RTA Overlay on EQ page

[hobsound]

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.

[mervaka]

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

[moon]

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

[Dick Rees]

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…

[hobsound]

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.

[Dick Rees]

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.

[SteffenR]

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

[Dick Rees]

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.

[Hawk]

RTA is using FFT, OK?

[Dick Rees]

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.

[Hawk]

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

[Andreas]

…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…

[moon]

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

[Anonymous]

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)

[Dick Rees]

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.

[Author]

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