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

[simon.a.billington]

I find it works much more effectively with the BlueTooth Head Tracker, less having to reset your head position. Unfortunately a leaky battery destroyed mine, so I really need to get myself another one, Really worth it, though.

[d2dsf]

I just got one. It's on sale right now for $60 with the OG NX plugin: https://www.waves.com/hardware/nx-virtu ... ad-tracker

[SparkySpark]

Hey, it's now 50 bucks at Waves' own web site: https://www.waves.com/plugins/abbey-roa ... o-3-plugin

And here is the list of supported headphones calibration (which is not really what the plugin is about; it's just an included add-on feature):

Audeze EL-8 (Closed-Back)
Audeze iSINE 20
Audeze SINE
Audio-Technica ATH-M50x
AKG K-702
Beyerdynamic DT-880 (250 ohm)
Beyerdynamic DT-990 (250 ohm)
Sennheiser HD-280 Pro
Sennheiser HD-600
Sennheiser HD-800
Shure SRH-440
Sony MDR-7506

Must say this is an astonishingly short list! However, the headphones targeted are of course a reasonable collection. (And one can use MorphIt or Sonarworks instead. I just think it may be wise to use the same brand perhaps, as MorphIt and Sonarworks' models differ quite a bit from each other.)

[SparkySpark]

By the way, if you purchase this plugin, apparently you get another one (lower cost, I assume) for free.

[SparkySpark]

Hi, Okay, so I've tried the plugin and it works well. It really does and I can truly hear a difference in sound.

I have a question though: using the plugin, it seems the higher mids of my mix are too low, so in a sense it sounds like an EQ has been added (and no, I don't use the headphone calibration feature). Is this something others experience as well? And is there a reasonable explanation for it? I must say I'm afraid I will over-emphasise the high mids if mixing according to the plugin.

[jochicago]

Is this something others experience as well? And is there a reasonable explanation for it?

Yes. The plugin is a room simulation. You are hearing your music in a different room, so it's going to sound different than what you are used to hearing. It would be roughly the same if you pay to rent that studio and go mix in there for a couple of hours. Your music is going to sound different than how it sounds in your home setup, and you'll have to adapt.

Some people complain they hear more bass. Some people complain they her less bass. Highs, mids. What you are hearing is the difference vs your typical listening environment.

IMO it's not a good idea to just drop the plugin and have at it. Like any monitoring setup, you have to learn the sound before you can get comfortable with it. It takes a while to become accustomed to a room or setup. Anyone using room sims should be training their ears. Listen to music you know through this room until you feel you understand the curve.

And you should probably try to use headphone calibration with this thing. The point is to try to get you as close as possible to the Studio 3 room sound. Why this room? Because excellent engineers spent an ungodly amount of time, effort and cost getting that room to sound as good as possible. So if you are going to tune your ears to anything, might as well be that room in particular.

[Jet Set]

I use this on all mixes as I am almost entirely mixing by headphone - hobbyist only.

I use it with Sonarworks always.

AND

The absolute key for me in using it is having Tonal Balance from Izotope running before it.

This will alert you, or reassure you, about any odd frequency bumps or holes in your mix...especially with the upper kids/lower mids/ too much bass/ too little bass argument etc.

After a while it become second nature and I can now mostly predict where the issues with my mix will be before even consulting the Tonal Balance.

[SparkySpark]

Yes. The plugin is a room simulation. You are hearing your music in a different room, so it's going to sound different than what you are used to hearing. It would be roughly the same if you pay to rent that studio and go mix in there for a couple of hours. Your music is going to sound different than how it sounds in your home setup, and you'll have to adapt.

Some people complain they hear more bass. Some people complain they her less bass. Highs, mids. What you are hearing is the difference vs your typical listening environment.

IMO it's not a good idea to just drop the plugin and have at it. Like any monitoring setup, you have to learn the sound before you can get comfortable with it. It takes a while to become accustomed to a room or setup. Anyone using room sims should be training their ears. Listen to music you know through this room until you feel you understand the curve.

And you should probably try to use headphone calibration with this thing. The point is to try to get you as close as possible to the Studio 3 room sound. Why this room? Because excellent engineers spent an ungodly amount of time, effort and cost getting that room to sound as good as possible. So if you are going to tune your ears to anything, might as well be that room in particular.

Thanks so much for a detailed and to the point reply.

[jochicago]

Thanks so much for a detailed and to the point reply.

You are welcome. Have fun with this thing.

