You made me try realphones way back, and i have to thank you! It was the final piece of the puzzle. Actually it was as close to a ”game changer” i’ll ever come, however used up that phrase may be. In just 2-3 days of using it my workflow was twice as fast and my mixes translated perfectly to all systems i could get my hands on. For me the low lows was tricky getting to sit right (clubs and PA mixes), and i had a dip in the 200hz range that made my mixes a bit muddy if i didn’t remember to check for it. Also getting phones and small speakers to translate with clarity was also some work. It took a lot of extra time to double check and stumbling around in the dark. None of the other emulation plugins worked, and i’ve tried them all.. phasy, buggy, bad quality (slate…) and too unflexible to be a useful tool. All of this is a breeze now thanks to realphones! Once again, thank you! You have actually changed my (studio) life!!! ❤ take care!!
Yesterday I gave Realphone 2 a try with my Heddphone. I love the correction it does. Now when I listen to reference tracks, the kick and bass are on the exact position they should be. Up front instead of all over the place. And still sounding natural. Love it!
I was on Sonarworks/Sound ID and AA Sienna Guru. Realphones blows them away both in the number of calibrations available, headphone and room model. Also, the room emulation accuracy seems of higher fidelity via my HD650s. There was a gap of time recently in which I configured Steinberg stock EQ and used your Harmon curve setup, that was a revelation until now, what with the Harmon curve now so conveniently an option in RP 2.0.
Don't use the Harman curve in realphones, still use a custom eq for that, I've done the measurements with Sundara and it's WAY off. Their harman is just another averaged tonal option, it doesn't make their calibrations to harman
I’ve been doing tons and tons of research on headphone mixing recently and have tried literally everything. Like everything everything. VSX, Sienna, Realphones, NX, all the different EQing plugins, everything. And I have finally settled on a solution that is far superior to literally all the other commercial things you see advertised. It would take a while to describe in full detail but I’ll give a brief overview of it. If anybody wants to know more specific details about the process, comment below and I’ll do my best to explain. So it starts out with the fact that I’m mixing on headphones for 2 reasons. One because I don’t have a good room to mix in, and 2 because theoretically headphones should be better than mixing in a room because there are no reflections and weird room stuff happening. Headphones are a “perfect room” essentially. The only problems we run into with headphones are crossfeed and EQ response. Most of y’all know this already. So, first what I do is I route the audio of my DAW (Ableton) into reaper using a lossless audio router called Blackhole (free). Then I create a 121 channel audio track and a 121 channel master track in reaper. Then I add a plug-in to the audio track called axPanner from SSA Plugins (paid). This plug-in is an ambisonics encoder and allows me to add “transparent” crossfeed to my signal with high quality and definition. I set the ambisonics “order” to 10 (highest quality that requires 121 channels), and then I set the “width” to 60 degrees. What that does is adds a 60 degree binaural sort of “speaker angle” to the left and the right channel. There’s a free version of this sort of plugin that’s also good, with slightly less resolution (7th order ambisonics/64 channels) called StereoEncoder from IEM. I prefer the axPanner with the 10th order because it has slightly more realism. Then on the master track you have to put an ambisonics decoder to make it so that all these channels can be routed and perceived properly with a stereo pair of headphones. For this, the best one I’ve found is the IEM BinauralDecoder (free). Now you can hear the hyper realistic 60 degree crossfeed happening (a lot better than Canopener). Then at the end of the chain on the master track, I add a plug-in called LAconvolver which is a plain Jane, transparent convolution plugin. I use this to EQ my headphones. I go to the auto Eq website, load my headphones (Audeze MM-500) and I EQ it to the diffuse field curve with a bass boost (simulating subwoofer volume). By default auto Eq only has a -1db per octave diffuse field curve, which I don’t want, so I take add a +1db per octave tilt to it to bring it back to true diffuse field. I turn off smoothing and tweak a bunch of advanced settings (too many details to list, ask if you’re curious), until my headphones exactly match a diffuse field curve with a bass boost (21 db in my case, I know it sounds crazy). Then I select a convolution EQ in the drop-down menu for selecting your Eq App, and I export from auto Eq a wav file that is a convolution EQ of my headphones EQd to a bass boosted diffuse field curve, and then I load that file into LAconvolver. I’m using the diffuse field curve for 2 reasons. 1, the diffuse field curve is a curve that is meant to produce a “flat” sounding speaker respond when used with spacial audio or binauralized audio. And 2, it’s a very precise, exact EQ curve. If you EQ to harman, it’s an appropriation curve, which some people like, but I don’t, and also it’s the Eq curve of an already spatial or binaural speaker measurement, so then if you add an 60 degree speaker angle that actually does a realistic job, it messes up the EQ curve. So the signal chain goes DAW output > Blackhole > Reaper 121 channel audio track > axPanner (10th order ambi) > Reaper 121 channel master track > Binaural Decoder (IEM) > LAconvolver (bass boosted diffuse field curve convolution preset for my headphones). It is the most realistic headphone mixing experience I’ve ever found. It translates 100% of the time to speakers and other environments and I can hear everything with such insane accuracy and detail. Hope somebody gets something out of this!
