Room Acoustic Equalization/Correction with Behringer Ultra-Curve Pro DEQ2496 

Thanks for the demo, I have a few comments that might help you in your journey. 1) That initial dip in the 75hz region is typically found in the center of the room and is called "the center null". The center null is caused by the corners reflecting the low frequencies back to the center. The treatment you are doing in the corners will not attenuate the lower frequencies. A few limp mass absorbers could help, and those can be built fairly cheaply. Limp mass absorbers are built tuned to a specific frequency range. If you are able to tame the lowest frequencies, then their harmonically related frequencies up higher will also come into line. There is a fellow named John Brandt, that can help you with specific room treatment options, but honestly in a small room, like the one that you are in, you won't be able to do much about it by treatment, as the treatment will eat up too much of your room space. 2) Ideally your best listening point is about 36.5% from the front or back wall. The center should be avoided for both measurement and listening/mixing unless you are using point 4 below. 3) The thing that will mess up your mixes is how long those frequencies hang around. Using the REW application you can display those with the "waterfall" function. 4) There is a third option (besides EQing the signal and surface treatment) for killing the center null. That option is placement of subwoofers at the corners or centers of the walls. It takes four subwoofers, but will create a zone in the center of the room that is much flatter in the low frequencies. 5) Mixing in the cans (headphones) might actually be your best option. Waves nx can tune your headphones to the measurements of your head and specific model of headphone. This will give you a 3D spatially referenced mixing experience. This is probably the cheapest option and should give you the best mix outcomes apart from building a room with the proper ratio's etc..

The best way to position the microphone directly in the centre is to: 1. Play mono whitenoise 2. Use a spectrum analyser (a plugin like Pro-Q 3 is a good one) 3. Move the microphone left and right in small increments What you'll see on the spectrum analyser is the comb filtering artifacts (big nulls in the frequency response) moving across the spectrum. When the microphone is equidistant from both speakers, the harsh nulls in the spectrum will disappear. This technique is by far superior to the tape measurement technique, where one measures the distance from each speaker to the microphone with a tape measure. It'll give you a much more accurate frequency response measurement when using both speakers at the same time. Hope this info is useful. Thanks for the video. :)

very helpful... excited to get my hands on DEQ2496 very soon!!

Great video content and delivery! I am using 2 JBL 305's with the JBL 310x Subwoofer. Both 305 are plugged into the 310 subwoofer... Would the DEQ2496 work with this setup? Thank you!

This was amazing. Thank you. 5 years later, I am about to own a DEQ2496 for my room and I can't believe how perfectly helpful and educational this was.

Can the older Ultra Curve DSP 8000 do the same room correction processing? (The 8000 manual says it can do RTA (real time analyzer))?

also, i have a question... if I am finalizing everything in my DAW logic pro, and if i want to utilize mastering plugins like izotope ozone, how should i best apply my DEQ2496 in my workflow? I am a producer/artist using outboard gears to make music, and all the signals flow through some compressors like FMR RNC, Elektron Analog Heat and ART PRO VLA II (for vocals). I am not quite sure where DEQ2496 fits and shines the best. My initial plan is to sum everything and run through DEQ2496 as the mastering chain before it hits my DAW. My curiosity is if it would be better to sum everything to my DAW first, then run through DEQ2496, making the final output come out from an analog gear...

Interesting video. But it's not clear to me what happends around 7kHz. If you eq both added it's only ok in a mono situation. May be you can try inverting the fase of one of the tweeters and equalizing each one separated. Thanks

could there have been any absorption with your body to one side of the mic? Love your vids btw, you are always incredibly clear and so are your processes.

Dobra robota. (good job) greetings from Poland.

1.5x speed flow smoother for me

Different speaker Different watts

Let me tell you , aint no way to get flat response in a Room . If you Correct it for one position , move a little and then its even worse then it was . So , if you are not going to move your head not even 1cm , then ok . But who does that while listening to music . So , that is impossible to do . Its possible to measure the room and then make a camera to falow you then send you position to DSP and then EQ it for your position ,but that is very complex .

Room correction software is NOT your secret weapon! Alas, you can’t simply apply digital room correction to fix your acoustics. Room EQ can tame some issues, but it can’t correct for long reverberation times or comb filtering caused by strong early reflections (like those nasty reflections produced by speaker-boundary interference). To tame these problems you have two weapons in your arsenal: smart room layout and acoustic treatment.

Tnx man When yo did this calibration missions, your speaker calib sittings they was flat or what?

Right after the process do you unplug the mic and put it away? I wouldnt imagine you leave it not sure when in the process to unplug it

thats the frequency response of your room ..not your speakers

You are sitting in front of the right speaker. So the rooms resonance is not correctly measured and it looks like the right speakers curve is way better. 😉

When you speak, your room sounds very boomy....it's very revealing. You have some work to do, fixing the acoustics.....

Is this product overkill for just hooking up to a 2 channel stereo amp?

