ikMultimedia ARC 4 Studio

[Michael Canavan]

Revisiting this...

I'd never gotten satisfactory results from ARC 3. Inexpensive calibrated measurement mic or the MEMS didn't make much difference—results were terrible. I came to the conclusion that my sub was the issue. Because of the strange shape of my desk, the microphone cannot handle my room if the sub is engaged.

Last week, I decided to wade back into this. Since I have a reliable way of balancing my sub with the rest of the system, I decided to disengage it and run ARC 3 again—much, much better. Then I added the sub back in and I like the results.

I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I went on a hunt a while ago to get a decent sound out of my basement studio. I think I already had ARC but my concern was that the room itself wasn't that great etc. There's a free piece of standalone room testing software called Room EQ wizard, https://www.roomeqwizard.com

Ten years ago it was a PITA to use on Mac, but now it's dead easy. Reading it isn't "fun", but you get all kinds of information on what is out of balance in your room, like echoing high end, and feedbacking sub frequencies etc. It had me build bass traps in the corners etc. Anyway getting some things solved in the room first most definitely led to massively better results with ARC.

[mikehalloran]

I couldn't get it through to anyone at IK that, having purchased the current MEMS microphone directly less than a year ago, I didn't need another. So I purchased the ARC 4 Studio with the $50 discount I posted earlier and will sell the spare mic on Reverb or eBay to extend my discount. Oh well. I need to dedicate some time to set it all up, hopefully later this week.

Hey Mike... I'm still deciding if I'm going to go for this or not, but as an current ARC3 owner if I can get a discount I might be interesting in buying your spare if its the MEMS mic? I have the older style mic and it's my impression the MEMS gives more accurate results?

I am curious what your impressions are of the hardware are? I guess the only downside I see is for me to use it it's going to add another A>D and D>A conversion prior to going to the monitors. Still I do like the idea of a hardware solution rather than using a plugin, and from what I understand this is the first of that kind priced within the reach of mere mortals.

If it works out $-wise, sure thing. If you are able to select the $250 upgrade and apply the $50 discount + Jam Points or just do the $99 software upgrade, we'll make it work.

It depends how you acquired ARC 3. If you cannot select the upgrade and apply the code, then your other option is to apply ARCSTU50 or similar coupon to the box with mic as I did. I'm in no hurry.

As for the box, it does have AD/DA but processes internally 32bit float. There are two modes and they are controlled by the plug.

How much latency is the ARC 4 plug-in adding to the system?

The ARC 4 correction plug-in can work in two-phase modes: NATURAL and LINEAR. NATURAL has a latency of
64 samples, LINEAR has a higher latency of 2100 samples.

https://g1.ikmultimedia.com/html/Manual ... Manual.pdf

https://g1.ikmultimedia.com/html/Manual ... Manual.pdf

[mikehalloran]

…
Anyway getting some things solved in the room first most definitely led to massively better results with ARC.
…

I appreciate that, understand and agree.

My situation is controlled in a large part by the room needing to be handicapped friendly. A lot of my room treatment looks more like barely controlled chaos with my desk being the biggest obstacle. The best I can hope for is that ARC 4 will make my Equator D8IIs a little more neutral (they're already pretty good but there's this hole in the upper-midbass).

I will blend in my sub afterward. Fortunately, my Radial MC3 controller lets me control both level and polarity of my sub from my desktop and independent of the ARC Studio box. There are recordings I use to dial it in to a degree that I can trust.

[James Steele]

Hey Mike... wanted to ask you how you like this so far? I know in theory I you can track with this... but wondering... how bad is latency of the hardware unit itself?

[James Steele]

Hey Mike… I’m bumping this topic again in the hopes you will see this. Wondering what your experience has been like with the ARC4 DSP box? How is latency?

The reason I ask is that I got some ADAM monitors that have DSP built-in and I can store Sonarworks correction in those. I’m thinking of maybe keeping my JBL‘s as an alternative “fun” listening option. I could put the ARC box between the alternative monitor outputs and the power amp for the JBL’s. Both sets of monitors would be corrected via hardware and I wouldn’t need to switch profiles one one device.

[mikehalloran]

Hey Mike... I'm still deciding if I'm going to go for this or not, but as an current ARC3 owner if I can get a discount I might be interesting in buying your spare if its the MEMS mic? I have the older style mic and it's my impression the MEMS gives more accurate results?

I could not get IKM to sell me the box without the mic. When I posted that Peter was wrong and attached a copy of my receipt to prove it, he deleted the post and banned me for 30 days. That idiot does not understand that we, the customers, are the boss, not he.

I was able to use Jam Points and an introductory offer to purchase the box with microphone for less than the upgrade that I qualified for — that's why I have a spare MEMS microphone.

I am curious what your impressions are of the hardware are? I guess the only downside I see is for me to use it it's going to add another A>D and D>A conversion prior to going to the monitors. Still I do like the idea of a hardware solution rather than using a plugin, and from what I understand this is the first of that kind priced within the reach of mere mortals.