Obviously, if your DAW supports ambisonics tracks up to 64 or 121 channels (7th and 10th order), then you don’t need to use Blackhole to route your audio into reaper, you can just do it all inside your DAW. I just do it because I use Ableton which doesn’t support ambisonics tracks.
Tbh me and Emrah mainly just use eq and canopener and 9/10 it translates but we'll still use room / speaker sims just to double check for that odd time cause the headphones take more of a priority than speakers. As long as they translate we are happy but not fussed if the speakers sound better than headphones cause it's not a massive priority in reality to the end user. For translation using a combination of different headphones work better for me. One for soundstage, another for slam and transients. I don't like trusting one headphone, I want a balance of the 2 then I go in with ollo S5X and realphones at the end for extra translation checks Whatever works for you though. As long as the mixes translates
Realphones is incredible. So many options and none of them sound phasey or boxy like other options. I've never used VSX, but I have used Waves Nx, Focusrite VRM, and Acustica Sienna - none of them sound right to me. Realphones nails it, and the system-wide implementation is great.
I always use the NS10 in Waves NX headphones plugin and i have the Real phones 2 also but not used it yet as i mainly mix in Atmos.. But if you get the mix good on NS10's it will translate great almost every where. Nice review
@@PaulThird I can understand your thoughts paul as i was 30 years ago is topped using them :) But there are still a lot of pro producer who still use them to check there mixes to this day. And i find the simulation in real phones and Waves NX having them is great
😅 My niece just said : " are you watching fantasia?" 😅 so Paul you are apparently magic xD. However, good video as always. I really love realphones, it change the way I mixed with headphones.
And I'll never be able to tell you cause they won't send me a pair to try out but tbh I would definitely prefer realphones now as you can essentially use any headphone with realphones where you are stuck the cheap vsx headphones. I'm a picky bugger when it comes to headphones
@@PaulThird They're ok on their own without cal, they have their own sound for sure, quite light in the low end, but nice for what they are. VSX for mixing on over them ALL DAY tho
Do you mean using the HD800's with Realphones vs VSX, or using the HD800's standalone vs VSX, because that's not even a comparison worth making.@@1337murk
I go to your channel often enough to know your integrity but not the reason you are no longer doing paid reviews. Personally, I think you've worked hard to build this channel and everyone here knows that music is hard. Watching you for years, I have developed trust in you and I know that if you do paid reviews, you are honest and you back up what you say with actual facts. (who else is going to tell people that even "vibe" has a science to it lol) So if its for personally reasons, then I completely understand. This is more so for anyone else reading. We aren't paying Paul, so let big companies do it. The reason he is popular is because we made him popular DUE to the fact we trust him. The day he stops being honest is the day he'll start to fail. Until then, I don't see why we can't make it easier for him to help us. Honestly, better him than other creators who are just going to do it for the money. If you ever feel the need to go back, I hope you don't feel bad about it! But if you can meet your finances in ways you enjoy better, by all means I wish that for you more than anything!
Hopefully people will use affiliate links and stuff or maybe join patreon or become channel members. Paid videos mean that the product dictates the content which I wanted to stop. I'll make better content more consistently that I actually want to make and if it flops then fuck it Appreciate the kind words though 🤜🤛
.. I think the Realphones Pro version should be good for me vs the (Standard & Ultimate versions)..I hope it has 770pro & 990pro headphone correction profiles🤔 *What version is that in the video standard, professional or ultimate ?
The problem I have is that I have no idea what a good room with good speakers sounds like, and quite honestly so many of these emulations sound somewhat hollow and wobbly. I agree with Paul in that you have to pick a room and learn it, but when you don't necessarily know the strengths and weaknesses from the beginning, it's hard to know where the weakness is in your track - is it a weakness because the room has a weakness or because the track has a weakness? And then, checking in other rooms/speakers causes things to get overwhelming because there's no room where everything is just 'perfect' sounding - at least not to me. I have this problem with both Slate VSX and with Realphones.
You don't need to know what good speakers in a good room sound like with realphones. Just trust the process. Don't go mucking about in the advanced tab. Just trust what realphones have made and learn the rooms with pro tracks you know well and learn certain common characteristics that you hear between rooms and speakers. You've gotta train your ear to the sound of realphones and VSX. Once you do you'll have amazing translation
Hi Paul, I recently upgraded to the Ananda Nanos, and also got your EQ profile for them. Seems to work really well, pretty neutral actually and very comparable to my speakers (Eve Audio SC3073), even though I have minimum treatment in my room. The only thing missing for me is the crossfeed part which I definatelly think is necesary. I have tried both realphones 2 (crossfeed only, no room/speaker simulation) and can opener and they sound ... different. Clearly they are doing slightly different things, but the question is, which has the more accurate algorythm? Have you tried can opener? The thing is, I want to have it constantly on, and I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by messing up the HP sound with somethign unnatural that makes it more difficult to judge the stereo immage. I am not that experienced to be able to reliably tell myself so I don't know who to ask that works professionaly on headphones besides you. Thank you very much!
