IK Multimedia Arc Studio: The Hidden Truth 

So generally for producers thats really tough, it'll be good old fashion acoustic treatment for me! 👌

For mixers if you can afford nova I recommend it, but if you haven't spent more than £3k on speakers then defo IK multimedia. What do you think?

@@WhoIsAlexElliott I do both mixing and tracking in my room so low latency is really important. There is also currently no way of bypassing the Trinnov completely, so you will have latency wether room correction is engages or not (and yes my monitors costs more than 3000$ 😉) I currently use Sonarworks, which I think is just OK, but you need to bypass it every time you track, the sonarworks systemwide app is very buggy and if mixing with multiple monitors then it is not great.

So it’s cheaper to buy the nova or to hire someone to do the test for you ??

@@HOTROD256969 I recommend going the route of a company like Gik acoustics first. They actually offer free consultations and guide you on how to take a room measurement yourself. + you can then send the measurement to them aswell as room pictures and they will recommend any studio repositioning and then tell you what acoustic treatment you need. Once you’ve got some basic treatment then something like this Arc studio will absolute neaten things up and be the cherry ontop.

Ahh the small details haha. Thankyou and glad to have you over on the channel!

No problem. I just wanted to share my experience because no one else was mentioning it. And it’s. Canary surprise if your not expecting it!

No problem at all. Glad it helped.

Fantastic!

Thankyou. And amazing. Glad to have you 🙌

That’s a good work around. And if your room is already half decent it works well. But sound selection is so important that hearing accurately can effect what bass and kick samples you choose etc. so would be great for them to get the latency down for the next release so we can create and mix through it. That would be amazing!

That’s a great use case that can for sure work for some people!

I agree. I’ve achieved great results with headphones also. Speakers become powerful when your with people and some people find the headphone mixing challenging. But I agree with you and ultimately there are strengths to both! Budget is always a key factor in these things 😅

@@WhoIsAlexElliott I totally agree that headphone mixing can be challenging specially with the amount of effects and the balance of the stereo field. I think that for most beginners the Slate VSX would be an excellent choice as far as I understand from a lot of skeptical people it seems to be pretty darn good. If I would upgrade my speaker system I would need to add a sub, room treatment and correction software which would easily end up over a thousand dollars of investment. Since the dimensions of my small room isn’t really optimal I think it would be a waste of money compared to a 300 dollar Slate VSX system. Eventually it all depends on the fact that we learn how our monitor system translates to different systems and that we get to know it. Eventually we need to learn this and stick with it 😀

@@Studio22mix True. But if you already have speakers you love, acoustic treatment is the best investment you’ll ever make & then this unit would be the icing on cake. Headphones can be a good but the end goal is always great speakers, and a great room 😍. And learning your speakers is great. But in my experience, learning that a kick drum should sound weak in my room in order to sound strong outside because I have bass issues is a buzz kill & kill joy. I’d rather my room, just sound great 😅.

that is exactly the perfect use case for this unit! I don't have my hifi set up yet, as studio monitors are so expensive as it is. But I cant wait to have my own hifi room

Yes you’re correct. It would be the case with any linear phase EQ. But I guess I had thought because it was now in a hardware unit it would be reduced or less.

Thanks so much. This goes much further than you think. Sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my time with RU-vid but comments like this help ❤

No problem at all. Hopefully there’s some other video that are also helpful

Assuming your Satellite monitors are plugged into the subwoofer and the subwoofer has a stereo output, then yes it would integrate well. You can come out of your audio interface into the arc, & then the IK arc studio output would be able to plug into the subwoofer, and then output of subwoofer into the Satellites (stereo speakers). When taking the room measurement the arc would just measure your system as one integrated system. Whatever it hears is what it will measure (in your case your subwoofer in combination with your satellites). On separate note I would just experiment a lot with speaker positioning before fine tuning with the IK arc studio. If I was in your position I would measure with the arc and then move the subwoofer around and check which position is improving the sound the most, once I had sub in best position I would then apply the correction. 👌. This is because the position of your subwoofer in your room will have the best impact on low end response.

@@WhoIsAlexElliott Thank you sir!

So just to re clarify the issue I was having is that my speakers sounded better with it off versus the Natural mode. And it did sound better with it on in Linear mode but the latency was too much. There was no noticeable difference in my stereo imaging but my speakers and room were pretty well set up. It’s not an issue with my room, but if it is an issue with my room then it just further proves the point of the video that this unit cannot correct significant room issues, and works better in a room with acoustic treatment like yours. I’m truly glad you found a solution that works for you. Also my main issue is the latency not the idea of the unit.