I have it set up and am impressed.

When I hooked it up and opened ARC 4 Analysis.app, it did an immediate Firmware update. You can access the manual from within the GUI, the IK Project Manager or online. The manual is difficult to search because of the different languages. Fortunately, it's not too long.

Once I created the Profile and saved it to the box, it's like old Ron Popeil — "Set it and forget it." The box adds about 3dB engaged so, when I put it into bypass mode, I have to compensate with the volume on my Radial MC3 box. None is one of the included Profiles (switchable in ARC.app) if I want to keep the box and its volume boost engaged.

I could install it before my controller and use the ARC 4 App to switch profiles and run my other monitors. I can also use the ARC4 plug-in on the Master bus of a DP project and switch monitor pairs while either bypassing the box or selecting None as a profile.

To be clear, ARC 4.app is not needed except when switching Profiles or viewing the GUI (same view as the plug-in).

My studio hated the ARC 3 plug-in. This is much, much better. Set up is easy in a separate app, ARC 4 Analysis.app. You store the setting(s) in a Documents file available to both the plug-in and the app.

My setup is not ideal and requires a couple new cables due to space issues. When I have that resolved, I will re-measure with and without my subwoofer engaged and see what works best. My MC3 lets me engage/disengage and adjust the volume of the Sub without making me crawl under the desk.

The attached graphic shows the Before (med and light green) and After (yellow/orange) against the ideal (white). This is done with the Sub disengaged. Anyway, notice how ARC 4 tamed a 12dB hump at 50Hz and flattened out a drop from 9K–20K. Both are notable improvements. Adding the Sub back in put it where I liked it (I'll explain later how I calibrate a Sub so that I can trust it).

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Oh yea, this stays!

At some point soon, I'll A/B this against the Slate VSX — bought that after being so disappointed by ARC 3.

[James Steele]

Hey thanks so much, Mike, for your impressions. A real shame about Peter. I remember he came to one of our MOTU-MAC dinners many years ago at NAMM and even threw in some software freebies as raffle prizes. It's unfortunate.

Well I'm glad it gets a thumbs up from you. I may get it. I recently bought some ADAM77H monitors. Arguably the best monitors I've owned in my life. They set me back about $2400 for the pair. What I like about them is that you can connected them via Ethernet and with their A-Control software you can upload Sonarworks correction profiles directly into the monitors and like the ARC4 box... at that point you forget about it. No cumbersome plugin on your Master Buss that you have to remember to turn off when you mixdown or bounce-to-disk.

So I'm happy with the ADAMs... very happy. I need to do some bass trapping I guess in my room though because after apply the Sonarworks profiles to the ADAMS, I had to bring up more bottom end on all my mixes. I'm looking at in the near future pulling some furniture out of my this room... taking pictures, etc. off the wall and then replacing the Auralex foam with more of the GIK acoustic panels that I am using. I want to get much more serious about treating the room and then re-do the room measurements with Sonarworks.

But... as for ARC4... I'm thinking of keeping my JBL4410s as well and setting them up behind and above the ADAMs and using them for just a flattering, listening type of speaker for tracking and maybe checking low end. I don't want to use them however, uncorrected. Now that I have Sonarworks inside the ADAMs, I could dedicate the ARC4 DSP box to be "set-and-forget" for the JBLs and then not worry about a correction plugin ever again. I really think hardware DSP is so much more convenient.

Come to think of it... maybe makes me wonder if Slate isn't thinking of a combo headphone amplifier/DSP box that could store VSX profiles internally. I just hate messing with plugins as I mentioned!

Again... thanks again for the info. If I decide to keep these JBLs... I think I'll for sure get the ARC4 system.

[mikehalloran]

One has a lot of user customizations available. One example is the six +/- 6dB dots shown in this graphic. After I get my new cables and have my monitors positioned correctly, I will likely use three of tem to smooth out the response a bit more at 250, 500 and 5K (pg 54 of the user manual)
https://g1.ikmultimedia.com/html/Manual ... Manual.pdf

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Anyway, it's been a few weeks and I'm still getting used to it. Bill Hare (Pentatonix, LSO etc.) and I are working on a project and his recent mixes no longer sound as bass heavy as they did before. Hey, I like to hear myself in the mix but this was nuts—yeah, smoothing out that +12dB peak @ 50Hz makes a big difference.

Taking the day off and listening to Steely Dan through my D8 IIs and JBL sub ...

[mikehalloran]

Besides being able to store up to eight Custom monitors under Measurement, there are another 17 under Target incl. 8 more Custom plus 26 additional monitor presets under Virtual Monitoring.

All are available through the ARC 4 plug-in (switchable as you would in any plug) or through the Studio Box, switchable through ARC 4.app.

Again, once set up, the app is not necessary for stand-alone operation except to change settings or view real time response.

More screen shots:

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