Yes, please make a Room EQ Wizard in depth tutorial!😊

It’d be cool to see one of these room correction reviews that includes an eq sweep to see results after correction is applied. It’d also tell you what moves worked and where the room still has problems. More info the better, these companies seem to skip this part. Always need to test after making corrections. Thanks for the videos! ❤

This device should have an SPDIF input to avoid additional latency and AD/DA conversion.

You should check out the Trinnov Nova!! Just got it set up in my studio this week and it’s mind blowing! The thing I love most is that it handles phase. Great review as usual!

The one thing missing is subwoofer correction, specifically phase aligning the subwoofer with the monitors. I don't know why this overlooked in products like this because proper phase alignment between a sub and the monitors is equally important.

Have you checked about Neumann KH750 subwoofer + room correction system? Since I have this setup (with Focal ST TWIN as the satellite speakers) I've been really happy about this whole setup.

Excellent point about trying to correct extreme high and low amplitude frequencies vs treating the room 😊

I'm still really happy with my good old KRK Ergo - digital input and functions as a monitor controller so that's one less box on the desk. Very similar concept but only operates on the low end (

The only issue with changing the mic from horizontal to vertical is that these type of omni mic have slightly diferant frequemcy responce at 0 deg vs 180 deg, and often come with 2 freq responce charts or two calibration files seperatly for both positions because of it. It's minor, and if you have no way to hold the mic still at higher spots, is probably better than not doing it. However, if someone want really super acurate results, this could throw the measurements off by a few tenths of a DB in places possibly.

I got a passive monitor switcher for my setup, and just plugged it in reverse. 3 sources in, 1 source out. One is direct out from my interface, the other is from my DIRAC hardware box doing room/monitor correction, and the third can be whatever, like a separate input source. It's nice to be able to choose between raw and corrected signals with a rotary switch!

Yes We would love your approach in REW!🙏

This device is great if you have an analog mixer conected directly to your monitors so you can have the same correction you get when using the Daw output for instance.

You know there's monitor FX inserts in Reaper, right? That's where my room correction goes and it's always on by default, independent of the project I'm running. Since it comes after the master buss there's no chance of accidentally rendering down a mix with the room correction applied to it.

Thankyou for another great video! I just ordered the arc studio, i have sonarworks but i seem to have issues with it, i also use vsx headphones and use both for my mixing/checking. 👍🏻

As an visual graphics designer I'm a bit OCD about colors so every time I see Vytse's nails I feel like he should paint them in his studio's colors (white and red) 😂

Actually excited for your MT 48 review

Nice video. I was thinking buying Sonarworks, but what you said, it’s a plugin. I’m using Studio One 6.5 Pro, so I have to enable the listen bus., to prevent printing the correction to the mix. So with this kit, I don’t have to worry about it.

I'd love to see a video showing how to use REW! Thanks for all the great content.

Its nearly the Same routine like you do with the Neumann DSP Monitors. Even the software has some similarities. Neumann said for the reason that this Mic is an omnidirectional you have to point it upwards everytime an not to point it to the speakers. Looks like Frauenhofer work not only with neumann. Thats great. 🙂

I use ARC 3 in my treated mixing room and I found it rectified a couple of areas which couldn't be fixed with treatment. The real surprise was that my stereo image which was already very good got even better with ARC 3 as it does do some phase alignment. Now I'm hoping that IK M are offering an crossgrade because having the external box is a game changer for me. 😎

Great video. Yes would love to see Room EQ Wizard video. I tried sonarwork. Something with the phase drove me nuts. This would be much better Correct!! As its just a curve. Thanks Man! Be safe......

Love to see you do a comparison between the ARC Studio and the Sonarworks SoundID Reference =)

Good review. I've been saying for a while that someone needs to make a hardware unit at this end of the market for those of us who can't afford a Trinnov or don't want to / can't afford to switch out our speakers for Neumanns, Genelecs or such like. I've been using SoundID Reference in my non-ideal room and it's been a revelation. I'm really tempted by this box as it will allow me to correct for external sources (vinyl, synths etc) without needing to run the DAW or hijack software (another cost). It would be improved with a simple hardware remote to allow for switching speaker profiles without the software and I'd love to see a version with two outputs that can switch profiles when you switch speakers - I do use that feature in Sonarworks.

OMG an ikMultimedia review!!!?!?!?!? I still can't believe they haven't sent you some MTM monitors. I actually just purchased a second set for my new studio!

