Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 - Sonic Lab Review
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- čas přidán 12. 08. 2019
- An interesting product this, we covered it on Sonic TALK a few episodes back and I wanted to try it out. Using Waves' NX Head Tracking technology - which can work either with your webcam or via the NX Bluetooth headtracker hardware, (higher resolution) you can place yourself in the control room at Abbey Road Studios Studio 3. Listen in the virtual space, to the large, mid and near-field monitors as if you were there, with the positional changes to the sound as you move your head. There's also 5.1 and 7.1 surround systems, but you would need to have a fully routed surround session to get the most from this - however we're told this too is an impressive system and can be used for surround mixes on headphones.
We looked at the stereo version which was the last plug-in on the main stereo bus, once I had calibrated the system and entered my head measurements (head circumference and distance between ears) into the plug-in we were good to go. Attaching the NX head tracker to the top of my Senal SMH1000 (Sony MDR-V6 clones). You will need a Bluetooth equipped computer for this and also expect to replace the single AAA battery once in a while.
What makes it really work for me is the fact that the system tracks your head position, with the plug-in ensuring that the directional and early room reflection data matches the position of your head.There are also a few preset EQ curves you can apply for well-known brands and models of headphones that optimize the listening experience even further. I was unable to check that with the pairs we have at our disposal.
In practice, I found that I could identify and work with bass frequencies, that are usually pretty hard to figure out in headphones. Several times, because I have a pair of active speakers on my desk (Genelec 1029A), the sense that I was listening to actual speakers was overwhelming - I literally fogrot I was wearing a pair. There's no unpleasant phasey or weird stereo imaging while you move your head, its very convincing.
Particularly effective when soloing the kick drum, you can hea the room reflections very clearly and this somehow convinces you that you are in the room. Additionally, the bass response is very impressive, pop on the large monitors and you really get the senes of that extra bass and weight, changing to mids or near fields and the character changes quite considerably, giving you a pretty clear picture of whats going on.
Its an impressive system and one that could really help give you alternative perspectives on your mix. I can imagine a version: "Mix Checker Pack" maybe where you can listen in a car, or on a home stereo.
Maybe if this ever got hooked up to a VR system it would really work too, I found that because I had speakers in front of me it helped me "believe" that I was listening to actual speakers. More than once I was surprised by someone else being in the room, as I was sure I should have been able to hear them!
You can pick up the Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 plug-in - currently on offer for $99 or $129 with the NX head tracker hardware, If you have a reasonable, or just trusted pair of headphones, then this could really work for you and help improve your mixes.
www.waves.com/plugins/abbey-r...
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Beautiful song Nick. Truly remarkable bit of music you've made there
Best overview so far!
I love it. Once you really understand the concept, mixing decisions become easier .. sence of bottom end deepness is impossible to feel without this wonderful tool. PS: I eq my headphones using 'Reference', and by pass eq on ARS3
Thanks for this Nick.
I bought it today.. I've been using the NX Bluetooth since 2016.. I'm one of those musos that have to mix with headphones. NX actually works for me.. It really helps me with my situation .. So now I have Abbey Roads and I tell you it's a nice sounding plugin
Thanks for this.
Does the EQ part / profiled headphone models purport to do what the Sonarworks headphone plugin does? Would be good to see far more models in that drop-down!
Reaper does have a monitoring fx chain. Very useful for safety limiters, meters and monitoring tools.
Nice review! What I don't get about this plug-in is that if you leave out the head tracking (which seems wow-factor but not actually useful to engineering a 2-channel song) isn't this basically a convolution reverb that includes some speaker emulation? I just tried doing a partial stereo collapse (Waves S1) plus a convolution reverb (Waves IR) on my mix bus and, yeah, that sounds more like a room on my Sennheisers.
It's interesting they have those mid L/R speakers partially occluded behind the desk in Studio 3.. makes me feel less bad about having the bottom speakers on my Linn Keilidhs behind some (visual) monitors lol
Hi Sonic State crew!
I once backed a kickstarter project called Rondo Motion. This has got the same technology with the sensor and a iPhone app. It worked great. But it was discontinued. Do you know if this is from the same people?
That is a trip. Imagine using this with Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality. Like Behringer's Deepmind AR. You could sculpt the ultimate stereo patch.
Sorry no idea, but it really is pretty effective. Quite subtle, but bleivable
I would love an AU3 version for iOS of the Abbey Rd simulation.
is it just me or are the stereo channels reversed? turning left makes left louder when it should get quieter as the left ear is blocked by your head...
yes its reversed
Really? I double checked on the edit system and the panning was legit on my headphones.... Will explore
Seems reversed for me too, if I turn with the skull grid thing (or your head) the sound moves the opposite way to what I'd expect
Reversed here
@@sonicstate seems reversed for me as well. (but I'm using chromecast + HDMI switch with optical breakout and a optical headphone amp, so I can't be sure that there isn't something in the signal path that causes the issue)
Hey Nick, you should put out an Abbey Road Studio Mix of this track. I have the version from your EP. Be cool to have both to compare their differences.
great experience , even with a mere thin souding CZcams audio compressed upload.
Thanks very much for this ;)
Nick, the output was clipping hard dude? ; )
Mines sounds nothing like this… I have to figure out why…
Interesting product this.
Personally thinking this is too much of gimmick but maybe some people appreciate the modelling thing.
What's weird though is the fact that all three monitors sets sound almost exactly the same apart from the mains having more bass.
As far as I know those PMCs (?), B&Ws and ATCs sounds quite different to each other in real life. Shouldn't that be reflected in the modelled sound as well?