@@PaulThird- Why do you not use the crosstalk feature in Realphones? Please forgive this foolish question if it’s in the video, I haven’t watched that far yet. Great video so far!
Cause I'm super anal. Everything in realphones is setup by default to work primarily with the emulations. HRTF focused. I think I heard rumours that there was a way of adapting the advanced settings to emulate the cross talk of canopener but I don't think that was the mix engineer preset which is what I've been using for years. I tend to split processes for what each does best. Realphones is the king for speaker and room simulation, canopener is the king for straight up crosstalk without room & speaker simulation. I never mix with realphones as my primary reference, always harman eq & canopener. Then I reference with realphones near the end
what eq correction software is Emrah using before the Ghz can opener . Im using audeze lcd x 2021 with auto eq settings and Harmon 2018 curve. Working that out still...
Interesting. A lot of big names with big speakers are mixing mostly on cans now. If you know your shit about mixing on headphones you understand why they prefer them
Very true but a lot of speaker guys slate headphones without doing any research about how to actually mix professionally on them. Its only really till now where the myth that you can't mix professionally on headphones is being debunked Don't get me started on the guys slating headphones when they are mixing with mid tier speakers in rooms that are poorly treated. Whatever works but there are very big struggles with both if you don't know your shit Each to their own.
If you eq the headphones right and use the speaker and room sims periodically for translation checks I'd say so. Headphones eq'd correctly always stand a good chance of resulting in a better mix
Hello Paul. I've been watching your videos about mixing on headphones as I'm trying to get that working. I'm thinking of the Sundara and an amp. I have a RME Fireface 802 and I'm thinking if I should get just an amp like the topping L50 that I can get for 170 euros or a DAC/Amp like a FiiO K5 for 145. Or for a bit more, a Topping DX3 Pro+ or FiiO K7.Any impressions? Thanks
In your case I would just get a topping headphone amp. L30 measures better than L50. I know the L50 is balanced but L30 still measures just slightly better. Get whatever one you can get the best price on
Thanks! The old L30 you can find for around 100. There's a new Fiio L30IIthat goes for 150. Have to check what's different about it. Thanks again for the videos on the subject. I was feeling that sonarworks wasn't quite right. Since then I've got some Harman tuned IEMs and that, sounds right to me. Your videos gave me the will to pursuit one more dragon. It seems that I'm an average Harman head and that makes me happy, I feel that I'm not shooting to a moving target anymore. Let's see how it goes. @@PaulThird
Hi Paul could you please share your eq settings for the ananda nano for realphones or proQ 3? im about to upgrade from the sundara and i used your preset for it and it was spot-on :) thxs in advance.
Remember that if transferring the proq3 eq in realphones you would need to do the Q calculation as realphones are using a standard Q like what auto eq give you
The only problem with mixing on headphones is that wearing headphones is not good for hair health and general becomes uncomfortable during long sessions. Like me, most people don't have a choice since it's difficult to set up a proper space. In that case, we appreciate innovative companies and products like this.
I never get uncomfortable during long sessions with hifiman. However if you are using audeze then hell mend ya. Need a fucking neck brace for their closed backs 😂
So from what I understand... if you can afford to get yourself 3 different headphones that give you different perspectives of the mix, using one headphone to mix in canopener+harman eq and then reference realphones on 3 different sets of headphones that give you that transient punch, one for soundstage, and one for binaural depth, to check how it translates into other speakers/real world environments, then realphones is for you. If you can't afford to get 3 headphones to check everything then get vsx where it does it all for you as only using one planar magnetic headphone, unless you have a headphone that gives you the best soundstage possible, to mix with canopener and reference using realphones won't be enough because using only one headphone won't give you the "whole picture" in terms of the things that you mentioned. This is all assuming that you have a top grade dac/amp combo.
I mainly mix on HE1000SE as it has the best soundstage and resolution. I then switch to Ananda nano as it has the best transient and upfront detail. I go between the two until I have the best balance and then I go to ollo S5X as it works the best with realphones to my ears. The HE1000SE and ananda nano use harman eq and canopener. Ollo S5X and realphones are for the very end of the mix as my main priority is headphone translation. Speaker translation is only really just for slight tweaks. When I get a harmonious balance of the 3 with the hifimans taking priority then I know I'm good to go. Tbh I find harman eq and canopener with both hifimans is normally enough but realphones is more of a sanity check which may just need the odd very slight tweak on a particular part of the mix. Maybe the vocal needs to come down half a db
@@PaulThird I see. So, if you're not able to have that workflow that you just mentioned, I would assume that using vsx to do your priority mixing on and reference using ananda nano paired up with canopener and harman eq would suffice.
