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[garyi]

Hi there.

I have been playing with this all afternoon and fully accept that the mic I am using is not up to standard and perhaps this is the sole reason for the results I am getting.

But the results I am getting are hilarious, when I apply a filter it sounds like the music is playing in another room. Its totally off and sounds awful. I just wanted to check I am doing things right before splashing out on an expensive mic.

So I installed DRC designer. Selected the relevant output/input devices. I tried to select 48000 on the output but as soon as I chose the USB mic it was reverted to 41000 so its been done as that. I ran the sweep and the resultant output was green so presumably all good. I went for a flat response and outputted the filters. I chose the soft filter for testing.

If I leave the recommended 'normalise volume' on, then the sound is so quiet I have to push the amp to nearly 3 oclock to get good volume. So I disabled that, but still the sound is quiet and as I say it sounds so recessed it might as well be in another room playing through a wall.

Any tips on this lark, I really want to get it right but it just sounds terrible. I have had superb results to my ears using mathaudio as a plugin in foobar, but I much prefer using JRiver. I wish they would implement their own DRC!

Cheers

[JimH]

There is a long thread on convolution here:
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,68828.msg485173.html#msg485173

[garyi]

Thanks I have read that before along with a lot of google stuff. None really answers why the volume seems to be halved and the sound like its in another room.

I am guessing I need a better mic, but dont want to waste hundred quid +, if thats not actually the main issue.

[Trumpetguy]

Thanks I have read that before along with a lot of google stuff. None really answers why the volume seems to be halved and the sound like its in another room.

I am guessing I need a better mic, but dont want to waste hundred quid +, if thats not actually the main issue.

You will "eat" some of your amplifier headroom when applying a convolution filter. In my experience, 10dB is not uncommon, and if you over-do it, you can easily generate filters that lowers your SPL by 20-30dB. If you correct for a very deep frequency dip, in practice you do not elevate the dip but lower all other frequencies. How much attenuation you get is highly dependent on your room and the generated filter.

By the way you describe your result, it really looks like your measurement is off. I once measured and generated filters without mic calib on, and re-doing this did not give very different results. Even with a badly calibrated mic you should not get very audible effects like those you describe, so I guess there is some other things at play.

Just a long shot - are you 100% sure the audio is not resampled during the sine sweep? I once applied a convolution filter (i.e. with fixed sample rate) to audio that was being constantly resampled (ReClock). The effect was really weird.

[garyi]

Hi there, thanks for responding.

I am not sure if the sine wave is being resampled. I used DRC and set it to use the default output device at 41000, as far as I am aware there is no changed settings in terms of the sound output in windows which is connected to a USB dac, on that basis I *think* its straight through. JRiver is not in any way involved at this stage.

I think I have to finger the mic here. Although to be fair I can hear what I think the convolution is trying to achieve, the sound in my room is bright and thats removed, but something odd is happening every where else and I am guessing a 30 quid usb mic from Maplin may be to blame

Easy to blame the tools, but if they are crap I guess the end result will be poor, looks like I will need to pony up!