Very helpful thanks !

I don't know why, but it's callibrate and turn HF too high and LF too low, even with Room Correction- doesn't matter. ECM8000 sounds nice. I callibrate with parametric EQ and Sweep-tone manually. Sounds acceptable flat. (Tannoy 802)

How does this compare to minidsp hd

Thankyou for the revive, it realy saved my life, it’s now been 15 days buying and useing the behringer deq2496, auto room correction corrected my Major room faults and flatten my Adams A7 monitors, especially 160hz and 400hz was to much hearing inside the room and the phaze problem after the 10Khz, now i’m succeded with my mixis. Thank you.

Do you need a computer to get good results or is it for showig us the difference?

I have a question, how do you setup the microphone gain in your audio interface? I am using Behringer XR18 as an audio interface and would like to do the same test.

Can you eq each speaker individually?

Your room sounds too reverberant, you need to treat your room more.... best luck

wow this is amazing I have been looking everywhere for a good descriptive video on how to set up my mic and use REW ! thank you :)

My experience with the Behringer DEQ2496 is completely different. I performed a room EQ in my studio with Genelec 1032 speakers, and after the room EQ everything sounded worse than ever before! I used a Daytona measurement microphone. I removed the DEQ from my setup and now I am happy again with the 'old' (uncoloured) sound! (I sold my Behringer DEQ2496 in the meantime.)

It's 5db dip at 1/3 octave smoothing, but in reality it's more like 25db dip...no smoothing and 1/48 give accurate results. One tip i can give to people staring out is....You need to treat room with broadband absorbers, bass traps....even before you start thinking about room correction software. Acoustical foam captures only hi frequencies and it's useless in the bass and mid area. When you eq your room, eq only peaks, big null (dip) isn't very clever to eq....dip is made from phase cancellation, room modes...You will be amazed how speaker positioning can even out the frequency response.

Hello. do you know if it is possible to create a negative correction curve? selecting maximum +2 or 0 and correcting most frequencies for example -3 -4?

Thank you for this video, I am tryng to flatting the response of my speakers with only the tone controls because I haven't an EQ like yours and I can see the graph of my speakers changing in the right way...I see a limitation on the mid frequencies I think is due to the nature of the speakers, I use Creative Gigaworks T20 (first version) they sounds good but is clear that the mid frequencies are a little under the bass and the highs, are lower around 6-7dB than others frequencies but I think is a good result for the price...

Have you found the best place for the speakers in the room? This could possibly improve the frequency response even further.

Hi ! excellent video and thank you very much for it I have a silly question ... the sound from the speakers with equalization is clearly better than without ? It would be interesting to listen to a same track equalized and not equalized Some purists say that equalization is bad We dont ever see equalizer at high end audio fairs for instance I am still confused Thanks again and kind regards, gino

That is not done like that!!! If you have to equalize some studio monitors, what is really wrong is the acoustics of your control room. Start by correcting the acoustics of the room first.

So for us normal people... Does room EQ offer an equalizer that we can correct the room ourselves by moving sliders? Or does it have any auto calibration functionality? Can we then leave it on in a PC so that all music played through the PC will be room-corrected? ... Would this sound better than say Audyssey XT32 built into my receiver? Is it a better replacement for me to buy an $80 microphone and download free Room EQ?

Hi Vatche, i have the same Monitors (Eris E 8) did you change anything in the back? I'm thinking of getting the IK MUltimedia System ARC 2.5 to calibrate my room.

You could easily be trying to correct room modes here instead of unflatness - in fact, listening to this room, I can guarantee it. You need to take multiple measurements on each speaker, moving the microphone all around your listening area, then average them all. That will give you something closer to what you really need to equalise. And of course what you are actually equalising is your speakers. You can't equalise a room.

Thanks for the amazing video. Ever experimented running response tests while you are sitting at different positions. I wonder if you block some reflections from the wall and alter the test results when you sit close to the mic.

Very clear explanations, thanks

Is there any way to get the eq correction from the deq2496, so we could use any equalizer, and use the deq2496 for another room/occasions.

HEY MAN ! do you think you could show me the link for the room eq wizard videos ? I can't find it ahah you have a lot of videos !

Great video... Good starting point...Now get Dirac room correction and experience time domain correction as well... Much much better focus and sound stage when you deal with temporal distortions, which simple EQ cannot.

Hi, does the Ultra Curve Pro DSP8024 the same as your DEQ2496?

Your accent sounds half british/aussie and half italian?

Hi. I have 2 audio interfaces in my little room. Both only have stereo outs. Can I take the output from say the left and route it into one of the input channels?

Halo, I just bought DCX 2496, how do u run pink noise? do i need to connect to a PC? Thanks

Will it process variable volume levels or fixed only?

Thanks for the video! Wishing you make a tutorial of stereo system include one subwoofer!

