How To Set Up The DAD/Avid SPQ Card Using The Free Room EQ Wizard
Ever since DAD released the SPQ card for their AX32 and then with the version for the Avid MTRX and now with the smaller version built into the MTRX Studio, users need to be able to analyse their speakers and room, and somehow transfer the results onto the SPQ card using the DADman software. This article shows how this can be achieved using the free Room EQ Wizard software, a low-cost USB measurement mic, and most importantly, how to transfer the measurements to the SPQ card.
What Can The SPQ DSP Speaker Processor Card Do?
The SPQ DSP Speaker Processor card is a hardware option card for the DAD AX32 and its sister product, the Avid MTRX and a slightly less powerful version comes built-in, as standard, with the Avid MTRX Studio.
AX32 And MTRX EQ And Time Alignment Capabilities:
128 Channels @48kHz
64 Channels @96kHz
16 Channels @ Sample rates up to 384kHz, making the SPQ DSP Speaker Processor card suitable for DSD and high res workflows.
1024 filters assignable across all channels - typically 8 filters per channel. Maximum of 16 filters on any individual channel.
Up to 800ms delay per channel
Avid MTRX Studio EQ And Time Alignment Capabilities:
16 Channels
256 filters assignable across all channels - typically 8 filters per channel. Maximum of 16 filters on any individual channel.
Introduction
In this article, we are going to be using an Avid MTRX Studio, but the workflow and process are identical for its bigger brothers, the DAD AX32 and Avid MTRX, the only difference is that you have more filters to play with and can have a longer delay for time alignment.
That said with 16 channels and even with 16 filters per channel, you won’t run out of filters, which means you can configure up to a 9.1.6 system, with 16 filters on every channel and be OK.
The challenge with any version of an SPQ card is that unlike systems such as Sonarworks, Dirac-Live/miniDSP, JBL Intonato, Trinnov, or Genelec’s GLM the process is not automatic.
Options For Speaker And Room Measurement
The SPQ card requires that you use a 3rd party application and then somehow translating those measurements manually to create a corresponding EQ curve using the DADman software.
There are a number of options to achieve this but when I was researching how to achieve this there was very little information on the complete process. There is a lot of conflicting advice out there for measuring your room and whether waterfall graphs are essential or should be ignored, do you boost troughs in the EQ curve or not, but there was no detailed workflow out there, that I could find to undertake the measurements and then transfer that data into something you could build a curve in DADman.
Options suggested included…
Using Sonarworks and then trying to replicate the inverse of the curve in DADman.
Using Fuzzmeasure Pro, which is now under the Rode.
Using Studio Six Digital’s iOS package which offers an in-app purchase offers a set of licensed Smaart Tools.
Using a Free App Room EQ Wizard with a UMIK-1 USB measurement mic
The free app Room EQ Wizard, which together with a UMIK-1 USB measurement mic from miniDSP for $79 provides a cost-effective solution and is the one we are going to use to provide what we believe is the first guide to measuring and setting up an SPQ card.
How To Set Up Room EQ Wizard To EQ Your Monitoring System
In the article How To Set Up Room EQ Wizard To EQ Your Monitoring System, we show how to download, install and setup the free Room EQ Wizard software in conjunction with a UMIK-1 USB measurement mic from miniDSP for $79, ready to be able to analyse your speakers and room, to be able to EQ your monitoring chain.
Although this article is focused on setting up the EQ for the Avid/DAD SPQ card used in the DAD AX32, Avid MTRX and Avid MTRX Studio, everything we share in this article is transferable to analysing speakers in rooms for any system.
How To Analyse Your Room And Speakers Using Room EQ Wizard
In this article How To Analyse Your Room And Speakers Using Room EQ Wizard, we will show you how to use the free Room EQ Wizard software to analyse your speakers and room and then be able to EQ your monitoring chain.
How To Set The EQ Filters And Transfer Them To An Avid/DAD SPQ Card
In this article How To Set The EQ Filters And Transfer Them To An Avid/DAD SPQ Card, we show how to use the free Room EQ Wizard software to create the EQ Filter settings based on the speaker/room measurements and then transfer those EQ settings to the Avid/DAD SPQ card.
Not Just For The SPQ Card
Although this article is focused on setting up the EQ for the Avid/DAD SPQ card used in the DAD AX32, Avid MTRX and Avid MTRX Studio, the process to create the EQ Filter settings is transferable to analysing speakers in rooms for any system. You will just need to establish the best way to transfer the settings to your particular unit.