I would guess that most of the folks watching your videos have a bedroom, a 5 year old pc, the free version of a DAW, a 2in2out audio interface and a partner or flat mate that will complain when all they can hear is the same music, over and over again. Mixing on speakers is just not an option there, so it would have been nice to get an open-minded in-depth review of this plugin. Instead, you had your opinion about mixing on headphones, and then jumped on the first thing you could that “proved” your bias about it. You said yourself that with any audio monitoring system that you use, you need to get used to the way reference mixes sound which can take weeks. This is true with both headphones and a set of high-end monitors in a treated room, so why condemn this after trying out only half of the features in 5 minutes?
Steve Openshaw so true My girl got pissed me playing a track over and over so I had to switch to Headphones for mixing and monitors for playback Facts Sennheiser hd 650
@Born To Sing With The Guitar the makers are not idiots indeed, they know a lot of bedroom producers will buy their plugin with the illusion of being able to mix in a proper room. killer marketing strategy.
@@ChristianBoragine And to top it off, the software works. It may not be as good as a thousands-of-dollars treated studio with nice monitors, but it's way better than naked headphones and is much better than you appear to be giving it credit for. How long did you use the software, and on what settings?
@@elliotr9095 do you know how a well treated room sounds like? Have you ever worked in one? How do you know the plugin is "good enough"? You probably don't. My point is that 99.9% of people defending this plugin only know their room and have no comparison with a well treated room. They WANT the plugin to work, because they hope it will improve their mixes by some kind of magic (spoiler alert: it won't because the real problem is that they don't know what they are doing).
I was thinking that the benefit from the plugin is that once you get it right - you can use it anywhere anytime which is not possible with a room which stays in one place - (at least the acoustics ). It is a need developed from the need that is present where folks are always being displaced physically - apartments - moving around trying to afford rent etc.
I think what you have to do to benefit from such a plugin is that you "calibrate" it with a reference song and from there you could use such a plugin and actually benefit from it
True, I think the many options are there so you can calibrate it to match your own speakers. You just need to spend time with it, this is not something you do in 10 minutes.
Using a reference track that you know by heart to create the settings might do part of the trick, but for sure even with new speakers there's a learning curve until you know how they sound like and interact with the room. But using a reference track I think is key, even if you go to a high end studio, you need a reference track because there's not a perfect room, rooms might a have a particular thing going on and you need to get used to the sound of that particular room.
I totally agree with what you are saying Pablo. You would have the same problem if you bought a pair of speakers for your room the first time and started mixing. You have to familiarize yourself to any monitoring system you are using for the first time. That being said I do agree that there all the possible adjustments create too many variables that have to be accounted for but that isn’t a problem if you want more control than you can get with with the Abbey Road or Slate VSX I think this could be a good option.
Yeah, it might work best if you use both reference tracks and monitors you know well. So, adjust the settings to make your headphones sound like the monitors as much as possible, as to minimize the time required to get used to them, and after that save the settings and never touch again. However, if you ever need to use different headphones, you'll have to create a new calibrated profile again. Also, not sure how close you can actually get to make the headphones sound as close as possible to the real monitors. I suppose the plugin does l/r crosstalk but still there might be some other important characteristics of the monitors that cannot be accurately simulated on the headphones of your choice. So, even after attempting to match the monitors, you'll need some time to get used to it. And if you use headphones occasionally, you will have to mentally readjust your "mixing sense" to them every time you have to mix on headphones. Which kinda kills the idea because you would be in more-less the same situation with any headphones and without this plugin. BUT there is an important thing. More and more people these days are listening to music on headphones from their smartphones. So, maybe it's not a bad idea to mix on headphones to hear the music as it will be heard by so many people. Depends on your audience, I guess.
Here's the thing, I listen to music on headphones all day while working. I'm not listening thru one of these plugins. So when you switch to mixing and turn on the plugin everything is F'd up. I think 80% of music is listened to on headphones now days so I will spend a fair amount of time in the mix with them on. I go to speakers to hear the low end thru my sub woofer.
@@HR2635 I would say the same, especially if working on a budget which this product is aimed at. the cost to accurately monitor the low end definitely goes in favour of quality headphones vs monitors,sure you could get a sub and treat the room but that is going to cost more than a really good pair of cans and if you have access to a soundsystem in a car then that's an easy way to figure out how the low end sounds, plus you need some degree of knowledge to treat a room, again this product is aimed towards people that don't have that knowledge or experience. you could reference using near fields for a lot of the other parts of the mix though.
Still too many musicians stuck with 30 years old theories and techniques, times change and now we mix and master with headphones, earphones and laptop speakers and people listen to music on them, not on subwoofers or 8" monitors
@Gerhard Schöner I agree, a song could be listened to on everything from a crappy phone speaker to a club system so your mixes should translate. I think you took the meaning of the comment wrong. What was meant was that I would have to listen on my headphones to all my music with this plugin enabled or else I am pretty sure when I went to mix and turned on this plugin on it would drastically change the temperament of the headphones. It was a warning to be careful when buying such a plugin.
all you need is the headphones calibrated FLAT and Sonarworks does this and keeps it simple, you pick your headphone profile which has been calibrated flat and use the software to check your final mix or master after doing the mix/master on speakers first. This one looks like too many settings because each one takes you away from that flat reference point.
but another thing on headphones is the lack of l/r crosstalk (which is a very important aspect of natural stereophony ) and i don't think sonarworks does but i may be wrong
or to avoid calibration, research your speakers and headphones prior to purchasing, and try to find options within your budget that consistently review as a flat response.
@John Siket what phones are you using? I've got reference 4 but I haven't used it yet. Am getting pretty good results with my new set, beyerdynamic dt880s
The problem with plugins like this is that you want to get USED to you headphones/speakers. So you kind of have to use it when you listen to music as well, always, for weeks without changing the settings. Like you would if you had speakers. I mix 90% with headphones but that is because I have almost never used speakers to mix. I'm so used to it. But if I had a good room + speakers I would mix much more on speakers
Exactly. And that makes it pointless as it's no different to using speakers / headphones that you're used to anyway. The rule is know your listening system, nothing else. These things are a novelty.
100% agree, use your cans for listening purpose too, so you know them in and out. I rely on DT880, and check the mix with MDR7506 (NS10s in a can formfactor, somehow 😅) and 1031a speakers - it's more relaxing to work with speakers, but in a real world scenario it's not always possible (night time in a flat, travel etc...), and clearly you can make a good mix with cans. I don't trust any simulation tools though, they rarely enhance accuracy in any way: Just get used to the sound of a good and not to direct set of cans, and use these...
Exactly... I think it's better and easier to mix in a room on speakers for the most part (I'm not a fan of headphones at all), but the same applies to speakers too. I've mixed on the same pair of Genelec 8040 A's for the past 15 years. I know them inside out. I've been in plenty studios with infinitely more expensive monitors than mine and really struggled to make decisions regarding mixdowns because I just don't know the room or the monitors.
The concept is good, it moves the sound from right between your ears to an open room. But you are listening to a new speaker/room, so you need to treat it as such. Spend some time listening to music you are intimate with, tweak all of those adjustments until the hairs stand up on your arm and you are there! Like any other new monitoring system, it takes time to learn it. Most of us couldn’t afford good monitors and the room to put them in. Whatever works, just keep mixing!
Love your comment. When the hairs raise up you know you've got a good sound. I purchased CLA room emulation and honestly haven't time to learn how the music I love sounds in those rooms. Will take your advice and do just that
Before I even watch the video I'm going to say the ONLY thing that truly deletes the need for a studio is the Slate VSX. I just mixed a track for a huge opportunity I had with sony and a big South African artist on my laptop in my lounge with vsx, and went to my studio the next day and realized that its one of the best mixes I've ever done. I didn't need to change a single thing. Played it in my car and realized that I almost forgot it wasn't a song on the radio yet. It just had that.. sound. Over the next few days, I continued to mix with vsx out of the studio and got zero recalls or revision requests. Finished up 4 clients and it all JUST WORKS. Everywhere. Car, phone, headphones. Anything.
Out of curiosity, which VSX environments did you end up using the most? It seems from what I've heard so far that people either like the NRG or the Archon room, and then the SUV and Linear Headphones settings, maybe boombox, and nothing else.
@@PsycleDSR the ns10's (nearfields in nrg), the mid fields in archon(atc150) and the boom box, dt770 headphones to check the highs, howies mastering room for checking if anything has phase issues, the cars to get a proper idea on how it sounds in the car, the club for checking your bass against a reference, the nrg far fields for getting an overall picture and the audiophile room for an extra take. The boom box, well, because.. it has to work on there too. Apple earbuds, both wireless and wired to check how it translates on that. Basically, the point is to get it to sound perfect on pretty much nearly everything. And once you get it to sound perfect on everything, your mix is done. It WILL translate to anything else
@@nofood1 headphone with plugin for modelling basically the opposite of the mic it is a headphone unit created to allow the modelling to do the sound work.
first of all - read the manual... It's not so hard and then you'll understand how to setup this awesome plugin. This is the first plugin (from a similar) that really works for me.
@@gurumajuindonesia I've sold my sonarworks after a week of many tests and compares of realphones in different variations and chains. Realphones its more than just a calibration its kinda like sonaworks + 112db reline monitor + many other things. Just give it a try and you'll be so amazed.
This software you need to customize first, and also don't use "Deep Bass", use "Default Room Speakers" and then configure the software to sound right to your ears listening to what you normally listen to, and *then* do mixing/referencing with it. It's been insanely helpful in my mixing to get rid of the boxy/collapsed stereo sound. I have to do a lot of mixing in headphones because of noise issues where I am/I also have a terrible room with no treatment. I still use monitors sometimes, but I actually reference on Realphones, and the mixes that come through Realphones are way better to my/others' ears on more setups.
I mix almost entirely on stock Apple buds - because IT'S WHAT I'M USED TO. I regard them as the latter-day NS10's of headphones. They sound pretty awful, but they really force you to get the mid-range (especially high-mids) right. I then check the bass and high end in my car, or on better headphones.
I have a good monitoring setup and I've had this plugin for over a year. I find it extremely useful for checking my mixes - particularly the car stereo environment. I've done mixes from scratch on Realphones and it's translated surprisingly well. Like you said, it's all about knowing what things should sound like coming from the playback medium you're monitoring on.
I had a conversation with a BIG TIME mix engineer…he does the likes of Chris Staples, Justin Timberlake…etc. he always just mixes wherever he’s set up….and from his laptop speakers out loud or AirPods…. He doesn’t care for treated rooms, or testing it in multiple spots. He knows if he nails it there…it’ll work everywhere else 😂 I was mind blown watching him mix and seeing how SIMPLE his process is.
just the right nexus presets then smack it into master at +12 db to add a nice clipping effect then add saturation onto master, no reason to really listen to it at all while you do this.
that sounds good, but who did it? can I check their previous mixes? In my experience, working with famous people doesn't necessarily mean they have great mixing skills.
