RTA Overlay on EQ page

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This topic contains 14 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by Profile photo of Dick Rees Dick Rees 8 years, 7 months ago.

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  • #49749
    Profile photo of hobsound
    hobsound
    Participant

    I did a show last weekend on a Midas M32, and they have a really useful way to see what is happening with your channel audio.
    There is an RTA on the same screen as as the EQ view. Very handy to see if there are problem areas of too much energy at a certain frequency.

    #49759
    Profile photo of mervaka
    mervaka
    Participant

    Doesn’t anyone mix with their ears anymore? Discretely sweep a narrow peak around if you don’t know your frequencies.

    #49760
    Profile photo of moon
    moon
    Participant

    i think that’s a really good idea Rob. +1

    #49762
    Profile photo of Dick Rees
    Dick Rees
    Participant

    I always prefer to make my audio adjustments so the RTA looks good. I want my sound to look good for those who are watching the performance…

    #49764
    Profile photo of hobsound
    hobsound
    Participant

    Okay, thanks for wise-ass remarks, I can take it.
    I’ve been doing this a long time, trust me, and I do “mix with my ears”.
    My point being, when you’ve got 16+ inputs going, and something is sounding funky, I think it is helpful to have a quick reference of what is happening on a channel without having to put the headphones on and solo.
    That’s all, just a nice feature.
    I’m not ready to dump my Qu-16 or Qu-32, but was impressed with the Midas.

    #49765
    Profile photo of Dick Rees
    Dick Rees
    Participant

    I’m not against using the appropriate technology to get good sound, but RTA is not the way to do it. What you want is a full spectrum FFT running, something like SMAART or SpectraFoo. This was one of the desirable features of the StudioLive. Too bad they weren’t robust enough for practical live use.

    #49777
    Profile photo of SteffenR
    SteffenR
    Participant

    I would like to see something like this…
    https://www.voxengo.com/product/harmonieq/

    #49783
    Profile photo of Dick Rees
    Dick Rees
    Participant

    Okay, thanks for wise-ass remarks, I can take it.
    I’ve been doing this a long time, trust me, and I do “mix with my ears”.
    My point being, when you’ve got 16+ inputs going, and something is sounding funky, I think it is helpful to have a quick reference of what is happening on a channel without having to put the headphones on and solo.
    That’s all, just a nice feature.
    I’m not ready to dump my Qu-16 or Qu-32, but was impressed with the Midas.

    Rob…

    Not trying to be hard on you, but to compare RTA and FFT for utility is like bumper cars to Formula One.

    With a scrolling, real time FFT display you can look at the effect of your channel EQ adjustments individually or paired with another channel, as a group or part of the entire mix. You can also do this in the headphones, but you cannot do it with RTA.

    I’m not against using visual cues in conjunction with listening, but they should be useful cues. RTA is just WAY less useful and for me less useful than headphones and experience.

    #49787
    Profile photo of Hawk
    Hawk
    Participant

    RTA is using FFT, OK?

    #49788
    Profile photo of Dick Rees
    Dick Rees
    Participant

    No, RTA is not FFT.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Time_Analyzer

    The objective is the same using both, but any analysis without incorporating FFT will be quite limited.

    #49805
    Profile photo of Hawk
    Hawk
    Participant

    Digital RTAs use digital sampling technology and microprocessor based digital signal processing to perform necessary calculations, such as Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT)…

    #49806
    Profile photo of Andreas
    Andreas
    Moderator

    …but not the RTA implemented in the Qu. That’s just a bunch of somewhat widerange bandpasses with peak detection.
    Just feed in a pure sine and wonder…

    #49809
    Profile photo of moon
    moon
    Participant

    Sure lets make it an FFT. Hopefully there’s enough horsepower in the mixer
    for that analysis and display. Otherwise even the RTA is better than nothing.
    chheers,
    Mike

    #49810
    Profile photo of [XAP]Bob
    [XAP]Bob
    Participant

    It’s the “Better than nothing” aspect which is interesting.

    The RTA is available anyway (since it can be be displayed on the iPad), so it makes sense to have it shown on the eq screens – IF that channel/mix/group is in the PAFL (not necessarily on it’s own either, although a yellow RTA if it is “mixed” and a red if it’s on it’s own might be a useful distinction)

    #49816
    Profile photo of Dick Rees
    Dick Rees
    Participant

    Sure, let’s do that. The problem lies in the processing and display power needed:

    https://www.rationalacoustics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Smaart-v.7-Sell-Sheet-NEW2.12.2.pdf

    SMAART, SpectraFoo and such run on a good laptop connected to your mixer.

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