Right now, you can save 50% off VIRTUOSO - a binaural audio renderer that uses binaural technology for virtualising stereo or immersive loudspeaker setups and listening rooms for headphone monitoring. Read on to find out more…

Applied Psychoacoustics Laboratory (aka APL) is a team of psychoacoustics researchers, digital audio signal processing engineers, sound engineers and music producers, based at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Following years of world-leading research in various areas of psychoacoustic engineering, VIRTUOSO is their first plugin release which is already being met with great acclaim from audio professionals.

VIRTUOSO is a cutting-edge binaural audio renderer that virtualises stereo or immersive loudspeaker setups and listening rooms for headphone listening, with an unprecedented level of tonal/spatial fidelity and a highly accurate translation to real loudspeakers.

Dr Hyunkook Lee, Head of the APL explains, “If you're in a room listening to music, you hear reflections and reverb, not just the sound of the speaker, so there is the overall ambience. When creating the same reality over headphones, this all needs to be simulated and this is done via signal processing methods developed based on our psychoacoustic research findings. However, binaural audio rendering can significantly colour the sound negatively if the psychoacoustic aspects of room perception are not considered carefully, and this has been the traditional issue. VIRTUOSO eliminates this problem.”

Virtuoso offers a number of key benefits including…

• Realistic virtual immersive mix/listening rooms, which can be customised acoustically for your own or other rooms.

• Effective externalisation and accurate localisation of virtual loudspeakers – essential for making correct mix decisions on headphones.

• Excellent tonal naturalness – just like listening to premium loudspeakers in real life.

• Highly accurate translation to real loudspeakers.

• Less headphone listening fatigue.

Main Features Of Virtuoso:

• 53 loudspeaker configurations from mono to 26 channels, including all popular immersive audio formats, e.g. ITU-R, Dolby Atmos, Auro-3D, MPEG-H and regular arrays for Ambisonics).

• Seven presets of scientifically tuned virtual rooms.

• Customisable acoustic parameters.

• Built-in and custom (SOFA) HRTFs.

• Head tracking (OSC and manual).

• Routing matrix with solo, mute and level controls.

• Downmix options.

• Headphone compensation EQ (80 models).

• Loudspeaker on-axis response modelling EQ (11 models).

• Available as AAX, VST3, AU and Standalone app.

Check out what Broadcast Mix Engineer Mark Gittins thought of it in his article APL Virtuoso Binaural Translation Tool - Tested.

Pricing & Availability

APL VIRTUOSO is available now for the special price of $149 (normally $299) for a limited time. A free trial is also available.