IK Multimedia has announced the release of ARC Studio, a standalone hardware processor for its newly-updated ARC 4 acoustic room correction software that promises to "instantly upgrade" your studio monitors.
Room correction software compensates for the acoustics of the room your monitors are placed in by analyzing its acoustic profile, identifying problematic frequencies and adjusting the output of your monitors accordingly. Everything from a room's size and shape to the furniture in it can dramatically affect its acoustics; room correction accounts for this to achieve a neutral frequency response.
IK's been in this game for a while; previous iterations of its ARC software were designed to run on your machine, whereas ARC Studio gives you the opportunity to run the software on a dedicated processor that sits in between your interface and your monitors. There's a number of benefits to this approach, eliminating the need to place the ARC 4 plugin on the master bus of a project or introduce additional latency to your monitoring set-up.
ARC Studio arrives bundled with a precision MEMS measurement microphone that's used to measure the acoustic profile of your listening environment through the ARC 4 software and compensate accordingly, delivering "controlled low-end, tighter transients and pinpoint stereo imaging". Separate profiles can be created, stored and instantly recalled for different monitors, listening positions and room configurations.
What's more, ARC 4 now offers monitor emulation, so you're able to emulate the frequency and phase response of well-known studio monitors from other manufacturers, hi-fi speakers and even mobile devices to get a sense of how your mix will sound on other systems.
Designed and manufactured in Italy to exacting specifications, the ARC Studio hardware boasts a 120 dB(A) analogue input to analogue output dynamic range, 0.5Hz-40kHz frequency response, and ultra-stable clocking. IK says it offers the transparency and accuracy of mastering-grade converters at a far more affordable price.
ARC Studio (including the ARC 4 software and measurement mic) is priced at $/€299.99, but existing ARC users can upgrade for a discounted price. ARC 4 can be purchased on its own for $/€149, or $/€199 with the measurement mic.
Find out more on IK Multimedia's website.
