# Advice needed on room correction software



## dmsmith (Jul 1, 2013)

I'm new to this subject - would very much appreciate some advice.
Some history: I came across "ARC System 2", which has received some good reviews, but others claim that Acourate, Dirac, and Audiolense are so much better (interesting, since some Stereophile reviewers like Audyssey a lot, and the ARC System uses Audyssey). Is the ARC System really that much inferior?
Then I also came across REW, which I think can generate correction "filters". I'm trying to figure out if there is some reliable DIY way to get these filters into a music player, such as Foobar, Mediamonkey, or JRiver, as an alternative to the above off the shelf products. 
I came across "Convolver - a convolution plug-in" that I think can use REW filters, but it had a comment "It may be possible to get ConvolverFilter or ConvolverWrapper to work with WinAmp…". So it's not clear if this will work - if it does work in Winamp it will most likely also work in Mediamonkey or Foobar, or JRiver. I think I also need some more software, such as "DRC" by d.sbragion. But this is appears to be very complex and hard to use, with little or no support.
Have any folks on this forum been able to get a DIY approach to work? Your feedback will be much appreciated.


----------



## EarlK (Jan 1, 2010)

Yes, it's quite easy ( & effective ) to use REW ( once familiar with it ) to create EQ correction filters ( for each individual speaker of a stereo pair ) exported as a "dual-mono" stereo Wave file that is then convolved within jRiver ( for instance ) .

I recommend that you devote some time to learning REW ( especially it's auto-EQ module ) & then studying what others have done with convolution .

A forum search for the word  *convolution*  is a good start .


Here's a link to a very nice & effective GUI created by Alan Jordan ( made from the original DRC that is so hard for most to handle ) .

 

DCR "Designer" is stand-alone software ( ie; REW isn't used ) and will create/export custom EQ filters ready for convolving within your preferred media player ( assuming it has a convolver & vst host ) . 



:sn:


----------



## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

I tried DRC Designer a year ago, would have been the same version that is currently available (3-27-2012), and consistently got a good impulse for the left channel and a nonsense impulse for the right channel. I have heard of others having the same problem. Never figured out why, but finally figured out how to get good results with DRC, so it was not DRC's fault, something in the scripts set up for DRC Designer.

REW will export the needed correction impulse once filter values have been calculated. DRC does phase correction (FIR filters) while REW does not (IIR filters), if that matters to you. I have a bit of a preference for phase correction as it helps preserve solid imaging, but the phase correction vs. pre-ringing debate rages on...

Convolver works with foobar and jRiver. The simplest way to get started would be use REW's exported correction impulse with Convolver in one of those players, an approach that many have had success with.

Edit: There is a fixed/converted version of DRCDesigner available, no new function, just converted to an .exe instead of a .jar because of Java issues. It works great. Follow this link for a full explanation and link to the converted version.


----------



## Kal Rubinson (Aug 3, 2006)

dmsmith said:


> I'm new to this subject - would very much appreciate some advice.
> Some history: I came across "ARC System 2", which has received some good reviews, but others claim that Acourate, Dirac, and Audiolense are so much better (interesting, since some Stereophile reviewers like Audyssey a lot, and the ARC System uses Audyssey). Is the ARC System really that much inferior?


This ARC (not to be confused with Anthem Room Correction) is a *2 channel* software implementation of Audyssey. Because of the 2-channel limitation, it has not gotten much attention around here.


----------



## EarlK (Jan 1, 2010)

AudiocRaver said:


> I tried DRC Designer a year ago, would have been the same version that is currently available (3-27-2012), and consistently got a good impulse for the left channel _*and a nonsense impulse for the right channel*_. I have heard of others having the same problem. Never figured out why, but finally figured out how to get good results with DRC, so it was not DRC's fault, something in the scripts set up for DRC Designer.
> 
> <<<<<<<SNIP>>>>>>


That is interesting ! Thanks !

If memory serves, I didn't run into that when I tried it ( as a "proof of concept" ) .

I'll now need to check out the 2, IR's before recommending it .

:sn:


----------



## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

EarlK said:


> That is interesting ! Thanks !
> 
> If memory serves, I didn't run into that when I tried it ( as a "proof of concept" ) .
> 
> ...


I discovered it totally out of curiosity, just wondering what the impulses looked like. Then I tried everything I could think of to make sure I wasn't causing it myself somehow. Never got it working. Too bad. looks like a nice tool. I have watched for an update, but nothing so far.

I did use its sweep/capture front end, saved the resulting files, and figured out how to run that with command-line DRC to get impulses. It has been a year, though, would take me a day to reconstruct how I did it. Was quite happy with the result.