Yes, it is possible to mix on this. I can say that without having tried this plugin. How so? Because it works the same way as a pair of headphones or a space. All spekars, headphones, rooms sound different, and so does this plugin. It doesn't make it worse just because it happens to be a plugin. The trouble starts when you think that it is a magic button and you will just turn out amazing mixes with this plugin. Not so. You have to learn these virtual spaces as much as your headphones or room. I agree that this plugin is potentially tricky due to so many settings. My take on that, is that you have to "set a room that you like" and then keep that, perhaps change the space to try different references, just as you would with different speakers. These kinds of plugins are actually a great reference tool, especially for those who do not yet have the budget and space to have a great listening room, which is no easy task. If you have a studio at home, this is nearly impossible to achieve, and also quite expensive. This plugin can never replace a great room with speakers, but it can definitely help out the bedroom producer and occasional work on your laptop when you are on the go. It also helps with crosstalk, which is a problem when you mix on headphones. I have even found that the binaural audio makes working on headphones easier for a longer time, because it feels more spacious. Lastly it really helps with opening up your cans. Sure, you could "learn them" but trying various references, just as you would trying different speakers, make you spot more troubles in your mixes. The fact is that people who mixes on headphones, often use only one pair, and do not realize what their cans are masking. Cheers for a nice open minded video. :)
After listening your favorite songs with this plugin, you just dont want to hear it without the plugin. Never. When I use it I truly hear good monitors in the room. Its amazing. I use it with DT 1770pro headphones
He did,. He mentions that at 4:36. But yeah, this plugin is hard to cover in a quick go. Ideally you calibrate it to be as close to your environment as possible. Then you can use that on the go, while additionally using the other presets for checking potential issues in bass heavy or sibilant rigs.
This plugin helped me pretty much during the lockdown (I had no access to my studio with monitors). You definitely should get used to it and it can win sonarworks, canopener, waves, 112dB Redline monitor, toneboosters etc.
@@NiharSavala I've tried waves, sonarworks and canopener and Realphones impressed me more with its sound control (and my personal listening experience). I would recommend You to download 40-days trial and play with it. Developer says "it's all about presets with this plugin" - try them.
My only gripe with this is that it's too tweakable so if you dont have speakers to reference with, the sound you're hearing can lie to you because you're tweaking everything to your liking as opposed to emulating the sound of a room..Which kind of beats the point of it being a reference plugin. I'd say reduce the tweakabilty...especially of the speakers so you have a fairly flat reference.
Best use in my opinion would be: first - get good headphones, then try to reproduce as good as possible you own listening environment. listen to speakers, then put HP on and tweak.. do it till it's close enough.
I bought this plugin recently for 54€ in sale after a few days of the trial. I bought it on the strength of the following reasons alone: the standalone version breathes new life into my music library; the VST makes practicing guitar with headphones a lot more enjoyable; the VST makes my vocal tracking less pitchy and more expressive (a lot of people find it more difficult to sing perfectly with 'phones on), and makes me more confident because like hearing my voice more. Regarding improving my mixes, I still have testing to do and will need to do a few more projects. But basically, I can put-on and remove my headphones while my monitors are also on, to A/B the sound, and I can get them to sound remarkably similar. So that must be a help in itself - I can now mix late into the evening, almost as though I'm using my monitors. I can then create a setting that is very similar but allows me to hear more of the low end that my monitors can't reproduce well, all while taking advantage of the extra detail that headphones provide throughout the spectrum. People with great monitors and room will not need this, but many home recordists may find it useful or very useful. What I'm probably NOT going to use it for much, is the feature highlighted the most - checking mixes in virtual environments. Personally, I don't think that's very helpful to me. I feel like I'm just switching though the Jazz, Rock, Classical presets of a car stereo or something - it feels too arbitrary. So I will continue checking my mixes on my usual devices/places, but hopefully I won't need to check them as much if my mix stability and translation improves. Note I also trialled Can Opener Studio at the same time. It is mostly just a very subtle crosstalk effect. I much preferred dSoniq's effects, but I'm use settings that are way more subtle than the factory presets.
I think it’d be a great idea to take a song from scratch and mix on headphones, then go back to the start and mix with speakers and compare. Would be a good way to see if these virtual room plugins really work
As with all Plugins like this (I use Sonarworks Reference 4 and swear by it), the value they provide is directly proportional to the reproduction and acoustic challenges you have. If your cheap monitors have a gappy response and your room modes compound this, the correction tools will help a lot more with closing these gaps. Correction plugins aren't designed to improve good speakers in a good room.
What bothers me about this video is that he is used to using speakers and prefers them going into the review. It is difficult to overcome the bias. I am not sure why you would want to review this type of technology if you think there is no chance for it to succeed before you start. I have monitors that I rarely use because I have been listening and mixing music in headphones for as long as I have been making music. It is what I am used to and feel more comfortable with.
I saw they have a demo with 40 days trial period or something. Just go grab it and test it by yourself, what’s the problem) I think you will understand that it’s some black magic and that this plugin can be super useful in some situations. But keep in mind that you gotta spend some time getting used to the sound, it’s not something you encounter daily. At least my brain was very confused at first. And I don’t think it’s for rookies, you should know some stuff to get the whole potential of the plugin. The idea is that you need to set up the plugin with some headphones to emulate your usual work place with monitors as good as possible. After that you get like a mini version of your studio in the headphones everywhere. This is one scenario. If you don’t have monitors - there are presets of various rooms/studios. And they are really good. Then you can use tandem Realphones+good pro headphones and get the job done. But i mean, man, if you have no idea how monitors sound in studio go check them somewhere, ask a friend, rent a studio for 15 minutes for f sake) Of course without at least some knowledge of “how would it sound from a pair of monitors” you will be struggling cause reference means a lot. But it’s some super noob and lazy attitude. Don’t be like that. You either learning how to work with the sound properly or go make lo-fi forever) Overall i think Realphones is a great professional tool. But again, probably you will have to spend some time getting used to the sound.
I just download this and it did a great job of matching my monitoring setup. I have hs5 with the sub. I started with there ns10 mixing setting and after messing with all the controls I have an amazing close headphone emulation to my studio. Played with a mix and it came out as expected. Going to try it out for a few more weeks to make sure it works. But loving it!
@@lucaszecat I have used this for a while. And I done a few things that have made it somewhat work for me. I will do initial mix on headphones with realphones. Eq, compression, etc. But I cannot mix the placement in level, and panning well with any of these headphone room emulators. So I need to use both. Also I have turned down all room ambient features of program to only 15%. You can't hear enough clarity with it set to high. So clinical mixing with this. And final mix on real studio monitors.
@@imdurc There really isn't anything to learn though, except becoming acquainted with the rooms themselves. You just put the headphones on, open the plugin, and you're good to go lol...no learning curve 👍🏻
They should sell this as a way to hear your mix in different sceneraios rather than for treating headphones lol. like small club, bbig fesistaval, iphone scnerario etc.
This thing made me find nasty frequencies in the mix I would not have found without it. VERY useful.... Its very good for using with an A/B referencing plugin You were hearing your kick and your bass louder because you were using the ''Deep Bass'' Speaker setting within the plugin (which is good for finding boomy issues)
I tested it for a couple of weeks.. a monster ! Never experienced such environment with any other similar plugin .. just accurate and outstanding ! It simulate for instance some monitors .. I got the Yamaha HS7 and the plugin simulation of those monitors is insane .. so I can say that I trust it for further use .. the frequency control is just surgical.. never controlled the low end frequencies like I did with this plugin .. and I can’t say that for any other similar plug-in .. my mixes translate well for the first time ..
I'm not a representative of Realphones or this company, but I have to say that it was the first time that my mix sounded good when heard on external speakers after using the plugin. Highly honest and professional product
Have you tried recreating the sound that you have with your speakers with this plugin? I guess the idea you mentioned at the beginning would make so much sense: you have great speakers, but you can't carry them around. Therefore, you can use this plugin to create a headphone sound stage, that is similar to your speaker setup.
@@checktheneck Where did it fail? I'm just curious, because I recall the Sonarworks plugin, which tries to achieve an opportunity to enable mixing via headphones, but has fewer options available as far as I recall.
@@Yuusou. it doesn't accurately imitate the panorama and depth of the mix that I feel in the speakers. On the speakers, I can clearly "see" the instrument in the space in front of me, and tell at what distance in meters from me it is. No one plug-in for headphones mixing can give me that feeling. This can be compared to watching a video recording of a live performance, you can see the approximate distance of all the musicians from the operator, but this is not the same as feeling it yourself being in that place and looking at the musicians.
@@checktheneck Thank you. I understand your point and still wonder about one thing: How do most people nowadays listen to their music? Wouldn't it make sense to mix with a setup that is used by the majority?
@@Yuusou. most people listen to music with earbuds, but if I'm going to do mixing in earbuds based on this, I will quickly lose my hearing because the sound pressure in the earbuds is higher than on speakers at the same subjective volume. I spend quite a lot of time mixing so this is important to me. In addition, I like the way the music sounds on the speakers, I like how accurately I can work with the mix. I have pretty good headphones that allow me to hear a lot of details (audeze lcd-2), but even with them, I understand that I can make better mixes on the speakers.
I think he approached this setup wrong. You have to get your mix the way you want it to sound normally - in the room using speakers. THEN you put your headphone on and tweak the plugin settings until what you hear out of the headphones is the same as what you heard in your mix in the room with speakers. The whole point is that you don't want to change your mix to get a good headphone sound, you want to change the headphone plugin settings until it matches your "room/speaker" sound. I'm not sure if this plugin would allow you enough control to get there, but that is the end goal. Once your plugin settings are correct and give you the same sound in the headphones on that you get with the plugin turned off and listening to your speakers, then you should be able to mix future things on your headphone with the plugin engaged and mix with confidence that the end result will sound the same when you listen to it without the plugin using speakers. But you first have the use the plugin settings to calibrate the "headphone with plugin" sound to match the "room/speaker without plugin" sound.
I found this plugin to be really useful for creating translatable mixes and masters. Also, I like the fact that you can tweak the room and speaker types so you can test on different consumer systems. For example, I make EDM and the mixes can be too bassy. With this plugin I can exaggerate the bass to make sure it is not too muddy on a club system. I can also check the mids to make sure there aren't instrument level errors on a cell phone or PC speakers etc... In other words I can simulate a whole range of systems to make sure my mix will translate.
After i've produced, mixed and mastered my stuff on headphones with Realphones, im hearing everything that's expected to be heard when on my genelecs, several hifi applications, even headphones without realphones on. My studio was, in this case, my reference as well as my favourite music. By finding the average spot for my Hifiman Sundara's and my Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X, everything translates so well. But this is also a matter of training, and the big question is "does your current practice and routined ear training for your current application work for you?". - You don't NEED this, but if you find use cases, then perhaps there is something to it for you. I have to say its been the best since i've had no actual studio to turn to these days (im moving as i write this), and my clients and engineering guys never complained. That's at least a really good sign :D
Due to the circumstances associated with changing of location, I was also looking for an alternative to the acoustically-treated room and my dynaudio 15 bm. I`ve been working a lot in different studios and with different equipment previously. I tried sonarworks, can opener and other products. None of them sounded natural and was not nearly like sound in a studio. When I saw an advertisement for realphones, I laughed skeptically, but decided to demo it. I tweaked it couple of days, than tried to mix with it and then checked the result in the studio. Everything worked perfectly. Yes, the plugin is not simple, but each control is there for a reason, not to surprise a beginner. I have been doing my job with the plugin for several years. It makes no difference to me now wether to work in my treated room with monitors or at home with shure 1840 headphones and realphones. I think you should just study it deeper before making hasty conclusions . В силу обстоятельств связаных с переездами, тоже искал альтернативу подготовленной комнате и моим dynaudio 15 bm. До этого много работал в разных студиях и с разным оборудованием. Пробовал sonarworks, can opener и другую муть. Ничего из этого не давало нормального объемного звука и близко не было похоже на звук в студии. Когда увидел рекламу realphones, скептически посмеялся, но решил скачать демо. Покрутил денек, воторой, пытался накрутить в нем микс, и потом проверял в студии. Все работает отлично. Да, плагин не простой, но каждая ручка здесь не просто так, не для того что бы удивить новичка. С плагином делаю свою работу уже несколько лет. Для меня нет разницы работать в моей хорошей комнате с мониторами или дома с наушниками shure 1840 и realphones. Я думаю стоит просто глубже вникнуть в суть вопроса а не делать поверхностный взгляд.
