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h ead: Basic acoustic m e asure m e nt prim e r v2.1

25th Februar 2010

DanDan
Live s for ge ar

Join Date : Aug 2003

Location: C ork Ire land
Posts: 5,685
Th ead S a e

#
Ba ic aco

ic mea

emen p ime

2.1

Room Anal i Sof a e P ime V2.1

Re i ed A g
2010
Room Analysis Software of decent quality has become very
affordable. This has led to many attempting to use it to evaluate
their studio or other listening room. The immediate results can be
confusing and disappointing. To get the best from any tool, some
understanding of the principles and some operating skills are
needed. More importantly, let's back up a bit, I recommend that
the basic room treatments be done before any attempt at
measurement. Corner Bass Traps, RFZ, including Cloud. When these
basics are in place let's then measure and tweak positions to get
the absolute best from the space. This article is intended as a
simple primer on how to do the measurements, and how to view
them. As of Feb 2010 it has been substantially revised to
accommodate new wisdoms, the results of practical experiments
and discussions on the fora. Please remember it is a Primer,
intended to help you get going quickly and easily. I have simplified
a few issues in order to keep it tight.
Wha o e pec
There is no silver bullet here unfortunately. Expect to see horrible
looking graphs. Software can excel at comparative tasks, such as
finding the best speaker and listener positions. However it takes an
experienced brain to evaluate how a room sounds or errs, and what
to do about it. Let s not expect a health check and a treatment
prescription from these programs. They are tools not room doctors.
The G aph
I will deal with only a few of the easiest understood graphs. For
the rest, RTFM.
Frequency response is the most common and is easily understood.
The Waterfall is a perhaps more powerful one. Most of our rooms
are dominated by strong modes. Tuned by the dimensions of the
room, these modal frequencies ring on longer than their neighbours.
Conversely there are modal nulls which lead to missing information.
These modes are powerful and they wreak havoc. They cause
individual Bass notes to stick out or to vanish. This makes mix
decisions regarding the bottom end, where most of the energy in
music resides, very unreliable. The Waterfall plot displays this
behaviour so graphically that it hardly needs explanation. It is like a
series of Frequency response snapshots taken at short intervals.
Like a cartoon, these snaps portray action over time.

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Decay graphs such as EDT, T20,30 are to be regarded carefully.

Even in Labs, decay measurements under 125Hz or so are quite
uncertain. LF modes dominate in small rooms, so the Decay here is
not at all random and diffuse like Reverb in a large space.
The concept of RT60 cannot even exist in small rooms.
REW has a Topt feature which tries to address these difficulties
with some success.
FM3 has also improved greatly at Decay and now includes third
octaves.
The BBC used third octave decays as an indicator of room quality.
No third octave decay length was permitted to differ from it s
neighbours by more than 10%. Note that this test will show up
problematic modes. Any room passing this test would be a very fine
one, IMHO.
Given time and experimentation, one learns how to interpret these
different views of the room sound. Graph changes caused by say a
change of speaker or listener position, are however very easily
evaluated as an improvement or not.
The Microphone
You may well have a useable mic in your closet already. A multipattern condenser switched to omni will work fine. The frequency
response bumps of say an 87 or 414 are tiny compared to the 30dB
anomalies we find in real rooms. I recommend jumping in. Get a
demo of the software and go for it with whatever mic you have at
hand. Be aware that directional mics may have poor LF response
compared to an OMNI. They can also underestimate some modes
due to position and direction. With that caveat, most mics are OK
for comparative tests. In time, if you develop a liking for
measurement, you might want a more suitable mic or software.
Measurement mics are omnidirectional Small Diaphragm Condensers.
The best of these are optimised to have a very accurate and
stable frequency response, unfortunately this is often at the
expense of very poor noise figures. I recommend only the ones
which are also quiet enough for recording. DPA and EarthWorks
spring to mind here.
So nd Le el Me er
SLMs, even cheap ones, are very useful for many purposes. They
are well worth having around. There are many recent cheap units
way better than the venerable Broadcasting Shed one. Many SLM's
can output their Mic signal via the AC OUT socket. This is fine with
decent units. Recent experience has shown it to be unreliable with
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cheap ones. Some have very skewed frequency response. Even

