Speaker Calibration; Choosing A Calibrated Mic; Setting Up The Mic; Setting Up The Client Software For Calibration - Omnia .9 Installation & User Manual

NFREMOTE CLIENT SOFTWARE

Speaker Calibration

As mentioned earlier, taking the time to calibrate at least one set of speakers to act as your reference monitors is time well spent.
In order to perform a speaker calibration, you need four tools:
A calibrated microphone to capture the audio.
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A pink noise generator to provide audio for measurement (pink noise having an equal amount of "noise power" in each
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octave).
A real-time audio analyzer (RTA) to visually display what the microphone is hearing.
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Some means by which to correct for speaker and/or room inaccuracies (such as a parametric equalizer).
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Omnia.9 provides three out of the four tools – the pink noise generator, the RTA, and the EQ. All you need to add is the
calibrated mic.

Choosing a Calibrated Mic

It is important to understand that you must use a calibrated microphone designed for sound measurement purposes to perform a
proper calibration. Studio or recording mics – even the high-end, high-dollar ones – are of no value when calibrating a system.
You can spend thousands of dollars on a scientific-grade, high-precision calibrated microphone, but the good news is – you
don't have to. Even the least expensive models will provide good quality results and are worthy of consideration.
While we are not in the business of selling microphones, nor do we have any interest in promoting any brand or model over
another, we can tell you that Behringer ECM8000 and DBX RTA-M work quite well and can be purchased at local music stores
and from various on-line vendors for around $100. If you prefer to connect your mic via USB or Firewire, several manufacturers
(M-Audio, E-Mu, and Blue come to mind) offer XLR to USB and XLR to Firewire converters starting at under $50).

Setting Up the Mic

Place the microphone as close as possible to the position you will occupy when monitoring so that it hears what you will hear. In
cases where you are calibrating two of the same speakers, and both are placed in similar locations in the room, you can calibrate
both the left and right channels simultaneously. If you find yourself in a situation where the speakers will be affected differently
by their individual placement in the room – one is suspending from the ceiling in a corner and the other is sitting on a shelf, for
example – or one is significantly closer to your monitoring position than the other – we recommend performing an individual
calibration for each speaker.

Setting Up the Client Software for Calibration

For the example below, let's assume that you are calibrating your studio monitors, which are being fed audio from the Speaker
Output portion of Omnia.9's Monitor Outputs. We will also assume that you are in a situation where you can use the same
calibration settings for both speakers. By default, the parametric EQ section is set up in the "common" mode, which means
changes made to the left channel will be mirrored in the right channel.

Connect the Client PC and the Calibrated Mic

The first step to calibration is making sure you have a remote connection to your Omnia.9 per the instructions at the beginning
of this manual.
Once connected, plug your calibrated mic into the remote PC, install any necessary software or drivers, and establish that it is
working properly in Windows.
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