HouseCurve App - Room Correction DSP

jollyDodger

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/housecurve/id1470695018

Anyone used it? Can the generated filters be loaded into any AU3 eq app at the end of an output chain? - i.e. i can't see how fabFilterProQ can load a Biquad Coefficients file

I suppose i could create an IR and load it into thafknar, but that will take up a lot more cpu?

ta++

file export formats: https://housecurve.com/docs/manual/file_formats.html#filters
free trial here: https://housecurve.com/APPCLIP.html

Ailerom

I don't really get it, but I think the whole idea is that it outputs a wave file that contains the curve of the room. This would be loaded into an auv3 IR loader (yes, like Thafknar) and placed somewhere, I think end of the chain on the master channel.

It is pretty much the opposite of what I originally thought it was supposed to do. I thought it would analyze your room and change the curve to achieve a flat response from the capture point. But it seems it may be more of a room curve emulator than room correction. Which is no use to me as my room sucks. If anyone wants to capture Abbey Road et.al. then I'd be happy to use those.

[Deleted User]

The big problem with this kind of apps is that they are not useful if you room is not good for acoustic and it is the case usually. It will not even tell you what you can do to change that.

Buying pricey monitors will not help if you room have bad acoustic. What is the solution when mixing and mastering in your house or flat : use decent wired pro quality headphones and use them. No headphones will give you flat response but if you use the same than sound engineers use for over 40 years , like DT770 or other you got reliable curve and with the time you know the range that are not flat.

Good headphones pro under 200 usd will lead to better result than 2000 usd monitors in a bad acoustic room and this app will not help you at all to have better results.

jollyDodger

@Ailerom said:
I don't really get it........ I thought it would analyze your room and change the curve to achieve a flat response from the capture point. But it seems it may be more of a room curve emulator than room correction. Which is no use to me as my room sucks.

Did you test it? As it's advertised as room correction, not room emulation. I don't have any speakers set up in my studio and am looking to buy some monitors, so that's why I can't test.

@BerlinFx said:
The big problem with this kind of apps is that they are not useful if you room is not good for acoustic.

Buying pricey monitors will not help if you room have bad acoustic. ........ use decent wired pro quality headphones and use them.... like DT770 or other you got reliable curve and with the time you know the range that are not flat.

I'm a DT880 sort of guy, but when I've got a colleague over, I need to use speakers.
1. My Sonos with its basic built in room eq correction, is noticeably better after running 'truePlay', but yes it improves big non-square rooms with stuff on the walls, far better my little flat box room that suk's satan's socks.
2. If you have £1k+ monitoring, then fine. If not, then DSP can correct the speakers themselves. Particularly if you have esoteric builds like a column array, a multipart single point source horn or just a separate sub. I've used DSP correction on Turbosound rigs and it can really help, particularly if the PA is designed for a different style of music than what you are playing.

[Deleted User]

@jollyDodger said:

@Ailerom said:
I don't really get it........ I thought it would analyze your room and change the curve to achieve a flat response from the capture point. But it seems it may be more of a room curve emulator than room correction. Which is no use to me as my room sucks.

Did you test it? As it's advertised as room correction, not room emulation. I don't have any speakers set up in my studio and am looking to buy some monitors, so that's why I can't test.

@BerlinFx said:
The big problem with this kind of apps is that they are not useful if you room is not good for acoustic.

Buying pricey monitors will not help if you room have bad acoustic. ........ use decent wired pro quality headphones and use them.... like DT770 or other you got reliable curve and with the time you know the range that are not flat.

I'm a DT880 sort of guy, but when I've got a colleague over, I need to use speakers.
1. My Sonos with its basic built in room eq correction, is noticeably better after running 'truePlay', but yes it improves big non-square rooms with stuff on the walls, far better my little flat box room that suk's satan's socks.
2. If you have £1k+ monitoring, then fine. If not, then DSP can correct the speakers themselves. Particularly if you have esoteric builds like a column array, a multipart single point source horn or just a separate sub. I've used DSP correction on Turbosound rigs and it can really help, particularly if the PA is designed for a different style of music than what you are playing.

That make sense if you need to share with a collègue or clients but you can sometimes do it with 2 headphones plug to the sound box.

DSP can help but are not magical.

richardyot

I can't comment on the app as I haven't used it, but there is definitely a benefit to room correction in that it can help to attenuate standing waves, and give you a more accurate bass response.

I use a calibrated mic and REW (a free room EQ app for Windows) to correct my speakers, and it makes a huge difference. My room is almost square (worst-case scenario), roughly 3mx3m and the standing waves produce a noticeable boomy hump at around 100hz. With room EQ I can tame that and make my bass a lot more accurate:

If the app is profiled to the iDevice speakers (doubtful IMO) then it might be useful, but I would think a calibrated mic would be a better option, something like this:

Behringer calibrated mic

jollyDodger

@richardyot said:
I use a calibrated mic and REW (a free room EQ app for Windows) to correct my speakers, and it makes a huge difference.
.....
but I would think a calibrated mic would be a better option, something like this:
Behringer calibrated mic

HomeCurve i assume is like REW but on iOS... i read that if profiling bellow 70hz then one needs to use a calibrated mic like the one you linked to via an interface. Above 70Hz, the mic on the iPhone, appears to be good enough for jazz.

richardyot

It might be worth a shot, the app is pretty cheap. If it can correct standing waves you should hear that really clearly due to the less boomy and much more even bass response.

Ailerom

@jollyDodger said:

@Ailerom said:
I don't really get it........ I thought it would analyze your room and change the curve to achieve a flat response from the capture point. But it seems it may be more of a room curve emulator than room correction. Which is no use to me as my room sucks.

Did you test it? As it's advertised as room correction, not room emulation. I don't have any speakers set up in my studio and am looking to buy some monitors, so that's why I can't test.

No not at all. I have other software that does these in a much more detailed way (again, based on my understanding of the app). But on further reading it seems obvious it is to correct the room. Even if it only takes a single measurement from where you place your head when listening, and assuming it measures and corrects well, there should be some improvements. Obviously you are not going to achieve the same outcome as spending a few thousand on room acoustics but it is something. I've used Sonarworks for years and it has definitely helped. It takes something like thirty measurements in key room positions and takes note of listening position to output a curve that can then be modified while listening. Still for "the price of a pint" I'd give it a try if I didn't already have second tier solutions to these problems.

jollyDodger

@Ailerom said:
……
Even if it only takes a single measurement from where you place your head when listening, and assuming it measures and corrects well, there should be some improvements.
…….
I've used Sonarworks for years and it has definitely helped. It takes something like thirty measurements in key room positions and takes note of listening position to output a curve that can then be modified while listening.

From reading the manual, you can average multiple measurements as required. https://housecurve.com/docs/usage/listening_area.html

Ailerom

@jollyDodger said:

@Ailerom said:
……
Even if it only takes a single measurement from where you place your head when listening, and assuming it measures and corrects well, there should be some improvements.
…….
I've used Sonarworks for years and it has definitely helped. It takes something like thirty measurements in key room positions and takes note of listening position to output a curve that can then be modified while listening.

From reading the manual, you can average multiple measurements as required. https://housecurve.com/docs/usage/listening_area.html

Might be interesting to see how it compares to something more costly like Sonarworks.