Speaker emulated headphone monitoring?

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Crocoduck5000
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Speaker emulated headphone monitoring?

Post by Crocoduck5000 » Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:42 am

Hi all. I'm one of those college-student project studio types. I do believe I make some more-than-adequate mixes, however I had a question regarding monitoring.

Since I am poor, I made the silly decision of buying monitors (Yamaha HS50m) before actually acoustically treating my bedroom. I have, however, been using Sony MDR-7506s for the past 10 years (I am 22 now, my daddy had a good 'ol pair in the day) and suffice to say, I know exactly how anything should sound through these. Of course, phase issues are hard to detect which is what I use my Yamahas for, though my room sounds like ass.

I decided to experiment though by creating two aux buses in Logic Pro, and having the left and right channels each be panned about 50% left and right, and using Logic's space designer to create almost a "control room" environment. I've been able to make it sound somewhat monitor-like since I am able to detect phase issues more clearly. Has anyone else tried this? Or am I just deluding myself with it's effectiveness? (I always try to find the cheap way out of any situation :P) Also since I am more than familiar with my headphones, I feel that it could potentially be done right if I do it correctly. Of course, I plan on treating my room eventually, I'm just more curious than anything!

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Post by JohnSuitcase » Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:52 am

I have a little plug-in that I made in Sonic Birth, which does that, and I find it works surprisingly well. I use it to mix at night when the boys are asleep, etc.

Mine takes the Left signal and crossfeeds it to the right, while delaying it by about a millisecond, and rolling off the high end. This emulates the sound travel around your head (which block high frequencies) and the delay time from ear to ear. Then of course, the right side feeds to the left. The amount is adjustable, so I can put my monitors up, then adjust the plug-in until my headphones sound like the monitors.

A few companies make headphone amps with this function, Here's Grace's design:

Grace Headphone Amp with XFeed Circuit
Image

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Snarl 12/8
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Post by Snarl 12/8 » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:08 am

Couldn't you just put a mono mix through the headphones for a phase check? Seems easier in every way.
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Crocoduck5000
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Post by Crocoduck5000 » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:13 am

Snarl 12/8 wrote:Couldn't you just put a mono mix through the headphones for a phase check? Seems easier in every way.
Yes, but checking for phase issues while retaining a "stereo image" is more desirable for me. I do press the mono button on Logic quite often (which I should when I'm dealing with a lot of ridiculous synth sounds!)

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Crocoduck5000
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Post by Crocoduck5000 » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:18 am

http://rekkerd.org/jeroen-breebaart-ann ... isone-pro/

Now THIS is what I would be looking for! Too bad it's Windows-only :(

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Post by JefffM » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:19 am

Have you checked this out:

http://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

Not super cheap at $99 but you can download a 30 day trial to test it out.

thethingwiththestuff
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Post by thethingwiththestuff » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:27 am

You are probably tricking yourself... The phase problems you are identifying are probably caused by your reverb.

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Crocoduck5000
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Post by Crocoduck5000 » Tue Nov 10, 2009 10:31 am

JefffM wrote:Have you checked this out:

http://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

Not super cheap at $99 but you can download a 30 day trial to test it out.
Sort of what I'm looking for. Hopefully that will do the trick...

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JWL
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Post by JWL » Tue Nov 10, 2009 11:13 am

Make the room sound better. Get some treatment in there. Do this before you start mucking about electronically. If you do it will there will be no need to muck about electronically.

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evilaudio
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Post by evilaudio » Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:57 am

Or, you could just buy that new Focusrite Saffire PRO 24 DSP wich has "Virtual Reference Monitoring"!! Finally! ...and I just wasted so much time and money building bass traps and tons of mineral fiber! ...dang it!
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Post by Trebbers » Sun Dec 20, 2009 8:00 pm

Crocoduck5000 wrote:
JefffM wrote:Have you checked this out:

http://www.112db.com/redline/monitor/

Not super cheap at $99 but you can download a 30 day trial to test it out.
Sort of what I'm looking for. Hopefully that will do the trick...
If you haven't sprung for RLM take a look at Canz3D
http://www.midnightwalrus.com/Canz3D/

I was never really able to get RLM to not sound 'off.' Had better luck with C3D, which is way more adjustable. Another plus is that it's only $10.
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