Waves Abbey Road Studio 3. With the head tracker. That's the bomb.... It's literally like being IN the room. You actually get a much needed perspective on your mix when you simply turn your head to the side and the speaker orientation doesn't also turn with you. It enhances your experience of the 3-dimensionality... which helps you perceive your mix in 3D better, I think. In the plugin, you can switch out to the emulation of the far speakers and then spin your room around so the speakers are coming from behind you... then stand up from your desk, turn around, look out into your room and really imagine that you're in an actual room with big speakers mounted on the far wall behind you... As your head moves up and down to the music, the speakers stay there on the same spot on the wall, just like you're listening to real speakers. I really don't think anything comes close to this tech. So with this plugin, all you need to do is learn how your mixes translate from a great sounding studio into the real world, (which is typically a lot more bass / weird nodes of bass, etc.)
There is already comparison on youtube between these two plugins, you can hear both. Since Slate headphones are just regular headphones without any binaural technology, you will get a different frequency response, but you can hear that they provide the same kind of experiance.
Not the head-tracking though. Slate gives you the eq / freq response of being in a room... Waves literally puts you in the room because of the head-tracking... though not like a full VR experience, just the sensation of turning one's head in different directions. Not everyone prefers the head-tracking, I've heard. I totally dig it.
Mixing on headphones improved my mixes over night, and I'm far from alone with that sentiment. So, like... Chiggity check yourself before you wreck yourself, buddy!
You can mix in headphones, of course. It is more difficult, but you can train your ears. You can mix on any speakers really, it's all about how you understand them and how they translate. Obviously better/flatter headphones as like speakers, make things easier. I've gotten to the point where I can mix on phones, and the mixes will translate well to the production room monitors and the mastering room monitors. But it takes experience and knowing your headphones....(I use in ear monitors too). I think these days, providing you understand what you are doing, and put in the work, then work wry whatever makes you most comfortable. It's all about the end results. Saying that, you need to have an alternative reference source until you get your shit nailed.
Nope, disagree, I use Sonarworks plus CanOpener for years now and I mix professionally solely on that system (with my HD600) when I'm away from the studio. Only a quick check on speakers necessary before I sign off the mix. Much quicker and WAY cheaper to get reliable and great results than putting all the money and time in studio acoustics, which is really necessary. "Learning your speakers" is bullsh... in my opinion. Yes, after many years you will "kind of" learn to compensate for your crappy room acoustics/speakers but you will only get so far and after all these years you will still wonder why your mixes still don't translate so well. So, my recommendation is get Sonarworks plus CanOpener or: if this one is really just as good then go for it.
@@ownedbymykitty270 Insert SW followed by CanOpener as the last plugins on the master bus (>after the limiter). And don't forget to deactivate both when the mix is done and you export it.
just tested a mix using my Sennheiser HD600 headphones. (I do not use them for mixing). The only thing you need in the plugin is Speaker Response to 100%. Everything else should be default. If you use the correction slider then the plugin will EQ the signal to compensate for the speaker curve (correct me if im wrong). So just use Speaker Responso to 100%. Is the only way you can hear a difference between the NS10, Genelec and the other speakers (are they ATC?). I own Yamana NS10 monitors and the simulation of the NS10 response felt similar in the plugin. Just my two pennies...
Yes, you are right! if you want to reproduce exactly the Frequency Response of the selected speaker you should turn Speaker Response to 100%. Its ATC / Genelec / NS10 in the room (if Room Speakers selected); however, you can select much more options from the drop down list if you want. Check the user guide (press Help in the plugin). Its very detailed. You can find all information there, including the set-up guide.
@@Trancewelle Yes I checked that out. Dont know if its right but when you select NS10s or the Auratone cubes, instead of the near field A you can choose far field auratones... sounds like you have a gigantic auratone in the room like at the opening of Back to the Future ;P
@@Trancewelle Just noticed one thing. Correction flattens out the curve to match your headphones. I have put two different headphone curves (HD600 and HD60) and with Correction at 0 the audio is not adjusted when i choose either headphones. When I have it to 100% it changes headphone curve. Isnt this supposed to be an ON and OFF funtion? Weather have your headphones into consideration or not. At this point I should RTFM. :P
its made for better control. You can consider it as Dry/Wet of Correction curve. This is done because sometimes Completely flat Frequency response is difficult for perception, especially for the guys who used Headphones without correction long time and used to their Headphones sound... In this case they can make smooth transition to flat response. 75% is a recommended setting if you use Standard profile. 100% is more applicable for individually calibrated headphones, but May be good for Standard as well.
Andrew Scheps mixes on headphones, so I guess you can do it, you just have to learn it. I also watched a video where Marc Daniel Nelson created an awesome mix just on in ears. So if you can’t afford a room and a great set of speakers, just learn mixing on headphones and you’ll be fine.
agree, you can learn to do it (and that takes time)... definitely better than mixing on speakers without low end response or not being able to judge the low end because of insufficient room acoustics. however, you still need to cross-check the mix on different kinds of speakers and the car. also, it depends on the headphones you use, so better headphones will get you better results with the simulation plugin. the sennheise hd-25 used in the video is not really used for mixing but rather by DJs, as far as I know. i guess in order to mix better on speakers than on cans (with this plugin), you would have to invest around 3000 $/Euros in quality speakers and acoustic room treatment.
Sonarworks TBMorphit CanOpener i've used all of these in the past and found them more of a nuisance than a positive contributor to a decent mix in headphones.
@@herb-music yeah for sure, ultimately it comes down to what works for different people. I've found it to be a bandaid more than a fix, and have found the contribution to a mix in headphones to be little
I have been mixing on headphones for a long time with no issues. I know my headphones to and how a mix will translate. Even the best studio monitors and rooms have their own sonic signature and unless you work there all of the time, it can be misleading. That is why all of the top LA studios I visited in the 80s had NS10s and hardly anyone would mix on the studio monitors. Some producers and engineers even brought in their own nearfields. The bottom line is that you can learn to mix on anything and get great results as long as you are familiar with the medium and its limitations. And you should always check your mixes on a variety of systems including earbuds, blue tooth speakers, car systems, etc. If it is critical, take it to a good mastering engineer who has the ears and tools and can add some objectivity.
something all these monitoring-enhancement plugin makers overlook: getting a refference, learning the system is important, like you said! If they added a system-wide version of the plugin, it would make much more sense. So when you use the headphones in any program besides the DAW, you automatically get the same sound. I'm using RMEs loopback precisely for this but it's a mind-bend-and-a-half to set up. Then again, that's no easy task since the Windows and Mac audio system lack the native capacity to do something even close.
I have been using VSX Slate headphones for more than a year. I was very reluctant towards using headphones for serious reference, however they really surprised me of how well they translate and picture the sound. I confidently can say my mixes have improved. This is something I wouldn't have said before. Thanks for the video
You adjusted your kick and bass while using the Subwoofer Boost profile. If you were using the Room Speakers profile, you probably wouldn't have adjusted the bass + kick levels like that
Try taking your laptop to a good studio and using this plugin with your headphones and A/B between the room and virtual room and adjust the virtual room until it sound like the room. Save that. Now you can take this home to use for making mixes without speakers.
I used to use Sonarworks... I stopped using because of exactly this. While it’s ok to have sonarworks while just listening to music for mixing it’s not the best solution...
I totally agree with this. Surely the best way to use this plugin is to replicate your studio environment for your headphones so you have the same listening experience wherever you are. At least that's how it seems to me. If you only mix on headphones, just learn the headphones.
I have a question. What's if that's your only choice? I am not in my house at the moment and don't have access to monitors (the ones in my house are old and shit anyway) and all I have are headphones (dt 770s). Surly you can maybe start to compensate or test your mix on a few different speakers (you're used to) to make sure all is well in the mix. Any ideas, is it impossible. I've done a few good mixed using my headphones (according to friends who listen). Am I fooling myself?
When using the plugin you mixed the bass loud and made the snare thin and buzzy :( I'd like to see if you can get a pair of Slate VSX everyone seems to love them, not for sound but for mix translation.
You monitor with speakers in your good sounding room. I suggest you try to make this as close to your speaker mixing environment. You can tweak after some time to shape your virtual room to fix issues you do not like in your room (another preset). I am in my 50s and have been doing this a long time. I see speaker position keeps getting closer and closer to the desk. This removes more of the room. This seems to be the next step.
I see this plugin: *Confused Travolta Gestures* 😕 Imagine if an engineer had all those settings for his real mixing environment, a team of carpenters would move around with drywalls and foam panels, every single time he touched the "Ambiance" dial - everybody would go mad 😂
I mix out of the box with 16 stems and I purchased Sonorworks during the covid because I’m mixing on headphones in an apartment where volume is always an issue. However, when I loaded the Sonorworks software into my computer it immediately took over my system as though is was a hardware interface, changing all my default settings. WTF? It took me three days of pulling my hair out to undo it all.
I try and listen to my mix on 3-4 different sources including headphones, monitors, car, mono radio.. and if anything seems out of whack after that, i tweak some more.
I don't really undertand why mixing on speakers is so much better? Especially if you're on a budget, I always figure headphones eliminate the problems you're going to be faced with with a crappy room, and that surely the most important factor is more what you're used to - like, mixing on not great speakers that you know really really really well is probably going to mean you make more sensible decisions than on good speakers you're not used to.
yeah I would tend to agree. The difficulty with headphone use is not one of EQ. It's more to do with depth, and peripheral hearing. When using headphones, as long as they are good reference headphones, shaping the tone isn't a problem. The problem is that with speakers, the left ear can hear everything the right ear hears, and vice versa, but with headphones, the right ear cannot hear what the left ear hears, and the stereo effect is illusional. It's like a venn diagram where the whole central part is missing. These control room apps adjust the sound, and it sounds wrong, but you persevere with it until the ears are used to it, but then you turn the software off render the track, and you listen back, and it sounds weird, just like the first time you listened through the control room app, and it sounds like there are big EQ holes. I think it's best to just really really learn what your speakers true sound is. Listen to lots of tried and tested reference mixes of successful tracks, and remember that there are songs that have sold millions of copies that were far from perfect, and had loads of flaws. We cannot make music in an anechoic chamber, and other people won't be listening to what we made in an anechoic chamber either.
I see three important point to be addressed to begin to work with this, I think useful COMPLEMENTARY approach: 1ST define a procedure to choice the right SPL to set inside the headphones, 2ND equalize (dinamically ?) the headphones to linearize better we can, because if we bypass the room we have then the own headphone frequency response to correct, 3TH define how to calibrate the flat setting also for the hrtf component. For example the good vst Ison define a procedure for this. Personally I use VRMBOX together with my monitors and it helps much.CIAO
I feel like the only one in the world who hates mixing on speakers... Even in high end recording studios I feel like I can't hear any detail whatsoever. I guess it's just what my ears are used to...
I totally agree with you. I have always had better mixes with headphones than speakers yet everyone i meet i'm doing it wrong. Just do what works for you. That's what matters in the end. There are as many variables with speakers as with headphones as far as i'm concerned!!
