A good idea is to rotate the measuring microphone in a wide arc or circle round the measuring position and to see if any strong interactions occur causing large deviations in response. If necessary, move to another position. Also ensure that the ambient noise level is at least 6dB (preferably 10dB) below the signal level you are using.
Having set up the desired house curve as smoothly as possible, move round and check the response throughout the listening area. Good equalisation requires time and patience. Do not forget that some interaction will occur between a particular filter and its adjacent bands. A better sound may be produced by adjusting several bands rather than by strong cutting just the centre one. Do not forget to pause to talk or play music through the system as you go, so that you keep in touch with what the resultant sound quality is like.
If the Real Time Analyser you are using is the Klark Teknik DN6000 you have a powerful averaging capability which means that averaging the response throughout the coverage area becomes very much easier. The response displayed by the analyser should also become smoother as local fluctuations are averaged out whilst persistent peaks and dips clearly stand out and show where adjustment is truly required.
DN6000
Connecting a stage or house microphone into the analyser can be a most instructive exercise - showing up any local reflection or acoustic resonance or loudspeaker sidelobes. Generally repositioning the microphone or adjusting individual microphone channel equalisation will be needed, rather than adjustment to the overall house curve. This technique is particularly useful when investigating acoustic feedback after the initial house curve has been set.
17
