[bprice2]

I just got the Inguz EQ plug-in up and running on my Slimserver...pretty cool.  I haven't yet started playing with the room correction component of the software, but have been playing with the EQ.  I am curious if anyone else is using this software and what your opinion of it is. 

Also, does anyone know what some of the extra features do...like "quietness" and "width"?

[chadh]

I've been using the plug-in for DRC.  But, to tell you the truth, I uninstalled it about three days ago.

I really liked the whole idea of the plug-in. But I'm not sure that I set things up very well.  Or else my room is severely screwed up.  But the room correction dropped the volume on my system a LOT!  This wasn't such a big deal, but was just a little confounding.

What I really found annoying was how intensively the DRC application used the CPU on my server.  The computer certainly met all of the technical qualifications Inguz laid down for the server.  But I kept getting these experiences where the CPU became so overworked, that the slimserver user-interface started acting up, and I was unable to operate the squeezebox.

I haven't given up on the process.  But I'm putting it away until I have some time to work out how best to deal with the problem.  My advice, though, is to make sure your server is pretty powerful if you're going to use the DRC features of the plug-in.

Chad

[JoshK]

Chad,

It sounds like you were using a *lot* of correction.  EQ & Correction use up headroom, or put another way, drop the volume.  This is because they are bringing the level of everything else down to the lowest point in your curve.  My suggestion would be to try without totally compensating for the dips.  Some dips are unavoidable but typically should be narrow.  Try not correcting for the most of the big dips and only correct as far as little dips.  This should give you more volume and probably will relax the computing power too.

[Val]

I have used Inguz for a couple of months now but have been lazy to report back. I love it. My room is very small and lacked depth perception and the ultimate sense of realism we all look for in audio. Inquz makes the sound smoother and more realistic in every way. I found the "normal" correction to be best; the "strong" correction makes the sound smoother still but also a bit veiled. I also had to use the optional "normal.drc". Contrary to what others have reported, I didn't have problems of skewed soundstage, in fact, no negative effects at all. I checked the results against two ripped Stereophile test records and it all works as intended.

I found the process to be more complicated than I expected, mainly using the Tascam US-122 and Audacity interface plus a lot of trial and error, as well as having to unzip the drc files on the main Inguz folder (as suggested in one of the threads here), otherwise it wouldn't work. I think the tutorial needs to be improved. I had clipping problems but solved those too by checking the log file and tweaking the preamp config file. I am switching to Vista this month, so I have to redo at least part of it.

[bprice2]

Also, does anyone know what some of the extra features do...like "quietness" and "width"?

The Inguz website does not have an explanation of what these features are for.  Does anyone know?

Also, I'm thinking that I can probably rent the equipment necessary for room correction.  If I rented for a week, would that be enough time to learn how to use it and get my measurements down correctly?  Is there any reason to go back and remeasure?  If so, would I be better off just buying the measuring equipment?

Thanks.

[chadh]

bprice,

I don't know about the quietness and width, sorry.

As for the equipment:  if you're lucky (as I was), getting the measurements done and running the correction software can all be done in an afternoon.  The question is how good a job you do on that first attempt.  As I said, I don't think I did a great job the first time.  But I'm not sure what else to mess around with.  I should certainly scale back on the amount of correction I've been using (thanks for the suggestion Josh!  I had been using the "strong" option).  But as far as the actual measurements go, I'm not sure what else I could have done differently (other than change the levels a little.  I think my levels may have been a little low).

Anyway, where are you located?  I could probably lend you my recording gear for a week or so if you wanted to give it a try.  I have the Tascam US 122 and a Behringer microphone.

Chad

[bprice2]

Chad,

I appreciate the offer, but I live in Austin...long way from Ann Arbor.  If you are willing and the cost of shipping is reasonable, I'd pay for here and back.

Thanks,

Brett

[chadh]

Brett,

I'll check into shipping, and send you a private message in the next couple of days.

Chad

[inguz]

Hi all.   Thanks for the great feedback!  As you can tell from http://inguzaudio.com/usage/plugin/ I'm making quite slow progress on filling out all the documentation; and I'm also very aware that the process of measurement and filter generation is way too hard.

"Quietness" is "loudness" (just a lame attempt at terminology cuteness).  Quietness zero means "flat"; quietness 10 means a loudness-curve EQ that boosts the bass and treble.  (This is a very subtle loudness control compared with some.  I'd be interested to hear feedback on this.  Also there's a fundamental limitation to this architecture where your loudness change might not take effect for many seconds, due to the SB's buffering.)

"Width" controls the stereo image width, by up to +/- 6dB.  (Is that enough?  -6 is not mono).  Note that increasing the width doesn't apply crossfeed to spread the image beyond the speakers, it just attenuates the middle compared with the sides.

bprice: you would need to re-measure after any change in speaker positioning (including if you change stand height, etc) or any signifcant layout changes in the room.

Chad: there is almost always a volume difference between before and after, but the extent depends quite a lot on your room's characteristics.  In particular, big bass peaks can throw the loudness-leveling algorithm off;  you can usually compensate just by increasing the plugin's gain setting (in the configuration file).  Also, some older vesions of the plugin (before early January) had much bigger problems in this area (and with CPU usage).


Hugh ("inguz audio - out comes music")

[bprice2]

Hi Hugh,

Thanks for the reply.  What you are doing with this is very cool.  I wonder if the Bursen Buffer with its 6db gain would help out with the volume loss. Would 6db be enough?

Brett

[chadh]

Hey Hugh,

Thanks for your comments.  I think I am using an older version of the plug-in, so maybe I'll update and try everything again.  The volume issue was notable, but not a big deal for me - but it's also nice to know that it mightn't be as much of an issue with the newer version.

And thanks for the software too!

Chad

[miklorsmith]

My flac files are basic 16 bit, 44.1 signals.  I gather the Inguz output is 24 bits.  Is it upsampled to a different frequency as well?  If so, what frequency?

[inguz]

No, inguzDSP doesn't resample your music.  (It does resample your room-correction filters if they don't match the sampling rate of the music being played, though.  So if you have a 44.1kHz room correction filter but play a 48kHz DVD rip, the correction will still work correctly).