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

END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR IK MULTIMEDIA PRODUCT

Please read this document carefully before installing the IK Multimedia Production Srl (hereafter: IK Multimedia) software on your computer.

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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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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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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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ARC System 3

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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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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