I'm SOO glad there's a competitor to Sound ID! There's a huge flaw with how it handles top end in any other mode than normal in higher resolutions than 44.1k. When I called their support they basically shrugged their shoulders and said so what, you can't hear that high anyway. This is not true as the only reason I noticed is because i heard some differance and went looking for what it was doing with ddmf. The fact there is another option now is great for two reasons. Firstly I can change to using something else, but also it might kick Sonarworks up the butt into fixing their program properly! ❤❤❤

Thx for the Video! So are you going to keep it and use it in the future or won' t you? best regards

I want that room measurment video. Yesterday!

Thanks for all the great information you share on your channel! I get the idea of correction software, but it seems to me it's still missing a key element-- 6:44 our hearing. Our hearing may not be flat. As we age we lose low and high-end, so even with a flat system, we may be making mixes brighter or with too much bass

Brings back memories of the KrK Ergo 😅😎

Wytse, I'm really curious what your big speakers look like on the ARC analysis graph. It'd be fun just to see. You could just do the 7-point measurement and measure both with and without your usual room correction and see what ARC comes up with. I've been using this software for years and recently I had my setup in a very odd place that had some extreme nodes. The ARC analysis told me a lot.

I've used Sonarworks for a long time, and I am super happy with that (Cubase user, so can plonk it on the controll-room and never have troubles bouncing with plugin on) - however, a solution that has no latency feels interesting to me. You've done a Sonarworks video back in the day, how do you feel this compares? And thanks for all the informative and entertaining videos. Much love

Well you certainly will have some diffrences comparing horizontal and vertical messurment placements even for omnidirectional. I think especially in the high end (where mics anyways are not all that super precise) like from 4khz oneards ofren. Low end does not matter so much. Thats why you often have verticla and horizontal correction files. You are also able to messure in an angle soemtines thays beneficial but overall the best way is to just keep your microphone position constant. In your case anyways at the end i am not sure if it rly has thay much influence anyways becayse you dont do that all that super rigerous but year vertical and horizontal can sometimes have 2+ db diffrence so it adds ontop of the error. (Purely objectivly again practically its arguably not that important afterall)

Thanks for this snd sll your other content. I'm subscribed since maaasny years and watched and liked almost all of them! I'm curious about the differences between your RME converter which I also use and the MT48 - could you share your findings and conclusions so far? Thanks alot!

14:55 exactly! i wouodnt wanna mess up my da path with another adda.

uhhh, u got the grandchild!!! love to see your opinion on this. i m stucked in my buying decision between the grandchild, dictator and tegler vari tube. the 670 sounds so great in the H audio demos, not sure if u get this sound out of the others. cheers mate 🎉

I'm not sure if it's the same whether you measure with the microphone pointing up or facing towards the speakers, at least with the UMIK-1 you get two different calibration files to use depending on whether you have the measurement microphone pointing at the ceiling or not, and the values are different in those two files. I don't know the theory behind it to be honest though, your explanation makes sense to me, but then I would also expect both files to be the same?

Hi! How it is work with 2.1 system, also with subwoofer? Thanks.

I currently use uad with dual output and sound ID reference. I wish there was an ability to quickly swap between two speaker profiles with arc

please I wanted to ask could you provide the Frequency Response calibration file for The Arc Mic so I could use it with Sonarworks Reference ID software

What if you set up 2 in parallel, would the correction be even better?

YES!!!! HOW DO R Eq W my (not-yet finished) room?

There is one thing I don't understand. This microphone measures the frequencies of the room but does it take into account the fact that the engineer is in the room?

You are on fire! I love this video. 😅

Thanks so much for this video! but what if you have a sub in the studio like me? (2.1 setup)

Thanks W.! Your thoughts about Trinnov vs ARC? (measuring)

I love this "outside computer/os" approach

I would like to have an REW mesurement.

Your channel is the best. Others who claim they are Pro, even businesses who do this for a living (allegedly), have their bottom-end boosted way too much for male voice, as if everyone out here in LALA Land has 6x9 triax car speakers in no cabinet, and worse, quite often. Thanks !!!

Same capture sound as Sonarworks. Can't wait. Nicely done.

I'm finding that product a bit critical to be honest... First of I'm a fan of ARC and am using ARC3 at the moment. But the need for a hardware unit just to hear the correction outside of the DAW is just stupid. That would be easily and cheaper solved with proper software development. If ARC wouldn't only be a plugin but also a Standalone Software to be inserted before the System Output the problem that IK created themselves would not be a problem at all. There is a program for Mac users called SoundSource (which costs around 40-50 bucks) that will simply let you put plugins before your output or input devices (also great for getting nerdy insights while listening to music). So no need to turn the plugin of unless you're switching to headphones. But that is also just one click with SoundSource. And Windows will also have a lot of options for this. Also pretty much all modern interfaces, also the cheap ones have almost no coloration and are super clean. This just sounds like IK trying to make more money and letting the customer pay more for their development errors.

