Sonarworks Reference

Any users here?
Especially interested in the Studio edition used in home studios with average acoustics :slight_smile:
Do your mixes really sound better with it?
Thanks.

It’s a lifesaver, it has in the past enabled me to ā€œmixā€ my tracks in a room that was a nightmare and then some there was no way you could get a decent mix in there without it.

Also used it in good rooms and it did work well there for fixing the lowend, highly recommended!

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I use the headphones version. Works pretty good. But I also toss in a reference track to compare my mix

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Having trouble getting the volume balanced between my monitors, DAW, and audio interface. How would I go about setting them at a reasonable studio level?

Honestly I like the functionality of the software but the audio got incredible glitchy since I use it on both my pc and laptop (audio dropouts, especially when opening new browser tabs, crashes of audio drivers etc…).
Additionally it is a pita if you change between different headphones or speakers regularly as you will tend to forget to switch the profiles.

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Do you use a headphone amp in your setup by chance?

Reference is great. Both for speakers and for headphones.

@v00d00ppl what up! No, I don’t use an amp. I just come out of my laptop or soundcard

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Happy New Years. I’ll check out the software then. I’ll review it with my audio labs monitor headphone amp

Just remember that you need a profile for headphones too. You can’t make them yourself. Only the speaker profiles are measured by you

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Is this software really able to flatten the response on headphones? I may see an issue in using the software if you already know your headphones really well. Won’t this change the profile of them and it may take some adjusting correct?

I personally only turn the plug in on when I’m mixing, not creating or otherwise. It will flatten your mix but not in a detrimental way. If you’re mix is solid, it’ll come close to matching the reference.

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Remember that your headphone needs a profile. Some have standard ones, some need the headphones sent in.

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I’ve used it for the past few years. It does an incredible job on headphones. I use it for listening as well as mixing/production.

Best to spend time listening to music you know for a while to get used to the character of it so it’s not a distraction, but in essence it is changing the sound signature of the headphones to be as close to a ā€˜flat response’ as possible (given the variance in the human ear shape etc.), so the result should be more reliable than without it even if you don’t spend any time adjusting.

Here’s the list of supported headphones: https://www.sonarworks.com/reference/headphones

But can’t you use Sonarworks for other purposes as well such as casual listening, and not just for mixing?

yes, you can. reference can not only be loaded as vst. it can also function globaly systemwide. lika a driver that is hooked somewhere between the soundcard

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I’ve had Sonarworks 3 for three years and every time I’ve had to calibrate my speakers, it’s an exercise in me wanting a drink afterwards. The program’s test voice always says it should be at normal conversation level. But the program doesn’t pick up the signal until I have to turn the gain all the way up till I get feedback at which point the measurement starts and I’m able to dial back the gain a bit to avoid the feedback.

This process would take me 1-2 hours because I’d have to fiddle with the gain and volume to make it work, and be careful not to damage my speakers in the process. Sonarworks were not helpful when I brought up this issue to them 3 years ago, so I figured this is how the program works. I repeated this last year with a 2nd pair of monitors with the same long arduous process. Why does the program say ā€œnormal conversation volumeā€ when I have to turn it up to between 90-95 dB for the program to even start calibrating? It’s deafening having to deal with this for 2 hours each time.

Today I had to calibrate a newer pair of speakers as I’ve sold my old ones. No matter how loud I turn up the volume this time, the calibration doesn’t engage. I’m stuck on a screen telling me ā€œIncrease microphone signal levelā€ no matter how loud I turn it up. Sonarworks should offer me a refund this time as they never addressed the issue the first time and now it’s not working at all. I hate this program.

What mic are you using, is the mic input (not the speaker output) turned up?

I’m using the Sonarworks mic. It picked up my voice fine. I turned up the gain on my mic-pre and the program’s ā€œbleepingā€ sonar sound was plenty loud before it started to get feedback once the gain was turned up any louder - certainly far louder than ā€œnormal conversation levelā€.