[simon.a.billington]

Yes. The plugin is a room simulation. You are hearing your music in a different room, so it's going to sound different than what you are used to hearing. It would be roughly the same if you pay to rent that studio and go mix in there for a couple of hours. Your music is going to sound different than how it sounds in your home setup, and you'll have to adapt.

Some people complain they hear more bass. Some people complain they her less bass. Highs, mids. What you are hearing is the difference vs your typical listening environment.

IMO it's not a good idea to just drop the plugin and have at it. Like any monitoring setup, you have to learn the sound before you can get comfortable with it. It takes a while to become accustomed to a room or setup. Anyone using room sims should be training their ears. Listen to music you know through this room until you feel you understand the curve.

And you should probably try to use headphone calibration with this thing. The point is to try to get you as close as possible to the Studio 3 room sound. Why this room? Because excellent engineers spent an ungodly amount of time, effort and cost getting that room to sound as good as possible. So if you are going to tune your ears to anything, might as well be that room in particular.

Thanks so much for a detailed and to the point reply.

Part of this perception of bass will be due to what they are hearing in their own environment. Since they are used to the characteristics of their own room suddenly listening to something with a flatter response doesn't sound quite right to them.

I think the other part of this issue may be due to mismatching headphones as they may not have any of the headphones that AR Studio offers and are just setting for the "best" sounding profile. Although, headphone wear would be another reason.

[SparkySpark]

I think the other part of this issue may be due to mismatching headphones as they may not have any of the headphones that AR Studio offers and are just setting for the "best" sounding profile. Although, headphone wear would be another reason.

You're right, and it's more than that. I spent some time reading all twenty (!) pages of comments about this plugin on Gearslutz. Apparently, people went with whatever sounded the most familiar to them. So: if they had Sennhesier HD-600, but preferred the headphone correction of, say, the AT M-50x, then they used that one instead! So I agree with jochicago that it's a learning curve, and it's best to just get used to it.

For fun, I tried all the (admittedly few) headphone models supported by the plugin. It was interesting, though sadly not surprising to hear how some of them were so far off from the others. I think that should cause concern for many who rely on their headphones for EQ level calibration. Basically, quite many of them were pretty much alike, whilst a few were either happy-faced (yet expensive!) or overly exaggerating the lows (since I heard the inverse, or the compensation).

[sonicpowa]

Big mistake is to select "best" or closest sounding profile when it´s not the headphone model you have. If your headphones are not on the list then don´t select anything.

[SparkySpark]

Big mistake is to select "best" or closest sounding profile when it´s not the headphone model you have. If your headphones are not on the list then don´t select anything.

Exactly! Otherwise there would be no point with the plugin.

An update to my previous post: Many of the GS users get as good results with Sonarworks as with the included headphone correction tool. (As I recall it, one did a null test and it worked.) So, if the headphones are not on the list, it's apparently just as good to use Sonarworks.

...though I must say it's a bit weird that Sonarworks and MorphIt yield different results, and that is one reason I preferred staying with the corrections of ARS3 (and what a terrible acronym that is! ).

[jochicago]

Headphone corrections are not perfect. Every individual headphone unit is unique, the charts are based on 1 copy that the chart maker had at the time of sampling, not your unit at home. Sonarwork themselves say that even the headphones that they sell that have been manually calibrated per unit, can still be off by 1db. That means that when you apply a curve on your headphone without having been manually calibrated for you unit specifically, in the best of cases you are still off by more than 1 db at many spots.

So Sonarworks and Morphit are not going to have the same chart because they were not sampling the exact same unit. Same with any other correction system out there.

And I agree, it's not a great idea to use a correction that's not the one for your headphone model. At that point you are just randomly creating peaks and valleys until something sounds less bad. It's not a good exercise.

If you want correction, use the one in Studio 3, or Sonarworks, or Morphit (only one, don't stack). If you want precise-ish corrections, buy a Sonarworks calibrated unit or send yours to be calibrated, but you are still off by 1db at that point. Or just settle on anything, and then learn that environment. Your ears more or less can adapt to anything if you give them a chance, just be consistent with your hearing setup.

And wear good headphones. All of this falls apart if you are on $50 headphones. You don't realize what you are missing until you hear with good tools. When I moved up to my DT 990s I started hearing things in music that were simply not there before, like an extra dude singing in the background vocals of a favorite song. If you are doing all of this to have the clearest audio image possible, then you need headphones capable of delivering that detail.

[Jeffguitars]

This is by far the best plug I have ever purchased. I don't use the head tracker thing at all, I just turn that off as I see no need to turn my head. I can still turn the control on the interface if I want to.

I use Sony 7605 cans and this plug has been more important to me than even most of my hardware. Imo, best plug of all time.