Among its host of users, the Sonarworks Reference plug-in has become an essential tool for mixing, delivering a reliably neutral sound on which to base key mixing decisions. When using headphones, Reference allows you to apply DSP correction profiles for over 100 popular headphone models, created by measuring multiple examples of each one. For speaker correction, Reference uses a measurement microphone to create a custom profile for your speakers and room.
Now Sonarworks have gone one step further, introducing a new standard that promises to deliver the same sound on all speakers and headphones, with just +/-0.9dB difference across different devices. They’re calling it Sonarworks SR, which stands for “Studio Reference”, and it’s built into the latest update to Reference 4. Rather than simply achieving a flat response for their current monitoring setup, enabling the SR mode should now allow engineers and producers to call up exactly the same reference sound as they move between different speakers, different rooms or switch between speakers and headphones. What’s more, by incorporating the SR standard into all of their software, including the consumer True-Fi headphone listening app, Sonarworks aim to make sure that everyone – engineers, musicians and music consumers – is listening to exactly the same thing! The update is available now, free to registered users. Reference 4 costs €99 for the Headphone Edition and €249 for the Studio Edition, covering both headphones and loudspeakers.