Best thing with it is IT'S ON DISCOUNT! (As always with Waves...)
I like the little doodles you make when you demo gear. Like a lot. Have you recorded and released anything? I looked on Spotify for Nick Batt and Sonic State, but didn't find anything.
I have Sonic LAB on Bandcamp, I dont use Spotify atm
Its even freakier when you use open back head phones like my Seinheiser HD 598SEs. Its bugged.
could be used on film scores ... interesting
Sounds very much like early Goldfrapp .....wonder why :)
Wow. Great demo and I love this piece, nick!! When are you releasing this music?
He released that song last year on his EP.
Thanks for the info. I checked spotify but didn’t find it.
@@stefanocancelli8654 3rd track here soniclab.bandcamp.com/album/lost-connection-3-track-ep
I mixed a whole track with the trial version with a matched pair of Beyer headphones and it works quite well, but it is still like learning a new pair of speakers, as the 3 pairs sounding so different in itself. Also I found this tracking a bit to drastic and I switched it off. The measure of your own head is very important, makes a big difference. Afterwards I compared it with my real Genelec 1029 and I was surprised, as I would do some different decisions on the Genelecs. But it’s worth if you mixing a lot with headphones.
couldn't find your bald spot Nick..
alien tech
Interesting. I got it last night and it caused my mix to sound VERY phasey. Really terrible. The bass sounds great but I don't get that feeling that there's a speaker in front of me. It's possible that Sonarworks or something else is interfering with it because I don't hear that sound at all here or other videos I've seen.
Scott Rogers have you entered your head measurements?
I dont know why that would be, iI didnt get that sensation at all. head measurements didnt make a massive difference to my perception.
@@hadror13 Yes. It didn't change it at all.
From what I read elsewhere, Sonarworks should work fine if put before the waves plugin.
@@Am6-9 I'm now using the Sonarworks Systemwide so it is always after. I'll try switching it off and see how it works.
I don't really see the point of this, it's just for monitoring?
Yes. It helps to evaluate mixes on the virtual room
ARS3... good job it isn't a number plate.
🤝🤔🥰🎤✌🏻
I’m skeptical of this product.
Not of the quality of the emulation, but the described use for it.
It is essentially putting some sort of multi-fx processor on your monitoring path (EQ = frequency response curve of the speaker output at listening position, Reverb = for room emulation), and putting effects on the monitoring path makes little sense, as one will hear things that will then not be on the mix, and the character of the mix would still be different in another environment.
Had it been a mix-checker bundle, to do some listening tests, mainly then on lower end systems, that would have made sense.
Unless the intended listener does their music listening in the Abbey Roads studio 3, but that is highly unlikely.
I could see two uses for software like this, though;
Either to have as a plugin running on one’s phone/tablet in the audio signal path to have an emulated room, while listening to music on headphones. (In some cases the mixes would have been made at that exact location or a room similar to it, though a lot of other things factors in when it comes to hearing, so one would still not hear it exactly as the sound engineer heard it).
Or secondly to actually use it to create a “made for headphone” mix of the song, for people listening on headphones, by printing through it.
The 2nd use, could be game-changing, though.
Most serious music listening today is carried out on headphones. But unfortunately a lot of tracks aren’t headphone compatible, with panned low frequencies, or stereo-reverbs that sounds only in one ear (unlike how actual reflections would behave in a room), and the crosstalk the engineer heard of the sound isn’t there, creating a different stereo-feel overall.
While mixing, or doing long sessions, it is understandable if the sound engineer would want to monitor through speakers. But really, the listener is much more likely to listen to decent quality headphones, than decent sounding speakers (and even among the ones listening to decent sounding speakers, some of them will be in cars, and still be inconsistent with the mixing environment anyhow).
For that though, the head-tracking should be turned off. And it would make little sense to use it in the studio either, as if the mix is intended primarily for headphones, the sound engineer should experience it that way (with the added bonus of an even sound at all positions in the studio).
(As a creative effect, it could be cool, but then probably not for the whole mix, unless it is a mix for a video)
I however have no idea if the Studio 3 at abbey road, is the perfect listening environment, the one to emulate on headphones. I would have probably picked a room with a bit more room sound, as that would probably sound more natural to people not used to listening to music in a high quality studio. I guess it would probably make most sense to have different listening rooms on offer, so the mix will sound like the room the artists envisions the music to be heard in.
I see little point in emulating a specific speaker. The distance between the speakers, and the distance to the listener, to get accurate cross-talk, sure, but the frequency response curve should be pretty much ideal.
On the other hand, if music is mixed for headphones, speaker position is irrelevant, as a virtual environment can be created where the music comes from the actual intended position of the sound-source… (it could be hyper-real in some cases, if the intended room is rather large, so a PA would be used in a real life scenario, thus diffusing the position of the source, if live sound is heard from the source at all, at the intended listening position).
I brought the nx tracker with abbey road studio 3 for $109. Software wasn't activated immediately, even if I can use it without hardware. Apparently coming in post today with hardware, duh! And got charger $40 shipping for software and a dongle!!!! Add to that import duty of £40 on this dongle and software, first time I've paid import tax on software!!! So that bargain wasn't a bargain, thanks to the stupid arse practice of Waves - lucky I didn't pay full wack. Best be good as I can't afford to return in, as once I pay for postage I'll be £80+ down on a $109 deal. Totally unjustified costs. Have a word with Waves Mr Nevo, see if they can pull their head from their arse.
You get better total price buying from Thomann in Germany. Today it is 135€ (VAT included) and, if you add some other gear up to 199€, shipping is free
Stupid product, trying to cash in on the Abbey Road name