Ik Multimedia ARC System 3 USER MANUAL
ARC System 3
Acoustic Room Correction System
USER MANUAL
ARC System 3
Table of Contents
English 1
Contents 2
What’s New in ARC System 3 9
Chapter 1 – ARC System 3 Overview 10
1.1 – Introduction 10
1.2 – What is the ARC System 3? 10
1.3 – How does the ARC System 3 work? 12
Chapter 2 – The ARC System 3 Components 15
2.1 – The ARC 3 measurement microphones 15
2.2 – The ARC 3 Analysis application 16
2.3 – The ARC 3 Correction Plug-In 16
Chapter 3 – Setup for Analysis 17
3.1 – What you need to analyze your room 17
3.1.1 – Audio Interface Requirements 17
3.2 – How to set up for analysis 17
3.2.1 – Speaker connection 18
3.2.2 – Powered Speaker setup 18
3.2.3 – Passive Speaker setup 19
3.2.4 – Active Subwoofer and Powered Speakers setup 20
3.2.5 – How to connect the RTA Measurement Microphone 21
Chapter 4 – Using the ARC 3 Analysis 22
4.1 – Opening the ARC 3 Analysis application 22
4.2 – Welcome to the ARC System 3 22
4.3 – Microphone Selection 23
4.4 – Audio Setup 25
4.5 – Select the listening position type 27
4.6 – Position the microphone 32
4.7 – Playback Level / Mic preamp level 33
4.8 – Room Analysis 36
4.8.1 – Layer 1 37
4.8.2 – Layer 2 39
4.8.3 – Layer 3 40
4.9 – Save your correction 41
4.10 – DONE! 42
Chapter 5 – Using the ARC 3 Plug-in 43
5.1 – ARC 3 plug-in interface 43
5.1.1 – Play Window 43
5.1.2 – Measurement menu 44
5.1.3 – Target Curve menu 46
5.1.4 – Virtual Monitoring Feature 47
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5.1.5 – Frequency Response Graphs 47
5.1.6 – Speaker Icons 47
5.1.7 – Meter Options 48
5.1.8 – Correction ON switch and TRIM knob 49
5.2 – Edit Window 50
5.2.1 – Using the breakpoints on the graphic 51
5.2.2 – Target Curve Custom 1-4 buttons 52
5.2.3 – Save button 52
5.2.4 – Default button 53
5.2.5 – Combined L/R Correction 53
5.2.6 – Low Range and Hi Range Correction 54
5.2.7 – Correction Type (or Variable Resolution) 55
5.2.8 – Natural/Linear Phase options 55
5.2.9 – Top Bar options 56
5.3 – Opening the ARC 3 Plug-In in your DAW 56
5.4 – Using the ARC 3 Plug-In 57
5.5 – Suggestions for the best ARC System 3 usage 58
Chapter 6 – Frequently Asked Questions 59
6.1 – Room Analysis 59
6.2 – Processing Plug-in 61
Chapter 7 – Troubleshooting 62
Chapter 8 – Support 64
8.1 – User Area 64
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ARC System 3
License Agreement
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What’s New in ARC System 3
New Analysis Application
• New graphics and user interface.
• Simpler and faster step-by-step guided analysis process
• New 3D room analysis technology based on IK’s new volumetric technology for the best sonic performance
of the corrected system
• Works also with any measurement microphone compatible with standard mic calibration files
New Correction Plug-in
• New graphics with resizable user interface
• New processing engine for greater sonic transparency
• Lo and Hi adjustable correction ranges to maintain the speakers’ sonic signature
• Variable resolution / smoothing to match all rooms even better
• Natural and Linear phase modes for best L-R phase coherency of the monitoring system
• Real-time audio analyzer shows relation between monitoring performance and the incoming program
• High-precision multi-standard level meter
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ARC System 3
Chapter 1 – ARC System 3 Overview
1.1 – Introduction
Whether you’re working in a home studio, on the road, or in an unfamiliar space, room acoustics can make the
difference between a great mix or a rough one and an easy workflow or a painful one.
In an untreated room, what you hear while working is influenced by its acoustic interaction with your speakers.
