Sonarworks Headphone Calibration - First Impressions
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
- I recently treated myself to a pair of individually calibrated Beyerdynamic DT770 PRO headphones from Sonarworks, along with their Reference 4 software. In this video I do my best to explain what this is, the benefits, how it might change my workflow when it comes to mixing and why you should check them out for yourself!
SONARWORKS: www.sonarworks.com/
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Introduction
00:32 - My Old Headphones
01:07 - Sonarworks
03:19 - What is Individual Calibration!?
06:07 - Beyerdynamic DT770 PROs Overview
07:42 - Reference 4 and My Calibration
12:33 - Final Thoughts
►MAX MCGUIRE: bit.ly/31oDjcx
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Good video. I think you explained it really well. I've also got a pair of DT770 Pro 80ohms which i've been using for music production the last 6 months or so. I recently did a production masterclass in which a mix I submitted was too harsh in the percussion range. I couldn't understand because these headphones are so much flatter than others I had used. I was sent a sonarworks screenshot showing the average profile for these headphones and it all made sense. I set up a trial and wow! what a difference it made to hear the mix with a flattened response. It allowed me to make some quick adjustments and vastly improve all of the tracks I had made using the DT770's. I'd recommend using Sonarworks Sound ID Reference to anyone serious about music production.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Glad you're able to have such a benefit to using the flat response - in some circumstances they can really make quite the difference, like you highlighted yourself. :)
this guy answered exactly what i was trying to figure out. Thank you
Ur setup looks so nice man! Love it, especially the piano :3
Thanks man! The piano is actually available to download as a free VST from Pianobook! :D Thanks for watching
Nice informative and detailed video, good stuff
Thank you for watching! :)
Great video! I'm tempted to try Sonarworks out
Definitely worth a try! :)
You get 21 days trial. It's incredible
Interesting video. I’ve had a pair of dt770s for a few years and I love them dearly. I only use them for tracking (or using as a pair of general headphones when I need to be quiet!) and wouldn’t use them for mixing (I have some 880s for that, that are much flatter and semi-open back), as they are out of the box at least. They are very warm and quite a big boost in the very low mids and bass I reckon, would be interesting to see what the sonar works software does.
Edit - Yep should have watched the rest of the video lol. Interesting about the treble boost, would never have guessed that.
Thanks for watching! :) My 770s have quickly become my favourite pair of headphones I've ever owned. The treble boost was a surprise to me too! :-)
Good review
Great video max. In your opinion,, on my show reel which is mastered and uploaded, do I now need to go back to my DAW, load TWO plugins - Sonarworks and Fabfilter EQ in my case, and then in my Fabfilter, copy the same green EQ curve from the Sonarworks plugin into Fabfilter EQ and then render? (bypassing the Sonar works plugin)? Is that it or am I missing a process? Thanks.
Dt770s have lasted me 5 years and are still in great condition despite lots of abuse. Great vid my dude
Thanks man! Yeah, I can see these seeing my through at least that amount of time :)
He's your dude? Interesting.
The Bass Boost sometimes helps me to judge my mix decisions better because you won't get the same response (there's just not enough air to move) from the driver that is right beside your ear and the one that might be an arm-length from you on your main pair of speakers.
Ah yeah that is a good point. I'm definitely gonna play around with that a bit. Thanks for watching man! :)
Hi! I have the dt770 250, i dont feel my sound to much detailed, the sound is clear but cant judge my Mix or mastering in those headphones because all songs look "the same", Do you think are good headphones? 🙏
I personally love these headphones and consider them the best I've owned. If you're using a calibrated pair with the reference software activated it is likely they'll sound flatter and less exciting - but that's really meant for detailed mixing adjustments.
I'm using the default calibration profile which as you noted, attenuates the bass, after applying the profile you can boost the bass in the flat response, it's an option in Sonarworks. I think this will help because I'm making bass heavy techno, so if the bass isn't bumping in my ears I will likely add too much.
The high frequency is boosted in the dt 770s without calibration, which sounds nice. I'm worried that if I make it flat then I'll simply add too much high end in my mix to get that nice smile pattern sound, which would then be amplified by a consumer or club sound system. I'm really questioning if I should even use Sonarworks lol.