Great video presentation. I was just wondering if you've had any reliability issues with the DEQ2496. I've been through 3 of them since 2006 - each has had some degree of quirkiness. The current one mutes the speakers shortly after powering up. But as soon as I turn it off and back on, the unit runs fine for the duration of my performance. (I use it for live performance.) Your thoughts please.

This tariq i m using pa800 arranger and using daw calke walk sonar x3 but its not sync to daw plzz help me sent video how i sync.

This is incredibly helpful! Going to use that unit to treat my music room

Nice Video Sir I hàve a question before this lovely thing would I be able to store different graphic equalizer settings for example all 1 1 1 flat frequency graphic equalizer to page 7 , increase low frequency graphic equalizer to page 8, increase low mid high frequency graphic equalizer to page 9. Now supposed I playing a song would I able to load any of this save page like 7 setting or page 9 setting with stoping the song. I thank you in advance for reply

im thinking to buy this to use with with my home theatre for my subwoofers would it be easy to set up as a sub filter ?

Fantastic tutorial. Thank you so much for doing this.

I heard EQ'ing doing above 250 Hertz is not very good

Sir i only have one condenser mic so can i use it to measure my room !!

How can I use the measurements later in an equalizer. Is there an equalizer that can use that

Are you a fireman?

sorry but there is NO way you can get anything CLOSE to 'flat' from ANY loudspeaker - especially in that proximity to the wall and esp. sitting on a SHELF .. ludicrous

The room treatments on your walls does nothing suppressing echo. Your voice is echoed all over.

I can already hear that the acoustics of the room you are in are horrendous.

Do you see every band changes that is made in decibels?

Hi! Can you equalize your speakers to colorize your sound to emulate a hifi equipment? Then you save it as a preset so you can switch from a flat studio sound to a more pleasure-oriented hifi sound using the same speakers. Thanks!

Thanks a lot!

hi, nice video. you use the yamaha ag03 in this video. how do you calibrate it with the room EQ wizard?

Great video thanks

Very interesting. I looked up a wavelenght frequency calculator. At 7k the wavelenght is 4.85 centimetres, so half that lenght is 2.425 cm. Is it possible that the speakers and the microphone are not perfectly aligned? 2.42 centimetres off would be enough to cancel the signal

Hi Vatche, Mere curiosity... do you believe that the ultracurve eq creates a different auto equeing for left and right or just a main stereo one? Thank you

Your room is very boomy

The DEQ2496 is a piece of crap, like all Behringer products! I've tested it at my home and concluded that the DACs are crappy. The miniDSP 2xHD sounds much better.

Bought the behringer ultracurve long ago couldt figure out how to work it until now. Thanks

What kind of program do you have on you're laptop?

Excellent thanks

That was pretty slick, thanks for showing this. Really like the digital eq.

Hey man, thank you for this amazing video! Loving that DEQ2496. What do you think about room correction programs? Lately I've been demoing the sonarworks reference 3 Do you think the results would be comparable or would one be better then the other? I didn't already buy it but for educational discounts I would get the reference 3 for about € 150 which is €100 less then the behringer. What do you think? Thank you in advice

Thank you very much.

Room correction software is NOT your secret weapon! Alas, you can’t simply apply digitalroom correction to fix your acoustics. Room EQ can tame some issues, but it can’t correct for long reverberation times or comb filtering caused by strong early reflections (like those nasty reflections produced by speaker-boundary interference). To tame these problems you have two weapons in your arsenal: smart room layout and acoustic treatment.

Very nice thx 👍

I'm your fan

nice process

I'm India from Punjab Patiala

Lol, why to make a video about smth you don't understand a crap. If you read 1 SINGLE decent article or book...oh man, trying to solve time event by correcting amplitude...good luck REPLY

What is better? Sonaworks or Behringer ultra Curver to get flat frequency response?

Thanks for the very informative video. I would like to see more in depth videos on the fantastic DEQ2496. There are a few scattered around but your step by step method is easy to follow. So, how about starting with the feedback removal and the DEQ features. Keep up the good work. 👍🏼

EQ fixes NOTHING - only makes things far worse - you want to modify your response by changing your listening environment

I'm not a sound guy, but I've always loved sound, sound effects and of course music. I couldn't help but notice how much your equipment reminded me of my job which is often as a network engineer. The patch panel and the rack and the networked equipment, hah -it was like the Bizzaro World version of what I do. I wondered if you might be able to direct me to some easy to learn resources on what it is you know. I like science, and technology obviously isn't a problem for me. I thought I'd take this on as a hobby perhaps and if I'm any good... well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. Like my Commercial Graphics degree (that is hardly used) I don't usually regret the things I learn and find ways to make use of the knowledge.

Never thought about it. I purchased Sonarworks Monitor Reference and its pretty good. Have you tried it ?

Good music director

i learned nothing. he doesnt make it understandable for beginners. dont waste your time watching. he doesnt show in basic elements with understandable explanantions.