RECORDING November 2024 - 32

REVIEW
IK Multimedia ARC Studio
What About Multiple Monitors?
My main concern with a hardwired system
was what I would do with my other
set of monitors.
Turns out this is pretty easy. You can place
ARC Studio between your audio interface
or mixer and a monitor switcher and store
multiple profiles in the ARC software. I took
measurements for both sets of monitors and
stored them as separate profiles.
You will need to keep ARC Studio
connected to your computer via USB to
change profiles in the software, but it's
easy to do.
Can ARC Studio Replace
Treatment?
Not really, and it's not designed to.
It's still best to treat your room, but since
there will still be imperfections, ARC room
correction can improve things even in a
well-treated space.
That said, of course, implementing ARC
Studio in an untreated room absolutely
helps and is a great start. Just remember
to remeasure every time you add treatment
and change the acoustic response
of the space!
How ARC Studio Stacked Up
for Me
For a long time, I've been using custom
software EQ corrections that I built with
the help of my friend David Brancato, a
fellow professional who specializes in
room calibration.
It just so happens that I upgraded my
treatment right before I got ARC Studio,
so I remeasured using both methods to
compare results. With the two monitor
sets, we got a great look at how ARC
Studio stacked up alongside our custom
corrections.
ARC Studio Stacked Up Quite
Well
Both the ARC Studio corrections and
our custom curves cleaned up the audio
from both monitor sets. Before correction,
things sounded " fine " -remember, my
room is treated, but turning it on was like
wiping a windshield clean.
The only real difference I heard between
ARC Studio and our custom curves is that
32 RECORDING November 2024
BY DAVID BLASCOE
We've all been there. You have a
mix that you're stoked about in your
studio, but when you listen to it in your
car or on another system, it falls flat.
That sinking feeling is all too familiar,
and I've experienced it more times
than I'd like to admit. Thankfully, IK
Multimedia offers an easy solution
with its ARC Studio Advanced Room
Correction System.
All You Need
This system is the full package-
complete with a measurement mic, software
our curves tend to make the stereo spectrum
sound a touch wider. ARC Studio still
made everything clearer and more balanced,
just not as wide comparatively.
Is that a deal breaker? Nope. Especially
when you consider what it would cost to get
David and me (or another professional) to
shoot your room and build custom curves!
Considering that for all our accuracy and
experience, ARC Studio is still much more
convenient to use (my home-built solution
uses plugins just like any other softwarebased
solution), and ARC doesn't introduce
latency or the above hassles! That's huge.
And it does the job exceptionally well.
Bottom Line
For the slight bump in price, I would opt
for ARC Studio over the software-based
ARC 4, as well as most competing software-based
solutions, because I like having
room correction in a hardware solution.
It's better for my workflow, and everything I
listen to in the studio is consistently corrected,
including new tracks as I build them.
For any home, project studio or even
professional studio looking to up the response
of their room and achieve better
mixes, a great path forward is to do whatever
treatment you can and then add the
IK Multimedia ARC Studio.
IK Multimedia
ARC Studio
A second opinion in a
minimally treated space
and an external hardware processor-
designed to handle room correction easily
and precisely.
It's simple to set up, and the improvement
it makes in your mixes is instantly
noticeable. All you have to do is grab
the mic, run some tests with the software,
send the correction data to the hardware
processor and voilà-your monitoring
should result in better mixes that will hopefully
translate better across any system.
Measure the Room
Like all previous ARC offerings, it starts
with the ARC MEMS measurement mic.
Just plug it into your audio interface using
a +48V phantom power input and follow
the step-by-step instructions in the included
ARC 4 software. The software guides
you through measuring your room from
your usual mixing position, which can
take less than 10 minutes.
You get the option of a basic 7-point
correction test, where you place the mic
in seven different locations, or a more
comprehensive 21-point test for a superdetailed
reading of your space and even
more accurate frequency correction. You
can run tests for multiple sets of monitors
or even for different listening positions in
the room if needed.
The ARC 4 software is packed with cool
features like virtual monitor profiles, sweet
spot adjustments and the ability to set up
multiple monitor configurations. You can
even fine-tune the frequency correction
ranges with a selection of target curves to
further dial in the response of your monitors
in your room to taste.
Under the Hood
Unlike other setups that rely on your computer's
power to run corrections (which can
cause latency or consume valuable processing
power), ARC Studio uses its dedicated
hardware. This keeps everything running
smoothly without interrupting your workflow.
And here's a significant bonus: you don't
need to bypass the processor in your DAW
before exporting your mixes, which is a huge
time-saver, and can save you from reprinting
a mix when and if you forget.
The half-rack hardware box has features
like XLR I/O, 32-bit AD/DA conversion,
and a 96 kHz sampling rate. It is powered
by top-tier ESS converters, offering more
than 120dB of dynamic range.
This means your audio remains clean
and accurate, free from distortion and jitter.
RECORDING November 2024

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