Toneboosters Morphit - NEW headphones improvement, simulation and customization plugin

[Burillo]

MDR-7506 is already in

[kmonkey]

MDR-7506 is already in

Really? Great to hear. I checked demo few days ago (two or??) and it i could see few MDR , 7505 etc. but not 7506. Great news will download demo again.

[Burillo]

yes, it was added yesterday.

[tunca]

Add cheap headphones as Superlux models,please!

[greenfly]

All these generic settings are confusing the hell out of me.

I wound like to know which generic setting, if any is recommended for mixing on headphones?

Are ToneBoosters indirecty saying that flat based on SonarWorks inverse frequency curves is a wrong approach to mixing on headphones?

What is the usefulness of flat at eardrums, and what information can I glean from using this option in relation to my mix?

Thanks

[emasters]

MDR-7506 is already in

Thanks for the quick inclusion for the MDR-7506

[msl]

With this approach you can quickly flip through a generic correction (towards the HiFi model), a specific headphone simulation (headphone of your choice), and a custom target (using a parametric EQ) and edit them all independently. That was the thinking at least.

If it is more useful to change default simulation model back to "HiFi" we can easily do that so that upon opening a fresh instance, all 3 modes give a very similar result.

As a tool primarily for mixing, my first reaction is that Generic studio (rather than Generic HiFi) would a more suitable target for the Correction mode.

Thinking about it, the Correction mode itself seems of slightly limited use to me as you can flip between different models just in the Simulate mode. I'm not sure how useful it is to be able to switch between different Morph and Gain settings in the different modes, and I guess this can also be done by saving and flipping between presets. Perhaps modes other than Simulate and Custom make more sense to me as a description of their application, like Reference listening.

Just some thoughts anyway. Thank you for the excellent plugin, which I have bought already.

[djeroen]

All these generic settings are confusing the hell out of me.

I wound like to know which generic setting, if any is recommended for mixing on headphones?

Are ToneBoosters indirecty saying that flat based on SonarWorks inverse frequency curves is a wrong approach to mixing on headphones?
Thanks

I don't know exactly what SonarWorks uses as target function at the level of the ear drum. I suspect their definition of 'flat' is 'flat with respect to some desirable target function'. Alternatively, SonarWorks may create a flat response with blocked ear canals, which is also a common technique. I'll leave it up to them to explain their method if they want to. In any case, for sure a flat loudspeaker in a perfectly treated room will not result in a flat response at the ear drums, and hence a flat response at the ear drums is probably not want you want on headphones either. This is why manufacturers will advertise their cans as 'diffuse field equalized' for example, which basically means the response at the level of the eardrum is equal to that resulting from a flat diffuse field (which will result in a strong resonance around 3-4 kHz at the ear drum).

For studio monitoring and music production, the 'generic studio' profile is probably your best friend as target function. This is now also explained in the manual. 'Flat at eardrums' is not a setting you would want to use typically, but there are some interesting use cases for it beyond headphone correction.

[greenfly]

Thanks Jeroen.

[3ee]

OK, gave a quick demo and I like it since I can sense an improvement (I currently use AKG K-612 Pro)

Before playing with the plugin, I suggest people will do the following:
(btw, this website might come in handy for test files: http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php )

1. run a (mono) sine sweep and get an idea of the level of freqs and panning of the headphones (if it goes up/down, L/R too much... you probably should try a different pair for mixing/mastering work )

2. NOTE your impressions, ...useful to have a spectrum analyser handy like SPAN

3. if you noticed some L/R activity (off mono-axis) ... that's normal if it's fairly small and more towards the high freqs.. BUT to ensure it's not your ears, take off your headphones and switch them so L becomes R and put them back on to run the sine sweep again and take a look at your notes... they should basically be the same (in reverse) but if you sense something odd, it's probably your ears ... or you've been cleaning them wrong

OK, now that you're familiar with your headphone's and ears' "sound print", move to the next step and play with the plugin.

4. Select your model and try to simply correct or simulate either generic HiFi or Studio to run sine sweep test again

5. Notice that it's not "perfect" and you realize that you need to compensate with stereo eq especially in the high-end.

djeroen: I suggest you rethink the eq section... make it available within all modes within the plugin and makes it more precise, I couldn't get the Q sharp enough to solve my problems... and a good idea to make it stereo, meaning independent control when needed for L/R channels

Cool plugin, thanks! ... also like the color scheme idea.

[audiosabre]

As a tool primarily for mixing, my first reaction is that Generic studio (rather than Generic HiFi) would a more suitable target for the Correction mode.

Think I'd have to agree with this. Even when not producing i.e. playing back, I much prefer the generic studio to the generic hi-fi. An alternative could be to have an option to set a target as the default for correction mode.

[wesleyt]

Jeroen,

Might you consider adding the AKG K271 Mk II? They're my on-the-go mixing headphones.

Thanks!

Regards,
Wes

[Tapehead]

Please, consider adding Audio-technica ATH-M30.

[djeroen]

V1.1 is now available:

- Several minor improvements in GUI design
- DSP engine is further optimized with a reduction of about 20% in CPU load
- Accuracy improvements for almost all headphone models, for both frequency and phase correction
- Gain function is now always available even if the limiter is disabled
- Custom mode is now equal to Simulate mode but with additional equalization option for response tweaking
- New included headphone models: AKG272, Beats Studio 2
- All headphone models are now properly listed in alphabetical order
- Customization Q factor range is increased to allow better fine tuning
- Generic studio reference is now the target function in the 'Correct' mode and is also the default in 'Simulate' mode

This update will change the behaviour of the plugin if projects are opened that were saved with older versions, in particular please check settings for output gain and custom EQ.

[msl]

Really excited about this update as it addresses all of my minor niggles, including allowing gain control independent of whether the limiter is enabled, which I didn't even get a chance to mention!

One fly in the ointment... the VST3 version appears to crash Reaper (version 5.30 x64). Previous VST3 versions worked fine.