IK Multimedia ARC System 3 Acoustic Analysis and Correction Software Reviews

I use it on remotes when I'm tracking a band in a weird room.
I love it.

I use ARC 3 in a room with very poor room conditions. and the results were spectacular. I have a room that is 22'X21' with the computer at which I do (very amateur) mixing in one corner. It has 2 Mackie 4" speakers with a subwoofer. About 8 feet from the opposite corner along each wall I have a 45+year old Radio Shack speaker. These separated by 13' and are for listening in the central part of the room. The room has zero treatment and is filled with all manner of stuff.

Before using ARC 3, music the I mixed sounded significantly different between the two speaker systems. After calibration with ARC 3, the sound is the same form both systems, and, on commercial recordings is much better than before.

The most spectacular effect was on the widely separated speakers. The surroundings in the room are not symmetrical about the center axis of the speakers, and there were large differences in the responses of the two speakers. This causes a lack of focus of sounds panned to the center, because different harmonics of a note will effectively have different panning due to the differing responses. These problems are fixed perfectly with the ARC 3 calibrations.

I did the calibrations with a Behringer measurement mic without a calibration profile. Like a previous reviewer, I have SoundSource on my computer so that all sound can be sent through the ARC 3 correction.

The latest room correction systems take the job of analyzing your room's sound "at the mix point" to the next level. The challenge with most small to medium control rooms is that frequency response characteristics can vary dramatically foot to foot — even in the span of a few inches. Nearfield monitoring helps, but the room is still something you have to fight — or address.

Ideally you treat your room well and then move to software like IK Multimedia's ARC3, which asks you to take readings with a calibration mic in a zone around your head (or even more broadly for larger control rooms and workflows involving two engineers).

What I did was a methodology I HIGHLY recommend, and with IK Multimedia's ARC3, the results have been spectacular. First, let me describe what I like about the software, then I'll touch on my process.

1. You do 21 readings (you can use their mic, or a calibration mic of your own, but you should have a good, reliable calibration file that describes the mic's actual characteristics so ARC3 can adjust). These are seven reading in each of three layers, above, at, and below the level of your years. These readings give ARC3 a way to understand and correct for the likely zone your head will be moving in. I am guessing that it is also part of why the resulting EQ curve and other time-based adjustments sound so incredibly natural.

2. The process is crystal clear. You need a mic and a mic stand, and you simply follow the guided instructions. Each reading takes 10 seconds. With time spent moving the mic stand, you can get the readings done in, oh, seven minutes.

3. As soon as it's done, you open the plug-in on your DAW (and there are tools like Rogue Amoeba's SoundSource that let you use the plug-in for all your system audio, definitely recommended). You can see the corrected wave form, and — VERY IMPORTANT — you can see what ARC3 measured for your room's characteristics. (See my methods below for why that's super cool, with some comparison's to REW, which I also rely on.)

4. Because their approach smartly uses subtractive EQ to create a very flat response (in small rooms, it's easier due to low frequency buildup characteristics), the plug-in provides the EQ with output trim. Don't overdo pushing that trim up, but at the same time, if you leave it too far down and try to A/B compare (or export without the ARC plug-in, which is of course recommended) by turning the plugin off, the trimmed output and normal output can be shockingly different, and may put your speakers or ears or clients at risk.

5. The result is natural and translatable.

6. The plug-in comes with built-in profiles of popular monitors such as NS10s and Genelec 1031a's so you can avoid the expense and deck bridge management of having a lot of industry standard monitors. This pays for the price of the plug-in.

7. In summary: Great process, great result, practical tools, and cost-savings.

Now, my own process.

1. I have a Behringer DEQ2496 that has a room autocorrect feature. Set up a calibration mic at the mix point, run the pink noise, and let the device do its room correction. Of course, this process only corrects for that ONE mic position (compared with 21 with ARC). But this gives you an EQ curve on the Behringer device that gives you a ballpark assessment of where your room rings and cuts sound at the mix point.

2. I had already done a lot of well-informed room correction with bass traps, acoustic panels, and other things of my own invention (membrane tunable things). So with the Behringer data, I made some additional adjustments to get the room — as it PHYSICALLY responds, without EQ, get reasonably close to flat using DEQ2496 data. I've been doing this back-and-forth (measure, fix the room, measure, fix the room) for about six months.

3. Then I got the ARC3 tools, in part because I installed a subwoofer and picked up some new monitors. I repeated the back-and-forth, essentially asking ARC3 to take the Behringer DEQ2496 response curve the last little bit to make the room just so.

4. Even with all the work I had done, I found specific results in ARC3's measurements that encouraged me to pick up an additional bass trap.

5. Now, the room was really ready. I did a series of new readings with the DEQ2496, confirmed that the room was already in pretty good shape with the room treatment (help needed in the low end, but usually in the +/- 4dB range, and also the crossover frequency is one narrow band that DEQ2496 just cannot fix).

6. ARC 3 initiated. Noticed some final adjustments it was doing in the +/- 4dB range that I could actually fix on the DEQ. This way, dramatically reduce EQing the EQ, reducing or eliminating phase issues.

7. Final result: I'm now +/- about 1.5dB in the control room from 22Hz to 19kHz.

Seriously, this is what million dollar control rooms seek. It's natural. I have a wide sweet spot that supports the wide sweet spot tech of my monitor's tweeter design. it's detailed, time-aligned, and incredibly useful for mixing and translating.

For this price, with these features, and the possibility of great results with good room treatment, this is a no-brainer. Get the most out of your room, your monitors, and your mixes — and feel great at the end of the day that you're not fighting your room.

HIGHLY recommended ... especially with Rogue Amoeba's SoundSource.