NEW: Waves modeled a frickin Studio - Abbey Road Studio 3

[mgw38]

A plugin like this can recreate room acoustics for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setups in a fully immersive simulation. That is something no other plugin currently does. The fact that the room acoustics is modeled after a particular studio is fairly irrelevant but makes a nice marketing statement.

KVR has always been a community easy to take out their pitchforks but this new tendency to immediately switch into targeted harassment mode before actually evaluating something critically is massively annoying.

[Digivolt]

I get what you're saying, but most of us don't have 5.1 or 7.1 surround headphones so it's not something we would consider ?

[mgw38]

I get what you're saying, but most of us don't have 5.1 or 7.1 surround headphones so it's not something we would consider ?

Then what‘s the point about complaining about the utility of the plugin? If it is not relevant for somebody then it is just not relevant. It is as simple as that.

[pixel85]

Hmm I LOL'ed at the first thought but now I'm really considering it as great solution (if it really works).
I just moved to new flat for the 10th time in last 13 years. Instead of acoustically adapt my room again and again maybe NX will be better solution and definitely much quicker.
Also for someone who work outside studio (musicians on tour making music in hotels), sound designers/foley artists etc. It may be a great solution to keep same 'studio environment' no matter where you are.
Beside this it's also quite fun to see where new technology can take us. Would you believe if someone told you in 80's or even 90's that you'll be able to have acoustic environment of one place but in your headphones being in totally different location?

[krabbencutter]

A plugin like this can recreate room acoustics for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setups in a fully immersive simulation. That is something no other plugin currently does. The fact that the room acoustics is modeled after a particular studio is fairly irrelevant but makes a nice marketing statement.

KVR has always been a community easy to take out their pitchforks but this new tendency to immediately switch into targeted harassment mode before actually evaluating something critically is massively annoying.

The base version of NX already takes care of recreating a mix room setup including 5.1, 7.1, ambisonics, headphone calibration and head tracking for half the MSRP and probably 29$ at the next sale.

Don't get me wrong. The idea to model additional real world listening environments is actually quite nice imho. And if they had released this as a paid add-on or upgrade for NX I would be much more open to the idea. That way you could monitor your mix in a 'neutral' virtual environment and then switch between different studio models for referencing.

Releasing it as a separate, but feature-wise identical, version of NX with a fixed model of a real world listening environment for double the MSRP however makes me shake my head more, than the NX head-tracker could handle.

[mgw38]

A plugin like this can recreate room acoustics for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setups in a fully immersive simulation. That is something no other plugin currently does. The fact that the room acoustics is modeled after a particular studio is fairly irrelevant but makes a nice marketing statement.

KVR has always been a community easy to take out their pitchforks but this new tendency to immediately switch into targeted harassment mode before actually evaluating something critically is massively annoying.

The base version of NX already takes care of recreating a mix room setup including 5.1, 7.1, ambisonics, headphone calibration and head tracking for half the MSRP and probably 29$ at the next sale.

I need to compare the original NX Mixroom with this one before I can make a usable assessment, but the original NX Mixroom is very neutral. It is a big help in creating immersive audio with headphones but I always felt that it lacked realism.

Releasing it as a separate, but feature-wise identical, version of NX with a fixed model of a real world listening environment for double the MSRP however makes me shake my head more, than the NX head-tracker could handle.

Sure, they could have added that functionality into NX. But first of all, that is not my decision to make. And then there is an argument to be made that essentially no studio has an actual Ambisonics setup. If you want to model studio room acoustics you can only do that for the traditional surround systems you actually find in studios and that would mean that you could only include that in parts of the NX suite. But once again, not my decision to make so the discussion about this is pretty moot. And btw, companies often release dozens of EQs and nobody complains about that.

[jens]

99$ intro price?

[Harry_HH]

i don't think Waves is aiming at "major project studios" here.

Hmmm...that (and small project studios/honbyists) is the target group, which give 90 % of the Waves turnover.

[mgw38]

99$ intro price?

Plugins that specialize in immersive audio production still tend to be very expensive. What Waves seems to be attempting is to make it attractive to their core target audience which are primarily hobbyists. I think that explains the marketing message as well as the price point which is considered fairly inexpensive in the immersive audio space and somewhat borderline in the regular, music producing, hobbyist space.

Opening up the market seems to be working for them. There is usually very little discussion around here about the specialized immersive audio plugins that can run in the 4 digit price range. Even the Waves DTS bundle is a bit of a fringe topic here. But Waves was able to generate a discussion with this one. You can complain what you want but I think their strategy is working.

[rollasoc]

. And if they had released this as a paid add-on or upgrade for NX I would be much more open to the idea.

According to the FAQ on the Waves site. I'm not home, so can't check my waves email account.

"Is there a discount for existing owners of Nx Virtual Mix Room or of other Waves Abbey Road plugins?

Yes: If you’ve owned either the Nx Virtual Mix Room plugin or any Waves Abbey Road plugin at the time of Abbey Road Studio 3’s release, check your mailbox: You’ve received an email with a coupon code discount on Abbey Road Studio 3.
"

My initial thought was. "At least it isn't yet another compressor, EQ or channel strip".

