CAS Quarterly

Fall 2019

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C A S Q U A R T E R L Y F A L L 2 0 1 9 67 One characteristic of Genelec monitors is that they're often perceived as a little bright. When I mentioned this to a Genelec rep prior to purchasing some of the Ones speakers, he said that Genelec monitors aim to provide a flat frequency response which, to some, may be perceived as a little bright, though it is accurate. Of note, this was not stated in a pretentious manner, just in a "We're not saying it's right or wrong, but that's how a flat response sounds" manner. The GLM software has filters that users can adjust to bring the upper (or any) frequencies in line with what their ears are used to hearing. After running the calibration, I knocked down a little top end (1-2 dB). A quick note about my home studio. It's a rectangle that's 8.5' by 14' with 8' ceilings. While it isn't acoustically tuned, I do have nearly floor-to-ceiling bookshelves of different depths filled differently along the rear wall to act as quasi-diffusers. I also have some Owens Corning 2" panels on the side walls behind the listening position and the floor is carpeted. I feel this combination helps tame the reflections and build up somewhat while not cosmetically annoying my wife. After using their respective calibration software, I had the JBL speakers sounding better and the Genelec's sounding really good. Wanting to bring the JBL's to the next level, I decided to give the Sonarworks Reference 4 software a try. SOFTWARE CALIBRATION I had heard about the Reference software from some mixer friends who used it as a final step when adjusting their home, project, and even professional studios—and they were all very pleased. I was also aware of people using it in conjunction with their headphones to bring a more transparent and flat frequency response to their playback. While there is a reference headphone only version with over 200 headphone profiles, the main Reference Studio version also includes the headphone profiles. Sonarworks sells modified versions of popular reference headphones and even offers a service to permanently modify ("flatten") your specific pair (not just model) of headphones so that you can listen to them without software. After receiving Sonarworks' specific measurement microphone (though you can use other manufacturer's), I launched their Reference 4 Measure software with my interface connected. (I disabled the JBL RMC software as I wanted Reference to adjust the "raw" speaker signal.) Unlike the JBL and Genelec software which use a singularly positioned sinewave sweep, Measure takes multiple measurements—37 in fact—using a combination of sine wave sweeps and impulse response-like noises. Why so many? According to the Sonarworks Whitepaper: "Automatic Microphone Positioning System (AMPS) and Perceived Acoustic Power Frequency Response (PAPFR) JBL RMC software after analysis Genelec with GLM added. Red (before), Blue (GLM correction), Green (result) Panoramic shot of my home studio, which is 8.5' x 14'

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