@@PaulThird I can see why the nano's would be the priority now as the general audience consumes music these days on headphones/earbuds so I would see why the nano's would take the pride of place over here. Not to say that studio monitor translation isn't important but the importance of consumer headphone translation has that slight edge over translation over different studio monitors because not everyone is consuming music on studio monitors.
Currently using SoundID (SonarWorks) with my Neumann NDH-30s. Maybe I should've picked up RealPhones when it was on sale recently...? Is it much better than SonarWorks?
I have been using AirPods Max and Sienna cuz I need to noise cancel to get mixes done at work while people are in the space playing music. Works surprisingly well. I am not using a room sim just the reference pro thing. haven't spent much time with the room simulations, feel like the learning curve on the room is not worth it at the moment. Real phone have AirPods Max?
the thing i find annoying, is the speaker emulations like laptops tvs and bluetooth speakers, they’re terrible. they don’t sound accurate at all. why am i hearing 20hz on a flatscreen tv? nooooope. i love this software, and swear by it, but these ones are a hard miss haha
Laptops didn't do it for me, one of the smartphones did, JBL Bluetooth worked well. I found playing with the environment slider made a big change to make this tonally correct to what I'm used to as its all dependent on the type of device and the environment you listen in Perhaps one of the tv emulations has a soundbar setup? My parents tv setup has a lot of sub which is another reference to bare in mind. Lots of people have sound bar setups
@@PaulThird yea i haven’t messed with the environment slider too much, so i’ll have to see what i can dial in. and even with soundbars it just didn’t feel right haha but idk, i could be wrong
Sorry Gordito, buy all the Heaphone 'Mixing software" are rubbish, they do not put the headphone amp in the equation....are thousands or hundreds of combination because Headphone Amps+headphones... the headphone amp change drastically the freq response of the headphones... the harman curve is ok, but is pretty much like to learn how your headphone translate..so we back to square one.... your studio is looking "chef kiss" hahahahaa
There should be 2 at the very start. But I forgot the one in the middle. It depends what device you watch on whether the cards show but the 2 at the start should work
Yeah it's became a widespread problem in the audio community now. The problem is that the audience don't know when it's being paid to review things they like, or whether it's boy cried wolf.
@@PaulThird I gotcha. I know you’re passionate and informative about what you do. We’ve discussed real and in-depth details on products and plugins. So, I know where you’re coming from. Your likes and dislikes have been genuine. Always tethered to good analysis and sound reason IMO. I really can’t see you shilling BS, but I understand the dilemma and appearance of sponsored content. I’m here for the straight shooting content. So, keep on, keeping on. I’m always rocking with you. 👍🏾
You made me try realphones way back, and i have to thank you! It was the final piece of the puzzle. Actually it was as close to a ”game changer” i’ll ever come, however used up that phrase may be. In just 2-3 days of using it my workflow was twice as fast and my mixes translated perfectly to all systems i could get my hands on. For me the low lows was tricky getting to sit right (clubs and PA mixes), and i had a dip in the 200hz range that made my mixes a bit muddy if i didn’t remember to check for it. Also getting phones and small speakers to translate with clarity was also some work. It took a lot of extra time to double check and stumbling around in the dark. None of the other emulation plugins worked, and i’ve tried them all.. phasy, buggy, bad quality (slate…) and too unflexible to be a useful tool. All of this is a breeze now thanks to realphones! Once again, thank you! You have actually changed my (studio) life!!! ❤ take care!!
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The HS5s in this plugin sound exactly like my HS5s. So I'm confident that the other monitors in this plugin are accurate as well.
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Yesterday I gave Realphone 2 a try with my Heddphone. I love the correction it does. Now when I listen to reference tracks, the kick and bass are on the exact position they should be. Up front instead of all over the place. And still sounding natural. Love it!
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I was on Sonarworks/Sound ID and AA Sienna Guru. Realphones blows them away both in the number of calibrations available, headphone and room model. Also, the room emulation accuracy seems of higher fidelity via my HD650s. There was a gap of time recently in which I configured Steinberg stock EQ and used your Harmon curve setup, that was a revelation until now, what with the Harmon curve now so conveniently an option in RP 2.0.
