I have several headphones and would love to find a median sonic profile between them. However, while Sonarworks comes close, it doesn't really do the job. The problem for me is that once the changes are enabled for the profile, the headphones don't sound natural -- what's missing is understanding that flat isn't always optimal for a given headphone. What I mean to say is that the anomalies in different headphones often make for what makes them "pleasing". I understand that flat should translate, but it just doesn't translate as well as knowing the idiosyncrasies of your phones and mixing to them -- while always using different pairs to make sure things are as pleasing as possible on all. Removing bass from Apple AirPods Max phones, for instance, does not make them sound like Sennheiser HD's. Removing 5-8 KHz from Beyerdynamic DT770's does not make them sound flat, it makes them uncomfortably unnatural (even though most would agree that without EQ they are far too bright.) Maybe if you could dial in an amout of correction (which maybe you can, but if yes, I couldn't find any way to do it.) Also, on a Macbook Pro with Studio One, there are problems when running the System version. I have not tried it with other DAWs. Lastly, there's a bug (again, maybe only in Studio One) but if you use the AU plug-in then render, it warns you that you're saving with Sonarworks enabled -- this is even if you clearly disable it. The only way to make it stop is to remove the plug-in completely. So, to sum up, Sonarworks is not a bad tool to get a quick look at how a mix might sound in what they see as a "perfect world", but it's not a panacea for testing your mix on various platforms. Remember that your listener will most likely not be listening with Sonarworks, most likely on something like AirPods Pro, and at the end of the day it's most important that your mix sound good on those, and in the car. In my experience, Sonarworks may take you further away from that than get you closer.
3 months ago
Sonarworks has a
4.7
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