# Anyone use Patchmix DSP..Emu's soundcard virtual eq/patch/mix bay?



## jlird808 (Nov 2, 2010)

Ive got an Emu 0404 PCI card with Patchmix DSP...Ive always liked using it for recording/playback etc.

www.emu.com/0404pci

Do I need to tell REW this at all? Ive calibrated....but I look in the 'Equalisers" section in "Preferances" and don't see anything to select, other than maybe "generic" or "mini-dsp" (it is a dsp pci card).

Also, Ive noticed you can't adjust low end freq in Patchmix's EQ lower than 50hz(!)....anyone have a way around that?

Also, super noob question, but ASIO is the right audio driver correct? I read here that its supposed to be WDM

THANKS!!!


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

ASIO support was only added to REW in the latest V5.01 beta releases, so earlier threads would not offer ASIO. It is probably the best option for that card.


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## jlird808 (Nov 2, 2010)

Thanks John!

So do I not need to pick an EQ in the Equalisers section in Preferences?

Also, should I look at getting a BFD since Patchmix's eq wont edit below 50hz?

THANKS!!


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

You'll need to choose something as the Equaliser if you want REW to generate filter suggestions for you, but you could just use REW's pink PN test signal and the RTA and adjust your patchmix EQ settings live yourself. The 50Hz patchmix lower limit would be quite restrictive, so an external EQ might be in order (or maybe a 3rd party plug-in?) but don't go looking for anything until you have made some measurements and done all you can with positioning and the like.


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## jlird808 (Nov 2, 2010)

JohnM said:


> ....but you could just use REW's pink PN test signal and the RTA and adjust your patchmix EQ settings live yourself.


Wait....im pretty much a noob (only on my 2nd week on REW) but the best way for me to use REW is with the RTA and Pink PN? I run the PN and RTA at the same time and just try to get a "flat" response" by playing with speaker position, eq, treatment etc? And just to clarify Pink PN and not Pink Noise correct?

What about all the sine sweeps and stuff? Thats what I'd been doing up until now. Running sweeps and adjusting patchmix's eq based on those results.

I gotta admit...using the RTA is way more fun  It just seems so simple...am I missing anything? **Edit** Is the RTA compensating for my soundcard and mic calibration?

THANKS!! :sn:

And whether Im doing this right or wrong....here's my RTA results after a bunch of patchmix eqing 1/6 smoothing i believe. That dip around 35hz bugs me obviously....but as stated, patchmix only goes to 50hz


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

jlird808 said:


> And just to clarify Pink PN and not Pink Noise correct?


Correct, the advantage of Pink PN is that you get accurate results without averaging (Pink noise needs a lot of averaging for meaningful low frequency results). Make sure the RTA window is set to "Rectangular" when analysing a noise signal, whether that is Pink PN or Pink noise.



> What about all the sine sweeps and stuff? Thats what I'd been doing up until now. Running sweeps and adjusting patchmix's eq based on those results.


The drawback of using the RTA is you cannot generate waterfalls or other plots that show the time domain behaviour of the response, but it is very convenient for live adjustment of EQ.



> Is the RTA compensating for my soundcard and mic calibration?


Yes


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## jlird808 (Nov 2, 2010)

Thanks for all of the help!

One other thing...I started using the EQ Filters function in REW and noticed that the bandwidth for each filter setting may not necessarily match up with the bandwidth/q in Patchmix. Patchmix indicates that I can adjust the bandwidth in "semitones". It goes from 1.0 -> 36.0 in .xx increments. Is that a 3 octave bandwidth range? I'm not sure how the "Generic" EQ measures bandwidth. I was hoping that I could just drop the given filter settings into Patchmix but now Im worried they might not correlate.

Now that I think about it...are q and bandwidth even the same thing?


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## JohnM (Apr 11, 2006)

The Q REW uses for the generic EQ setting is the centre frequency in Hz divided by the span of the filter in Hz at its half gain points (e.g. if the filter gain is -5dB it is the span between the points where the response of that individual filter reaches -2.5dB). There is more info on Q and bandwidth settings for the equaliser settings in the Equaliser Selection help.


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