Don't use the Harman curve in realphones, still use a custom eq for that, I've done the measurements with Sundara and it's WAY off. Their harman is just another averaged tonal option, it doesn't make their calibrations to harman
@@PaulThird how do you do a custom eq can you do a tutorial on the plugin thanks
I’ve been doing tons and tons of research on headphone mixing recently and have tried literally everything. Like everything everything. VSX, Sienna, Realphones, NX, all the different EQing plugins, everything. And I have finally settled on a solution that is far superior to literally all the other commercial things you see advertised. It would take a while to describe in full detail but I’ll give a brief overview of it. If anybody wants to know more specific details about the process, comment below and I’ll do my best to explain.
So it starts out with the fact that I’m mixing on headphones for 2 reasons. One because I don’t have a good room to mix in, and 2 because theoretically headphones should be better than mixing in a room because there are no reflections and weird room stuff happening. Headphones are a “perfect room” essentially. The only problems we run into with headphones are crossfeed and EQ response. Most of y’all know this already.
So, first what I do is I route the audio of my DAW (Ableton) into reaper using a lossless audio router called Blackhole (free). Then I create a 121 channel audio track and a 121 channel master track in reaper. Then I add a plug-in to the audio track called axPanner from SSA Plugins (paid). This plug-in is an ambisonics encoder and allows me to add “transparent” crossfeed to my signal with high quality and definition. I set the ambisonics “order” to 10 (highest quality that requires 121 channels), and then I set the “width” to 60 degrees. What that does is adds a 60 degree binaural sort of “speaker angle” to the left and the right channel. There’s a free version of this sort of plugin that’s also good, with slightly less resolution (7th order ambisonics/64 channels) called StereoEncoder from IEM. I prefer the axPanner with the 10th order because it has slightly more realism. Then on the master track you have to put an ambisonics decoder to make it so that all these channels can be routed and perceived properly with a stereo pair of headphones. For this, the best one I’ve found is the IEM BinauralDecoder (free). Now you can hear the hyper realistic 60 degree crossfeed happening (a lot better than Canopener). Then at the end of the chain on the master track, I add a plug-in called LAconvolver which is a plain Jane, transparent convolution plugin. I use this to EQ my headphones. I go to the auto Eq website, load my headphones (Audeze MM-500) and I EQ it to the diffuse field curve with a bass boost (simulating subwoofer volume). By default auto Eq only has a -1db per octave diffuse field curve, which I don’t want, so I take add a +1db per octave tilt to it to bring it back to true diffuse field. I turn off smoothing and tweak a bunch of advanced settings (too many details to list, ask if you’re curious), until my headphones exactly match a diffuse field curve with a bass boost (21 db in my case, I know it sounds crazy). Then I select a convolution EQ in the drop-down menu for selecting your Eq App, and I export from auto Eq a wav file that is a convolution EQ of my headphones EQd to a bass boosted diffuse field curve, and then I load that file into LAconvolver. I’m using the diffuse field curve for 2 reasons. 1, the diffuse field curve is a curve that is meant to produce a “flat” sounding speaker respond when used with spacial audio or binauralized audio. And 2, it’s a very precise, exact EQ curve. If you EQ to harman, it’s an appropriation curve, which some people like, but I don’t, and also it’s the Eq curve of an already spatial or binaural speaker measurement, so then if you add an 60 degree speaker angle that actually does a realistic job, it messes up the EQ curve.
So the signal chain goes DAW output > Blackhole > Reaper 121 channel audio track > axPanner (10th order ambi) > Reaper 121 channel master track > Binaural Decoder (IEM) > LAconvolver (bass boosted diffuse field curve convolution preset for my headphones).
It is the most realistic headphone mixing experience I’ve ever found. It translates 100% of the time to speakers and other environments and I can hear everything with such insane accuracy and detail. Hope somebody gets something out of this!
Obviously, if your DAW supports ambisonics tracks up to 64 or 121 channels (7th and 10th order), then you don’t need to use Blackhole to route your audio into reaper, you can just do it all inside your DAW. I just do it because I use Ableton which doesn’t support ambisonics tracks.
Tbh me and Emrah mainly just use eq and canopener and 9/10 it translates but we'll still use room / speaker sims just to double check for that odd time cause the headphones take more of a priority than speakers. As long as they translate we are happy but not fussed if the speakers sound better than headphones cause it's not a massive priority in reality to the end user.
For translation using a combination of different headphones work better for me. One for soundstage, another for slam and transients.
I don't like trusting one headphone, I want a balance of the 2 then I go in with ollo S5X and realphones at the end for extra translation checks
Whatever works for you though. As long as the mixes translates
Hello, could you give more information about your process? and very interesting!
-google translate-
I'm from Brazil
Love this! ❤️ Thanks for sharing! 👍
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Realphones is incredible. So many options and none of them sound phasey or boxy like other options. I've never used VSX, but I have used Waves Nx, Focusrite VRM, and Acustica Sienna - none of them sound right to me. Realphones nails it, and the system-wide implementation is great.