My comment from your previous video aged like fine wine, reposting it here for a better chance for you to take a look: "I wonder how the Slate VSX would compare to SonarWorks for headphones and dSoniq Realphones. Perhaps a video idea for snake oil in the future?"
Seems to me that step one should be to take a track that you are pleased when listening through the studio monitors and adjust the plugin so that you replicate what you are hearing in the studio motors through the plugin and headphones. I would recommend using the set of virtual studio monitors that best matches your actual monitor setup when doing that. Once you have a good match save the plugin as a preset. At this point you should be able to trust it to get you close to the sound of your real studio. For those of us who may not have a great live studio monitor setup there would be a bit more trial and error involved at first. For us, once you have the plugin settings that you can mix with and achieve the results you desire, from that point forward you should be able to get better mixes from the get-go since you have reduced the delta between the tonality of whatever you have been hearing in your old headphone setup and what the rest of the world hears in your mixes.
Every batch of VSX sells out for a reason; in addition to being decent headphones outright, the emulations actually expose some problems and help enough to justify its use. Slate is *not* promoting speaker replacement.
This subject is actually very simple if you know your headphones and if you know the sound of your room well enough, you know where to compensate to get what you need for a good mix. The same applies to brands of headphones, if you know where that lower frequency ‘is going to be’ when using your not so perfect gear, it will show up just what you expected it to be when you put on the headphones that you know again! If you’re really struggling about your room at this point all you need to do is look at the digital information on your screen as sound.
mix on the headphone is the best solution you just need a good one try Audeze ... but also with an average headphone like Sennheiser or Bayer dynamic etc. you can have a great result. Obviously, you need some time to understand the sound of your headphones but in the end, you have your reference travelling with you whatever you are at whatever time.. and this is gorgeous. just headphones and the speaker of the MacBook and you are ready to go The problem with headphones is to understand and balance the transient of the sound but you can fix this very well with the speaker of a MacBook or a pair of auratone and then you control the bass on a headphone I had worked a long time in the studio with big or near field speaker like T.A.D ,B&W, Meyer, Genelec,PMC, at the end 99% of the work was always made listening on the Yamaha NS10 and the Auratone Good speaker are made for a perfect environment that almost never happens and for sure it doesn't happen in a home studio. I can archive way better balance mixer now than before Anyway, thanks mate for the time you spend to share your thoughts
Am I the only guy who doesn’t need a plugin like this to mix? I actually prefer to mix on headphones at this point. I’m just so use to it I guess. I’ve found that a plugin like confuses EQ for me. I’m not claiming that this does t actually work for some engineers. But I really feel like this doesn’t work for me. I especially hate when you take the plugin off right before a bounce and a mix sounds different. Anyone else feel this way?
I've you have a less than ideal room, especially if the modes cause significant stereo imbalance, these tools can help avoid that. The results you can get from these is proportional to the acoustic problems you have...
Not everyone has the luxury of having a studio like yours, and the experience on top of it. This may help some people, especially newbies. Don’t be so overly biased by calling it snake oil. This is why I watch one of your videos every 6 months.
I don't see how this could ever help. You are mixing a masked version of the audio but it's not going to sound the same when you then remove that mask. What purpose could this serve?
@@alexei-dostvinogradov7080 I see that Russians love this plugin because it was created by a Russian developer and also because it's very expensive to buy good speakers in Russia, lol.
Has nothing to do with masking. The only question is if the software is able to "correct" the sound of your headphones in a way so you can trust what you are hearing. If it is then your mixes will improve a lot. Have to check this myself compared to Sonarworks plus CanOpener, which were a night and day improvement for my mixes on the road...
you are mixing a „masked“ version of the audio when your are working on a real speakers as well, so this plugin just affects sound the same way it would be affected by monitor speakers+studio acoustic
@@checktheneck Ohh. Just try it. The plugin is really great. Sonarworks smokes. As I have good monitors, I could understand how good this plugin is. And yes we want to support Russian developers to give to the plugin a chance to grow. And yes it is really expensive to have a good monitoring in Russia :DDD
Personally, I think that for mixing you want to have as little of these "signal modifiers" as possible in the audio out path. It just adds opportunities for things to go wrong.
I oftentimes wonder about headphones in general, I mean there's no air, no room and no space. It all relies on your head, the bone structure, if you have a smooth brain or a bumpy one, your ear canals and how much wax is in them at any particular moment. I feel like the higher end you go the more things like having a crown or a missing tooth might affect what your hearing. I could very well be over thinking it but at some point these immeasurable factors do come into play and that said no one is counting it, so much for science being applied. Before you tell me I'm a whack just consider this, have you ever compared your head voice to what other people hear when you speak? Mine is much different, in my head my voice sounds scratchy and very full of fry, reproduced through an audio system it is round, dull and flat. This is a huge difference in eq and this sort of thing has to be at play when using headphones, just sayin'. How do you account for having a brass jaw compared to a glass jaw when it comes to how frequencies resonate through them? Give me a room any day as the factors there can be scientifically measured and considered. Anyway I like the idea of the plugin but for this novice I feel it brings up more questions than answers. :)
I wouldn't mix on any system like this unless it was unavoidable, but then I like my mid price monitors and room and the results are proven good. I do however have NX Mixroom with the head tracker and I find that on those occasions when I struggle to concentrate, that set up is quite useful for getting into the music. It's less tiring than headphones alone, which can get a bit claustrophobic for me. NX can process to 5.1 etc too which is handy and finally I have used it to create some fairly wild FX by rotating the studio monitors around my head (if you get what I mean), automating this and using it as a channel insert. For me the plug in on test has a lot of variables which for a novice, in my opinion are likely to create mix problems rather than solve them. It also costs quite a bit more than I paid for NX+headtracker. Great videos, please keep them coming.
im using sonarworks headphone calibration together with abbey roads studio 3. The combination of those 2 was a real gamechanger for me. Not just abbey roads alone. I understand what he is saying about your ears having to adjust to the new sound. i think he is right but a way to solve that problem is just by referencing a lot in the acoustic software.
This is the best Plugin in my opinion...for track through your Interface at your initial Level Mix.....thats where this thing is valuble, then you go back to listening through your mixing as you do final compression, remove the plugin, go back to your interface, then print through your gear back into DAW, I did this Today, and it actually made an Analog Mix that I did again.....using this plugin intially, sound about 30% better.....its alot better than Waves or Acustica Audio's Version......
Firstly, you need to study the manual well, secondly, adjust your for yourself (using reference tracks and monitors, if any), thirdly, having received the appropriate settings Do not change them and Let your hearing get used to it for a while, as you do with new monitors, etc.! I confirm that this is a really high-quality tool! This is something that you can work with and something that needs to be mastered, and not a toy like a wave.
The only value I find using headphones when mixing is to check the stereo fields of various tracks. Actual mixing I do on near fields that I have used for a long time and know I can trust what I hear and after mastering will be confident it will sound good for a general space or perhaps if it has been tailored for a front of house system in a theatre with a proscenium arch stage to be the soundtrack for a given full-length dance work in order to complement the production.
Sonarworks headphone/studio edition with a good pair of headphones/monitors. Set and forget, instantly translatable mixes (provided your corrective EQ curve for speakers isn't doing much work).
I think your approach to the test of this could have gone in a different direction. (My apologies if someone else already mentioned this, I couldn't go through all 500+ comments). First, you have speakers/room that you know and trust. Second, I would use the plugin to copy the sound of your speakers in the room but on the headphones. Thus if you are having to tweak setting remotely for a client, you can pop on your headphones and know that you are hearing the mix as if your were in front of your speakers. Also, this plugin needs to be AFTER the main output stage so that your mix file does not contain any changes made by this plugin. Another way to put this is, when setting up the plugin settings, don't create a good sounding mix on the phones, create a copy of how your room sounds with your speakers. Certainly anyone could do this with various other plugins, like reverbs and EQs, but I guess this plugin pulls it all together and gives you one interface to work with. I don't see this plugin as any advantage for someone who doesn't have monitors they have learned and trust. Great video, I just came across you from a post in FB Reaper group - subscribed!
I would guess that most of the folks watching your videos have a bedroom, a 5 year old pc, the free version of a DAW, a 2in2out audio interface and a partner or flat mate that will complain when all they can hear is the same music, over and over again. Mixing on speakers is just not an option there, so it would have been nice to get an open-minded in-depth review of this plugin. Instead, you had your opinion about mixing on headphones, and then jumped on the first thing you could that “proved” your bias about it.
You said yourself that with any audio monitoring system that you use, you need to get used to the way reference mixes sound which can take weeks. This is true with both headphones and a set of high-end monitors in a treated room, so why condemn this after trying out only half of the features in 5 minutes?
Steve Openshaw so true My girl got pissed me playing a track over and over so I had to switch to Headphones for mixing and monitors for playback Facts Sennheiser hd 650
@Born To Sing With The Guitar the makers are not idiots indeed, they know a lot of bedroom producers will buy their plugin with the illusion of being able to mix in a proper room. killer marketing strategy.
@@ChristianBoragine And to top it off, the software works. It may not be as good as a thousands-of-dollars treated studio with nice monitors, but it's way better than naked headphones and is much better than you appear to be giving it credit for. How long did you use the software, and on what settings?
@@elliotr9095 do you know how a well treated room sounds like? Have you ever worked in one? How do you know the plugin is "good enough"? You probably don't. My point is that 99.9% of people defending this plugin only know their room and have no comparison with a well treated room. They WANT the plugin to work, because they hope it will improve their mixes by some kind of magic (spoiler alert: it won't because the real problem is that they don't know what they are doing).
agreed
I was thinking that the benefit from the plugin is that once you get it right - you can use it anywhere anytime which is not possible with a room which stays in one place - (at least the acoustics ). It is a need developed from the need that is present where folks are always being displaced physically - apartments - moving around trying to afford rent etc.
I think what you have to do to benefit from such a plugin is that you "calibrate" it with a reference song and from there you could use such a plugin and actually benefit from it
True, I think the many options are there so you can calibrate it to match your own speakers. You just need to spend time with it, this is not something you do in 10 minutes.
For people looking for the soundtrack used in this video.. It's called Sandstorm by an artist called Darude
Legend
I thought its Arc De Soleil - Totem Transport
@Robert Acaduc It’s an inside joke ☺️
We listened to about 100 Unreleased tracks of Darude! That have the same name...
@@halvincarris Thanks for the name of the track!
Using a reference track that you know by heart to create the settings might do part of the trick, but for sure even with new speakers there's a learning curve until you know how they sound like and interact with the room. But using a reference track I think is key, even if you go to a high end studio, you need a reference track because there's not a perfect room, rooms might a have a particular thing going on and you need to get used to the sound of that particular room.
I totally agree with what you are saying Pablo. You would have the same problem if you bought a pair of speakers for your room the first time and started mixing. You have to familiarize yourself to any monitoring system you are using for the first time. That being said I do agree that there all the possible adjustments create too many variables that have to be accounted for but that isn’t a problem if you want more control than you can get with with the Abbey Road or Slate VSX I think this could be a good option.
exactly, how can I possibly know if my shit sounds good on this set up If I haven't heard anything else on it before
I literally came to type a response based on using a proper reference track before trying to mix. you rule.
yes indeed , you need something that you can calibrate to... good point !
Yeah, it might work best if you use both reference tracks and monitors you know well.
So, adjust the settings to make your headphones sound like the monitors as much as possible, as to minimize the time required to get used to them, and after that save the settings and never touch again. However, if you ever need to use different headphones, you'll have to create a new calibrated profile again.
