"Microphone is out of measurement area" error in Reference 4 Measure

I am using the same output and input hardware and the software still cannot find the microphone.

Me too. Been stuck on '17 measurements remaining' for the better part of an hour trying to get it to register the microphone's position. Love this software, and it's worked before, this is my 3rd measurement session, and the only time where I've just got absolutely stuck. Is that word clock synchronisation the only thing which leads the software to 'lose' where the microphone is?

Ok, better put an update to that. The first tests had been with the speakers 'flat', pointing straight out at 90degrees to wall. I've tried angling them in a bit, and the software coped much better with it, and I got through all of the measurements. Love what this software does to the sound coming out - huge improvement!

same problem here, I'm stuck with 24 measurements remaining and the software is saying Microphone is out of the blue measure zone. movement of the mike does to bring any changes using one interface any idea?

Same here. Stuck on 24 measurements. Using RME FF800

Just a bit of an update. I've done several rounds of measurement since my earlier comments, with new amp, and now new speakers in the studio. I'm still keeping the speakers angled in slightly, and all measurements have gone through fine without any hitches. My room is reasonably small, just under 3.5 metres wide, and I'm assuming it's the angling of the speakers that has allowed the software to measure consistently. The only other thing which may have had an influence is that initially I was not changing the angle of the microphone at all, it was always pointing directly at the back wall behind the speakers. I think in the tutorial it mentions always keeping the mic pointing to the mid-point between the speakers. So if you're on the left side of the listening position (when facing the speakers) the mic should be angled a bit to the right to still hit the centre line. Is this right? And would this have an effect on the reliability of measurements?

Hi Chris,

You are completely right, that the microphone always needs to be pointing at a mid-point between speakers. :)

This will affect the high frequency accuracy.

Actually, I think I might know what's going on when you see this message. I did the test today for the first time, and repeated it twice more. Each time getting this same message intermittently throughout the testing and at those moments having to "cheat" (by raising the mic in elevation higher than my usual listening position).

Do the people who've experienced this error have 2 video monitors on their desk, side-by-side, and the speakers BEHIND and beside each video monitor?  

That's is my setup. The speakers are angled in an isosceles triangle so that the tweeters point directly at my ears, rough 3 feet away from me in each direction (speakers 5.5 feet apart from each other). In my normal listening position, there's no obstruction between the speaker cones and my ears. However, when moving the mic closer, as the test requires. there's no longer a direct line-of-site between the end of the mic and the speakers; the part of the sound waves are hitting the backs of the video monitors before bouncing around and reaching the mic. My guess is this throws off the measurement. Suddenly the little mic icon on the screen is moving or disappearing entirely, never able to reach the "blue zone." In essence, the software can't get a fix on mic's actual placement when it nears too close to the video monitors.

For mixers, this may not be an issue; I've visited mix studios and often the mixers seem to work off of either one big video monitor, positioned behind the speakers, or else the speakers are positioned so far away that most of the sound waves avoid colliding with the video monitors as they propagate throughout the room. In contrast, I've observed many composers work with something closer to my setup, the speakers slightly behind and to the sides of each video monitor.

Anyway, a long-winded response to this forum post... but I suspect this might be what's happening when we repeatedly see this message throughout the testing process.

Hi Igor,

Thank you for your comment! You are right, the placement of a display monitor can produce some early sound reflections, which in some cases can confuse the mic localisation process. The extent to which this happens varies from setup to setup, thus I would review each and every case individually.

Same here also stuck on measurement 24. 

What version of Sonarworks are you using?  I was using v3 and was stuck for months, never being able to finish calibration.  When I updated to v4 (fortunately it was free for me), all the problems went away and I was able to calibrate my speakers at home and in the studio.

Hey, same problem here, stuck in 24 measures, using reference 4, what I can do?

Tryed everything

stuck on micro 24 measures placement. Using reference 4, sonarworks mic, what can I do to solve this?

Hi everyone,

There are few things that could be causing this, most likely it's a sample rate issue. Proceed by double checking that you're setting up correctly:

1. Your audio interface is set to 44.1 kHz sample rate while performing measurements (keep an eye out for this one, as it's the most common mistake);
2. No direct monitoring is applied to your mic input channel so that you don't hear mics signal coming out directly from the speakers;
3. Inside Measure app settings only a single audio device is used both for input and outputs;
4. While measuring distances between speakers, assure that you point mic as close as you can to the mid-range driver of the speaker;
5. There are no other devices in the signal path (analog devices, converters, monitoring controllers, etc.), only your audio interface;
6. Phantom Power is on;
7. There's no other music production/routing/audio software open, that could 'hijack' the channels you're working with or otherwise interfere. Or better still - exit all other apps while doing this.

After some measurements, once even on the first one it doesn't neither show the blue measurement zone nor the measured location of the microphone. The warning "Microphone is out of blue measurement zone" already appears, before there was a measuring signal for this measurement. Reference 3,

When I did the measurement in the same environment and system a year ago, it worked.

Hi Heinz, 

If you were successful before, something must have changed in your hardware or driver configuration. Sample rate is the first thing that would be associated with this; did you follow the steps above for setting up correctly? Any new hardware in the chain that could be causing sample drift? If so, simply remove it for the measurement stage. 

Also, are you running the final Reference 3 release? If not, find the final 3.4.1.6 build here and simply install over the existing version.

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I followed the steps you wrote Karlis, and the problem remains... I have a Roland Octa-Capture, I put the sample rate at 44'1KHz. Maybe have I to change the kind of measurement's signal? Because my room is very small. And when the program recognize the mic, it detects that at a wrong position... I use Reference 4.

Thanks,

Has anyone figured out what is causing this?  I've followed and tried everything on this forum including removing my monitor.  I can't get it to detect my microphone in the blue circle once I get to step 36.  So frustrating 

Update: for me it was after you click on create new present, click on settings and then choose a different option for microphone localization type.  signal b worked for me.  sonarworks customer service is pretty horrible.  I'm shocked no one told me this earlier!  but worked great after that

Hi everyone, 

Jon's issue was indeed resolved in a support ticket by suggesting the alternative B and C microphone locating signals in the Measure app settings. 

For anybody else getting stuck with the 'jumping mic' issue on the screen (unable to locate the microphone), we highly recommend viewing this article for in-depth solutions: Reference 4 Measure app troubleshooting guide