From levels and panning to EQ and compression, all the careful decisions you make won’t translate properly to
the outside world. No matter how good and expensive your studio monitors are, the room will always have an
effect on their performance. If the room sounds bad, the monitors will sound bad, and this will force you to into
the typical sequence of going back and forth to fix the mix in small steps by checking it out on other playback
systems like listening in the car and so on. But for many musicians, traditional room treatment is too expensive,
too time-consuming or too permanent to be an effective solution.
In 2007, IK Multimedia came to the rescue with our pioneering room correction solution, the ARC System.
The ARC System 3 raises the bar, maintaining the convenience and simplicity of the original, but with an allnew correction algorithm for unbelievably natural, musical results. Now you can enjoy a pristine, accurate and
unprocessed listening environment anywhere.
ARC System 3 allows you to effectively address most of the bad issues where the room is compromising your
monitoring environment.
This results in the immediate ability to mix better and in a fraction of the time in your existing room.
1.2 – What is the ARC System 3?
The Advanced Room Correction (ARC) System 3 includes 3 components:
ARC 3 MEMS Measurement Microphone (or any other measurement mic)
ARC 3 Analysis Application
ARC 3 Plug-In
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ARC System 3
The ARC System 3 is a combination of a professional calibrated measurement microphone;
An analysis application, and a multi-platform plug-in.
ARC System’s MEMS microphone is calibrated and optimized to work with the software with a plus/minus 0.5
dB tolerance, allowing the system to work at its highest precision. However, ARC 3 will also accept profiles for
other popular room analysis microphones if you already own one.
The Analysis application guides the user through the analysis of the room acoustics, effectively turning a
complex process that would require a skilled acoustical engineer into something very easy than anybody can
perform in minutes.
Once the analysis is completed, the software generates a correction profile that will be later applied by the plugin when instantiated on the user’s DAW main output.
The correction can be personalized with several options in order to best fit different usages and various types of
rooms along with the user’s preferences.
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1.3 – How does the ARC System 3 work?
1) The first step is to analyze your room.
To capture your room acoustics, connect the ARC 3 MEMS Measurement Microphone (or any other
measurement mic you already own) to any +48V phantom powered mic input in your audio interface, and launch
the ARC 3 Analysis application from your Mac or PC computer.
The ARC 3 Analysis application will guide you through the easy steps to properly set up the microphone and
analyze your room. ARC System 3 not only allows you to analyze and correct the sweet spot (usually where the
mixing engineer is seated), but it also lets you correct multiple positions in the room to ensure the most accurate
representation of its acoustical problems in the overall space.
In fact, the ARC System 3 will analyze all your studio zones in three different layers. Then it will provide a
correction curve that effectively works for all of the zones at the same time. Once the capture sets have been
taken, the ARC 3 Analysis application will save its results as a file that describes the room acoustics and its
relative correction. If you have various speaker configurations, just repeat the process by taking multiple capture
sets and saving them in different files. The overall capture process will take only a few minutes, but the ARC
System 3 will give you a timeless solution.
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ARC System 3
2) The second step is to apply the correction as a plug-in in your preferred DAW.
Open your DAW (such as Pro Tools®, Cubase®, Logic®, Cakewalk®, Live™, Presonus Studio One®, Image
Line Fruity Loops® , Digital Performer™, etc.), and insert the ARC 3 Plug-In on the stereo master bus. Load the
analysis file you just saved from the ARC 3 Analysis Application, turn the correction on, and voilà, the alterations
introduced by your room acoustics will be corrected. This will allow you to finally trust the sound of your studio
monitors and room.
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This particular screenshot of the ARC 3 Plug-In shows how a highly distorted monitoring system is flattened
almost perfectly when correction is applied.
Orange (with 2 different gradients for Left and Right channels) shows the actual room response, grey shows
the flat response of an ideal speakers/room system, and green (with 2 different gradients for Left and Right
channels) shows the corrected room response applied by the ARC 3 system.
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Chapter 2 – The ARC System 3 Components
2.1 – The ARC 3 measurement microphones
The ARC System 3 allows you to use your preferred measurement microphone. During the walk-through in the
Analysis application, you will be asked to choose which measurement mic you will use for the capture process,
from the older IK Condenser Mics or the MEMS ARC Measurement Mic (best option for most accurate results)
to any generic measurement microphone you already own. When selecting a generic measurement mic, to
improve the accuracy, you can choose to load the microphone calibration file (usually a text file) provided by the
manufacturer.
