IK Multimedia ARC Studio review and demo

[@jamesorvis_mixhackers]

Just jumped ship today! Sound ID has been a game changer for me and my mixes, but same feelings about getting annoyed with bugs and issues. Looking forward to testing out ARC studio against Sound ID

[@CharlesHardingA]

Really highly recommend the KH750 sub for the 310s especially because it has the built in DSP room correction for those monitors. It made a world of difference in my studio while also giving my exceptional low end.

[@StarskyCarr]

Thanks. I’ve tried subwoofers before but the whole room rattled!! Bass was warm and inviting though!

[@dirtyharry1881]

I have the same setup and it's really good. It's also quite honest. If it can't correct sth it will tell you and it will allow you to adjust the eq if you feel sth is off

[@1978glo]

Hi,nice video.I have Mackie hr 824 the old version and I'm between ARC studio to treat my room or to go for iloud mtm.What would you suggest?hanks in advance.

[@stephengriffiths3009]

Super interesting. Did you us a mic on a stand, or hand-held to do the measurements?

[@StarskyCarr]

I tried both. A stand is preferable I think, but I tried a number of times and didn't have the patience to use the stand after a few attempts. I found that the 3 heights were belly button, solar plexus and neck! Keeping the same height and taking the readings in exactly the same place was giving repeatable results. Ill have more of a play - but the results when comparing what it was trying to give me and what I actually got were so close I thought I'd hit the right mark.

[@michel5148]

luckily i just bought a pair of adams where i can upload the sonarworks profile directly on the monitors. no hustle with an extra box of dsp in your audio path

[@StarskyCarr]

that's cool.

[@CaptainProton1]

I went from Sonarworks to Arc 4. Arc 4 way less Phasey, I can hear it in your demo near the end. Try Slate VSX headphones

[@CookinBeatloaf]

What about using the software without yhe hardware, on sale $69, can use other calibration mics?

[@lk0707]

Ive been there. All possible scenarios. Ended up building 40 000 Eur room. Zero problems with mixing since then.

[@StarskyCarr]

Thats one way to do it! When I moved from my last studio to here I really noticed the difference and just couldn't get things right for ages.

[@lk0707]

@@StarskyCarr good that you've found a way to improve sound. It is soo annoying to mix in bad acoustic environment.

[@couchcamperTM]

the best sound environment is an open field, but here in the north of Germany - and as far as I know in most of GB - that limits us to 60 days of mixing xD (at most)

[@StarskyCarr]

haha. 60 days... thats optimistic :)

[@couchcamperTM]

@@StarskyCarr very^^

[@Vim-Wolf]

Not rich here and have an awkwardly small studio, so I ended up getting the Presonus Eris E8 XT monitors, they have a fromt facing bass port so it's less of an issue having the monitors closer to the wall.

[@StarskyCarr]

I had some BM 15s for years with the same. Loved them, but then my amp died and I couldn’t get a suitable replacement which sent me down a horrible path of trying lots of monitors. These don’t have ports. Maybe that’s part of the reason I settled with them.

[@willemclaesen5983]

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

[@StarskyCarr]

Good luck trying to emulate this with white noise. Even if you can get a decent EQ curve (which would be difficult getting anything accurate with white noise), you can't be certain what the mics influence is. If you have the eq curve for your mic, and can compensate the eq you've estimated coming from your speakers... nah.. haha.. you could possibly get a very general idea but nothing close to these. White noise just isn't accurate enough, which is why these systems don't use it. they use a pulse modulating through the frequency spectrum. If you're serious about it get one of these.

[@willemclaesen5983]

​@@StarskyCarr thanks for the quick input man. Love your channel. I´m not super technical so I fear me trying to go and emulate anything might be catastrophical.

[@vivalasosta]

Nice video, waiting for a video on The Legend HZ

[@StarskyCarr]

we'll see :)

[@h-voltage]

I have Sonarworks, ARC, and Dirac, and Dirac is just absolutely better in soundquality. But it has a bigger latency than the others. ARC is the best in this regard with it's 0 latency.