worse, the AC OUT can have electronic noise or DC on it.
Not recommended.
Calibration
It is not necessary to calibrate your rig to standard SPL's.
It is however, wise to optimise the S/N ratio.
Adjust your speaker volume to drive the room very well. You may
wish to block your ears with headphones or earplugs. Watch out
for overload lights on powered monitors, particularly at HF.
This puts our source signal well above background noise, computer
fans, etc. Longer sweeps or multiple sweeps averaged can also be
used to increase S/N ratio.
With a decent sweep level established, now adjust your mic pre
gain using trial measurements and/or the meters on your interface.
Get a decent level, graph peaks should end up within say
-6dBFS to OdBFS.
This is really just normal digital recording level setting.
Correction
As one becomes familiar with the Software, one may want to avail
of some little sophisticated extras. It is possible to input a
microphone correction curve to adjust a known mic response to
flat.
e.g. If your mic comes with a printed frequency response curve
showing -2dB at 100Hz, you can apply an automatic +2dB
correction in the software. Similarly there is a loop back correction
facility to automatically correct for sound card or interface
anomalies including delay. FuzzMeasure has a Create Time Domain
Average facility. It is essential to use the loop back correction for
this to function properly.
Acoustic Anal sis Software
I will only mention the free or cheap packages that I know. There
are many out there, from Freeware to extremely expensive Lab
standard. However this little group have democratised the process
by being both competent and affordable.
ETF and it s current variations was one of the earliest programs.
The Acoustisoft website has great walk-through tutorials on actual
uses.
FuzzMeasure Pro is a similar product for the Mac. This one is very
easy to use, but is fully competent. Another strength is it s very
sophisticated averaging of measurements. e.g. Take measurements
at several different listening positions, then average them to get a
broader sense of the room s response.
REW now works with Mac and PC. It is very comprehensive, which
results in a learning curve. It costs a nice round figure, 0. The
manual deserves special mention, superb writing.
ARTA is PC only. It appears to be very comprehensive and
reasonably priced. The manual is pretty much a text book, it
explains the measurement techniques in hand to the very deepest
levels.
Other Tools and Helpers
I use a collection of must haves together to achieve a holistic
evaluation of the room.
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A CD of reference Tracks. I bring mine with me everywhere.

The SoundCheck CDs by Alan Parsons.
LabMeter, a Mac Frequency meter from rustykat.com
A Room Mode calculator such as this one
http://www.bobgolds.com/Mode/RoomModes.htm
There are many RM calcs, with different strengths. Test drive a
few.
The free MiniRator and Test tones at RealTraps - Home
I use sine waves to drive the modes crazy. SignalSuite is nice and
smooth. Try the Signal Generator plug-in in your DAW, sometimes
the frequency jumps make this difficult. REW has a unique Sweep
follows Graph feature on it's Signal Generator. This has a wonderful
smooth action.
I use an ancient steam driven analogue one with a real sweep dial.
Oneself- the body can generate tones of varied pitch and duration,
and most importantly can easily alter the source (and listening)
location. This human moving tone generator uniquely reacts to the
results of its own output. No loudspeaker has this ability to move
about, provoking and reacting to room response. Short pitched
tonal bursts such as grunts, barks, or vowels, can very strongly
stimulate the booms honks and rings. Because of the variable
stimulus location, we can identify exactly where they live.
Labmeter can show the frequency. Handclaps are excellent for
finding Flutter echo, or single slap echoes, again by moving into the
actual paths and hot spots.
You might want to be alone when doing all of this!
A sound absorbent panel, temporarily held in place by a friend or
mic stand, can categorically prove the paths of these flutters and
such. This will coincidentally show exactly where to put treatment.
Lastly, a caveat; some software graphs allow clicking on, say a
peak, to identify it s frequency. The resulting decimal point readout
suggests great accuracy. I have found them to be way out, they
are not meant to be accurate. For example P-z shows a 10 percent
error at 100Hz. I wouldn t use these readouts while mixing or to
create a Room Eq. for instance.
Ho to do it
I am assuming a rectangular room, with speakers at the narrow
front wall. Identify the zones at 3/8 (38%) of room length from the
front wall and ditto from the back wall. These zones mathematically
should have the best balance of room modal activity. Another rule
of thumb suggests there is little Low Bass at the room centre.
These are useful, often but not always correct, guidelines.
However Measurement always trumps Theory. Use these guides
only as suggested starting points. Prove by measuring. Be ready for
surprises. Using masking tape, label the floor at all significant
listening spots, e.g. Engineers seat, Producers seat, Couch. Use
descriptive names and numbers for your chosen spots. I use names
like L38FC (Left Speaker Front Centre), L38BL (Left Speaker Back
Left) and so on. Establish your own system and stick to it. 8 or so
spots seems appropriate in a small room. Don t be afraid to change
your spots in response to the graphs. Mount the Microphone or
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would a noise gate.

