Sonarworks in Education

The first time I heard about Sonarworks was around 2018. I downloaded a trial and actually forgot about it. About two months later I went through some tracks I made over that period of time and two tracks really sounded a lot better than the others.
 
I went back into the projects and realized there was a Sonarworks plugin on the master to correct my Beyerdynamic headphones. 
 
It made me realize how good this software is and how accessible a good listening environment is with Sonarworks. I advised lots of my befriended DJ’s and producers to use it and we use it in all our studios now.
 
I mention Sonarworks in all my classes since we can really help beginning musicians to make proper mixes on their headphones or in their home studio's using this software.

What are you actually hearing? Unless the construction and treatment budget was pretty sizeable, control-room acoustic deficiencies are a crux nearly every engineer deals with. Absorption and diffusion are key to flattening the response but often, listening environments still need some tender loving care. Sonarworks doesn’t make chicken noodle soup, but they do offer a prescription that  might be what the room needs. I was recently able to take Sonarworks for a test and found the results in one of our mixing suites at Capital University fairly astounding. While great sounding monitors in a well-treated room are always the goal, using Sonarworks may be an affordable solution to greated mix translation outside of the control room with increased stereo imaging, and flattened frequency response.

Spread over two buildings, Capital University has 3 tracking studios and 6 mixing rooms. One of my favorite listening spots in Studio C, as this mixing room is comfortably out of the way and I can mix undisturbed for hours, yet big enough to allow a visitor or two. Plus, the studio also has a Technics 1200 turntable for some interesting a/b listening. Focal Solo6s are the main monitors and recently a pair of Kali Audio LP-6s were added; both solid monitors with great reputations. I have mixed several projects here and (I thought) the mixes translated well outside of the studio. 

Sonarworks came knocking. Even knowing what I know with phase, the speed of sound, etc - the setup process is pretty cool. The software installation and setup is well documented elsewhere on the web so for a more in-depth look, check out YouTube. The installation mic is pointed at the speakers and dozens of spots around the mixing space, and the software takes a snapshot of the current frequency response.  Ten minutes or so working with the software and Sonarworks did it’s easy-as-pie thing. The image below shows the resulting room frequency response as measured by Sonarworks. 

From this curve, two things jumped out at me; there is a severe dip around 80 Hz and the disparity between the left and right speakers and five notable areas. Engaging Sonarworks correction mode, the software takes the measurement of the room and imparts the opposite curve to flatten the frequency response. The resulting curve is below with the green line representing the “fixed” curve for Studio C. 

What did this mean for listening in the new space? Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, there were four things that immediately were not-subtlety noticeable. 

The left/right spacing was the most unexpected. I was not thinking I would hear a wider stereo image but there it was; without touching the speakers. This widening of the listening sweet spot was the most incredible aspect. In playing back songs and mixes, subtle background vocals that were hidden or masked revealed themself.  This was so cool!

Clearly the low end was tweaked. I have a playlist on Spotify of drool-worthy drum sounds and this playlist gained immediate punch with the increased body and thump in the kick drum. This effect did not sound hyped or fake - in my listening this seemed closer to what the production team and artists had in mind. 

What’s sonically weird is that even with this “fixed” curve, the bass wasn’t overpowering and the mixes didn’t get darker. That’s most likely from cut to the low-mids - an area I was probably over-cutting in my mixes. So the mixes and listening experience got sweeter - not boxier. 

Looking at the curve in the 1kHz area,  one might think the vocals would pop out a bit more. Yes-ish - but what I heard was what I loved about my older KRK monitors. THe KRK’s were the reverb truth-tellers; if the reverb was not the right reverb, the KRKs would let me know. The subtle tweaking around the high-mids and highs helped bring reverbs and subtle delays to the forefront a bit more in a way I liked. Vocals suddenly did not sound like they were in cave or bathroom - but the space around the vocals became a bit more noticeable without getting spitty or sibilant. In one mix, the reverb I had picked sounded even cooler. In another though, I wanted to back off the send a bit, and increase the pre-delay. Nothing major but issues I might have not heard until a headphone listening test.

So am I a believer? We installed the software in another much bigger control room and were not quite as thrilled with the results. And that’s sort of that issue with that space - listening sounds different in just about every square inch. For some other instances - absolutely. What the software did in Studio C was pretty incredible. I cannot attest to all of the possibilities of this software but this is my story and that software is in the Startup items in Studio C.

I am incredibly impressed with the capability of Sonarworks calibrations. As my eighth-grade students are aware of how sine waves function in mathematics, it was easiest for them to make the association between frequencies on the piano and the frequency portion of the graph. Using the drop-down menu for selecting “stimulated after” or “target” was the most effective tool for demonstrating how the software was capable of calibrating the ideal response curve. This included all the bypassing features, which students were able to manipulate in real-time, as well as hearing the difference in audio quality from each change. 
 
