Waves’ brand new Nx Germano plugin promises to immerse you in the acoustic of a world class control room from the comfort of your own headphones, but does it work? Listen and decide.

The acoustic signature of domestic and other non-commercial environments often needs a lot of work to get a mix room that tells it like it is. To flatten things out, the actual approach can vary, with the no-expense-spared option of a designed environment being out of reach for most. Luckily there are other options available.

What Can Calibration Software Achieve?

The combination of speakers, their position in a space, and the response of that space itself as heard at the listening position can be thought of as an acoustical system. Once that system is known, software can be used to apply an opposite response to that acoustical system in order for the engineer to hear something closer to the signal as it exists within the DAW.

Some calibration systems require the user to enter the model of their speaker system or headphones into it, however, some ascertain the required response simply by analysing tones played out through loudspeaker monitoring as captured by a measurement mic. This can be especially effective in small rooms whose dimensions can induce large peaks and dips at the monitoring position, though much of the colouration in rooms is due to some frequencies taking longer to decay away to silence than others. These time-domain issues can’t ever be completely resolved using EQ based treatments. However by reducing these and other anomalies, engineers can realistically expect to produce mixes that translate to as wide a number of systems as possible.

What Is A ‘Real’ Listening Experience?

Although calibration software will iron out a surprising number of room anomalies, it cannot know how your improved room ‘should’ sound. Even the flattest-sounding world class facilities have a sound of their own which is a function of signal chain, acoustics, and even the furniture and equipment. A different approach then is to use an audio plugin across the DAW’s master outputs for use with headphones to simulate the sound of a known, well-behaved control room. The developer can then add other luxuries such as B and C pairs of monitors and other ‘centre section’ style controls.

Waves Nx Germano

Existing modelling headphone systems up until now have offered varying approaches to allow the user’s own physiology to be taken into account, such as ear shape. Even then, the system cannot know things like the involuntary head movements that listeners experience to make auditory cues. Waves’ new Nx Germano system promises to bridge this gap by bringing optional camera and bluetooth Nx Head Tracker data into play to refine the whole experience. Waves continue:

The Waves Nx Germano Studios plugin is a tool that lets you mix on headphones while monitoring in the acoustic environment of Germano Studio One. It delivers an immersive surround mixing experience that actually puts you in the mixer’s seat of the Germano control room, so you can trust what you hear and mix with confidence. Nx Germano Studios does not change the processing of the mix itself, but rather the environment in which you monitor it. You’ll know what your headphone mix would sound like in this “no excuses” mix room.

To provide greater immersion when mixing on headphones, Nx Germano Studios links to the optional Nx Head Tracker, which changes your stereo headphones into a real-world acoustic space with real-world surround. It recreates a room in your headphones that behaves just like the Germano New York Studio One.

Nx Germano Studios New York features 3 stereo monitoring options:

• The NS10 near-fields

• The custom Exigy S412G four-way system with dual 18-inch subwoofers; and the Germano Acoustics A2s.

• Surround monitoring system: Germano’s 5.1 system equipped with five Germano Acoustics A2 speakers and subwoofer.

How Does It Sound?

Whether the sound is close to that of the real location is for anyone who has visited Germano’s Studio One to decide, however the point is that Nx Germano evokes the visceral experience of listening to a mix over different monitor pairs in a ‘proper’ control room. This alone makes it a useful reference tool in conjunction with your regular monitoring chain. Failing that, using a pair of supported headphones with Nx Germano will provide an aural perspective that far surpasses that of an untreated space. Ultimately, the ear is the final judge. Below are two audio examples; listen and decide for yourself which you prefer. We will reveal the mixes’ true identities soon.

Update: MIX A was mixed through the Exigy S412G pair. MIX B was mixed without Nx Germano across the mix. Both were done through the author’s Sony MDR-7506 headphones.