[@daniel_dumile]

These all require the speakers to be hooked up to a computer right? Is there a... dawless version? Otherwise I'd have to route my mixer through my macbook

[@analogbanger]

Once you load the measurement correction eq into the ‘ARC box’ or DSP monitors like ‘Adam AV’ series, that’s it you can run your monitors corrected to the room with a computer.

[@StarskyCarr]

As @analogbanger says, you need the computer to run the calibration test and to load the profile to the box - but then you can disconnect it. So you can have it after your mixer in the chain and no need to turn on your computer. The sonar works needs to run through the computer as its software based.

[@leftmono1016]

Many years ago I used to record my tracks onto cassette and then rush down to the car to see how bad they sounded. Usually pretty bad. If only KZbin had been available then.

[@StarskyCarr]

The car, my nans kitchen and in the adjacent room

[@leftmono1016]

@@StarskyCarr - ahh yes, the adjacent room was always an interesting experience! Couldn’t listen in my nan’s kitchen, would have scared her budgie 😬

[@unduloid]

I always laugh while doing mixes.

[@StarskyCarr]

Well thats not very serious.. sounds like you don't need to try it :)

[@coolo73]

I’ve been using Sonarworks for around 9 years. I swear by it, but the convenience of hardware is tempting. Worth mentioning that Sonarworks has options to port your measurement profile into specific audio interfaces or speakers. However, it’s all high-end stuff that would only be seen in properly designed commercial studios. Most home setups are not using an audio interface that costs $3000-5000. The cheapest supported hardware I could find is the Adam A-series speakers, with even the smallest 4” speakers running $1000 a pair, so software is the only reasonable option with Sonarworks in my opinion. It makes the Arc Studio seem like a steal.

[@analogbanger]

You could even measure your room yourself using ‘rew’ software and then apply the results to your monitor outs on a interface like the RME UCX 2 with their new ‘room eq’ facility. And Adam AV series are not high end, they are low midrange monitors and some prefer the older version because it has more depth, because with DSP monitors you are going through another set of ad/da conversion. Class D amplifiers area even frowned upon in certain hifi circles as inferior technology, but things like ‘direc’ circumvent the biggest culprit in bad sound which is the ‘room’. In the end treating your room as much as possible is the best investment, as room eq can’t take eradicate the reverb/reflections out of your room. So yes the ‘Ik Multimedia ARC’ is a good option for the price of entry without the annoyance of having the correction loaded in your daw.

[@coolo73]

@@analogbanger I never said that Adams were high-end, I said they were actually the cheapest hardware that directly supports Sonarworks measurement profiles. It’s either them, a $2700+ interface or $6500 monitors…no in between. However, still paying $1000 for a pair for Adam 4-inch speakers is not a good deal when the 5-inch non-DSP version sells for only $400 a pair. I personally prefer a guided integrated solution instead of using some 3rd party software and creating my own measurement scheme. My goal for wanting a hardware solution is less room (pun intended) for me to mess up…not more. Buying an additional $1700 RME interface and ‘rolling my own’ room correction doesn’t seem like good advice. So yeah the Arc studio is looking better and better.

[@analogbanger]

@@coolo73 Your right the ARC studio is a bargain for $299. Room correction can be expensive too at the top end, with stuff like the trinnov system coming in at around $5000. There are also the Neumann kh80 monitors that are $1100 a pair. You also have the Neumann kh120 mk 2’s and the Neumann kh150 monitors. Also genelec do glm monitors. So there are few more options out there that run their own proprietary correction software. Also you ik multimedia do a few monitors with room correction built in. keep in mind some do correction that sounds better than others. Like a few people hate how sonarworks sound for example. I’m just giving knowledge of what’s out their and the options available because of this music tech stuff can be confusing. Peace