Afterward, students were able to pull up their Soundtrap projects on my computer and listen to the difference in sound. They immediately recognized how the quality of the low end was evened out and how visually that was being depicted on the graph. A great teaching moment! Manipulating audio effects in Soundtrap was much easier for them to understand after this demonstration. 

A student actually was interested in why a safe headroom was not reflected as a change in DB on the graph and only in the output. Obviously, the actual calibration of the curve isn’t changed when manipulating the output, but I sensed the fact that they wanted to see that change on the graph too. Distortion is another point of topic for us to cover. 
 
I am incredibly impressed. This was a wonderful tool and resource for my 8th-grade students. Incorporated as part of a STEM lesson, Sonarworks provided them a better visual for understanding sound and ways of enhancing its quality in an un-ideal environment.
 

At the Hartt School, Music Production & Technology students learn recording technology the same way they learn their instruments. Because our students are already accomplished musicians, we have the ability to dive right into critical listening and technical ear training early. They already understand how to use their ears to manipulate sound on their instruments, how to musically react in ensembles, and some even have perfect pitch. Even with these advantages, students still find the process of ear training to be daunting and difficult. 

My colleagues and I are always on the lookout for opportunities to integrate new technology that can improve the student experience and elevate our pedagogy. Over the last year, our decision to install Sonarworks into our curriculum and studio facilities has dramatically improved the quality of instruction and augmented our teaching experience in unexpected ways. 

In our curriculum, we have courses and modules that challenge students to develop critical listening skills throughout their four year degree. This includes dedicated critical listening classes where students learn to identify frequencies at various amplitudes across octaves in both pink-noise and program material. We assign recording and mix projects where students are instructed in methods for both creative and corrective EQ, compression, and other audio effects. Students are regularly asked to conduct assessments of different genres in order to broaden their grasp of appropriate production methods as well as assess standardized treatments of instruments and their placement in the sound field. I could go on, but the list of examples of how we teach critical listening is endless because it is so deeply embedded into all of our curricula. What is unique about these projects and assignments is the way in which they encourage students to establish a parallel between how they think about their practice of music and how it relates to how they learn to critically listen. 

Musicians generally learn new skills on their instrument using the “System of Four” (S.O.4). This system is comprised of four discreet steps: 1. Learn – This is the presentation of new information in either a lesson with a teacher, or through self-discovery. 2. Practice – This comes from the repetition of the new skill until it has been internalized and can be performed without error. 3. Rehearse – Once the skill is internalized, the student now must practice performing the skill in context. This usually happens in an ensemble until the performance is steady and is ready to become a vehicle through which additional expression can be made. 4. Perform – This is when the skill is fully mastered. The skill is effortless, and has become a reflexive, second nature. 

Perhaps the most significant two steps in this process are “Practice” and “Rehearse” due to the fact that these are the areas that typically require the most time invested on the part of the student. These are the critical hours where a student will either grow or develop bad habits in the absence of the instructor.  

When we apply the paradigm of S.O.4 to critical listening pedagogy, we must reasonably assume that students are able to execute all four steps. While our program produces some exceptional engineers with excellent ears, we have noticed that there are two areas where students have to really dig in. For most, “Practice” and “Rehearse” are often complicated by a lack of access to adequate listening space and equipment. Teaching labs for us consist of acoustically treated recording studio control rooms with reference monitors. These are not at all similar to the at-home listening environments students use to complete their assignments. At Hartt, (and I suspect at other schools too) students prefer to practice critical listening in headphones. This is for a myriad of reasons. For one, headphones are more convenient to busy student schedules. It is very easy to grab a minute or two to run listening tests at the library or on breaks between classes. At home, shared living spaces like dorm rooms and apartments require isolation out of respect, so headphones are a must. This is especially true late at night when others might be asleep. What is interesting to me is that when I asked why my students prefer to work in headphones, the most common response is simply that they do not have any other option. Most students have yet to invest in loudspeakers and those that have feel less inclined to treat their spaces because they are living in temporary housing. Even though students know that acoustically treating their room is the best answer, we cannot practically force them to treat their spaces. Whenever possible, we encourage students to complete their homework in our studios. We are a small program and can offer 24/7 access to our facilities, but the fact is that there just aren’t enough hours in the day, nor days in the week to give everyone in the program equal time to complete their work in a teaching lab. 