The ARC 3 MEMS Measurement Microphone exhibits a flat frequency response, and at the same time, its
sensitivity, noise level and max SPL are extremely good. This means that you will be able to use this mic not
only to measure your room but also to record various acoustic sources.
In addition, this microphone is omni-directional. This makes the proximity effect found in typical studio cardioid
microphones disappear with the mic sounding very open and natural. This aspect makes it even more useful
when you consider that in entry-level studios, omni-directional microphones are usually not available.
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ARC System 3
Technical Specifications:
Type: 1e: high performance MEMS element
Polar pattern: omnidirectional, free field.
Capsule frequency response: 20-20,000 Hz.
Sensitivity: -38 dBv/Pa (1kHz, 94dB SPL)
Signal to Noise Ratio: 65 dB(
Max SPL: : 124 dB SPL (10% THD)
2.2 – The ARC 3 Analysis application
The ARC 3 Analysis application is a standalone application that analyzes your speakers and room system and
automatically calculates the best possible correction that will be applied later by the ARC 3 Plug-In.
The ARC 3 Analysis application works by sending test tones (usually named as “chirps”) to your speakers and at
the same time recording the signal captured in the room by the ARC 3 Measurement Microphone.
2.3 – The ARC 3 Correction Plug-In
This multi-platform plug-in is the ARC System 3 component that will apply the correction curve measured by the
ARC 3 Analysis application to the monitoring system.
The ARC 3 Plug-In should be inserted on your DAW’s stereo master bus or, when possible, on the monitoring
bus.
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ARC System 3
Chapter 3 – Setup for Analysis
3.1 – What you need to analyze your room
To correctly analyze your room, you need:
The ARC 3 Analysis application properly installed. This is included in the ARC System 3 installer and works as a
standalone application.
A high-quality audio interface with at least one XLR microphone input with +48V phantom power.
The ARC 3 MEMS Measurement Microphone or any other measurement microphone.
Microphone stand and XLR microphone cable.
3.1.1 – Audio Interface Requirements
To correctly analyze your room, you need a high-quality audio interface that can operate at 48 kHz.
The ARC 3 Analysis application only supports ASIO drivers on Windows and CoreAudio drivers on macOS.
Please check that your audio interface supports these standard drivers.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Considering that the analysis process must be done at 48 kHz, the ARC 3 Analysis
application must set your audio interface sampling rate at 48 kHz. For this reason, please check that your audio
interface sampling rate is not locked and that 48 kHz is supported and allowed.
The ARC 3 Analysis will set the sampling rate to 48 kHz as soon you select your audio interface. If the audio
interface cannot be set to 48 kHz, an alert message will inform you that the room analysis cannot be taken.
3.2 – How to set up for analysis
To properly capture your room analysis, you need to connect your measurement microphone to your audio
interface and your audio interface to the speakers. Usually you will already have the speakers properly
connected, so you do not need to change anything on the speaker connections at all. What is important is
having a pair of outputs of from audio interface going to the speakers with as direct a path as possible.
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ARC System 3
3.2.1 – Speaker connection
Make sure that your Left (L) and Right (R) speakers are connected directly to a pair of your audio interface
outputs. If anything is present between your audio interface and your speakers (like a mixer, a monitor
management system, etc.), please check that their settings do not alter the audio signal in any way (e.g., no tone
controls, no mono switch, phase reverse, etc.).
If you use a powered subwoofer that performs bass management, just connect your audio interface outputs to
the subwoofer inputs, and your L and R satellites to the proper subwoofer outputs. This way the system will still
be seen as a standard dual channel system (with an increased low frequency extension).
3.2.2 – Powered Speaker setup
This shows one possible way to connect your system components when powered speakers are used.
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3.2.3 – Passive Speaker setup
This shows one possible way to connect your system components when passive speakers are used.
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3.2.4 – Active Subwoofer and Powered Speakers setup
This shows one possible way to connect your system components when an active subwoofer is used together
with powered speakers.
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