@@WhoIsAlexElliott Sorry for the late reply. I think this unit is really targeting the home studio / budget studio owners. Most users of that kind of equipment have rather cheap audio interfaces (mostly on USB 2.0) that introduce a LOT of latency anyway. The best advise I could give for that kind of users is to spend a little more on their audio interface to reduce latency (for instance: the MOTU M series are not very expensive at all, but have a relatively really low latency). If you then add the ARC system to that complete chain they will have about the same (and probably much lower) latency as with the cheaper audio interface models without the correction unit at all. And it will give you also the benefit of a much higher audio quality. But what I really wonder about is if that latency is also present if the ARC unit is doing no correction at all. If that is the case, you could turn off the unit (after setting up the instrument sound palette to your liking) for those moments that the really tight timing is important. After that you can playback with correction on for mixing purposes. But I honestly think most of the users with cheaper equipment (especially cheap audio units) are already used to a fair amount of latency anyway, and correct the misaligned timings in their DAW software.

@@jclosed2516just to clarify the arc latency is fixed at 414-42ms of latency. It’s up to the individual if this tolerable of course. If your doing any music to visual this is a headache ofcourse as well as tracking guitars via d.I whiles playing out of the speakers etc. the musicians I was recording couldn’t stand it.

@@jclosed2516I agree with you regarding their target audience though. But I had to make the video so people who are more professional can understand the potential limitations. There definitely was an assumption that with it being a hardware box the latency would be less.

@@WhoIsAlexElliott Fair enough. The latency is indeed rather high in this case. As a keyboard player that often use MIDI I can relate to latency being a pain in the behind. That's the reason I suggested to turn off the unit while timing is more important than room correction. That's why I wanted to know if that latency is also present if the unit is switched off. If there is no (or very little) latency, I think the setup could be workable for me.

Glad it worked out for you.

I think that room acoustic treatment is what’s indispensable. In particular bass trapping. Otherwise you’ll have a horrible time trying to mix and trusting your speakers, but if you can’t get that then things like arc are good. Ideally you want arc and rockwool treatment. In regards to the lack of low end that is the toughest pill to swallow when working in well treated rooms, balanced speakers will appear to have less bass but that’s because we are used to the sound of a room exciting bass frequencies, as well as most leisure speakers being tuned to have enhanced bass. But if your really serious about mixing then I’d say embrace the adjustment, eventually your ears will recalibrate and become attuned to realise that mid range and lower midrange is where “the men are separated from the boys” in terms of how good a speaker is. And by balancing your mids your mix is 80% there. So rather than thinking you have less bass appreciate that you’re now hearing more mid information (assuming your speakers are now measuring flatter)

Listen to all your favourite records again and relearn them. And yes learning speakers in your room is key. For example if I took my speakers to another room I’d still have an initial struggle cause they would sound completely different.

@@WhoIsAlexElliott Thank you man! I read all your comment. It really really helped me a lot🙏

@@dynoprod. no problem bro. Glad it helped

No problem.

❤️👌

Thanks for sharing your experience with this unit. I didn’t get along with Sonarworks either but I’m really Glad this works well for you.

For myself I personally couldn’t Deal with the normal Mode but Im very sensitive to Eq’s introducing phase issues. Naturally the “normal mode” cannot avoid phase issues being introduced, but I agree the Linear mode does sound great it’s just that darn latency for me! 😅 I’ll do a review on my speakers soon but the main thing I loved about them & made me spend the £7k on them was the transient articulation and the high end, so imagine my disappointment when the normal mode was giving me more low end but ruining the thing that made me love & buy my speakers. Kind of defeats the purpose of adding this unit into my set up! But it sounded great in Linear mode.

@@WhoIsAlexElliott Or maybe restrict the treatment only to lower mids and mids. You can tell with HP and LP filters what frequencies will it apply the correction to.

@@linstate007you’ll still get a ton of phase and time domain issues. So it’s better to let it fix everything or nothing

Glad you find a helpful solution and that the video flagged the issue for you! 🙌

No problem glad it helped.