Also, not sure how close you can actually get to make the headphones sound as close as possible to the real monitors. I suppose the plugin does l/r crosstalk but still there might be some other important characteristics of the monitors that cannot be accurately simulated on the headphones of your choice. So, even after attempting to match the monitors, you'll need some time to get used to it. And if you use headphones occasionally, you will have to mentally readjust your "mixing sense" to them every time you have to mix on headphones. Which kinda kills the idea because you would be in more-less the same situation with any headphones and without this plugin.
BUT there is an important thing. More and more people these days are listening to music on headphones from their smartphones. So, maybe it's not a bad idea to mix on headphones to hear the music as it will be heard by so many people. Depends on your audience, I guess.
Here's the thing, I listen to music on headphones all day while working. I'm not listening thru one of these plugins. So when you switch to mixing and turn on the plugin everything is F'd up. I think 80% of music is listened to on headphones now days so I will spend a fair amount of time in the mix with them on. I go to speakers to hear the low end thru my sub woofer.
'80% of music is listened to on headphones ' - you are not far off the mark there.
I actually check low-end on my headphones and in my car... monitors are for balance and staging the mix.. in my head at least.
@@HR2635 I would say the same, especially if working on a budget which this product is aimed at. the cost to accurately monitor the low end definitely goes in favour of quality headphones vs monitors,sure you could get a sub and treat the room but that is going to cost more than a really good pair of cans and if you have access to a soundsystem in a car then that's an easy way to figure out how the low end sounds, plus you need some degree of knowledge to treat a room, again this product is aimed towards people that don't have that knowledge or experience. you could reference using near fields for a lot of the other parts of the mix though.
Still too many musicians stuck with 30 years old theories and techniques, times change and now we mix and master with headphones, earphones and laptop speakers and people listen to music on them, not on subwoofers or 8" monitors
@Gerhard Schöner I agree, a song could be listened to on everything from a crappy phone speaker to a club system so your mixes should translate. I think you took the meaning of the comment wrong. What was meant was that I would have to listen on my headphones to all my music with this plugin enabled or else I am pretty sure when I went to mix and turned on this plugin on it would drastically change the temperament of the headphones. It was a warning to be careful when buying such a plugin.
all you need is the headphones calibrated FLAT and Sonarworks does this and keeps it simple, you pick your headphone profile which has been calibrated flat and use the software to check your final mix or master after doing the mix/master on speakers first. This one looks like too many settings because each one takes you away from that flat reference point.
but another thing on headphones is the lack of l/r crosstalk (which is a very important aspect of natural stereophony ) and i don't think sonarworks does but i may be wrong
or to avoid calibration, research your speakers and headphones prior to purchasing, and try to find options within your budget that consistently review as a flat response.
It's kind of Sonarworks+manually set variable. No flat mean useless. No one can ensure they set all variable right. Let machine do the work.
@John Siket what phones are you using? I've got reference 4 but I haven't used it yet. Am getting pretty good results with my new set, beyerdynamic dt880s
The problem with plugins like this is that you want to get USED to you headphones/speakers. So you kind of have to use it when you listen to music as well, always, for weeks without changing the settings. Like you would if you had speakers. I mix 90% with headphones but that is because I have almost never used speakers to mix. I'm so used to it. But if I had a good room + speakers I would mix much more on speakers
Exactly. And that makes it pointless as it's no different to using speakers / headphones that you're used to anyway. The rule is know your listening system, nothing else. These things are a novelty.
100% agree, use your cans for listening purpose too, so you know them in and out. I rely on DT880, and check the mix with MDR7506 (NS10s in a can formfactor, somehow 😅) and 1031a speakers - it's more relaxing to work with speakers, but in a real world scenario it's not always possible (night time in a flat, travel etc...), and clearly you can make a good mix with cans. I don't trust any simulation tools though, they rarely enhance accuracy in any way: Just get used to the sound of a good and not to direct set of cans, and use these...
Exactly... I think it's better and easier to mix in a room on speakers for the most part (I'm not a fan of headphones at all), but the same applies to speakers too. I've mixed on the same pair of Genelec 8040 A's for the past 15 years. I know them inside out. I've been in plenty studios with infinitely more expensive monitors than mine and really struggled to make decisions regarding mixdowns because I just don't know the room or the monitors.
The concept is good, it moves the sound from right between your ears to an open room. But you are listening to a new speaker/room, so you need to treat it as such. Spend some time listening to music you are intimate with, tweak all of those adjustments until the hairs stand up on your arm and you are there! Like any other new monitoring system, it takes time to learn it. Most of us couldn’t afford good monitors and the room to put them in. Whatever works, just keep mixing!
Love your comment. When the hairs raise up you know you've got a good sound. I purchased CLA room emulation and honestly haven't time to learn how the music I love sounds in those rooms. Will take your advice and do just that
Before I even watch the video I'm going to say the ONLY thing that truly deletes the need for a studio is the Slate VSX. I just mixed a track for a huge opportunity I had with sony and a big South African artist on my laptop in my lounge with vsx, and went to my studio the next day and realized that its one of the best mixes I've ever done. I didn't need to change a single thing. Played it in my car and realized that I almost forgot it wasn't a song on the radio yet. It just had that.. sound. Over the next few days, I continued to mix with vsx out of the studio and got zero recalls or revision requests. Finished up 4 clients and it all JUST WORKS. Everywhere. Car, phone, headphones. Anything.
Out of curiosity, which VSX environments did you end up using the most? It seems from what I've heard so far that people either like the NRG or the Archon room, and then the SUV and Linear Headphones settings, maybe boombox, and nothing else.
@@PsycleDSR the ns10's (nearfields in nrg), the mid fields in archon(atc150) and the boom box, dt770 headphones to check the highs, howies mastering room for checking if anything has phase issues, the cars to get a proper idea on how it sounds in the car, the club for checking your bass against a reference, the nrg far fields for getting an overall picture and the audiophile room for an extra take. The boom box, well, because.. it has to work on there too.
Apple earbuds, both wireless and wired to check how it translates on that.
Basically, the point is to get it to sound perfect on pretty much nearly everything.
And once you get it to sound perfect on everything, your mix is done. It WILL translate to anything else
is Slate VSX a headphone only or is there a plugin? confused
@@nofood1 headphone with plugin for modelling basically the opposite of the mic it is a headphone unit created to allow the modelling to do the sound work.
You convinced me to purchase the Slate VSX. I’ll come for you if they don’t translate well :)
first of all - read the manual... It's not so hard and then you'll understand how to setup this awesome plugin. This is the first plugin (from a similar) that really works for me.
how is it compared to sonarworks?
@@gurumajuindonesia I've sold my sonarworks after a week of many tests and compares of realphones in different variations and chains. Realphones its more than just a calibration its kinda like sonaworks + 112db reline monitor + many other things. Just give it a try and you'll be so amazed.
This software you need to customize first, and also don't use "Deep Bass", use "Default Room Speakers" and then configure the software to sound right to your ears listening to what you normally listen to, and *then* do mixing/referencing with it. It's been insanely helpful in my mixing to get rid of the boxy/collapsed stereo sound. I have to do a lot of mixing in headphones because of noise issues where I am/I also have a terrible room with no treatment. I still use monitors sometimes, but I actually reference on Realphones, and the mixes that come through Realphones are way better to my/others' ears on more setups.
I mix almost entirely on stock Apple buds - because IT'S WHAT I'M USED TO. I regard them as the latter-day NS10's of headphones. They sound pretty awful, but they really force you to get the mid-range (especially high-mids) right. I then check the bass and high end in my car, or on better headphones.
Wow. Impressive. I hear people taking their mixes to their car but I am too lazy to do that.
@@peanutbutter1998 I take it to the car every time ;)
I know exactly what you mean! If you know your tools you dont have to use other tools.
@@peanutbutter1998 Just get Sonarworks SoundID.
can i listen to some of your mixes?
I have a good monitoring setup and I've had this plugin for over a year. I find it extremely useful for checking my mixes - particularly the car stereo environment. I've done mixes from scratch on Realphones and it's translated surprisingly well. Like you said, it's all about knowing what things should sound like coming from the playback medium you're monitoring on.
I had a conversation with a BIG TIME mix engineer…he does the likes of Chris Staples, Justin Timberlake…etc. he always just mixes wherever he’s set up….and from his laptop speakers out loud or AirPods…. He doesn’t care for treated rooms, or testing it in multiple spots. He knows if he nails it there…it’ll work everywhere else 😂 I was mind blown watching him mix and seeing how SIMPLE his process is.
Stapleton **
just the right nexus presets then smack it into master at +12 db to add a nice clipping effect then add saturation onto master, no reason to really listen to it at all while you do this.
@@pilotgfx hahahaha
I blame spell check
that sounds good, but who did it? can I check their previous mixes? In my experience, working with famous people doesn't necessarily mean they have great mixing skills.
Yes, it is possible to mix on this. I can say that without having tried this plugin. How so? Because it works the same way as a pair of headphones or a space. All spekars, headphones, rooms sound different, and so does this plugin. It doesn't make it worse just because it happens to be a plugin. The trouble starts when you think that it is a magic button and you will just turn out amazing mixes with this plugin. Not so. You have to learn these virtual spaces as much as your headphones or room. I agree that this plugin is potentially tricky due to so many settings. My take on that, is that you have to "set a room that you like" and then keep that, perhaps change the space to try different references, just as you would with different speakers.
These kinds of plugins are actually a great reference tool, especially for those who do not yet have the budget and space to have a great listening room, which is no easy task. If you have a studio at home, this is nearly impossible to achieve, and also quite expensive. This plugin can never replace a great room with speakers, but it can definitely help out the bedroom producer and occasional work on your laptop when you are on the go. It also helps with crosstalk, which is a problem when you mix on headphones. I have even found that the binaural audio makes working on headphones easier for a longer time, because it feels more spacious. Lastly it really helps with opening up your cans. Sure, you could "learn them" but trying various references, just as you would trying different speakers, make you spot more troubles in your mixes. The fact is that people who mixes on headphones, often use only one pair, and do not realize what their cans are masking.
Cheers for a nice open minded video. :)
Why didn’t you use your awesome HD650? It works better on closed headphones? I love your reviews
After listening your favorite songs with this plugin, you just dont want to hear it without the plugin. Never. When I use it I truly hear good monitors in the room. Its amazing. I use it with DT 1770pro headphones
I love listening to my favorite music through thus plugin with headphone compensation!
Why the heck u didn't check factory presets for your headphones on this video?
He did,. He mentions that at 4:36. But yeah, this plugin is hard to cover in a quick go. Ideally you calibrate it to be as close to your environment as possible. Then you can use that on the go, while additionally using the other presets for checking potential issues in bass heavy or sibilant rigs.
This plugin helped me pretty much during the lockdown (I had no access to my studio with monitors). You definitely should get used to it and it can win sonarworks, canopener, waves, 112dB Redline monitor, toneboosters etc.
i was going to go for sonaworks n can opner option.. you think this is better? one thing I too see is that there are many variables.
@@NiharSavala I've tried waves, sonarworks and canopener and Realphones impressed me more with its sound control (and my personal listening experience). I would recommend You to download 40-days trial and play with it. Developer says "it's all about presets with this plugin" - try them.
Sonarworks works better for correcting my AKG 712 Pro, but the room simulation of Realphones is killer, so I use them both.
