Just keep in mind that while the RTA can be a useful graphical indication of the current audio/frequency spectrum, you have to understand that it shows you the “what” but not the “why”.
It is up to the individual to understand and interpret RTA (and other) data correctly to get to the “why” answer. If you don’t understand the answer to “why”, you may come to wildly incorrect assumptions/conclusions and end up making decisions/changes that make things worse. What I am trying to say is that an RTA is not a “that was easy” button/tool that always provides clear cut answers and solutions.
One of it’s best uses is to pin point frequencies that are “sticking” out on a particular input or buss. This may be an indication of a frequency being on the verge of feedback (or even actively feeding back) and the RTA screen can help us quickly identify any offending frequencies so we can use EQ cuts to increase our gain before feedback threshold. However just because a particular frequency is at a higher level than other frequencies doesn’t automatically mean there is a problem either. You have to learn the difference between the two.
One of it’s worse uses is as a “system EQ” tool. It is much less helpful in those situations than people expect it to be because room acoustic “why” answers are so much more complicated than an RTA screen leads us to believe.
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