Yeah this upgrade was a big improvement
I always use the NS10 in Waves NX headphones plugin and i have the Real phones 2 also but not used it yet as i mainly mix in Atmos.. But if you get the mix good on NS10's it will translate great almost every where. Nice review
I can't stand NS10's so I don't go near them. 25 years ago they made sense but on today's playback systems
@@PaulThird I can understand your thoughts paul as i was 30 years ago is topped using them :) But there are still a lot of pro producer who still use them to check there mixes to this day. And i find the simulation in real phones and Waves NX having them is great
I was going to download the 41-day trial, but I was really looking for something with a 42 or 43-day trial.
So close
😅 My niece just said : " are you watching fantasia?" 😅 so Paul you are apparently magic xD. However, good video as always. I really love realphones, it change the way I mixed with headphones.
Random but I'll take it haha
@@PaulThird it was pretty random for me to but yeah why not
I wonder how this compares to VSX headphones.
And I'll never be able to tell you cause they won't send me a pair to try out but tbh I would definitely prefer realphones now as you can essentially use any headphone with realphones where you are stuck the cheap vsx headphones. I'm a picky bugger when it comes to headphones
@@PaulThirdI have HD800'S and vsx, and I'll pick vsx all day every day over the hd's
What about the headphones on their own without calibration?
@@PaulThird They're ok on their own without cal, they have their own sound for sure, quite light in the low end, but nice for what they are. VSX for mixing on over them ALL DAY tho
Do you mean using the HD800's with Realphones vs VSX, or using the HD800's standalone vs VSX, because that's not even a comparison worth making.@@1337murk
I go to your channel often enough to know your integrity but not the reason you are no longer doing paid reviews. Personally, I think you've worked hard to build this channel and everyone here knows that music is hard. Watching you for years, I have developed trust in you and I know that if you do paid reviews, you are honest and you back up what you say with actual facts. (who else is going to tell people that even "vibe" has a science to it lol) So if its for personally reasons, then I completely understand. This is more so for anyone else reading. We aren't paying Paul, so let big companies do it. The reason he is popular is because we made him popular DUE to the fact we trust him. The day he stops being honest is the day he'll start to fail. Until then, I don't see why we can't make it easier for him to help us. Honestly, better him than other creators who are just going to do it for the money. If you ever feel the need to go back, I hope you don't feel bad about it! But if you can meet your finances in ways you enjoy better, by all means I wish that for you more than anything!
Hopefully people will use affiliate links and stuff or maybe join patreon or become channel members. Paid videos mean that the product dictates the content which I wanted to stop. I'll make better content more consistently that I actually want to make and if it flops then fuck it
Appreciate the kind words though 🤜🤛
.. I think the Realphones Pro version should be good for me vs the (Standard & Ultimate versions)..I hope it has 770pro & 990pro headphone correction profiles🤔
*What version is that in the video standard, professional or ultimate ?
Can't remember id need to check. I think I only get up to 3 headphone calibrations
The problem I have is that I have no idea what a good room with good speakers sounds like, and quite honestly so many of these emulations sound somewhat hollow and wobbly. I agree with Paul in that you have to pick a room and learn it, but when you don't necessarily know the strengths and weaknesses from the beginning, it's hard to know where the weakness is in your track - is it a weakness because the room has a weakness or because the track has a weakness? And then, checking in other rooms/speakers causes things to get overwhelming because there's no room where everything is just 'perfect' sounding - at least not to me.
I have this problem with both Slate VSX and with Realphones.
You don't need to know what good speakers in a good room sound like with realphones. Just trust the process. Don't go mucking about in the advanced tab. Just trust what realphones have made and learn the rooms with pro tracks you know well and learn certain common characteristics that you hear between rooms and speakers.
You've gotta train your ear to the sound of realphones and VSX. Once you do you'll have amazing translation
@@PaulThird I appreciate your reply from fellow Edinburger 😁 and I get what you are saying and I am trying to do just that!
@@davidleewarnerAs a somewhat of a wiseguy jedi master used to say: "You must unlearn, what you have learned."
That studio looking tasty
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Hi Paul, I recently upgraded to the Ananda Nanos, and also got your EQ profile for them. Seems to work really well, pretty neutral actually and very comparable to my speakers (Eve Audio SC3073), even though I have minimum treatment in my room. The only thing missing for me is the crossfeed part which I definatelly think is necesary. I have tried both realphones 2 (crossfeed only, no room/speaker simulation) and can opener and they sound ... different. Clearly they are doing slightly different things, but the question is, which has the more accurate algorythm? Have you tried can opener? The thing is, I want to have it constantly on, and I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by messing up the HP sound with somethign unnatural that makes it more difficult to judge the stereo immage.
I am not that experienced to be able to reliably tell myself so I don't know who to ask that works professionaly on headphones besides you.
Thank you very much!
I mix with harman & canopener, reference speakers and spaces with realphones
@@PaulThird- Why do you not use the crosstalk feature in Realphones? Please forgive this foolish question if it’s in the video, I haven’t watched that far yet. Great video so far!
