KVR Audio

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 10:27 pm

just did some testing - brought the frequency response of my headphones to flat with Sonarworks plugin (custom calibrated), then tried a bunch of headphones i have lying around. Of the list of included headphones, i have the Beyerdynamic DT880 and the AKG K450. I also have Sennheiser HD205 II and Sony MDR7506 but those aren't measured by Morphit. Sony were used as a reference, because those are the ones i've had calibrated by Sonarworks.

results are pretty interesting. AKG K450 phones are the headphones i use to see how stuff sounds in "crap" headphones, because they really are crap - they're over-ear, but are too small to cover the entire ear and their sound very much depends on how you wear them. with Morphit, the overall sound is close, but there are noticeable differences as well.

with DT880, it's a different story. despite the fact that DT880 are half-open and 7506 are closed (so more claustrophobic), Morphit pretty much nailed the sound of DT880. well, maybe not nailed, but it's much more faithful reproduction of those headphones than what's happening with K450.

so i guess there are three takeaways from this experiment. first, Morphit appears to be working better with better headphones (although with sample size of 2 i can't really make this conclusion). second, Sonarworks plugin's measurements appear to be way more accurate (to the point where i can't tell the difference between Sony and DT880 after they're both flattened), so i would trust those more. and third, Morphit appears to be a decent collection of easy-to-use sound profiles for a large number of headphones, so while doesn't replace, it greatly complements Sonarworks plugin IMO.

Bouroki · Post by **Bouroki** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 10:30 pm

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 10:34 pm

They've got my headphones in there. Might have to give this one a try.

Bouroki · Post by **Bouroki** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 10:47 pm

"Contrary to what some believe, the target function of an ideal headphone (when measured at the level of the ear drums) is typically not flat."

Although you can "flatten" the headphone if you want (by removing the target curve in Custom mode), Morphit gives you an ideal headphone sound rather than a flattened one. This way sounds much better to me so far than Sonarworks which I couldn't get into at all.

audiosabre · Post by **audiosabre** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 10:56 pm

I love this concept, yet I don't know how much I could trust something like this to mix and master with. With my K712 Pro, in improvement mode, it makes them more hi-fi, but frequencies are popping out in the top end that I'm not sure are a problem outside of using Morphit. When I use morph mode to listen on different 'headphones', these top end frequencies (that trouble me in improvement mode) don't seem to be an issue whatsoever.

So it's either Morphit's EQ work causing issues up top, or the frequencies are really an issue but don't appear on most listening environments, or even perhaps I just don't like a super hi-fi sound. Need to experiment more. It's definitely a useful tool. I'm trying to figure out how useful, and any potential issues that may come from trusting it too much.

An aside; 'persimmon' is my jam, with 'rainy day' a solid second.

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 11:02 pm

Bouroki wrote:Although you can "flatten" the headphone if you want (by removing the target curve in Custom mode), Morphit gives you an ideal headphone sound rather than a flattened one. This way sounds much better to me so far than Sonarworks which I couldn't get into at all.

it's the opposite experience for me. the "flat" Sonarworks sound seems to be the most balanced and revealing for me, while the "improved" Morphit sound just sounds overhyped and somehow strained.

plus, i've found that "flattening" with Morphit doesn't really work as well - despite the fact that it seems to "handle" DT880 pretty well (i.e. the source curve appears to be accurate), "flattened" sound doesn't sound flat at all, and is pretty far away from nice balanced Sonarworks sound.

audiosabre · Post by **audiosabre** » Sun Dec 18, 2016 11:05 pm

Another thing, I listened to all the headphones, and apart from my own with the plugin bypassed, my favourites were Grado PS1000 and Beyerdynamic TS-1. Guess I have expensive tastes

djeroen · Post by **djeroen** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 12:01 am

Burillo wrote:plus, i've found that "flattening" with Morphit doesn't really work as well - despite the fact that it seems to "handle" DT880 pretty well (i.e. the source curve appears to be accurate), "flattened" sound doesn't sound flat at all, and is pretty far away from nice balanced Sonarworks sound.