@@NiharSavala I use can opener then sonarworks and it's by far the best solution I've found, works amazingly well
My only gripe with this is that it's too tweakable so if you dont have speakers to reference with, the sound you're hearing can lie to you because you're tweaking everything to your liking as opposed to emulating the sound of a room..Which kind of beats the point of it being a reference plugin. I'd say reduce the tweakabilty...especially of the speakers so you have a fairly flat reference.
Best use in my opinion would be: first - get good headphones, then try to reproduce as good as possible you own listening environment. listen to speakers, then put HP on and tweak.. do it till it's close enough.
I bought this plugin recently for 54€ in sale after a few days of the trial. I bought it on the strength of the following reasons alone: the standalone version breathes new life into my music library; the VST makes practicing guitar with headphones a lot more enjoyable; the VST makes my vocal tracking less pitchy and more expressive (a lot of people find it more difficult to sing perfectly with 'phones on), and makes me more confident because like hearing my voice more.
Regarding improving my mixes, I still have testing to do and will need to do a few more projects. But basically, I can put-on and remove my headphones while my monitors are also on, to A/B the sound, and I can get them to sound remarkably similar. So that must be a help in itself - I can now mix late into the evening, almost as though I'm using my monitors. I can then create a setting that is very similar but allows me to hear more of the low end that my monitors can't reproduce well, all while taking advantage of the extra detail that headphones provide throughout the spectrum. People with great monitors and room will not need this, but many home recordists may find it useful or very useful.
What I'm probably NOT going to use it for much, is the feature highlighted the most - checking mixes in virtual environments. Personally, I don't think that's very helpful to me. I feel like I'm just switching though the Jazz, Rock, Classical presets of a car stereo or something - it feels too arbitrary. So I will continue checking my mixes on my usual devices/places, but hopefully I won't need to check them as much if my mix stability and translation improves.
Note I also trialled Can Opener Studio at the same time. It is mostly just a very subtle crosstalk effect. I much preferred dSoniq's effects, but I'm use settings that are way more subtle than the factory presets.
I think it’d be a great idea to take a song from scratch and mix on headphones, then go back to the start and mix with speakers and compare. Would be a good way to see if these virtual room plugins really work
As with all Plugins like this (I use Sonarworks Reference 4 and swear by it), the value they provide is directly proportional to the reproduction and acoustic challenges you have. If your cheap monitors have a gappy response and your room modes compound this, the correction tools will help a lot more with closing these gaps. Correction plugins aren't designed to improve good speakers in a good room.
You overloaded Bass in plugin setting Sub Boost, what You expect from switching it off?
What bothers me about this video is that he is used to using speakers and prefers them going into the review. It is difficult to overcome the bias. I am not sure why you would want to review this type of technology if you think there is no chance for it to succeed before you start. I have monitors that I rarely use because I have been listening and mixing music in headphones for as long as I have been making music. It is what I am used to and feel more comfortable with.
I was a monitor guy as soon as i switched to cans i wouldn't wanna go back never .
I saw they have a demo with 40 days trial period or something. Just go grab it and test it by yourself, what’s the problem) I think you will understand that it’s some black magic and that this plugin can be super useful in some situations.
But keep in mind that you gotta spend some time getting used to the sound, it’s not something you encounter daily. At least my brain was very confused at first. And I don’t think it’s for rookies, you should know some stuff to get the whole potential of the plugin.
The idea is that you need to set up the plugin with some headphones to emulate your usual work place with monitors as good as possible. After that you get like a mini version of your studio in the headphones everywhere. This is one scenario.
If you don’t have monitors - there are presets of various rooms/studios. And they are really good. Then you can use tandem Realphones+good pro headphones and get the job done.
But i mean, man, if you have no idea how monitors sound in studio go check them somewhere, ask a friend, rent a studio for 15 minutes for f sake)
Of course without at least some knowledge of “how would it sound from a pair of monitors” you will be struggling cause reference means a lot.
But it’s some super noob and lazy attitude. Don’t be like that.
You either learning how to work with the sound properly or go make lo-fi forever)
Overall i think Realphones is a great professional tool. But again, probably you will have to spend some time getting used to the sound.
I just download this and it did a great job of matching my monitoring setup. I have hs5 with the sub. I started with there ns10 mixing setting and after messing with all the controls I have an amazing close headphone emulation to my studio. Played with a mix and it came out as expected. Going to try it out for a few more weeks to make sure it works. But loving it!
Sir I need to talk to you,, can I have Instagram or Facebook. Ty🙂
Any updates ?
@@lucaszecat I have used this for a while. And I done a few things that have made it somewhat work for me. I will do initial mix on headphones with realphones. Eq, compression, etc. But I cannot mix the placement in level, and panning well with any of these headphone room emulators. So I need to use both. Also I have turned down all room ambient features of program to only 15%. You can't hear enough clarity with it set to high. So clinical mixing with this. And final mix on real studio monitors.
Just got Slate VSX. Loving it so far. Would love to here your thoughts.
Was about to ask him the same question! What's your setup for mixing? Are you able to fix more issues with the VSX acoustics?
Slate VSX is amazing 🔥💯
Thought this was going to be a video on vsx lol
I dunno man. After seeing how he treated this plugin, I really don't see him putting in the time to learn VSX.
@@imdurc There really isn't anything to learn though, except becoming acquainted with the rooms themselves. You just put the headphones on, open the plugin, and you're good to go lol...no learning curve 👍🏻
Steve Openshaw, your comment is a breath of fresh air. Thank you!
They should sell this as a way to hear your mix in different sceneraios rather than for treating headphones lol. like small club, bbig fesistaval, iphone scnerario etc.
This thing made me find nasty frequencies in the mix I would not have found without it. VERY useful.... Its very good for using with an A/B referencing plugin
You were hearing your kick and your bass louder because you were using the ''Deep Bass'' Speaker setting within the plugin (which is good for finding boomy issues)
mmmh actually he mixed the bass louder than he expected, if you have a bass boost the opposite would be the case. your comment does not make sense.
I tested it for a couple of weeks.. a monster !
Never experienced such environment with any other similar plugin .. just accurate and outstanding ! It simulate for instance some monitors .. I got the Yamaha HS7 and the plugin simulation of those monitors is insane .. so I can say that I trust it for further use .. the frequency control is just surgical.. never controlled the low end frequencies like I did with this plugin .. and I can’t say that for any other similar plug-in .. my mixes translate well for the first time ..
I'm not a representative of Realphones or this company, but I have to say that it was the first time that my mix sounded good when heard on external speakers after using the plugin. Highly honest and professional product
The same for me. I can finally hear my mistakes loud and clear and correct them.
Have you tried recreating the sound that you have with your speakers with this plugin? I guess the idea you mentioned at the beginning would make so much sense: you have great speakers, but you can't carry them around. Therefore, you can use this plugin to create a headphone sound stage, that is similar to your speaker setup.
I've tried but never got close enough.
@@checktheneck Where did it fail? I'm just curious, because I recall the Sonarworks plugin, which tries to achieve an opportunity to enable mixing via headphones, but has fewer options available as far as I recall.
@@Yuusou. it doesn't accurately imitate the panorama and depth of the mix that I feel in the speakers. On the speakers, I can clearly "see" the instrument in the space in front of me, and tell at what distance in meters from me it is. No one plug-in for headphones mixing can give me that feeling. This can be compared to watching a video recording of a live performance, you can see the approximate distance of all the musicians from the operator, but this is not the same as feeling it yourself being in that place and looking at the musicians.
@@checktheneck Thank you. I understand your point and still wonder about one thing: How do most people nowadays listen to their music? Wouldn't it make sense to mix with a setup that is used by the majority?
@@Yuusou. most people listen to music with earbuds, but if I'm going to do mixing in earbuds based on this, I will quickly lose my hearing because the sound pressure in the earbuds is higher than on speakers at the same subjective volume. I spend quite a lot of time mixing so this is important to me. In addition, I like the way the music sounds on the speakers, I like how accurately I can work with the mix. I have pretty good headphones that allow me to hear a lot of details (audeze lcd-2), but even with them, I understand that I can make better mixes on the speakers.
I think he approached this setup wrong. You have to get your mix the way you want it to sound normally - in the room using speakers. THEN you put your headphone on and tweak the plugin settings until what you hear out of the headphones is the same as what you heard in your mix in the room with speakers. The whole point is that you don't want to change your mix to get a good headphone sound, you want to change the headphone plugin settings until it matches your "room/speaker" sound. I'm not sure if this plugin would allow you enough control to get there, but that is the end goal.
Once your plugin settings are correct and give you the same sound in the headphones on that you get with the plugin turned off and listening to your speakers, then you should be able to mix future things on your headphone with the plugin engaged and mix with confidence that the end result will sound the same when you listen to it without the plugin using speakers. But you first have the use the plugin settings to calibrate the "headphone with plugin" sound to match the "room/speaker without plugin" sound.
I found this plugin to be really useful for creating translatable mixes and masters. Also, I like the fact that you can tweak the room and speaker types so you can test on different consumer systems. For example, I make EDM and the mixes can be too bassy. With this plugin I can exaggerate the bass to make sure it is not too muddy on a club system. I can also check the mids to make sure there aren't instrument level errors on a cell phone or PC speakers etc... In other words I can simulate a whole range of systems to make sure my mix will translate.
After i've produced, mixed and mastered my stuff on headphones with Realphones, im hearing everything that's expected to be heard when on my genelecs, several hifi applications, even headphones without realphones on.
My studio was, in this case, my reference as well as my favourite music. By finding the average spot for my Hifiman Sundara's and my Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X, everything translates so well.
But this is also a matter of training, and the big question is "does your current practice and routined ear training for your current application work for you?".
- You don't NEED this, but if you find use cases, then perhaps there is something to it for you.
I have to say its been the best since i've had no actual studio to turn to these days (im moving as i write this), and my clients and engineering guys never complained. That's at least a really good sign :D
Due to the circumstances associated with changing of location, I was also looking for an alternative to the acoustically-treated room and my dynaudio 15 bm. I`ve been working a lot in different studios and with different equipment previously. I tried sonarworks, can opener and other products. None of them sounded natural and was not nearly like sound in a studio. When I saw an advertisement for realphones, I laughed skeptically, but decided to demo it. I tweaked it couple of days, than tried to mix with it and then checked the result in the studio. Everything worked perfectly. Yes, the plugin is not simple, but each control is there for a reason, not to surprise a beginner. I have been doing my job with the plugin for several years. It makes no difference to me now wether to work in my treated room with monitors or at home with shure 1840 headphones and realphones. I think you should just study it deeper before making hasty conclusions .
В силу обстоятельств связаных с переездами, тоже искал альтернативу подготовленной комнате и моим dynaudio 15 bm. До этого много работал в разных студиях и с разным оборудованием. Пробовал sonarworks, can opener и другую муть. Ничего из этого не давало нормального объемного звука и близко не было похоже на звук в студии. Когда увидел рекламу realphones, скептически посмеялся, но решил скачать демо. Покрутил денек, воторой, пытался накрутить в нем микс, и потом проверял в студии. Все работает отлично. Да, плагин не простой, но каждая ручка здесь не просто так, не для того что бы удивить новичка. С плагином делаю свою работу уже несколько лет. Для меня нет разницы работать в моей хорошей комнате с мониторами или дома с наушниками shure 1840 и realphones. Я думаю стоит просто глубже вникнуть в суть вопроса а не делать поверхностный взгляд.
