RTA suggestions

Does anyone have an RTA they would like to sell? I'm considering picking up the True RTA setup with the Behringer mic but was looking for something with a little less calibration required etc. I want to make accurate measurements for home theater and some car audio stuff. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

try Smartlive and load it onto your pc, or find a used aucio control... since its portable, and reliable..

Never used the smartlive, but the trurta is worth getting it set up. The 1/12th resolution shows some interesting stuff.

I'd get a mic other than the Behringer.

Which one do you use with TrueRTA John?

Well temporarily I'm using a M-Audio Fast Track Pro, the RTA mic off our church's DBX Driverack PA, and SMAART V6. We've had a lot of problems with the sound at our church and I spent 9 hours yesterday there tuning. The RTA and SMAART got me close, then put some music on and did final adjustments. Results: A lot happier congregation during worship this morning! Now I just need to decide which of the mic's I want to buy so I have my own RTA. I'm thinking I may save for the Earthworks M30, any suggestions?

that M-Audio isn't bad.
I use a AC meter currently...why not. LOL
I really just don't like the behringer product...It's like the JVC of car audio. You know what I'm saying?

JVC is picking up it's pace. Eclipse is gone. Alpines new flagship doesn't even have optical out. Watch out 2010. We may have some new players in the game.

I have an Audio Control.....or two... I dont need any more...

The Earthworks M30 although $650 seems to be what the pro's are using when tuning large venues. I'm looking at going with it. Any of you used it before? Its supposed to be +/- 1dB from 20hz-30khz.

jsketoe wrote:

that M-Audio isn't bad.
I use a AC meter currently...why not. LOL
I really just don't like the behringer product...It's like the JVC of car audio. You know what I'm saying?

I'm considering returning the M-Audio and buying a higher model or possibly different brand so that I have more inputs and outputs. Quality wise though it seems to work well. What other brands would you consider?

Really...the one that came with the driverack was fine. here's the thing...IMO...if you are in a large venue you are not looking for 1db variations or you will go crazy...you are looking for 3db variations. In a car we can be more critical, but still, you have the chaos of reflections. I'll grab my AC anyday, get amp levels set, rough a curve in, then finish by ear and finally revisit the RTA just to see if anything is a hair off. In the end however, I trust my ear. The human ear doesn't work like a mic. And remember to move the mic around in a figure 8 circle or whatever about the size of your head...don't just leave it in one place...watch the response medium to slow and see what jumps or falls off. smooth it...then listen.
For a car, I wouldn't spend $650 on a mic.

I agree with what you said. You certainly can't get within 1dB in a larger venue. I would like to have a high quality mic though as I plan to start doing more large venues. One thing I really like about SMAART is its ability to average the RTA curves for you. I can capture curves at 10-20 different places in a room and average the response. This helps me with getting a good response across a wide area rather than a great response in one spot. I've only been using SMAART for a few weeks and have yet to utilize all of its capabilities but have been impressed so far. For now I will probably use the driverack RTA as it seems to work well and the church lets me take it home with me anytime since I took care of them for free and now run the mixing board on sundays. The earthworks will come later when I start signing up paying contracts.

You are also correct about using the RTA as a tool, but not replacing our ears with it. Its like engineering software, it helps, saves time, but in the end the engineer still has to make judgement calls and use the data from the software to make the right decision.

TEF...when the contracts pay.