How to view it
Optimistically! Take a look at the Frequency Response, third octave
smoothing.
Ideally this should be a nice even slope from say +3dB around
100Hz to perhaps 3dB around 10K or so.
Next restrict the viewing frequency range to say below 300Hz.
Lighten the
smoothing or turn it off entirely. Observe the Peaks and Nulls.
Remember 40/80Hz is around the low E on electric Bass and electric
Guitar.
Kick Drum and Bass action is hot from 40-120.
Now let s expand the spectrum again, say up to 18K.
Look for signs of comb filtering. This will have a repeating series of
dips and spikes,
thus the comb. Experiment, use the view changing tools of
Smoothing and Zooming,
to see right into areas of interest.
Don t panic
The curves almost always look awful. Frequency response graphs
show scary peaks and dips. Waterfall plots will often show one very
low extremely long decay accompanied by a confusing array of
peaks and dips up through the spectrum. For some perspective
let s take a real world example.

This room was from hell. It has mostly concrete surfaces, it is

asymmetrical, and worst of all it has alcoves. It is a tuned indoor
swimming pool.
The Green Before curve shows the room with elementary
treatment; the Red After curve is with much more considered
treatment, of considerable quantity and quality. We did the lot;
four corners, alcove corners, Ceiling Cloud, RFZ. Sadly, the After
curve has a very similar shape to the Before. Disappointing and
very common. Let s look closer focussing on the musical crucial 100
Hz zone. Here we find a broad 6dB improvement. Now, consider if
you were to eq a full mix with such a broad 6dB boost.. This is a
big and welcome change. This room is used every day
professionally, with great success. Perhaps the curves generated
by software are not great at fully describing a sonic experience. A
survey of Engineers gave this a 9. The graphs however deliver very
clear warnings. E.g. Be careful of Bass decisions in the 100Hz zone.
Try to find workarounds. Find the listening spot spots in the room
where the graph is flattest. Perhaps refer to top quality
headphones to hear the mix without any room or speaker.
Octave Reverb Time Measurements varied a lot with position, some
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were zero. The modes were so clearly so overpowering that these

Decay views were of little use.
The Waterfall plot told another story. On a cursory glance the
After again looked very similar to Before in shape, just generally
shorter. Not very impressive.
However, with focus we find the good story. Before, the Waterfall
showed a 1.3 Second long boom at 37Hz. After, it was reduced to
0.7 S. Go SuperChunks. Sonically, this changed a Kick drum from a
chest massage to a nice subby thump. Note there is almost no
sign of this huge anomaly in the averaged Frequency Response
graph. Waterfalls are IMHO the most useful of all the graphs.
Concl sions
Software alone cannot evaluate a listening space. It does however
bestow great certainty when making comparative choices. When
treating a room there is simple clear advice on the usual websites
as to where to put treatment and why. They all agree on the
basics; Broadband or Bass Traps in the corners, a Ceiling Cloud,
Side Reflection points. This is not voodoo and it doesn t change
from room to room. Treat the Room first, then use Software to
make comparative choices such as best speaker position, best
seating positions, best speaker eq settings, etc.
Dan FitzGerald AMIOA MAES
Irish Acoustics
Sound Sound - Homepage
Last edited b DanDan; 24th August 2010 at 02:30 PM.. Reason: Little updates

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