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

[SparkySpark]

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.

Wow, that's some kind words to Waves! For years, I've been hoping for some sort of standard, so that we'd all be listening to the same thing. Studios won't cut it, as they are not built the same ways. However, with ARS and supported headphones, we could finally be there (interesting words from jochicago though on Sonarworks' calibration).

The only thing nowadays, is that people don't listen to music they way we did before. Now it's basically either bluetooth speakers, car speakers or headphones. Not sure what to do about that. But then again, perhaps bluetooth and car speakers are not of interest as they mess with the sound anyway.

[Junkyard Sam]

With headphones there is a tendency to overcompensate for what you're not hearing:

1. If you mix on headphones with no bass, there will be a tendency to add too much bass.
2. If you mix on headphones where the high end is hyped, your final mix may not have enough high frequencies.

Those two are obvious, but what people comment on less often is:

3. Density! On headphones it is easier to differentiate parts. This causes people to:
a. Pan less aggressively
b. EQ less carefully
c. Add too many instruments, too many layers.

That last one is a big deal --- because you can hear so clearly with headphones, there's a tendency to plug holes in the spectrum with more instruments, more samples, more parts -- or not trim the EQ as aggressively. It can result in a muddy mix when played on speakers.

The ambience of NX & ARS 3 fills out that space during composition so you don't feel the need to fill it.

On a side note:
Andrew Scheps has famously said he uses Sony-7506s with no correction (no Sonarworks, no NX, no ARS 3) and does as much as 90% of his work on them now. Considering his success, that's pretty much ends the argument that "you can't mix on headphones." You can if you want to - it's just a matter of knowing them well and checking them on other systems.

[simon.a.billington]

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).

I myself have Sennheiser 380HD (not 280), so I had to settle for the profile I felt sounded the most flattest, it turns our it was the 600HD. It doesn't surprise me as I believe the 380s is basically a closed version of it. But I'd also check my mix forth the calibration off too.

Essentially what I have discovered over the last 20 or so years is it doesn't matter too much what you use to mix, what matters is it needs to be relevantly full ranged and not too hyped in any particular frequency band. As long as you are familiar with it and know what good music sounds like on your headphones or speakers you can create quite a good mix. It certainly helps to reference on other things too. A lot of people do the car test, but I think a more relevant test these days is ear buds as that is how "most" people consume music. TI'm willing to bet there are more phones and miscall devices out there than cars, especially as teenagers don't drive.

Anyway, my recommendation to anyone using Abbey Road Studio or NX is don't get too caught up in the whole "calibration" thing, just make sure you own a decent set of headphones, use references and play it back on other devices.

[martinjuenke]

Maybe silly question:
how can I avoid that every time I open a project with Abbey Road Studio the NX pops up asking for head tracking (what I don‘t use)?

[Jeffguitars]

Maybe silly question:
how can I avoid that every time I open a project with Abbey Road Studio the NX pops up asking for head tracking (what I don‘t use)?

I don't think there is a way. I simply shut that big black box off each time I load AR3. I have it loaded on my master in my template so the nx box just comes up once when I load my template or project and I don't have to mess with it again.

I just grey the plug out, disable it when not using it, so I don't have to reload it so the nx box only comes up one time each session, shut it off once and you are done.

[martinjuenke]

Thanks!

[simon.a.billington]

Maybe silly question:
how can I avoid that every time I open a project with Abbey Road Studio the NX pops up asking for head tracking (what I don‘t use)?

Yeah I don't know of a way either. It only loads up if you're using Abbey Road Studios or NX. Its needed whether you're using the cam or a bluetooth head tracker so it can feed positional info back to the plugin. To be honest, the latter is more effective.

If you use it often enough I guess another approach would be to load it on your system at startup, but hide it so its in the background.

[AcidMoon]

Maybe silly question:
how can I avoid that every time I open a project with Abbey Road Studio the NX pops up asking for head tracking (what I don‘t use)?

You can do it. You need to rename the app's folder.

V12 (for Waves 12. Folders are different depending on the version.)

Windows
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves\Plug-Ins V12\WavesHeadTracker"
to
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Waves\Plug-Ins V12\WavesHeadTrackerOff"

macOS
"Macintosh HD/Applications/Waves/Plugins V12/WavesHeadTracker"
to
"Macintosh HD/Applications/Waves/Plugins V12/WavesHeadTrackerOff"

[Phoenix27]

I demoed it and after a week I still keep to my first impression. It sounds as if there is some filter effect that messes with phase. They are emulating crosstalk so it obviously does something with phase, but I'm not sure if I like it. The texture of the sound goes away.

I'm using 7506's btw

[jochicago]

I demoed it and after a week I still keep to my first impression. It sounds as if there is some filter effect that messes with phase. They are emulating crosstalk so it obviously does something with phase, but I'm not sure if I like it. The texture of the sound goes away.

I'm using 7506's btw

Did you input your head dimensions? Phase problems are a natural byproduct of the type of stereo issues that this plugin is trying to solve. That's why it's important to customize the thing to your specs, so the plugin can try to align itself with your hearing. Some people may hear nothing odd, for others there will be nasty phase problems. Ideally, it will be corrected if you put in your head measurements.