I'm upgrading a lot of elements of my studio in the coming year. I've got a JL Audio Fathom subwoofer that I'm importing from hi-fi into the studio set up. I'm hoping it will combine with my ATC SCM45A's and I feel that to get the most out of this set up I should use some room correction software, with mic - and it seems the IK package comes with a hardware box to connect it together. Does this speaker config (2.1) work all together with the IK ARC box, and if the measurement and calibration is done properly, how does it affect the sub and monitors - i.e is it just an EQ curve across the entire output? Am I better off adjusting the gain on each of the monitor and sub to balance them as close as I can before the ARC kicks in and makes adjustments? The JL Fathom itself comes with a microphone and room correction circuit built into it too.. so, if I run that, and calibrate it for the room by itself, then the ARC over the top - it's gonna be as dialed in as can possibly be I guess... I think at least 1/3rd of what I'll be upgrading should probably be spent on even more sound absorbers/diffusers - although I have a pretty decent flat room as it is with the amount of ghost panels and corner traps so far. But this 12" sub is an absolute monster.. I'm sure most of you know the W7 range, it hasn't changed in 15 years and is still their flagship bass product as it has so much engineering put into the thing.. I love it. It's like being in a womb of bass on ecstacy. I had one in my car and I've still never had anything close to that religious experience in sound!

So how does the measurements after correction look like? They always work out different from the graph they show

Would be neat to see audio interfaces allowing for the import of req files

Thanks very much!

This might be perfect for my home studio, which is really just a lightly treated former dining room.

Hi, very interesting unit! I got some questions for the workflow with it: How do you switch between multiple monitors then? Even with a monitor controller, switching the monitors on with the box inbetween doesn’t switch the different captures of every pair of monitors which you saved. So you would have to load it / change it every time you switch monitors, when you want to have the correction of both simultaniously inside the plugin? Or can you use 2 boxes for two different monitors? would that work? When i listen to mixes i like to move fast back and forth between my speakers. That would be impossible with this using one arc box and one monitor controller right? Best regard

I Need one for headphone correction with crossfeed for mobile mixing

Just bought it on Sweetwater using your affiliate link!

I have the sonarworks mic as well as the actual software? Is this any better, different, worth trying out ?

Please do a video showing us how to measure our rooms. Much appreciated.

I got a question if I wanna use this box with my UAD Volt 1 and just use 2 XLR to Jack cables to connect to this box it should work the same way am I right ?

For those of us who mix analogue, this is is worth checking out.

Please review the RME Totalmix latest Room EQ, and adi2 EQ! Thanks!

RME just launched room correction . Perhaps you could try it too..?

I’m wondering how the converters in that little box will impact sound quality. Why spend several thousand dollars on high end converters only to route it through that device at the end?

Whats the difference to Sonarworks? ✌🏼

One note: i didn't check the mic specs but i'm guessing it has natively free field response, so normally when you point it 90 degrees up you'd need to apply a diffuse field correction file so that you don't lose any hi frequency information off axis (don't know if it's possible to load mic correction files with this system, i highly doudbt it)

Interesting! I have a MiniDSP 2x4HD with an option to upgrade to DDRC-24 with Dirac Live. Have you ever used Dirac Live? Do you think it might be worth it? Surprisingly little info out there on this! Cheers!

Great video! I didn't know this exists. A newbie question: since you have done a lot of research in how to build your own studio acoustically, shouldn't the measuring phase produce more or less a flat EQ-line? The EQ-curve from the analysis seems a bit extreme to me, considering you know your stuff about acoustics. Or do lots of pro studio's have acoustics which aren't ideal, because it's just not realistic/practical to design a perect room? Or in short: why would pro studios need to calibrate if the have good acoustics?

hi i listened to this on a high end system and the correction took out all the mid low from the snare...(probably the desk modal you were talking about)...is this desireble? because the original sounds more full and better to me. So when you would have used the corection with the same mix you would have ended up with too much mid low, right? Or is this just something you have to get used to over time? Maybe this system is more for people with problems (studio with too many reflexions, no good absorbtion, lot of bass problems, hard to get a mix right etc)

I'm using Sonarworks' Reference for years but this hardware thing is what I actually need. No systemwide software to install or plugins that you forget to disable for exporting your final project and start again. Only thing I miss: In version 2 it should have a headphone output that is calibrated with a second profile but I think that's harder to to because it's not that easy to measure a headphone.