[dblock]

Because a theoretically ideal virtual mixing environment (Waves NX) wasn't enough, and because they had already modeled all the gear from Abbey Road Studios, Waves decided to model the god damn studio itself. I had to check my calendar twice to be sure its not April anymore.
99$ for a high resolution 360° gearporn... you can get a whole year of P*rnhub Premium for that

ok, that was pretty damned funny.

[perpetual3]

A plugin like this can recreate room acoustics for 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setups in a fully immersive simulation. That is something no other plugin currently does. The fact that the room acoustics is modeled after a particular studio is fairly irrelevant but makes a nice marketing statement.

KVR has always been a community easy to take out their pitchforks but this new tendency to immediately switch into targeted harassment mode before actually evaluating something critically is massively annoying.

Absolutely!

[MFXxx]

. And if they had released this as a paid add-on or upgrade for NX I would be much more open to the idea.

According to the FAQ on the Waves site. I'm not home, so can't check my waves email account.

"Is there a discount for existing owners of Nx Virtual Mix Room or of other Waves Abbey Road plugins?

Yes: If you’ve owned either the Nx Virtual Mix Room plugin or any Waves Abbey Road plugin at the time of Abbey Road Studio 3’s release, check your mailbox: You’ve received an email with a coupon code discount on Abbey Road Studio 3.
"

My initial thought was. "At least it isn't yet another compressor, EQ or channel strip".

$69

I have to wonder, relevant or not to individuals...surely this is going to be totally subjective to the headphones you have. I have never said this about a plugin in my life "Snakeoil".
Those £10 headphones are going to sound like Abby Road Studios...hmmmm...

[jochicago]

I just moved to new flat for the 10th time in last 13 years. Instead of acoustically adapt my room again and again maybe NX will be better solution and definitely much quicker.
Also for someone who work outside studio (musicians on tour making music in hotels), sound designers/foley artists etc. It may be a great solution to keep same 'studio environment' no matter where you are.

Nothing against this plugin, but we have this technology. With TB Isone you can model a room, save it as a preset and take it with you.
https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_bustools_v3.html#tabs-7

I modeled my own home room so I could hear my room in my headphones. Now if I take the laptop somewhere, in the headphones and with Isone I can hear my home studio room anywhere.

Except I don't, because my home studio room is nothing special. I just got used to it so it's nice to know I can switch to it in my headphones for familiarity, but a much better solution was simply to get used to the headphones. Once I did that, then the whole room in a box became pointless. Just get used to your room, and get used to your headphones, and then the "perfect room" doesn't matter. What really matters is being able to hear all frequencies clearly, and being familiar with the taste aspect of how hard to push each frequency.

Again nothing against this plugin, but if it's $99, for about $50 more you could get your hands on some DT990 Pros and solve any concerns about not hearing enough detail in the frequencies.
https://amzn.to/2JsDrlJ


Quick edit, 'cause I think I was being unclear on workflow here:
I started with Isone to introduce crosstalk to the headphones to try to improve the 3d aspect of the headphone experience, but ultimately I settled on something much simpler. I basically mix with the DT 990 Pros as-is (no frequency corrections) for about 80% of the work, and I switch to the room monitors to hear width/3d-ness. Between the 2 I feel strongly in control of what I'm doing and not really need Isone or Morphit.

I simply got used to what the DT 990s are trying to give me. Yes they are sibilance-prone but I think that's on purpose. Well-mixed music doesn't sound sibilant, but when a recording is harsh the headphones put a spotlight on that. I like that because it calls my attention, then I can address the problem and we are back to tasty sounds. If I use Morphit and it dials those frequencies way down, then I've lost what the headphones were trying to do to help me mix.

[dblock]

I just moved to new flat for the 10th time in last 13 years. Instead of acoustically adapt my room again and again maybe NX will be better solution and definitely much quicker.
Also for someone who work outside studio (musicians on tour making music in hotels), sound designers/foley artists etc. It may be a great solution to keep same 'studio environment' no matter where you are.

Nothing against this plugin, but we have this technology. With TB Isone you can model a room, save it as a preset and take it with you.
https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_bustools_v3.html#tabs-7

I modeled my own home room so I could hear my room in my headphones. Now if I take the laptop somewhere, in the headphones and with Isone I can hear my home studio room anywhere.

Except I don't, because my home studio room is nothing special. I just got used to it so it's nice to know I can switch to it in my headphones for familiarity, but a much better solution was simply to get used to the headphones. Once I did that, then the whole room in a box became pointless. Just get used to your room, and get used to your headphones, and then the "perfect room" doesn't matter. What really matters is being able to hear all frequencies clearly, and being familiar with the taste aspect of how hard to push each frequency.

Again nothing against this plugin, but if it's $99, for about $50 more you could get your hands on some DT990 Pros and solve any concerns about not hearing enough detail in the frequencies.
https://amzn.to/2JsDrlJ

Saying we already have this technology is like saying we already have a software compressor. It'd be pretty boring if we only had one compressor. It's simply Waves take on it. How many companies put their take on a 1176 or LA2A compressor? And while some will say you don't need this, just do that instead, others will swear by it. You take what you can use and throw out the rest but options are always good.