So why can’t headphones offer an adequate substitute for a treated listening environment? The truth is, they are a necessary stand-in, especially for the problems listed above. Many professional engineers use headphones all the time and can create excellent recordings and mixes with them. These engineers will also tell you that all headphones come with their own learning curve. Each manufacturer designs every model with its own distinct non-linear frequency response. This is not necessarily a bad thing when used to enjoy music. While some cheaper models may have non-linearities caused by manufacturing choices dictated by cost, pricier reference models are intentionally voiced with enhancements to lows, mids, and highs because extensive research suggests that the average listener enjoys music more with these curves applied. All of this can be problematic for students who are just learning how to mix. Students often wonder why corrective EQ choices made in one model of headphones do not translate well to others, and even less so in loudspeakers. Headphones also create an opportunity for students to listen too loudly, causing quick ear fatigue, or worse, damage to their hearing (especially in the US where output levels are not regulated on portable devices).  Additionally, the lack of cross-talk in headphones create a distorted sense of mono elements as being “inside-of-your-head” instead of the SRA created by two well placed left-right monitors. Headphones also create an exaggerated stereo field which can lead to timid stereo placement choices as well as confusion over how much spatial processing like reverb may be necessary.  

When we ask students to practice critical listening as a part of their coursework, we have always had to assume that their practice and rehearse time would be in some way compromised by these limitations and that was just the way it was.

The software developed by Sonarworks has greatly improved the quality of Learn/Practice/Rehearse/Perform for our facilities, coursework and critical listening assignments. This software can apply a correction to any one of over 200 different types of professional headphones resulting in a relatively flat, consistent performance. This offers an outstanding potential in a classroom setting where each student may own a different brand of headphones. With this software, a teacher can assign a project with confidence that every student has equal access to the same basic listening environment and equipment. The TruFi app for mobile devices has really been useful in that it provides the same correction software when listening on a phone. This has been extremely well received by students as they do comparative and critical listening from their Spotify accounts or from their iTunes libraries. For those students with loudspeakers, the studio edition of the software comes with a calibration microphone and an easy to use software that guides them through a 30+ point measurement process in a fun and engaging way. With this tool, students can enjoy better performance from their home studio speakers and more consistency between their headphones and their speakers. 

One of the things that surprised me the most was the amount of impact it had on students’ curiosity about how headphones work and what the technical and sonic differences between them are. I have really enjoyed conversations with students about headphone design issues, how earbuds differ from cans, and why headphones don’t always translate well to the loudspeaker environment. After pointing them to some excellent articles in the AES online journal, I was encouraged by their enthusiasm for the complicated science of headphone measurement and I look forward to how this will spark engagement in their acoustics classes. All of these conversations were a direct result of the Sonarworks demo. 

Another unexpected outcome was the augmented use of our secondary teaching lab. This space is smaller than our primary teaching lab and lacks significant acoustic treatment. With two PMC monitors and a HORUS and HAPPI powered Pyramix system, there is a lot of equipment in this room that students want to use, but the acoustics of the space were dissimilar to our flagship studio. With the measurement and correction provided by Reference 4 and the calibration mic, we were surprised at the dramatic improvement at the listening position. Students now have no problem at all working in either of these spaces and they are creating excellent work in both. Of course, we will continue to improve the acoustic treatments in both of these rooms, and it is great to know that as we do, we can re-calibrate to get even more performance out of our investment. It’s been beneficial for students to see faculty enthusiasm over this too. Many students had not yet been able to visualize in their own ears the impact that speaker/room calibration until they were able to play with the correction in this space for themselves. The ability to bypass the correction and hear the immediate difference is a powerful, stark, contrast that is impossible to ignore—even when making subtle corrections. 

The largest rewards have come in watching the quality of student mixes improve. Using Sonarworks has mitigated second-guess syndrome in student’s work in headphones and has increased the accuracy of their applied corrective EQ. During tracking sessions, students are more confident in the amount of low end they are capturing in bass, kick and snare tracks leading to better raw material to work from. When a student’s choices in a mix are reinforced by good translation between speakers, it boosts their confidence and they have more enthusiasm for the work they are doing. The energy from this has been palpable at Hartt, and we couldn’t be more grateful for what this software has done for our program. Next year, all incoming freshman will be required to purchase the headphone edition of Sonarworks.    

Matt wrote an article about Sonarworks for the CAS Quarterly. The article can be accessed free of charge at http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1178376-fall-2019. It starts on page 66. 

When I got the Sonarworks kit, I was impressed with the concept. Being able to trust your monitors is a fundamental non-negotiable. That’s why I was looking forward to checking this out. My Berklee students, LinkedIn Learning viewers, and the folks who read my books frequently ask about how to make sure they’re hearing what they should be hearing. The Sonarworks Studio kit can be the answer they’ve been looking for.  