@@grabelyu6865 в случае с 1840 шурами на 100 процентов, в случае с 650 сенхами 75, зависит от наушников
Waves Abbey Road Studio 3. With the head tracker. That's the bomb.... It's literally like being IN the room. You actually get a much needed perspective on your mix when you simply turn your head to the side and the speaker orientation doesn't also turn with you. It enhances your experience of the 3-dimensionality... which helps you perceive your mix in 3D better, I think. In the plugin, you can switch out to the emulation of the far speakers and then spin your room around so the speakers are coming from behind you... then stand up from your desk, turn around, look out into your room and really imagine that you're in an actual room with big speakers mounted on the far wall behind you... As your head moves up and down to the music, the speakers stay there on the same spot on the wall, just like you're listening to real speakers.
I really don't think anything comes close to this tech. So with this plugin, all you need to do is learn how your mixes translate from a great sounding studio into the real world, (which is typically a lot more bass / weird nodes of bass, etc.)
To be fair, not even close to the slate vsx
in terms of what? I presume you've tried both then.
There is already comparison on youtube between these two plugins, you can hear both. Since Slate headphones are just regular headphones without any binaural technology, you will get a different frequency response, but you can hear that they provide the same kind of experiance.
Not the head-tracking though. Slate gives you the eq / freq response of being in a room... Waves literally puts you in the room because of the head-tracking... though not like a full VR experience, just the sensation of turning one's head in different directions.
Not everyone prefers the head-tracking, I've heard. I totally dig it.
I was listening to this video on my HD25's and I was like why are you ruining your mix? And then your conclusion, yeah you are right!
Mixing on headphones improved my mixes over night, and I'm far from alone with that sentiment. So, like... Chiggity check yourself before you wreck yourself, buddy!
That song is pure fire
Video idea: your favorite plugins vs your favorite analog gear, like the best digital compressor vs the best analog compressor
You can mix in headphones, of course. It is more difficult, but you can train your ears. You can mix on any speakers really, it's all about how you understand them and how they translate.
Obviously better/flatter headphones as like speakers, make things easier.
I've gotten to the point where I can mix on phones, and the mixes will translate well to the production room monitors and the mastering room monitors. But it takes experience and knowing your headphones....(I use in ear monitors too).
I think these days, providing you understand what you are doing, and put in the work, then work wry whatever makes you most comfortable. It's all about the end results.
Saying that, you need to have an alternative reference source until you get your shit nailed.
Slate VSX Review PLEASE!
Nope, disagree, I use Sonarworks plus CanOpener for years now and I mix professionally solely on that system (with my HD600) when I'm away from the studio. Only a quick check on speakers necessary before I sign off the mix. Much quicker and WAY cheaper to get reliable and great results than putting all the money and time in studio acoustics, which is really necessary. "Learning your speakers" is bullsh... in my opinion. Yes, after many years you will "kind of" learn to compensate for your crappy room acoustics/speakers but you will only get so far and after all these years you will still wonder why your mixes still don't translate so well.
So, my recommendation is get Sonarworks plus CanOpener or: if this one is really just as good then go for it.
How do you use those two plugins together? I have Sonarworks 3 and my cans are AKG K702.
@@ownedbymykitty270 Insert SW followed by CanOpener as the last plugins on the master bus (>after the limiter). And don't forget to deactivate both when the mix is done and you export it.
just tested a mix using my Sennheiser HD600 headphones. (I do not use them for mixing). The only thing you need in the plugin is Speaker Response to 100%. Everything else should be default. If you use the correction slider then the plugin will EQ the signal to compensate for the speaker curve (correct me if im wrong). So just use Speaker Responso to 100%. Is the only way you can hear a difference between the NS10, Genelec and the other speakers (are they ATC?). I own Yamana NS10 monitors and the simulation of the NS10 response felt similar in the plugin. Just my two pennies...
Yes, you are right! if you want to reproduce exactly the Frequency Response of the selected speaker you should turn Speaker Response to 100%. Its ATC / Genelec / NS10 in the room (if Room Speakers selected); however, you can select much more options from the drop down list if you want. Check the user guide (press Help in the plugin). Its very detailed. You can find all information there, including the set-up guide.
@@Trancewelle Yes I checked that out. Dont know if its right but when you select NS10s or the Auratone cubes, instead of the near field A you can choose far field auratones... sounds like you have a gigantic auratone in the room like at the opening of Back to the Future ;P
@@Trancewelle Just noticed one thing. Correction flattens out the curve to match your headphones. I have put two different headphone curves (HD600 and HD60) and with Correction at 0 the audio is not adjusted when i choose either headphones. When I have it to 100% it changes headphone curve. Isnt this supposed to be an ON and OFF funtion? Weather have your headphones into consideration or not. At this point I should RTFM. :P
its made for better control. You can consider it as Dry/Wet of Correction curve. This is done because sometimes Completely flat Frequency response is difficult for perception, especially for the guys who used Headphones without correction long time and used to their Headphones sound... In this case they can make smooth transition to flat response. 75% is a recommended setting if you use Standard profile. 100% is more applicable for individually calibrated headphones, but May be good for Standard as well.
Andrew Scheps mixes on headphones, so I guess you can do it, you just have to learn it. I also watched a video where Marc Daniel Nelson created an awesome mix just on in ears. So if you can’t afford a room and a great set of speakers, just learn mixing on headphones and you’ll be fine.
agree, you can learn to do it (and that takes time)... definitely better than mixing on speakers without low end response or not being able to judge the low end because of insufficient room acoustics. however, you still need to cross-check the mix on different kinds of speakers and the car.
also, it depends on the headphones you use, so better headphones will get you better results with the simulation plugin. the sennheise hd-25 used in the video is not really used for mixing but rather by DJs, as far as I know.
i guess in order to mix better on speakers than on cans (with this plugin), you would have to invest around 3000 $/Euros in quality speakers and acoustic room treatment.
Sonarworks
TBMorphit
CanOpener
i've used all of these in the past and found them more of a nuisance than a positive contributor to a decent mix in headphones.
My findings are different, SW + CanOpener made a night and day difference for me (see my other post)
I do personally prefer Realphones over the ones you mention though.
I have SW 3 and use it with my AKG k702 cans. I almost always achieve better mixes without SW 3. Go figure!
@@herb-music yeah for sure, ultimately it comes down to what works for different people. I've found it to be a bandaid more than a fix, and have found the contribution to a mix in headphones to be little
@@ownedbymykitty270 Did you switch SW off when rendering the mix?
Mixing on headphones is better anyway
It's bad for your hearing in the long run. The sound pressure level in headphones is higher at the same subjective volume.
@@checktheneck thats why i rough mix on speakers and then do finer stuff with headphones after
headphones are more accurate for most people who dont got perfect acoustics
ye you didn't touch to a lot of control)she working for me perfect on HD650. Thank you
I have been mixing on headphones for a long time with no issues. I know my headphones to and how a mix will translate.
Even the best studio monitors and rooms have their own sonic signature and unless you work there all of the time, it can be misleading. That is why all of the top LA studios I visited in the 80s had NS10s and hardly anyone would mix on the studio monitors. Some producers and engineers even brought in their own nearfields.
The bottom line is that you can learn to mix on anything and get great results as long as you are familiar with the medium and its limitations. And you should always check your mixes on a variety of systems including earbuds, blue tooth speakers, car systems, etc. If it is critical, take it to a good mastering engineer who has the ears and tools and can add some objectivity.
How do you knw ur headphones? Is there any thing i need look in order to knw my headphones? Coz i don't knw my headphones. Plz help
@@contraspower6302 Use reference tracks of songs you know and like and then compare your mixes to the reference tracks.
something all these monitoring-enhancement plugin makers overlook: getting a refference, learning the system is important, like you said! If they added a system-wide version of the plugin, it would make much more sense. So when you use the headphones in any program besides the DAW, you automatically get the same sound. I'm using RMEs loopback precisely for this but it's a mind-bend-and-a-half to set up. Then again, that's no easy task since the Windows and Mac audio system lack the native capacity to do something even close.
Realphones have system-wide version. Using it on Windows.
Believe me when you get used to mixing with this plugin your mixes will translate like never before and your monitors will go in the loft
I have been using VSX Slate headphones for more than a year. I was very reluctant towards using headphones for serious reference, however they really surprised me of how well they translate and picture the sound. I confidently can say my mixes have improved. This is something I wouldn't have said before. Thanks for the video
You adjusted your kick and bass while using the Subwoofer Boost profile.
If you were using the Room Speakers profile, you probably wouldn't have adjusted the bass + kick levels like that
oh, so who's gonna tell him about VSX...
Оо, наконец-то русский софт подъехал)))
PS: Ребята, был бы рад вашей подписке на канале! Много интересных видео по сведению и обзорам🖤🔥
Je hebt gelijk...
Oo, finally Russian soft on this channel.
а скажіть будь ласка чи є в цьому софті Focal Spirit Professional ?
Vadim Martynyuk I guess this question is for the developers. This channel only about reviews...
Try taking your laptop to a good studio and using this plugin with your headphones and A/B between the room and virtual room and adjust the virtual room until it sound like the room. Save that. Now you can take this home to use for making mixes without speakers.
I used to use Sonarworks... I stopped using because of exactly this. While it’s ok to have sonarworks while just listening to music for mixing it’s not the best solution...
I think the most useful way for you to try and do this is to A/B your own speakers and tweak the vst to get them to an equal spot
I totally agree with this. Surely the best way to use this plugin is to replicate your studio environment for your headphones so you have the same listening experience wherever you are. At least that's how it seems to me. If you only mix on headphones, just learn the headphones.
Please review the Slate VSX!
I have a question. What's if that's your only choice? I am not in my house at the moment and don't have access to monitors (the ones in my house are old and shit anyway) and all I have are headphones (dt 770s). Surly you can maybe start to compensate or test your mix on a few different speakers (you're used to) to make sure all is well in the mix. Any ideas, is it impossible. I've done a few good mixed using my headphones (according to friends who listen). Am I fooling myself?
When using the plugin you mixed the bass loud and made the snare thin and buzzy :( I'd like to see if you can get a pair of Slate VSX everyone seems to love them, not for sound but for mix translation.
You monitor with speakers in your good sounding room. I suggest you try to make this as close to your speaker mixing environment. You can tweak after some time to shape your virtual room to fix issues you do not like in your room (another preset). I am in my 50s and have been doing this a long time. I see speaker position keeps getting closer and closer to the desk. This removes more of the room. This seems to be the next step.
I see this plugin: *Confused Travolta Gestures* 😕
Imagine if an engineer had all those settings for his real mixing environment, a team of carpenters would move around with drywalls and foam panels, every single time he touched the "Ambiance" dial - everybody would go mad 😂
I don’t get whats wrong with mixing on headphones anyway!
I always put beyerdynamics on for the last finish.
Congrats on 100k subscribers!
I mix out of the box with 16 stems and I purchased Sonorworks during the covid because I’m mixing on headphones in an apartment where volume is always an issue. However, when I loaded the Sonorworks software into my computer it immediately took over my system as though is was a hardware interface, changing all my default settings. WTF? It took me three days of pulling my hair out to undo it all.
I try and listen to my mix on 3-4 different sources including headphones, monitors, car, mono radio.. and if anything seems out of whack after that, i tweak some more.
Dude mixing on headphones is a reality and a lot of people doing it already its freedom!
doing it? yeah, doing it wrong.
I don't really undertand why mixing on speakers is so much better? Especially if you're on a budget, I always figure headphones eliminate the problems you're going to be faced with with a crappy room, and that surely the most important factor is more what you're used to - like, mixing on not great speakers that you know really really really well is probably going to mean you make more sensible decisions than on good speakers you're not used to.
