Please share Your thoughts on headphone calibration and room simulation plugins.

Do they have a noticeable effect on the mix or is it unnecessary to use them?

Could it be true that certain calibration plugins work well for some headphones but not for others?

Which one do you prefer?

Pros and cons of each.

 

As a researcher in acoustics and virtual monitoring solutions :

Headphones calibration :

- Based on generic profiles ? Kinda okay
- Based on an individual measurement made on a head simulator ? Pretty good
- Based on personnalized measurements made with microphones inside your ear canals ? Perfect

Room simulation plugins :

- Did you import a SOFA file containing your own personal HRTFs ?
> Yes ? Very good
> No ? Fucking useless

- Is it a Binaural Room Impulse Response recorded with mics in your ear canals ?
> Yes ? Very good
> No ? Fucking useless

With that in mind :

- Flux Ircam SPAT, APL Virtuoso (when loaded with custom SOFA file) and custom BRIRs : Very good, especially with calibrated headphones/IEMs

- Waves NX, Acustica Sienna, Slate VSX : Just a gimmick. It could help you for a quick check, but the actual sound quality is bad.

 

Last edited: Feb 9, 2024

Really thank you, I didn't use any of those, I just used sonarworks and It wasn't particularly remarkable.

 

@Fowly

Since you are knowledgeable about this subject:

I heard about a pretty much mannequin head being used instead of a real human head. This was a long time ago, but they were able to stuff mics in it. This was a feat, because the sub-miniature mics today weren't available then. Is this practice still in use today, or are they literally using human heads and ears to put mics in?

 

How about Genelec Aural ID?
It seems interesting

 

Not the biggest expert on that as I don't really need them in what I work on, but I know that both are used, however mannequin heads are more common (B&K and GRAS are the two big names in this field, although I often see in-house made head simulators around). The thing with in-ear mics is that they're only really accurate if they're really close to your eardrums AND if they don't alter the acoustics inside your ears. For HRTF measurements, as you don't need to measure low frequencies, probe mics can be used. They're not the most accurate in the low-end, so if you want to do something like capturing a Binaural Room Impulse Response, you need the membrane inside your ear canal. The real deal. To my knowledge, only the mad men at Sony managed to make one, and uses it for their customized 360RA virtual monitoring program. Other commercial solutions such as this one : https://www.earfish.eu/ are simply not accurate enough.

Regarding existing solutions, it's probably the best compromise between how easy it is to setup and how good it sounds. However, even if it uses a customized HRTF file, it still uses generic profiles to correct your headphones.

The best thing to do today, is to create your own SOFA file using Mesh2HRTF, import it something like Flux Ircam SPAT or APL Virtuoso, and use calibrated IEMs. Headphones are much more complicated to properly calibrate as they create their own little acoustics around the ear. IEMs are so close to your eardrums that there are no reflections, so calibrating using an external ear simulator leads to good results. So kind of a tedious process...

 

I read one of your posts about recommending headphones, Unfortunately, before that time I bought a BD DT990 pro 250ohm(based on reviews i read) and it's not that good(except details), Which model/brand of IEMs do you recommend in the $200 price range?
Sorry for taking your time.
Thank you in advance

 

Last edited: Feb 9, 2024

Truthear Nova without a doubt, especially with the foam eartips.

 

I just take a seat

 

What a lovely thing(Detachable cable, Different tips, Its frequency response)
The cheaper products of the Truthear also look interesting
Thank you so much

 

Yeah, another thread slowly turned into Thruthear, the world leader in professional monitoring tools...
Tried the Truthear Crinacle and was absolutely shocked, how this horrible garbage could receive so much praise.

It's one thing, if average Joe likes, for example Beyerdynamics mudslinger headphones, but it'S embarassing, if audiopeople do not know what upper bass bumps do to lower mids, and how important that is, when it comes to production and mixing.

And audiosciencereview even has the audacity to bash one of the best cheap headphones, the Sony MDR 7506...

Guys, don't believe any "recommendations", no matter how many positive reviews something has. The net has been turned into a PR BS sh.tshow.

Look what professionals are using daily. This gives a good indication, what really works.

 

Headphone calibration has become indispensable for me. The plugin that gave the best result with my HD650 and HD380 Pro is Morphit by Toneboosters (and I tried everything btw). For room simulators (almost anechoic in my case), I use some custom IRs from an old Dell laptop, a Hi-Fi/ISO-226-2023 curve and an IR of the Waves Nx CLA boombox with minimum room sound.

 

Last edited: Oct 12, 2024

I love my iLoud Precision MTM <3

absolutely!

 

I have never tried either because I already get annoyed by the smearing when using regular EQ, so using it on top of my main monitoring devices just seems extra annoying. But I admit I am an ignorant on the subject.

 

How do you like that vs. Sonarworks?

 

I can't stand Sonarworks (and Waves NX and Dear VR) headphone corrections, because they all correct as if it were speakers (flat). All details are being lost. Totally wrong approach. The bass part of the Harman curve may be a bit too loud for mixing, but the rising midrange and significantly louder treble part I find absolutely essential for translation.

 

I used to like calibration back when I used a Sennheiser HD598 (I didn't even mix back then, only composed/arranged), both Sonarworks and TB Morphit really give some life to these headphones. Fast forward, I hate calibration in both my Sennheiser HD58X and FiiO FT3. It's just a button to turn your fun headphones instantly boring, and I don't listen to boring headphones.

My overall feeling is that headphones calibration is vastly overhyped and not necessary at all. If you know your headphones, you know them well enough to know how music should sound on them. And if you're unsure, just listen to your mix anywhere else and you will find out. But of course companies such as Sonarworks want you to believe your headphones suck without their product.

 

yes exactly, they are useful to get a different "feel" of a mix, but the best certainly remains to get a decent/good pair of headphones, take your time and learn it. That, and using reference tracks to keep in line when unsure.

 

I can only speak for the HD650 and HD380 but Sonarworks' correction is, in my opinion, far inferior to Toneboosters with these headphones. Listening to various references and a pink noise, Toneboosters' correction is simply ideal to my ears while Sonarworks, like more or less all other curve correctors, is not good enough, with unpleasant frequencies that would make me make bad decisions when mixing. That said, to each his own tastes, to each his own ears...

 

Because they are equing torwards flat.
Go to autoeq.app. Surely has your HP measurements.
Choose a Harman curve, export the EQ correction parameters for your headphone for a parametric eq and be surprised, that after years they still ignore it...