![]() Perfect Acoustics on Headphones: Inside the Abbey Road Studio 3 Plugin Having already found a foothold in gaming, there are nothing but open possibilities for immersive audio in music. When playing a VR game or watching a 3D video, one expects the sound to move around as your eyes and head wander immersive audio allows that to happen.Įven on a set of standard headphones, there are enough mixing techniques and algorithms being developed to allow 3D sound to envelop the listener and follow their perspective as they move through a virtual world. The technology is increasingly popular as it's applied to virtual reality. The Tech Within Studio 3Ī few months ago, we ran a piece on immersive audio (aka spatial or 3D audio), which asked the question "Will Immersive Audio Change the Future of Music?" In it, we referenced the research of Abbey Roads' Mirek Stiles, who, as the head of audio products at the famed studio, is at the cutting edge of the field. With it, you can make the same kind of knowledgeable, fine-tuned adjustments to your mix that you may not even hear on the monitors you have propped up on top of some books on your desk. It's a monitoring program that brings you into a world-class room. The headphones, far from sounding restrictive, expanded outward into a virtual-and virtually quiet-room.įor those of us that mix in our bedrooms, spare rooms, or whatever corner of our apartment we can find, Waves' Abbey Road Studio 3 plugin grants the type of ideal mixing environment that would otherwise remain elusive or impossible to have. Gone were the less-than-ideal reflections from the walls and furniture of the living room, gone too the attenuated frequency responses of the hi-fi speakers I had been using for playback. While this might sound like a gimmick, the utility of the program quickly became clear. Introducing the Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 Plugin (This device, the Nx Tracker, is an additional expense that lets the program more accurately follow your movements, but without it, the Studio 3 plugin can still track you through your computer's camera if you give it access.) The audio was following the headphones thanks to a small, Bluetooth-enabled sensor clipped to the top of the set. Sitting back on the couch, it was like I was returning to my seat at the mixing board, with everything balanced again. Turning toward the couch, the stereo image flipped-as it would if I had turned around in front of speakers-with the music now rushing forward over my shoulders. I took several steps to the right and the sound traveled with me. As I approached the left side, I heard more of the left channel. I got up to walk around, headphones still over my ears. While I could of course feel the headphones, the music sounded like it was still coming through the speakers set up on the wall several feet in front of me. Immediately, the sound was richer, as if I were listening through much larger speakers. Then, I turned the stereo off, placed a pair of headphones over my ears, and listened to the same album through the Abbey Road Studio 3 plugin. Nothing too fancy, with two mid-sized speakers set up in a standard left-right formation and me on a couch in front of them. In a living room, I listened to an album on a normal stereo system. Luckily, I was able to get a sneak preview. It's an experience that is probably best explained through experiencing it yourself. ![]()
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