Thats why you use reference tracks and compare your settings until the masters you really trust sound good. Then mix
I've just recently started playing with the Waves NX plugin for headphone mixing. Verdict is still out on whether this is helping me or not...
yeah I would tend to agree. The difficulty with headphone use is not one of EQ. It's more to do with depth, and peripheral hearing. When using headphones, as long as they are good reference headphones, shaping the tone isn't a problem. The problem is that with speakers, the left ear can hear everything the right ear hears, and vice versa, but with headphones, the right ear cannot hear what the left ear hears, and the stereo effect is illusional. It's like a venn diagram where the whole central part is missing.
These control room apps adjust the sound, and it sounds wrong, but you persevere with it until the ears are used to it, but then you turn the software off render the track, and you listen back, and it sounds weird, just like the first time you listened through the control room app, and it sounds like there are big EQ holes.
I think it's best to just really really learn what your speakers true sound is. Listen to lots of tried and tested reference mixes of successful tracks, and remember that there are songs that have sold millions of copies that were far from perfect, and had loads of flaws. We cannot make music in an anechoic chamber, and other people won't be listening to what we made in an anechoic chamber either.
This guy is always super entertaining to watch, but I can't talk more than half the stuff he says seriously, take his facts with a grain of salt
I see three important point to be addressed to begin to work with this, I think useful COMPLEMENTARY approach: 1ST define a procedure to choice the right SPL to set inside the headphones, 2ND equalize (dinamically ?) the headphones to linearize better we can, because if we bypass the room we have then the own headphone frequency response to correct, 3TH define how to calibrate the flat setting also for the hrtf component. For example the good vst Ison define a procedure for this. Personally I use VRMBOX together with my monitors and it helps much.CIAO
I feel like the only one in the world who hates mixing on speakers...
Even in high end recording studios I feel like I can't hear any detail whatsoever. I guess it's just what my ears are used to...
I totally agree with you. I have always had better mixes with headphones than speakers yet everyone i meet i'm doing it wrong. Just do what works for you. That's what matters in the end. There are as many variables with speakers as with headphones as far as i'm concerned!!
I feel that headphones sometimes reveal too much detail, and by that you're judging your music unfairly.
@@florisb1 I feel the opposite with speakers unless you spend a fortune!!
@@ruddock7 But is revealing detail that necessary for making a good mix?
@@florisb1 It is for me personally, absolutely!!
My comment from your previous video aged like fine wine, reposting it here for a better chance for you to take a look:
"I wonder how the Slate VSX would compare to SonarWorks for headphones and dSoniq Realphones. Perhaps a video idea for snake oil in the future?"
Seems to me that step one should be to take a track that you are pleased when listening through the studio monitors and adjust the plugin so that you replicate what you are hearing in the studio motors through the plugin and headphones. I would recommend using the set of virtual studio monitors that best matches your actual monitor setup when doing that. Once you have a good match save the plugin as a preset. At this point you should be able to trust it to get you close to the sound of your real studio.
For those of us who may not have a great live studio monitor setup there would be a bit more trial and error involved at first. For us, once you have the plugin settings that you can mix with and achieve the results you desire, from that point forward you should be able to get better mixes from the get-go since you have reduced the delta between the tonality of whatever you have been hearing in your old headphone setup and what the rest of the world hears in your mixes.
Would you be into reviewing the Slate Digital VSX headphones? I would be interested to hear your take on them. Thanks.
Every batch of VSX sells out for a reason; in addition to being decent headphones outright, the emulations actually expose some problems and help enough to justify its use. Slate is *not* promoting speaker replacement.
This subject is actually very simple if you know your headphones and if you know the sound of your room well enough, you know where to compensate to get what you need for a good mix. The same applies to brands of headphones, if you know where that lower frequency ‘is going to be’ when using your not so perfect gear, it will show up just what you expected it to be when you put on the headphones that you know again! If you’re really struggling about your room at this point all you need to do is look at the digital information on your screen as sound.
mix on the headphone is the best solution you just need a good one try Audeze ... but also with an average headphone like Sennheiser or Bayer dynamic etc. you can have a great result. Obviously, you need some time to understand the sound of your headphones but in the end, you have your reference travelling with you whatever you are at whatever time.. and this is gorgeous. just headphones and the speaker of the MacBook and you are ready to go The problem with headphones is to understand and balance the transient of the sound but you can fix this very well with the speaker of a MacBook or a pair of auratone and then you control the bass on a headphone
I had worked a long time in the studio with big or near field speaker like T.A.D ,B&W, Meyer, Genelec,PMC, at the end 99% of the work was always made listening on the Yamaha NS10 and the Auratone Good speaker are made for a perfect environment that almost never happens and for sure it doesn't happen in a home studio. I can archive way better balance mixer now than before
Anyway, thanks mate for the time you spend to share your thoughts
Am I the only guy who doesn’t need a plugin like this to mix? I actually prefer to mix on headphones at this point. I’m just so use to it I guess. I’ve found that a plugin like confuses EQ for me. I’m not claiming that this does t actually work for some engineers. But I really feel like this doesn’t work for me. I especially hate when you take the plugin off right before a bounce and a mix sounds different. Anyone else feel this way?
You will never hear how really Kick and bass works together in headphones. With this plugin it becomes so much clearly
@@alexei-dostvinogradov7080 i haven't had issues with kick and bass in fact its much easier... for me .
I prefer mixing on headphones with no eq no room simulator nothing , mixes are wide deep and 3d and it translates perfectly
@@agondistortion on what headphones do you mix?
I've you have a less than ideal room, especially if the modes cause significant stereo imbalance, these tools can help avoid that. The results you can get from these is proportional to the acoustic problems you have...
Not everyone has the luxury of having a studio like yours, and the experience on top of it. This may help some people, especially newbies. Don’t be so overly biased by calling it snake oil. This is why I watch one of your videos every 6 months.
I don't see how this could ever help. You are mixing a masked version of the audio but it's not going to sound the same when you then remove that mask. What purpose could this serve?
Just try the plugin. It's amazing. You feel the real room and a great speakers in it.
@@alexei-dostvinogradov7080 I see that Russians love this plugin because it was created by a Russian developer and also because it's very expensive to buy good speakers in Russia, lol.
Has nothing to do with masking. The only question is if the software is able to "correct" the sound of your headphones in a way so you can trust what you are hearing. If it is then your mixes will improve a lot. Have to check this myself compared to Sonarworks plus CanOpener, which were a night and day improvement for my mixes on the road...
you are mixing a „masked“ version of the audio when your are working on a real speakers as well, so this plugin just affects sound the same way it would be affected by monitor speakers+studio acoustic
@@checktheneck Ohh. Just try it. The plugin is really great. Sonarworks smokes. As I have good monitors, I could understand how good this plugin is. And yes we want to support Russian developers to give to the plugin a chance to grow. And yes it is really expensive to have a good monitoring in Russia :DDD
Personally, I think that for mixing you want to have as little of these "signal modifiers" as possible in the audio out path. It just adds opportunities for things to go wrong.
That's what i keep thinking, i try to protect harmonics at all costs.
I oftentimes wonder about headphones in general, I mean there's no air, no room and no space. It all relies on your head, the bone structure, if you have a smooth brain or a bumpy one, your ear canals and how much wax is in them at any particular moment. I feel like the higher end you go the more things like having a crown or a missing tooth might affect what your hearing. I could very well be over thinking it but at some point these immeasurable factors do come into play and that said no one is counting it, so much for science being applied. Before you tell me I'm a whack just consider this, have you ever compared your head voice to what other people hear when you speak? Mine is much different, in my head my voice sounds scratchy and very full of fry, reproduced through an audio system it is round, dull and flat. This is a huge difference in eq and this sort of thing has to be at play when using headphones, just sayin'. How do you account for having a brass jaw compared to a glass jaw when it comes to how frequencies resonate through them? Give me a room any day as the factors there can be scientifically measured and considered. Anyway I like the idea of the plugin but for this novice I feel it brings up more questions than answers. :)
You are way overthinking it bro
@@yikeru114 Yeah I know but it was a fun idea to explore and express anyway, LOL. I was on one that day, that's for sure! :)
I wouldn't mix on any system like this unless it was unavoidable, but then I like my mid price monitors and room and the results are proven good. I do however have NX Mixroom with the head tracker and I find that on those occasions when I struggle to concentrate, that set up is quite useful for getting into the music. It's less tiring than headphones alone, which can get a bit claustrophobic for me. NX can process to 5.1 etc too which is handy and finally I have used it to create some fairly wild FX by rotating the studio monitors around my head (if you get what I mean), automating this and using it as a channel insert. For me the plug in on test has a lot of variables which for a novice, in my opinion are likely to create mix problems rather than solve them. It also costs quite a bit more than I paid for NX+headtracker. Great videos, please keep them coming.
I was using slate VSX since it came out, it was ok, then got dsoniq Realphones and now mixes translate perfectly
Which I choose vsx or realphones? Can you advice me? Vsx is expensive😅
im using sonarworks headphone calibration together with abbey roads studio 3. The combination of those 2 was a real gamechanger for me. Not just abbey roads alone. I understand what he is saying about your ears having to adjust to the new sound. i think he is right but a way to solve that problem is just by referencing a lot in the acoustic software.
Realphones 2 is out . I'd like to see you do a vid on that.
You answered your own question. You need to get used to it, as well as to the new Studio and new monitors!
This is the best Plugin in my opinion...for track through your Interface at your initial Level Mix.....thats where this thing is valuble, then you go back to listening through your mixing as you do final compression, remove the plugin, go back to your interface, then print through your gear back into DAW, I did this Today, and it actually made an Analog Mix that I did again.....using this plugin intially, sound about 30% better.....its alot better than Waves or Acustica Audio's Version......
Firstly, you need to study the manual well, secondly, adjust your for yourself (using reference tracks and monitors, if any), thirdly, having received the appropriate settings Do not change them and Let your hearing get used to it for a while, as you do with new monitors, etc.! I confirm that this is a really high-quality tool! This is something that you can work with and something that needs to be mastered, and not a toy like a wave.
The only value I find using headphones when mixing is to check the stereo fields of various tracks. Actual mixing I do on near fields that I have used for a long time and know I can trust what I hear and after mastering will be confident it will sound good for a general space or perhaps if it has been tailored for a front of house system in a theatre with a proscenium arch stage to be the soundtrack for a given full-length dance work in order to complement the production.
Sonarworks headphone/studio edition with a good pair of headphones/monitors. Set and forget, instantly translatable mixes (provided your corrective EQ curve for speakers isn't doing much work).
I think your approach to the test of this could have gone in a different direction. (My apologies if someone else already mentioned this, I couldn't go through all 500+ comments). First, you have speakers/room that you know and trust. Second, I would use the plugin to copy the sound of your speakers in the room but on the headphones. Thus if you are having to tweak setting remotely for a client, you can pop on your headphones and know that you are hearing the mix as if your were in front of your speakers. Also, this plugin needs to be AFTER the main output stage so that your mix file does not contain any changes made by this plugin.
Another way to put this is, when setting up the plugin settings, don't create a good sounding mix on the phones, create a copy of how your room sounds with your speakers. Certainly anyone could do this with various other plugins, like reverbs and EQs, but I guess this plugin pulls it all together and gives you one interface to work with. I don't see this plugin as any advantage for someone who doesn't have monitors they have learned and trust.
Great video, I just came across you from a post in FB Reaper group - subscribed!
Please try Slate Digital VSX For us !! Great vid as always