are figures of speech that are not meant to be taken literally, such as fly off the handle, foot the bill As you suggested I played some tracks that in my opinion sounds great (from classical and bigbands to rock (sacd)) and from there on I tweaked the sub for what I thought is the best sound. But with all self adjustments you never know if its the right way as a standard. That's why I posted this question. There are no standards, but there are some limits. You don't want to drive the subwoofer with enough signal so that its amplifier clips. I couldn't find a manual for your subwoofer on the Samson web site, but I assume it works like most other subs in this class - you feed the left and right signal into the subwoofer and that goes through the crossover, feeding everything above the crossover out to a pair of jacks that go to the main speakers. So you want to set the crossover frequency somewhere above the lowest frequency that the main speakers can handle, but not so high that the subwoofer can't reproduce everything that's sent to it. Anywhere in that range, you'll get all the lows, but the'll move from the main speakers to the subwoofer as you lower the crossover frequency. So you have to pick a frequency high enough so that the main speakers don't poop out before the sub takes over, and the best way to tell that is by listening. When I switch the sub on I hear and feel some more air to my mixes. It's not that I use it for more bass, but the lower end doesn't sound as thin and packed anymore. Usually, we use "air" to describe an open sounding high end, but you might be thinking that you feel more air moving, which would be the case with the subwoofer turned on. I think you're hearing some bass that you didn't really know was there. That's a good thing, because after the initial excitement wears off, you might decide that you want to tame that so as not to rely on it when your mixes are played on a system that doesn't reproduce those frequencies. Not that they shouldn't be there, but that without the subwoofer, you should still get the sense that they ARE there. Remember that some people listen to music on little speakers attached ot their computer, or even littler speakers attached to their ears. The main thing (among others) for me is that my base drum and the bass guitar sound more like a pair to me than two different instruments. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but if you think it sounds good, then it IS good. I suspect that you don't have any problems. |
#8
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Indeed, I don't have any problems.
I couldn't find the word on my dictonary website, so thanks (learning all the time). I understand that the "air" is more for a open sounding high. Maybe a wrong chosen word. I meant that there's more space in my mixes. Sound is still a personal choice, so some things are difficult to put in words. There is no manual on the net for the samson, but you're right about the connections. However XLR inputs for my output from the mixer and XLR outputs to my amplifier for the alesis nearfields. It's not that i hear more or other bass sounds with the sub on, the low end is more in the right place in the mix. I'm in the music business for 20 years but mixing and recording is a new step for me so I'm glad to learn from you and this newsgroup. Thanks for your time. Drumsix "Mike Rivers" schreef in bericht oups.com... Drumsix wrote: With your sentence, "It's not a matter of English, it's a colloquialism", it becomes a matter of English (haha). I haven't got a clue what the collo... word means? From some dictionary web site or other: An informal words, or phrase of conversational language that brings color to everyday speech and a friendly, conversational tone to writing; many are figures of speech that are not meant to be taken literally, such as fly off the handle, foot the bill As you suggested I played some tracks that in my opinion sounds great (from classical and bigbands to rock (sacd)) and from there on I tweaked the sub for what I thought is the best sound. But with all self adjustments you never know if its the right way as a standard. That's why I posted this question. There are no standards, but there are some limits. You don't want to drive the subwoofer with enough signal so that its amplifier clips. I couldn't find a manual for your subwoofer on the Samson web site, but I assume it works like most other subs in this class - you feed the left and right signal into the subwoofer and that goes through the crossover, feeding everything above the crossover out to a pair of jacks that go to the main speakers. So you want to set the crossover frequency somewhere above the lowest frequency that the main speakers can handle, but not so high that the subwoofer can't reproduce everything that's sent to it. Anywhere in that range, you'll get all the lows, but the'll move from the main speakers to the subwoofer as you lower the crossover frequency. So you have to pick a frequency high enough so that the main speakers don't poop out before the sub takes over, and the best way to tell that is by listening. When I switch the sub on I hear and feel some more air to my mixes. It's not that I use it for more bass, but the