----------



## dmsmith (Jul 1, 2013)

Thanks EarlK and AudiocRaver for the tips. I'm going to give REW a try - should be a good learning experience.

Kal,
Your articles in Sterophile are what started my interest in Audyssey. I've put off getting a pre/pro mainly because my interest has been with 2 channel more than "surround sound", the high cost and overall complexity of good pre/pros, too early obsolescence, and no great need for their video processing features. I will eventually get a pre/pro, but I'll be happy for a while if I can get reasonably good results with the "REW" approach. 
Most of my 2 channel listening has been via Squeezebox (Logitech), but I'm preparing to go with a PC with REW/convolver "room correction", and USB out to a Benchmark DAC, to the power amp. 
I'm reasonably satisfied with the sound of my current setup, but no amount of fiddling with seating and speaker placement has solved the uneven bass response problem - the room correction software approach looks promising.


----------



## Mitchco (Apr 12, 2011)

You might be interested in http://www.computeraudiophile.com/c...-loudspeaker-correction-software-walkthrough/

Best regards, Mitch


----------



## EarlK (Jan 1, 2010)

AudiocRaver said:


> I discovered it totally out of curiosity, just wondering what the impulses looked like. Then I tried everything I could think of to make sure I wasn't causing it myself somehow. Never got it working. Too bad. looks like a nice tool. I have watched for an update, but nothing so far.
> 
> I did use its sweep/capture front end, saved the resulting files, and figured out how to run that with command-line DRC to get impulses. It has been a year, though, would take me a day to reconstruct how I did it. Was quite happy with the result.



Well A-R, I've listened to all seven dcr filters ( that I made last summer with Designer ) and they're just fine ( in fact I discovered that they sound much better than I remember ) .

My ( go to ) convolver (  *Convo Boy by Elevayta*  ) also displays the IR's / and they all look as expected .










As a result, I'll be back recommending that others try Designer out ( the next time the subject comes up ) .

:sn:


----------



## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

In the spirit of doing the right thing, I have been trying to fire up DRCDesigner to see if I can reproduce the problems I thought I saw a year ago. Now I cannot get it to run at all beyond the GUI startup screen, and I have tried it on 3 different computers. Does anyone have it running on a Windows 7 64-bit machine?

Trying to run it from a DOS window with Run As Administrator permission, when I try to Get Sound Interfaces, I get no response at the gui, and an "input file not found" message at the DOS window. When I try to Set The DRC Application Directory under Options, it will not remember the change. I have installed the DRCDesigner directory in different locations on C and D drives (C\, C\users\name\my documents, D:\, D:\roomcorrection, D:\drcdesigner D:\my documents, files directly in C\users\name\my documents), played with permissions, file locations, set paths to every pertinent directory... nothing helps. If anyone has it working, can you tell us how/where you installed it, any special steps it took? I am also communicating with the author.

Perhaps something about a recent Java update is throwing it off...


----------



## EarlK (Jan 1, 2010)

AudiocRaver said:


> In the spirit of doing the right thing, I have been trying to fire up DRCDesigner to see if I can reproduce the problems I thought I saw a year ago. Now I cannot get it to run at all beyond the GUI startup screen, and I have tried it on 3 different computers. Does anyone have it running on a Windows 7 64-bit machine?
> 
> Trying to run it from a DOS window with Run As Administrator permission, when I try to Get Sound Interfaces, I get no response at the gui, and an "input file not found" message at the DOS window. When I try to Set The DRC Application Directory under Options, it will not remember the change. I have installed the DRCDesigner directory in different locations on C and D drives (C\, C\users\name\my documents, D:\, D:\roomcorrection, D:\drcdesigner D:\my documents, files directly in C\users\name\my documents), played with permissions, file locations, set paths to every pertinent directory... nothing helps. If anyone has it working, can you tell us how/where you installed it, any special steps it took? I am also communicating with the author.
> 
> Perhaps something about a recent Java update is throwing it off...


That's pretty interesting / though not overly surprising / Designer is a Java based program / so all bets are off as far as I'm concerned / ( "Java" + "Flakey" are 2 interchangeable words, in my world ) .

( FYI ) I'm running XP Pro SP3 / though I'm migrating to Win8 sometime this year ( wish me luck ! :blink: ) .

:sn:


----------



## AudiocRaver (Jun 6, 2012)

Alan Jordan is THE MAN!

There is a fixed/converted version of DRCDesigner available. Explanation and link are in a separate post here.

I have corrected my earlier references to DRCDesigner, have tested it and it works fine (my problem with it a year ago must have been operator error.:doh: Oops!)

A big thanks to Alan for a nice program and for the support!:T


----------