Hey! I am thinking of buying this. A friend of mine is sure however that the same can be done with a condenser mic and match eq using white noise. Any thoughts on this? Is there a workaround with stock plugins that can mimic this? Thanks

How different it is from Sonarworks? Seems about the same!

The best preamp to use for room correction mics is the Slate VMS-1. The VMS-1 is a linear preamp meaning it has zero co,lor. Its the most transparent mic preamp made. This way ARC does its job with no color from the pre-amp.

BTW you don’t need to use the external box, it’s optional, you can use the software correction or the hardware box correction with the same analysis file.

das een handig ding, zou ik wel eens willen horen hoe dat uitpakt hier..

My environment has 3 pairs of monitors. With Arcserve 3 I load the corresponding correction in the monitor channel and done. This appliance I would need 3 times.

I got one but the analysis won’t show any signal. Checked everything - there must be a software compatibility issue for me

Those measurement mics are omni directional, but not really. Read up on free-field vs diffuse-field measurements. There is quite a bit difference in the hi freq measurement results between the two approaches.

Yes to the room eq wizard vid!

Are this is just eq? It doesnt correct latency channel vs channel?

What about using a sub in a 2.1 system? Does it still work. I know the Genelec correction works with a sub.

are these little speakers a DIY system ...like a car speaker test?

How is this different than the SOUND ID Reference? What is the upside here?

Work with stereo + Sub?

I purchased this exact system and I’m having one issue. After I’m done analyzing, saving and then quitting; I then go to the arc 4 software and it remains neutral with no data from my analysis. It says my results are not being saved to my device. Can u please help me?

Is there a 5.1 option for this as well like for Sonarworks?

I always though that by default a mic is an 8 figure (?), just because the capsule has 2 sides. Anyway expect some degree of coloration when tilting the mic.

Is this same architecture as genelec GLM??

Interesting nails. That's very progressive of you. Thank you for helping to create the new utopia.

This needed to be put for the budget market years ago. Obviously, if you need high end, you'd go Trinnov

Great content, grat little box! I was using Sonarworks SoundID on a separate computer with a Lynx Hilo connected via Thunderbolt. The systems worked independently from my DAW (on another Mac-Studio), so no plugins were used in my DAW or system-wide. The latency is virtually nonexistent. Essentially, I am achieving the same functionality as with this small box. I initially desired the Trinnov system, but it was too expensive once I factored in the cost of having a separate "recorder"(Hilo) for the printing process (I am using a summing device). Therefore, by implementing a second computer (mac mini m1), I have saved a significant amount of money. Now, with this ARC device, I can switch to it and discontinue using the second Mac Mini that I currently use for SoundID. The question is: Will be better, or should I wait to get the Trinnov Nova? Keep it up with the great content!!

Like Andrew (maker of Super Cubes) said, these speakers aren’t actually suitable room correction. Tested my pair with Sonarworks. The box has DSP processing and it messes with the transient response of these specific speakers. FYI to anyone else who has these “specific” speakers.

A comparison one to one with Trinnov Nova would be great.

A Room EQ Wizard in depth tutorial would be great!!

There's an important problem not mentioned. If there's separate correction on each side, then the placement of the mic is crucial. If your room is symmetrical, but the measurements aren't you'll be getting some very weird differences between L&R, especially if there's any kind of time correction like Sonar Works. If your room isn't, you may not hear the problem clearly, but it will still be there. I think correcting headphones with EQ is viable, but rooms can only be corrected physically. In my experience correcting with EQ is either different but equal or worse, never better. There can be some small "icing" added, but it needs to be done by someone experienced who knows they can only make a few minimal changes, rather than try to fix anything fundamental.

Really solves the issue of getting used to how your studio sounds. Can just stream music on my pc without having to drag it into my DAW. Also considering getting one for the HiFi in the lounge 🤔

I would stay on the chair in front of your desk as if you were mixing when you do the measurements. Humans are also absorbers, so that is the real room situation when we are mixing. To be empty space in front of the speakers with only the microphone will miss 1 important factor/absorber. You!

Wow! No need to speed up) nice review. But why no q factor? It looks like its not correcting the small peaks

I know about a REW tutorial from Groove3 by doing the 7 point measure, but I want to see more people using it for measurements and for calibration practice. I wasn't totally convinced about using an ir file in a convolution plugin, but perhaps i find it too "simple" ? Please take your time to do REW one day :D