Cause I'm super anal. Everything in realphones is setup by default to work primarily with the emulations. HRTF focused. I think I heard rumours that there was a way of adapting the advanced settings to emulate the cross talk of canopener but I don't think that was the mix engineer preset which is what I've been using for years.
I tend to split processes for what each does best. Realphones is the king for speaker and room simulation, canopener is the king for straight up crosstalk without room & speaker simulation.
I never mix with realphones as my primary reference, always harman eq & canopener. Then I reference with realphones near the end
@@PaulThird Hey Paul, where can i find your EQ for the Nano?
Patreon
what eq correction software is Emrah using before the Ghz can opener . Im using audeze lcd x 2021 with auto eq settings and Harmon 2018 curve. Working that out still...
Harman eq in proq3. That's it.
Good to see somebody pushing phones over speakers,, tis the future hehe 🤘
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All the virtual tools in the world are not going to change my mind. I hate using cans for anything other than tracking when necessary.
Interesting. A lot of big names with big speakers are mixing mostly on cans now. If you know your shit about mixing on headphones you understand why they prefer them
@PaulThird A guy can know his shit and still prefer to not use them.
Very true but a lot of speaker guys slate headphones without doing any research about how to actually mix professionally on them.
Its only really till now where the myth that you can't mix professionally on headphones is being debunked
Don't get me started on the guys slating headphones when they are mixing with mid tier speakers in rooms that are poorly treated.
Whatever works but there are very big struggles with both if you don't know your shit
Each to their own.
Hi Paul, how this compares to the VSX in your opinion, mix translation wise?
Dunno, never tried VSX
Will the software help me get good mixes? Because I've never managed that before. 😆 Seriously, I might just buy this product!
If you eq the headphones right and use the speaker and room sims periodically for translation checks I'd say so. Headphones eq'd correctly always stand a good chance of resulting in a better mix
@@PaulThird I will keep that in mind, thank you, Paul Third!
Hello Paul. I've been watching your videos about mixing on headphones as I'm trying to get that working. I'm thinking of the Sundara and an amp. I have a RME Fireface 802 and I'm thinking if I should get just an amp like the topping L50 that I can get for 170 euros or a DAC/Amp like a FiiO K5 for 145. Or for a bit more, a Topping DX3 Pro+ or FiiO K7.Any impressions? Thanks
In your case I would just get a topping headphone amp. L30 measures better than L50. I know the L50 is balanced but L30 still measures just slightly better. Get whatever one you can get the best price on
Thanks! The old L30 you can find for around 100. There's a new Fiio L30IIthat goes for 150. Have to check what's different about it. Thanks again for the videos on the subject. I was feeling that sonarworks wasn't quite right. Since then I've got some Harman tuned IEMs and that, sounds right to me. Your videos gave me the will to pursuit one more dragon. It seems that I'm an average Harman head and that makes me happy, I feel that I'm not shooting to a moving target anymore. Let's see how it goes. @@PaulThird
Hi Paul could you please share your eq settings for the ananda nano for realphones or proQ 3? im about to upgrade from the sundara and i used your preset for it and it was spot-on :) thxs in advance.
It's on my patreon
great thxs @@PaulThird
Remember that if transferring the proq3 eq in realphones you would need to do the Q calculation as realphones are using a standard Q like what auto eq give you
The only problem with mixing on headphones is that wearing headphones is not good for hair health and general becomes uncomfortable during long sessions. Like me, most people don't have a choice since it's difficult to set up a proper space. In that case, we appreciate innovative companies and products like this.
I never get uncomfortable during long sessions with hifiman. However if you are using audeze then hell mend ya. Need a fucking neck brace for their closed backs 😂
Hair health? 🤔
Curious, have you comapred these to the dearvr (latest version)
No
So from what I understand... if you can afford to get yourself 3 different headphones that give you different perspectives of the mix, using one headphone to mix in canopener+harman eq and then reference realphones on 3 different sets of headphones that give you that transient punch, one for soundstage, and one for binaural depth, to check how it translates into other speakers/real world environments, then realphones is for you. If you can't afford to get 3 headphones to check everything then get vsx where it does it all for you as only using one planar magnetic headphone, unless you have a headphone that gives you the best soundstage possible, to mix with canopener and reference using realphones won't be enough because using only one headphone won't give you the "whole picture" in terms of the things that you mentioned. This is all assuming that you have a top grade dac/amp combo.
I mainly mix on HE1000SE as it has the best soundstage and resolution. I then switch to Ananda nano as it has the best transient and upfront detail. I go between the two until I have the best balance and then I go to ollo S5X as it works the best with realphones to my ears.
The HE1000SE and ananda nano use harman eq and canopener.
Ollo S5X and realphones are for the very end of the mix as my main priority is headphone translation.
