Is room correction software okay if you haven't acoustically treated the room at all?

[Guitar Binge]

My current studio setup is a small, mostly square/rectangular room. Unfortunately, I can't set it up according to the optimal acoustics because I have to leave enough open space to comfortably teach music lessons, while looking professional. It is carpeted w/ an acoustic tile ceiling. The main objects in it are: my studio desk(PC, Monitors, Controller...), a digital piano('Kawai CN29') & a thin rectangular table(Space to write & use to teach)... I still want to have the most accurate acoustics and mixes as possible. Due to financial limitations, I haven't treated it w/ foam or anything. My question is: Would it be okay, or smart to use a room correction software w/out having treated the room at all? (ex. 'SonarWorks') I have 'JBL LSR305' Monitors & Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 ohm' headphones

[vitocorleone123]

Yes

[ramseysounds]

Yes +1.
It’s the whole point of it

[Guitar Binge]

Yes

Ok, thank you

[Guitar Binge]

Yes +1.
It’s the whole point of it

Sounds good, thanks

[Spin Boyz]

No. You’re still going to have issues with room modes. Without treatment you’d be better off mixing in headphones with realphones, waves nx, slate vsx etc…

[Fannon]

May depend on how high your expectations are. In my case, I just cannot realistically place my monitors in a good way in the room and also have some room mode problems. I tried doing a little bit with acoustic treatment but in the end, I got room correction with Neumann speakers and they work surprisingly well considering the limitations I have. But for sure, that can't do magic and only headphones can eliminate those room issues entirely.

But I would still think about doing a little bit of room correction first, where it's not so expensive or causes issues. Even if it's just adding thick curtains and similar "low-end tricks" to your room.

[roman.i]

no, it would be mostly useless, especially with these cheap speakers.
instead, find the correct place in the room, for yourself and for the monitors, buy floor stands if you haven't done so.
next step after stands, get acoustic panels to get rid of the reverberation in the room.
it won't help to slightly adjust the frequency response of your speakers if you are sitting in the area of standing waves or your room has too much reverb.
i have a pair of $6k monitors that have a correction eq, and i'm not even using it, because i found that moving around in the room and setting acoustic panels is way more efficient, while the correction eq is kind of the last resort for me personally.

[jclosed]

no, it would be mostly useless, especially with these cheap speakers.
instead, find the correct place in the room, for yourself and for the monitors, buy floor stands if you haven't done so.
next step after stands, get acoustic panels to get rid of the reverberation in the room.
it won't help to slightly adjust the frequency response of your speakers if you are sitting in the area of standing waves or your room has too much reverb.
i have a pair of $6k monitors that have a correction eq, and i'm not even using it, because i found that moving around in the room and setting acoustic panels is way more efficient, while the correction eq is kind of the last resort for me personally.

Well - You are not wrong, but the OP explicitly said he has no room for further treatment. And possibly no room to shift his setup around or even enough room for monitor stands. In this case a room correction software would at least give some improvements.
I do not think he has enough budget to buy $6k monitors, and while the JBL LSR305 monitors can be considered cheap, a lot of people have to work on budget. For what I understood we are not talking about a professional studio, but just a small room with just enough correction to make it workable.
Personally I worked with the room correction from IK Multimedia, and it did a good enough job to make an otherwise unusable room on a good enough level to do some decent work in it. The keyword here is "decent enough", and not "professional level". I think not many people have room for, or can afford, a professional level room treatment.
The suggestion to use a pair of Steven Slate's VSX headphones is certainly not a bad one. While "normal" headphones have a very "on-the-ear" experience, those VSX come very close to listening to a set of professional monitors. As always - It's of course a substitute, but it's better than a bad treated room. They are not that cheap however. Still - It's something to take in consideration if you cannot treat your room, and have to buy a room correction system anyway...

[Guitar Binge]

Okay, thanks everyone for the help. Due to having to keep the setup I have for looks and to teach out of, I'll plan on my next two steps being, Room correction & a little bit of basic acoustic treatment... I'll research "realphones, waves nx, slate vsx etc"... I'll also use my new headphones (Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 ohm)... Right now they probably go loud enough but barely b/c I'm plugging directly into my 'Steinberg UR242' A/I... Should I get a headphone amp? and if so, would plugging into the headphone out that I'm currently using that's not very loud still solve the problem? (I may have an open 'Line-Out' on the back of the A/I)

[vitocorleone123]

Okay, thanks everyone for the help. Due to having to keep the setup I have for looks and to teach out of, I'll plan on my next two steps being, Room correction & a little bit of basic acoustic treatment... I'll research "realphones, waves nx, slate vsx etc"... I'll also use my new headphones (Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 80 ohm)... Right now they probably go loud enough but barely b/c I'm plugging directly into my 'Steinberg UR242' A/I... Should I get a headphone amp? and if so, would plugging into the headphone out that I'm currently using that's not very loud still solve the problem? (I may have an open 'Line-Out' on the back of the A/I)

If the headphones aren’t loud enough then you may want an amp, yes. It wouldn’t take much for 80ohm in a dedicated amp. Ideally the amp is getting audio from your interface it it’s not a requirement.

You may just want to forgo trying to go the speaker route unless you have the budget. Slate VSX may be cheaper overall. Or even just SoundID and Canopener, at least.

[Guitar Binge]

Okay, thanks. I'll check out the 'Slate VSX', 'SoundID' & 'Canopener'... I didn't understand; should the headphone amp be plugged into the headphone out or 1/4" line out on my interface?

[roman.i]

you don't need a dedicated headphone amp for 80 ohm headphones.
modern audio interfaces are usually good enough up to 300 ohm, and for sure for the 80 ohm range,
otherwise what is the point of having a headphones jack?
it is not about a party in the headphones, but a correct volume for studio work,
which is around 80 db, a level that most people would describe as normal/comfy volume for listening music.
anything above that would ruin your hearing, which is irreversible, therefore should be avoided.

[Guitar Binge]

Okay, thanks. I wasn't sure b/c it does go loud enough but it has to be turned almost all the way up for definitely not very loud, and once I'm about 2/3 up I hear a little bit of "hiss" but nothing that worries me. I'll keep just using the interface.

[Fannon]

Okay, thanks. I wasn't sure b/c it does go loud enough but it has to be turned almost all the way up for definitely not very loud, and once I'm about 2/3 up I hear a little bit of "hiss" but nothing that worries me. I'll keep just using the interface.

If you get a hiss, can you check that you don't "monitor" your audio inputs (live-previewing the input by directly passing it into the output)? Usually its the (microphone) preamps of the input that will create a hiss. Even with the best preamps that will happen at a high gain.

If you get a hiss just by increasing the headphone volume, that doesn't speak well about the quality of your audio interface. Then you probably want to get a better audio interface at some point in time. That would imho be a better investment than into a dedicated headphone amp.