Waves Abbey Road headphone/room simulator

[Doug Young]

Has anyone else tried this plugin? I just checked out, and it's pretty surprising. The idea is that is makes your headphones sound as if you're in the Abby Road studio listening over monitors. I put on the headphones, and immediately thought I'd left my monitors on, it didn't have that headphone sound. It sounded very much like I was listening over my monitors. Really freaky, it tracks your head movement thru your webcam, so the sound changes as you turn your head or move toward left or right "speakers".

I'll have to see what a mix actually turns out like with this, but my impression is that it would be a decent option for people who want to use headphones because they don't have good monitors or good monitoring acoustics. I expected it was just gimicky, but SOS gave a it a good review, and it's more realistic than I expected with a quick try.

[Joseph Hanna]

Will be very interested in your results👍

[rick-slo]

Did you need iLok for the demo or is it version 9 where you do not need iLok?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Did you need iLok for the demo or is it version 9 where you do not need iLok?

I have an iLok, so I just used that, and what I got was version 12 something. But Waves may have other licensing mechanisms, I've not paid much attention to waves plugins.

[Doug Young]

One thing you don't want to do is leave the plugin on while listening over speakers... I was playing around with some other stuff, and kept thinking, gee, this is all sounding really bad, was my recording really that bad? Then I noticed I still had the headphone plugin on my master bus!

[Steev]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

One thing you don't want to do is leave the plugin on while listening over speakers... I was playing around with some other stuff, and kept thinking, gee, this is all sounding really bad, was my recording really that bad? Then I noticed I still had the headphone plugin on my master bus!

and of course disable it before you bounce out your mix!

I have been using the nux version and I like it a lot.

[Wrighty]

I tried a few of these given I mix in headphones and found Abbey rd a bit odd to use, a little disconcerting, although I don’t have monitors to compare it to. As an alternative I ended up using Goodhertz can opener which I like.

[KevWind]

Interesting
I checked out this Head Phone mixing apps web sight being advertised over on GearSpace .
it's based in Europe so I am assuming since it's a download it should not be an issue for US customers but it makes no mention of Euro to US Dollar conversion of US based customers at all

In any case it also is set up to also apply to specific brand head phones as well as some studio rooms and some different monitor speakers

https://www.sienna.studio/

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by KevWind

In any case it also is set up to also apply to specific brand head phones as well as some studio rooms and some different monitor speakers

The waves one lets you choose from some standard headphones, and included the HD6000s I have. They're of course modeling one specific studio.

[Wrighty]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Interesting
I checked out this Head Phone mixing apps web sight being advertised over on GearSpace .
it's based in Europe so I am assuming since it's a download it should not be an issue for US customers but it makes no mention of Euro to US Dollar conversion of US based customers at all

In any case it also is set up to also apply to specific brand head phones as well as some studio rooms and some different monitor speakers

https://www.sienna.studio/

How did you find this one - have you tried it?

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Wrighty

How did you find this one - have you tried it?

No I have not tried it . It is the current Headline Box add, over on GearSpace
It apparently models a number of things and has three different Volumes of presets

I assume it ships with Volume A. (honestly the website could be a better at information IMO)

Volume A
Includes 3 studio rooms, 7 sets of high end monitors, 2 consumer devices, an anechoic chamber and all headphone profiles.

[SprintBob]

I use a laptop for recording and post mixing due to space constraints so forced to use headphones for post mixing. Either of these (Sienna or Abey Road) look like a great tool for me. Which one?

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Has anyone else tried this plugin? I just checked out, and it's pretty surprising. The idea is that is makes your headphones sound as if you're in the Abby Road studio listening over monitors. I put on the headphones, and immediately thought I'd left my monitors on, it didn't have that headphone sound. It sounded very much like I was listening over my monitors. Really freaky, it tracks your head movement thru your webcam, so the sound changes as you turn your head or move toward left or right "speakers".

I'll have to see what a mix actually turns out like with this, but my impression is that it would be a decent option for people who want to use headphones because they don't have good monitors or good monitoring acoustics. I expected it was just gimicky, but SOS gave a it a good review, and it's more realistic than I expected with a quick try.

Doug, did you get the plug-in and head tracker or are you just using the plug-in?

[Wrighty]

Originally Posted by SprintBob

I use a laptop for recording and post mixing due to space constraints so forced to use headphones for post mixing. Either of these (Sienna or Abey Road) look like a great tool for me. Which one?

Bob, I’m in the same boat and find Goodhertz canopener pretty good for flattening the response of the headphones.

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by Wrighty

Bob, I’m in the same boat and find Goodhertz canopener pretty good for flattening the response of the headphones.

All three look interesting and affordable (as well as several others). What to do, what to do.........