Speaker translation is only really just for slight tweaks. When I get a harmonious balance of the 3 with the hifimans taking priority then I know I'm good to go.
Tbh I find harman eq and canopener with both hifimans is normally enough but realphones is more of a sanity check which may just need the odd very slight tweak on a particular part of the mix. Maybe the vocal needs to come down half a db
@@PaulThird I see. So, if you're not able to have that workflow that you just mentioned, I would assume that using vsx to do your priority mixing on and reference using ananda nano paired up with canopener and harman eq would suffice.
@Sandvinch yeah but switch the priority. Nano priority, vsx secondary
@@PaulThird I can see why the nano's would be the priority now as the general audience consumes music these days on headphones/earbuds so I would see why the nano's would take the pride of place over here. Not to say that studio monitor translation isn't important but the importance of consumer headphone translation has that slight edge over translation over different studio monitors because not everyone is consuming music on studio monitors.
What are you using for mixing on headphones? 🤓
Currently using SoundID (SonarWorks) with my Neumann NDH-30s. Maybe I should've picked up RealPhones when it was on sale recently...? Is it much better than SonarWorks?
Night and day. I made a video on why I don't advise sonarworks for mixing on headphones
I have been using AirPods Max and Sienna cuz I need to noise cancel to get mixes done at work while people are in the space playing music. Works surprisingly well. I am not using a room sim just the reference pro thing. haven't spent much time with the room simulations, feel like the learning curve on the room is not worth it at the moment. Real phone have AirPods Max?
APL Virtuoso, a new-ish kid on the block
You should really check out the Slate VSX
If they were to send me it I would but now I can eq my hifimans via realphones and I have ollo s5x I know I would stick with realphones
Nice descriptions there without playing any audio. Conveyed successfully! :-)
I couldn't succumb to the "let's play a song through all the emulations" again. I would've probably gave dSONIQ their money back and scrapped it 😂
What do you think about mixing with sound id ?
Speakers yes (below 500hz and over like 10k), headphones no
I have a video advising exactly why I don't advise soundid for headphones
@@PaulThird can i use realphones instead? Do they translate well ?
the thing i find annoying, is the speaker emulations like laptops tvs and bluetooth speakers, they’re terrible. they don’t sound accurate at all. why am i hearing 20hz on a flatscreen tv? nooooope. i love this software, and swear by it, but these ones are a hard miss haha
Laptops didn't do it for me, one of the smartphones did, JBL Bluetooth worked well. I found playing with the environment slider made a big change to make this tonally correct to what I'm used to as its all dependent on the type of device and the environment you listen in
Perhaps one of the tv emulations has a soundbar setup? My parents tv setup has a lot of sub which is another reference to bare in mind. Lots of people have sound bar setups
@@PaulThird yea i haven’t messed with the environment slider too much, so i’ll have to see what i can dial in. and even with soundbars it just didn’t feel right haha but idk, i could be wrong
Sorry Gordito, buy all the Heaphone 'Mixing software" are rubbish, they do not put the headphone amp in the equation....are thousands or hundreds of combination because Headphone Amps+headphones... the headphone amp change drastically the freq response of the headphones... the harman curve is ok, but is pretty much like to learn how your headphone translate..so we back to square one.... your studio is looking "chef kiss" hahahahaa
If you get a proper headphone amp then it's completely linear. No change to frequency response, no distortion, simply amplifying the DAC signal
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Remember to check out my headphone mixes (referenced on realphones) on the Working Audio Tools Podcast 🤓
You keep pointing to "videos up there" but there's nothing there.
There should be 2 at the very start. But I forgot the one in the middle. It depends what device you watch on whether the cards show but the 2 at the start should work
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It's ok to make money reviewing things you like. Shilling is an entirely different thing IMO.
Yeah it's became a widespread problem in the audio community now. The problem is that the audience don't know when it's being paid to review things they like, or whether it's boy cried wolf.
@@PaulThird I gotcha. I know you’re passionate and informative about what you do. We’ve discussed real and in-depth details on products and plugins.
So, I know where you’re coming from. Your likes and dislikes have been genuine. Always tethered to good analysis and sound reason IMO. I really can’t see you shilling BS, but I understand the dilemma and appearance of sponsored content. I’m here for the straight shooting content. So, keep on, keeping on. I’m always rocking with you. 👍🏾
lol, get the money to improve your life bud, no problem 👍🏼
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a pair of shitty pc speakers are way reliable then this kind of softwares
Trump definitely mixes with headphones. Biden mixes with hearing aid.
they’re both mixing with nothing plugged in
Jesus, how did the trump and Biden saga manage to wriggle its way into a headphone video. I didn't even think that was possible
@@PaulThird I feel you, this is usually my safe space
@@PaulThird 😄
Biden keeps wondering how he’s got a muddy low end