Glad you enjoyed it

If you’re ok to use the natural phase mode then the latency is much lower but it doesn’t sound as good as the linear phase mode that has the increased latency. Best thing I’d say is try to get your hands on one (buy and return) and test it out in your set up & just make sure wherever you get it from offers a return policy

👌

None. Unless you maybe had a second set of monitors you could use it for that. But if you got MTM you’re good!

thanks, in amazon Spain they sell arc studio for 199€ amazing price @@WhoIsAlexElliott

When producing it’s all about sound selection. A great mix starts off with great instrument selection/sound choice. So hearing accurate during the production stage is key. There have been many times I’ve received stems to mix and been asked to make it sound like something else but the sound selection was wrong. I can instantly tell the person who produced it wasn’t hearing properly in their room. Especially when it came to kick/BASS relationship.

Shame there is a natural button on the unit. Would have made the work flow smoother

It’s 42ms. So imagine you already have 10-12ms from your computer, now Add another 42ms ontop of that giving you 52-54ms latency

Thanks@@WhoIsAlexElliott

That’s sounds quite solid!

No problem at all!

I was really curious about having the correction built into the hardware itself, set and forget kind of vibe. Back when I tried sonar works it didn’t have the system wide sound option yet & in the past but felt like it was causing phasing issues and I was loosing my transients. Do you have much experience with Sonar-works. How do you find it?

Oh and Thankyou by the way.

I was also hoping because it’s hardware it wouldn’t add latency

No problem at all. Also name by the way 🙌😅

42ms from the unit. And then add your interface latency / DAW buffer size latency ontop of that. But in normal mode the latency isn’t noticeable but it also doesn’t sound as good as linear

That was exactly my experience although I did like the sound of them with DSP engaged the latency was unbearable. And I agree the disabled DSP didn't sound like the £9k they cost. So thats why I went with the amphion and couldn't be happier. But was also my exact point of frustration with the IK Arc introducing 42ms of latency! I think arc is a good unit for mixers and people who don't mind latency but I had to make the video to warn people who hate latency as much as me!

Thankyou. This encouragement helps me keep going. Along as I know it’s helpful for people I’ll keep doing it!

If you have the patience then go for it. But for me that defeats the purpose. Imagine making a beat with it turned off. Then turning it on to realise the kick / 808 you chose was trash and has way less bass in it that you thought but your room was lying to you … 🙈. Or you chose a synth that was warmer sounding only to realise your room had a dip at 5k and they synth is actually harsher than you thought etc …

And Thankyou for the sub also. Hopefully I can continue to provide useful content for you all

Awsome idea let me know somethings you'd want me to breakdown

Yes it’s present with the hardware. That most exciting thing for me was hoping the latency would not be present because its hardware but it’s still there and is 42ms (& 1.4ms in natural mode). So just wanted to let people know who have same struggle as me with latency.

@@WhoIsAlexElliott gotcha. Was hoping for less latency as I track, edit, and mix for live and commercial.

@@revp01 had same hopes

So there was no problem with the unit. I was just hearing the phase issues being introduced by the EQ correction and the high end in my monitors sounded much better without the units correction when having natural phase mode. 👌

It could to know latency is less at 96k but most people don’t use 96k and it is 42ms at 44.1 unfortunately. I think it works for some people. But a few people like myself were expecting less latency because it’s a hardware box.

@@WhoIsAlexElliott I used Arc 3 for a couple of years and have ARC 4 in line with my Adams, but I've since upgraded to PMC and they have corrective EQ that is pretty good. I'm curious now about how they sound with the PMC's. Maybe I'll notice the phase stuff in the high end you are talking about. Gonna try it. ARC definitely improved my mixes through the smaller 2 way Adams though. Good review.

@@kniferideaudio5145if you have PMC with the built in EQ option your absolutely sorted. No need for ARC. Arc didn’t do any time/phase alignment stuff. It’s purely corrective EQ. So between REW EQ measurements and your PMC WQ you have the best possible set up already. No point adding another stage of corrective EQ with the arc, it’ll likely just introduce unwanted phase issues if you have both inbuilt Eq and Arc at same time.

@@kniferideaudio5145congratulations on a fantastic speaker purchase.

Will do my best to always give that!

👌👌👌

No problem

No problem!

That’s how I felt which is why I had to share. A few people seem to not be bothered by it, But just thought I’d share for those who are bothered cause it’s a nasty surprise if you wasn’t aware beforehand. 👌