I'm not sure it makes that much difference in the end, since most consumer products have similar loudness curves to make people happy about their speaker/headphones. If you notice many oldschool hifi amps/recievers usually had a "loudness" button which for like 90% of people were always activated. But if you really want to check your material for problems before mixing and do an honest judgement of the mastering, I'm not in doubt that the sonoworks software is a great value when you learn it. I also knew that the DT770 isn't flat, but still amazed how bumpy the frequency curve is. I remember first time I heard a certain popular Dynacord processor controlled PA system back in the late 80's, and was flabbergasted how much better it sounded than any other systems, and how much the processing of the sound and crossower system between the Amps made for the total sound.
One doubt if it put sonarwks in master channel n mix output levels decreases why??
How much did you pay for personal calibration? I cant find on their website and also how many days it toom, thanks bro 😉👍
Sir i dont have studio monitors this time i have dt 990 pro headphones can my mix will be correct in these headphones and can i do mixing in these headphones???
Hi Anjur. 990s are great headphones and you can certainly make a great sounding mix that will translate across multiple systems - especially with the calibration!
Thanks for the explanation!
I've been listening to a lot of musics overall spotify and my own productions, but it's really weird sounding with a lot a crackling mids.
The total opposite of something flat. i will look around and try to understand what is the real purpose of having a bad sounding monitoring as this.
I mean... with and without we can clearly hear a difference, but everything sounds bad. so the result would be a bad sounding track, no balanced, listening to a regular platform afterwards...
I don't get it.
Thanks for watching! The crackling you described sounds like an unusual problem - perhaps the drivers in the headphones themselves are damaged. Or it could be an issue with your headphone amp or audio interface. If you have a second pair of headphones try those instead to rule that out. Hope you get to the bottom of it! :-)
I have the 250 Ohm version of those headphones and it is really weird how with the calibration on it sounds dull but better and easier on the ears.
Yes! I can totally relate to you finding it easier on the ears. It's a much less intense listening experience so I think it's also good for long sessions wearing the headphones!
idk. i use it for mixing and listening. software makes my akg a lot better and it just sounds better
Save your money, this doesn’t work as advertised.You can check their website, in the articles section, the limitations on mixing with headphones, realize that only frequency response (soundid) is not enough and draw your own conclusions.
And if youre thinking about custom calibration don’t fall for that.The thing is, their custom cal gives you a precision of -+ 0.9 db, from the top of my head , while the average cal file for a specific headphone model is +-3db. If you could have a precision like that in your home studio (+-3db), properly treated, it would be already pretty good.Think about it.
Bottom line, is possible to mix with headphones if you know its limitations, learn them and use references, you just don’t have to spend extra money to do so.Mix/Master Engineers have been doing it for long time like that.
There are some contradictions on their website articles and what they advertise, because they advertise you can mix with confidence anywhere using sound Id and then they post articles where they talk about the limitations of mixing with headphones, and soundid or reference simply doesn’t address those limitations.Something is not right isn’t it?
Regarding your conclusions:
1 Frequency response is not the only thing important in a proper studio.
2. To be able to see if soundid/reference actually works is not enough to listen with the correction on/off and say one likes more with or without, you have to listen to a mix in the speakers or other acoustic environment and listen if it actually translated.
all rooms are wors than calibrated headphones, all rooms!
@@JohnSmith-pn2vlunless you want to hear in stereo
Honestly, you did a great job here with this, however, I was hoping you would buy a second pair and see if there was a noticeable difference in a stock pair using the averaged preset for the 770's and then compare it to your individually calibrated pair with its own preset. Would make for a good video for sure. To see ee if there's any marketing/ snake oil going on with the individual calibrated vs. the averaged presets.
Hey Eric, thanks for watching and commenting! That would be interesting for sure - the individual calibration file is supposed to be within 0.9Ddbof accuracy where as the generic preset is within 3db so I would think that's just about enough to make an audible difference. I think once you own the Sound ID software you can choose between different presets in there so that would also be interesting. Great idea.
@@maxmcguirecomposer ahhhh yes I see what you mean. So you could compare your headphones with their specific calibration preset to the generic preset and essentially accomplish the same thing! Very cool. Thanks for the research. I’m personally gonna get a calibrated pair but torn between 770’s and 990 pro’s. Will only be mixing with these as I have tracking headphones I like. Any thoughts there?