I think this is because you're comparing apples and oranges.
Morphit 'flat' is most likely not the same as sonarworks 'flat'. AFAIK Sonarworks uses an internal correction curve, and will try to make the response flat to that specific curve. In Morphit, 'flat' means 'flat at the eardrums', without any assumed correction or target curve. So you can't simply compare Sonarworks 'flat' vs Morphit 'flat', nor is it a good idea to cascade these plugins, since you'll have no idea of what errors are introduced and what assumptions were made by what correction or target curve or plugin.

In general, a target function of a headphone when measured at the eardrums should not be flat. There is a fair bunch of scientific literature about this that would be an interesting read. To summarize it; in music mixing, we typically assume on-axis flat loudspeaker. Such loudspeaker does *not* result in flat response at the ear drums due to reflections and resonances of our head, pinnae and ear canal. The 'Generic studio EQ' and the target curve in the 'improve' mode model such attributes in a generic way, while the various dummy head responses model this more specifically for anechoic conditions (which don't sound ideal and should not be considered as such).

If the default target function (used in the 'improve' mode as well as in the simulation mode using the 'generic studio EQ' target) is not to your liking, you can use the custom mode to design your own target function. As explained above, this target function should not be flat, it will typically have a fairly strong resonance around 3 kHz, and a minor gain in the low-frequency area. The default custom function should be a good starting point for tuning. If you don't want to go through the process of designing your own target, there are more than 100 target functions to choose from if you run the plugin in 'simulate' mode - just pick your favorite headphones to simulate from the list

So you could wonder why there is a 'flat' model in Morphit if it is not to be used as target function generally. It's useful when you want to create your own target function with other (external) tools. You can set Morphit to equalize the headphone to 'flat at the eardurms', then use your favorite EQ tool to create your custom target function for example.

Nightpolymath · Post by **Nightpolymath** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 12:26 am

It sucks that they're not using the normal key file for licensing this.

Teksonik · Post by **Teksonik** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 1:04 am

Little error on the website ? AU for Windows ?

emasters · Post by **emasters** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 1:09 am

kmonkey wrote:Seems very interesting alternative to Sonarworks.

There is a lot oh headphones model listed on website, even some poor ones but no Sony MDR-7506 - oh well maybe with update

Similar here -- would benefit from the MDR-7506 support. Perhaps with an update in the future...

djeroen · Post by **djeroen** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 9:28 am

V1.0.2 has just been released:

Several minor improvements
Added generic HiFi headphone profile
Added generic studio reference headphone profile
Added Focal Spirit Pro headphone profile
Added Sony MDR7506 headphone profile

For studio work and reference monitoring, the recommended workflow is:
1) select the headphone you are using in the list
2) change the plugin mode to 'simulate'
3) select 'Generic studio' in the second list

This will give a 'studio reference' profile as target headphone. Alternatively, one can choose the Generic HiFi profile which will sound a little heavier and brighter.

Bouroki · Post by **Bouroki** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 9:33 am

djeroen wrote:V1.0.2 has just been released:

Several minor improvements
Added generic HiFi headphone profile
Added generic studio reference headphone profile
Added Focal Spirit Pro headphone profile
Added Sony MDR7506 headphone profile

For studio work and reference monitoring, the recommended workflow is:
1) select the headphone you are using in the list
2) change the plugin mode to 'simulate'
3) select 'Generic studio' in the second list

This will give a 'studio reference' profile as target headphone. Alternatively, one can choose the Generic HiFi profile which will sound a little heavier and brighter.

If using alongside Isone, previously I couldn't turn CSC (Crosstalk Spectrum Compensation) off because it would muddy everything up (ath-m50x) but now with Morphit correction I'm finding CSC "off" to give the most natural realistic sound what do you think?

