
Had an ancient RTA. I used the RTA to check the flatness of the monitoring environment. Well, initially bought it to ring PA systems, and used it to ring lots of PA systems over the years.
When I quit that foolishness, would use the RTA for mixing as a reality-check-- Fer instance I was familiar with the typical spectral distribution of R&B. So if I happened to be working on an R&B tune and it might happen that my song's spectral distribution looked way different from R&B, then that would be a strong hint that not only was I barking up the wrong tree, but that wrong tree was not even in the right woods.
Kinda got a hankering for an RTA display in my scaled down recreational home rig. In theory the behringer UltraCurve Pro ought to be a fun box, except lots of folks don't like the sound and apparently many people who like the sound have numerous complaints about the UltraCurve's durability.
Happened across the DBX line of PA-oriented speaker controllers. Wish they had made these back in the good old days. Anyway, the price of the PX model designed for powered speakers ain't bad, and the published specs look like they ought to be good enough for tired old ears, even in a half-fast studio situation.
It has several tricks that might do me some good at home, though unfortunately this model doesn't have an "always on" eye candy RTA display mode. You only get to see the RTA display when ringing a room. Youtube has LOTS of demos of this box.
But here are some perceived benefits-- You can tell I'm trying to talk myself into spending money--
When I remodeled the basement apartment and moved some of the old studio into the apt living room-- I'm NOT going to fill the room with Sonex and bass traps. Forget about it. Luckily, the room accidentally doesn't sound that bad. There are several windows in the room with wood blinds. The wood blinds and other furniture suffice as not-too-shabby diffusors. The room has two about equal-spaced hallways in the back wall (opposite the monitor speakers). One hallway leads to bathroom and a bedroom, and the other hallway leads to kitchen, dinette, and out to the basement. So bass buildup is not oppressive in the living room. The bass energy leaks out into a much bigger space than the apartment living room, serving the function of a bass trap.
The "untreated" room doesn't have noticeable flutter or mid-high resonances. Low bass has some modalities but have heard worse.
**** Anyway, it MIGHT be possible to slightly even out my monitors and subwoofer, in the lows and low-mids, using modest tweaks of the graphic EQ and parametric EQ, because the room isn't real bad to begin with.
**** All my gear is ancient, but still works OK. 12" powered subwoofer, JBL-Urie amp driving JBL 8" monitors. They are hooked up lazy. The monitors get driven full-range off my mixer main output, and the subwoofer level gets set by the mixer headphone output knob. The subwoofer crossover is set to avoid overlap with the monitor speakers' bass rolloff. Works close enough for rock'n'roll.
**** However, that DBX has crossovers and peak limiters (and compressors though I'd not use the compressors). Unless the DBX crossovers and limiters suck, it might be possible to get a much better blending of the monitors with the sub, calibrated by measurement mic, protected from random accidental high volume blasts by the limiters.
**** The thang has some parametric bands, which might be useful to minimize the most obnoxious room modes. I haven't yet measured to find bass modes. I usually do that with slow sine sweeps. Maybe the parametric wouldn't make much diff, but would be an interesting experiment.
So, though it is a live oriented box, that DriveRack might have some applicability in a half fast residential sound room. Wish it had a "full time RTA display mode". Which would be the icing on the cake.
Anybody used one?