lower end doesn't sound as thin and packed anymore. Usually, we use "air" to describe an open sounding high end, but you might be thinking that you feel more air moving, which would be the case with the subwoofer turned on. I think you're hearing some bass that you didn't really know was there. That's a good thing, because after the initial excitement wears off, you might decide that you want to tame that so as not to rely on it when your mixes are played on a system that doesn't reproduce those frequencies. Not that they shouldn't be there, but that without the subwoofer, you should still get the sense that they ARE there. Remember that some people listen to music on little speakers attached ot their computer, or even littler speakers attached to their ears. The main thing (among others) for me is that my base drum and the bass guitar sound more like a pair to me than two different instruments. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but if you think it sounds good, then it IS good. I suspect that you don't have any problems. |
#9
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
six,
The track that Ethan Winner suggest in an other reply on this subject is obviously a good one, but is more for a proffesional studio (I think). If you're going to the trouble and expense to get a subwoofer in the first place, it makes sense to also set it up as well as possible! :-) Otherwise, why even bother with a sub at all? --Ethan |
#10
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Mike Rivers wrote:
Drumsix wrote: thanks for your advice. I'm from holland, and my english is not fluent so I don't really know what you mean by "department store" subwoofer. It's not a matter of English, it's a colloquialism. What I was referring to was an inexpensive subwoofer designed to use with a cheap home stereo system or computer speakers. Over here, those generally sell for $50-100, then there's a pretty big price gap before you get to speakers that have reasonably flat frequency response in the 20 to 80 Hz range. We call these things "thump boxes." It's usually VERY obvious when you play a Jaco Pastorius record on the system which you have; if all of the bass notes sound the same, you don't have a real broadband sub in place. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#11
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
"Ethan Winer" ethanw at ethanwiner dot com schreef in bericht ... six, The track that Ethan Winner suggest in an other reply on this subject is obviously a good one, but is more for a proffesional studio (I think). If you're going to the trouble and expense to get a subwoofer in the first place, it makes sense to also set it up as well as possible! :-) Otherwise, why even bother with a sub at all? --Ethan Ethan, I fully agree with your statement. That's why I posted the question here. The spectrum analyzer that I use is a simple one that came with my RME card, digicheck. As wirtten in your earlier reply it's not of any use for measuring my room acoustics. The question is what the use for me in an semi-preffseional evnironment? I don't have the means to buy an 1Hz spectrum analyzer. What could you recommend to do the job "as good as its gets? TIA Drumsix |
#12
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
I understand that Scott,
but we dot not all have the means to buy a studio for instance like Peter Gabriel. So you do your best to setup a "home" studio by the means you currently have. And with these means you want to sound is as good as possible. And for that I need some assitance with calibarting the sub. So any help is welcome. Dumsix "Scott Dorsey" schreef in bericht ... Mike Rivers wrote: Drumsix wrote: thanks for your advice. I'm from holland, and my english is not fluent so I don't really know what you mean by "department store" subwoofer. It's not a matter of English, it's a colloquialism. What I was referring to was an inexpensive subwoofer designed to use with a cheap home stereo system or computer speakers. Over here, those generally sell for $50-100, then there's a pretty big price gap before you get to speakers that have reasonably flat frequency response in the 20 to 80 Hz range. We call these things "thump boxes." It's usually VERY obvious when you play a Jaco Pastorius record on the system which you have; if all of the bass notes sound the same, you don't have a real broadband sub in place. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#13
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
On Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:48:54 +0200, "Drumsix"
wrote: I fully agree with your statement. That's why I posted the question here. The spectrum analyzer that I use is a simple one that came with my RME card, digicheck. As wirtten in your earlier reply it's not of any use for measuring my room acoustics. The question is what the use for me in an semi-preffseional evnironment? I don't have the means to buy an 1Hz spectrum analyzer. What could you recommend to do the job "as good as its gets? Turn it up until you can hear it. Then turn it down a bit. |
#14