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 9:34 am

djeroen wrote:
Burillo wrote:plus, i've found that "flattening" with Morphit doesn't really work as well - despite the fact that it seems to "handle" DT880 pretty well (i.e. the source curve appears to be accurate), "flattened" sound doesn't sound flat at all, and is pretty far away from nice balanced Sonarworks sound.
I think this is because you're comparing apples and oranges.
Morphit 'flat' is most likely not the same as sonarworks 'flat'. AFAIK Sonarworks uses an internal correction curve, and will try to make the response flat to that specific curve. In Morphit, 'flat' means 'flat at the eardrums', without any assumed correction or target curve. So you can't simply compare Sonarworks 'flat' vs Morphit 'flat', nor is it a good idea to cascade these plugins, since you'll have no idea of what errors are introduced and what assumptions were made by what correction or target curve or plugin.

In general, a target function of a headphone when measured at the eardrums should not be flat. There is a fair bunch of scientific literature about this that would be an interesting read. To summarize it; in music mixing, we typically assume on-axis flat loudspeaker. Such loudspeaker does *not* result in flat response at the ear drums due to reflections and resonances of our head, pinnae and ear canal. The 'Generic studio EQ' and the target curve in the 'improve' mode model such attributes in a generic way, while the various dummy head responses model this more specifically for anechoic conditions (which don't sound ideal and should not be considered as such).

If the default target function (used in the 'improve' mode as well as in the simulation mode using the 'generic studio EQ' target) is not to your liking, you can use the custom mode to design your own target function. As explained above, this target function should not be flat, it will typically have a fairly strong resonance around 3 kHz, and a minor gain in the low-frequency area. The default custom function should be a good starting point for tuning. If you don't want to go through the process of designing your own target, there are more than 100 target functions to choose from if you run the plugin in 'simulate' mode - just pick your favorite headphones to simulate from the list

So you could wonder why there is a 'flat' model in Morphit if it is not to be used as target function generally. It's useful when you want to create your own target function with other (external) tools. You can set Morphit to equalize the headphone to 'flat at the eardurms', then use your favorite EQ tool to create your custom target function for example.

Hi Jeroen,

OK that makes sense, however that still leaves the problem of "improved" sound not really sounding better to my ears. I mean, yes, i can clearly hear the peaks and dips corrected in the frequency response of DT880, but the end result, while appearing to be more honest, still sounds pretty contrived to me, especially the highs (someone else has mentioned that already). could that be because of a limiter? i haven't tried turning it off as i assumed it worked like Sonarworks "limiter" (which simply offsets the volume), but i've now read that it's more similar to Barricade than a simple volume offset.

i would also suggest that cascading Morphit and Sonarworks should work as long as you know what you're doing and don't just randomly adjust stuff. for example, i can make my calibrated MDR-7506 to sound pretty much like my DT880, without correction, simply by 1) getting 7506 to "flat" with Sonarworks, and 2) morphing the sound from "generic studio EQ" to DT880. Is that not a valid test case?

greenfly · Post by **greenfly** » Mon Dec 19, 2016 12:57 pm

For studio work and reference monitoring, the recommended workflow is:
1) select the headphone you are using in the list
2) change the plugin mode to 'simulate'
3) select 'Generic studio' in the second list

HI Jeroen

Some questions:

1. If I was to facilitate mixing through headphones, should I select Generic Studio as target based on your comment above? I have AudioTechnica ATH M50x as my source headphones.

2. Is selecting your headphones in correct mode the same as selecting your headphones in simulate mode for source and Generic HiFi for target. They sound the same to me but I wanted to double check.

3. How would I use your plugin in conjunction with TB Isone if I was to mix on headphones?

I normally mix using my monitors but am thinking of scenarios when I need to mix with nothing other than then cans at my disposal.

Thanks in advance.

Toneboosters Morphit - NEW headphones improvement, simulation and customization plugin