@@erickarge1838 No worries, glad it could be of use to you :) I think both are superb sets of headphones, I'm just personally not keen on open backs in case I ever need to work in a room with other people but if you usually work alone the 990s are great for mixing and have super spatial accuracy too!
NICE VIDEO. However, I'm not happy 100 %.. with the SW, it gives nice low end, but It eq heavily the mids... It is annoying when using samples, cos the sound really nice by themselves, but with the SW the sound is awful .. Any tips when it comes to samples ?
Hey, thanks for watching! If it's bothering you I'd simply disable the correction curve whilst arranging/composing etc and then use as a tool at the mixing stage to reference back and forth. Hope that helps!
I already have a problem where I'm adding too much bass with the DT770s. I can't imagine taking away any more bass lol I was expecting to see an increase in bass actually.. On the other hand, my mixes with them do tend to sound more harsh than the mixes actually turn out. When I take a track out to the car, it's rather bass heavy and the higher frequencies aren't as bad as I thought they would be. A lot the bass that I work with is almost all visual and guess work. Maybe my hearing has just gone bad lol
It's quite surprising isn't it! I think that's why it can be beneficial to enable the calibrated response every now and then to have the option to listen completely flat and balance a bit from there.
I'm using the default calibration profile for the dt 770 80ohm, there is an option in Sonarworks to boost the bass while keeping the rest flat. I think this is helpful because I'm making bass heavy music, so without a bit of boost in the listening experience I tend to add too much base. I'm using a 3db bass boost but I might go to 4db, I already have a tendency to add too much bass and I want to be able to hear the bass at kow levels.
What matter the most is to get used with your specific headphone. So, the idea to flat out the most of it just makes no sense since you will have to get used to it as well. If what really matters is to get used to it, why not get used to a tempered nice headphone? Remember: you will have to listen to other people music on it. So the experience must be fun as well.
And btw: since every phone is different, you will have to get used to any new device anyway
And btw: nobody listens to music on a completely flat source…
It's a good point you raise. This definitely isn't for everyone and I think it's also good to get used to standard pairs headphones like you suggest. I simply see this as another tool you have the option of using to try and improve your mix/make more accurate mix decisions. With the true flat response you're more likely, in my opinion, to be able to place something in a mix that will translate better across multiple other systems. I tend to only enable the correction when making a finite adjustments mix-wise - almost in the same way you might switch your monitors to mono or listen in the car kinda thing :)
@@maxmcguirecomposer hey man, this sums up my idea better: "Every producer mixes into one device KNOWING how it sounds into OTHER devices... so, in the end, it does not matter if your device is 100% flattened out or not. What really matters is to get used(!) to whatever your device is (just get a good headphone that people uses to mix, and that's it) and by getting used i'm meaning: knowing how it sounds compared with other devices... Another tip: Be extremely careful about using 100% flat devices, since this pretty much takes off the fun/taste of listening to music (and you don't want a tasteless experience to be your default when approaching to music, in the long run it sucks, SPECIALLY as a composer)
If you still want to use the sonarworks, at least dry it out in the dry/wet setting..."
@@lickingfrog totally get what you're saying. Like I mentioned earlier, it's not something I have enabled all the time. Just something that gives me another option to reference.
does this technology require internet connection the whole time you use it?
no, it is a vst plugin you run in your daw or a systemwide app
Are they good for mixing mastering??
Certainly!
No they aren’t, and I hope by this time you have found out.
@@DubFreakuencieswhy?
i tried to measure headphones i own (m50x and focal listen pro) using easy stand made of plastic sheet and behringer measurment mic.
that is probably not ideal way to measure phones, but it seem to be at least close enough to make some diy calibration. and what i found is quite interesting - both phones produce flat response, autocorrection eq made by pro-q3 at max goes lik +/- 0,15 with high Q. As flat as it can be
I dunno where the $500 bucks Australian comes from for this shyster gimmick crap when all they do is mirror the eq curve and give you a $10 microphone and tell you to make sure to remember to put in the special crystals. I mean sheeeeeeeeeeeit
nono ,this works, you dont need a microphone, thats for calibrating speakers.
not snake oil at all
@@JohnSmith-pn2vl I stand corrected.
Oh no! Another prison (Apple)!
HEY, SPEAK PROPERLY.