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Drumsix wrote: And with these means you want to sound is as good as possible. And for that I need some assitance with calibarting the sub. So any help is welcome. The way to adjust it so that it sounds as good as possible is to simply adjust it so that it sounds as good as possible to you with the music you work with, and in the place where you normally work. There aren't that many adjustments other than the actual position of the subwoofer in the room, and that's at least somewhat constrained by the physical arrangement of the room. You probalby aren't about to rearrange your whole room to get optimum performance from a $200 subwoofer. I suspect that what's behind your question is that you don't really KNOW what sounds good, and you're looking for a tool to tell you how good it sounds. Unfortunately, there is no such tool that you don't already have - your own ears, or perhaps the ears of a few friends. It doesn't hurt to have a couple of other people listen while you move things around or make adjustments, and take an average of their comments. |
#15
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Drumsix wrote:
I understand that Scott, but we dot not all have the means to buy a studio for instance like Peter Gabriel. So you do your best to setup a "home" studio by the means you currently have. And with these means you want to sound is as good as possible. And for that I need some assitance with calibarting the sub. The problem is that I think the sub you have is a narrowband box, and so it _cannot_ be calibrated to be flat because that's not what it's designed to do. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#16
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Well, what's a good way to choose a sub to purchase?
Just find some quality 2.0 monitors and then get the matching sub? Do you normally want to stay with the same brand as the 2.0s? |
#17
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
wrote:
Well, what's a good way to choose a sub to purchase? Just find some quality 2.0 monitors and then get the matching sub? Do you normally want to stay with the same brand as the 2.0s? You could do that. Or you could buy some full range speakers that don't need a sub. Buy speakers that you like the sound of. If you don't have enough bass extension with the speakers you like in the room you like, look into various fixes for that. A subwoofer is one of the possible fixes. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#18
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
The question is what the use for me in an semi-preffseional evnironment? I
don't have the means to buy an 1Hz spectrum analyzer. You don't have to buy anything. There's a "CD" you can download for free from my company's web site that plays tones in 1 Hz increments. It takes a while to run and plot manually! But it's free and is very accurate. Look he www.realtraps.com/test-cd.htm If you have a computer connected to your system you don't even have to burn a CD. Just play the MP3 files directly. --Ethan |
#19
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Scott Dorsey wrote: wrote: Well, what's a good way to choose a sub to purchase? Just find some quality 2.0 monitors and then get the matching sub? Do you normally want to stay with the same brand as the 2.0s? You could do that. Or you could buy some full range speakers that don't need a sub. For nearfield monitors, if you just want to go with 2.0s (not needing a sub) should a person be looking at a minimum of 8" woofers? |
#20
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
Ethan,
that 's great. Thanks for the tip. "Ethan Winer" ethanw at ethanwiner dot com schreef in bericht ... The question is what the use for me in an semi-preffseional evnironment? I don't have the means to buy an 1Hz spectrum analyzer. You don't have to buy anything. There's a "CD" you can download for free from my company's web site that plays tones in 1 Hz increments. It takes a while to run and plot manually! But it's free and is very accurate. Look he www.realtraps.com/test-cd.htm If you have a computer connected to your system you don't even have to burn a CD. Just play the MP3 files directly. --Ethan |
#21
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote: wrote: Well, what's a good way to choose a sub to purchase? Just find some quality 2.0 monitors and then get the matching sub? Do you normally want to stay with the same brand as the 2.0s? You could do that. Or you could buy some full range speakers that don't need a sub. For nearfield monitors, if you just want to go with 2.0s (not needing a sub) should a person be looking at a minimum of 8" woofers? The size of the woofer doesn't really tell you anything useful. Two speakers with the same physical woofers but with different cabinet voicing may have completely different low end. Also, be aware that even if you're in the near field, room effects are still very significant on the low end, and the speaker radiation pattern is still pretty much omnidirectional at low frequencies. So the amount of actual output you need is going to depend on the size of the room. ---scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#22
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Calibrating subwoofer in a 2.1 studio nearfiled environment
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