Field Story
Brewery Taproom: Too Loud to Order a Beer
A brewery taproom with exposed brick, concrete floors, and a 5-meter metal ceiling measured RT60 of 2.4 seconds. Customers had to shout to order drinks, and SPL routinely exceeded 85 dBA from crowd noise alone. After installing felt baffles on 50% of the ceiling and acoustic artwork on two walls, RT60 dropped to 1.1 seconds and conversational SPL decreased to 72 dBA.
Brewery TaproomEQ Recommendation per ISO 3382-1
TL;DR
ISO 3382-1 room acoustic measurements inform EQ strategy by revealing how the room modifies sound across frequency bands. RT60 per octave band shows where reverberant energy accumulates, while clarity (C80) indicates which frequency ranges suffer from excessive late energy. SonaVyx AI diagnostic engine uses this room acoustic context to generate EQ recommendations that account for both the system response and the room behavior. Instead of blindly flattening the transfer function, the recommendations account for the reverberant field contribution, suggesting target curves that work with the room rather than against it.
Room Data for EQ Strategy
ISO 3382-1 measurements tell you how the room treats sound energy over time at different frequencies. This information is essential for setting realistic EQ targets.
RT60-Informed EQ
- Bands with long RT60 accumulate reverberant energy that adds to the perceived level
- EQ boosting in these bands increases the reverberant energy problem
- Consider EQ cuts in bands where RT60 exceeds the average by more than 50%
- Low-frequency RT60 is typically longest, suggesting conservative bass EQ
Clarity-Based Optimization
- Bands with low C80 (below -2 dB) have excessive late energy relative to early energy
- Boosting these bands with EQ worsens the clarity problem
- Consider shelving cuts in bands with poor clarity to reduce excitation of the reverberant field
- Bands with good C80 can tolerate EQ boost for tonal shaping
Target Curve Selection
In reverberant performance spaces, a gentle high-frequency rolloff target (2-4 dB from 2 kHz to 8 kHz) often sounds better than flat because it compensates for the room adding energy over time.
Common Mistakes
- Targeting flat response in a highly reverberant room
- Boosting bass EQ when low-frequency RT60 is already excessive
- Not measuring room acoustics before setting the EQ target
SonaVyx Tools
Get room-informed EQ from the SonaVyx AI diagnostic. Measure RT60 with the RT60 tool. Capture IRs with the IR tool. Measure response with the transfer function. Predict treatment at AcousPlan. Follow the PA tuning workflow.
Standard Reference
ISO 3382-1:
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Last updated: March 19, 2026