I registered it yesterday and went through the whole setup procedure and did some listening tests. It really is a very useful package—amazing, really. The software was easy to setup. I just kept following along and everything went without a hitch. The main monitors in my studio have analysis and setup software built-in, so it was interesting to compare the setup procedures. Within a few steps, the SW wizard got the settings roughed in, established L-R, and analyzed the distance between the monitors. 

The next steps were the most time consuming and a bit tedious, but they were also the most impressive. In the mix position, the setup software started the EQ analysis with the calibrated mic in the mix position, which is where another analysis seems to end the process; however, the SW software, having already established a mic location algorithm, proceeded to have me move the mic to another almost 40 locations immediately surrounding the mix position! For each position, the software emitted a rattling sound out of both monitors that enabled the software to locate the mic. A target showed up on the screen and I just had to move the mic to the center of the target. Once the software saw that the mic was in place, it took another reading. This took some time, but I think it was time well spent because it was analyzing a large mix field. The fact that the calibrated mic was always being handheld, and that the target didn’t measure elevation might be seen as a drawback; but, I was keeping pretty close to the same plane as my ears with the mic. Realistically, we all move in and out and slouch for a while and sit up straight for a while during mixing so it might even be a strength that the software doesn’t make you place the mic on a stand at exact heights and distances. 

When the process was completed and I listened to the resulting changes, I was very impressed. My control room is pretty well controlled and, as do most engineers, I know about what to watch out for when I’m mixing. The settings that the SW software found produced a very natural and flat sound that I think while be quite trustworthy. 

I love the fact that the SW profile for my system can be added to the final insert on my master fader during mixdown, so I’m hearing a verified EQ throughout the mixing process and then can turn off the profile when I render the final mix! All-in-all, this software mic-software combo is extremely useful, especially when working in a personal or production studio where the mix environment has NOT been finely tuned. 

Granted, nothing completely fixes a really problematic room, but this product will definitely help compensate for a bad room and, if the volume is kept on the quiet side (so as not to overstimulate the room), a good engineer should be able to produce great-sounding mixes in almost any room that’s been analyzed by the Sonarworks Studio kit. 

Tonight, I went through the headphone section of the SW software. Amazing! I’ve always recommended mixing on studio monitors but checking the mix on headphones for balance issues that might not be obvious on monitors. However, many of my students and folks who live in condos or apartments with neighbors close by, just don’t have an option other than to monitor in headphones. I do a lot of video evaluations and video productions where it’s important that I wear phones during production so headphone reliability has become more important to me than it used to be. The profiles that are built into the SW software are incredible. I have a pair of AKG Quincy Jones model Q701s that I really like and that I’ve found to be very accurate. The SW profile for those phones makes some subtle changes. But, I’ve always liked tracking with Sony 7506 phones because they’re beefy in the lows and hyped in the highs—great for tracking. But, when I applied the SW 7506 profile, the sound I heard from the 7506s was amazingly balanced. I keep going through the phones I have here at hand and every single one sounded balanced and flat when the SW software was engaged, but when I bypassed the EQ, I recognized the native sound fo the headphones, immediately. It was amazing, as I went through my Q701s, the 7506s, the Blue MoFi, Blue Lola, and even a very old pair of AKG 240s, the profiles all brought the associated phones into a very functional status for crucially analyzing sound quality.

Thanks to Sonarworks for providing an excellent product that can be a gamechanger for anyone who cares about creating the best mixes possible in their home, project, professional studio! 

Bill
 

It's important for students and engineers to focus on the music without worries. Sonarworks makes this possible on monitors or headphones in the classroom and the studio.

Sonarworks is exactly what sound design students need to confidently playback their headphone-based audio projects on speakers in the classroom and/or the studio. With the software enabled, they have more accurate reference audio and they can better gauge how their audio will sound on other systems. I personally do not want to work without the Sonarworks software enabled in my own studio! Recently, while working on various narrative mixes, the dialogue was notably clearer when the Sonarworks plug-in was enabled. The software does exactly what it claims to do. It’s amazing!

The first time I saw digital room correction yield impressive results was when hanging out with Bob Katz. Bob came to Ball State University for a weeklong workshop with our students and needed to create a mastering level listening environment in our largest studio. What I learned was that digital room correction works, and it worked exceptionally well because of Bob’s experience and ears. Bob used a custom solution that worked very well, made sense to me, but in my eyes was meant for experienced users.

Until then we swept our rooms with analyzers and made adjustments with analog filters, so when we started looking for an integrated digital solution we came across Sonarworks. When the systems engineer showed me the calibration process I couldn’t believe how much of the guess work was taken out of the equation. Sonarworks along with a solid understanding of acoustics is a very powerful combination.

All the main control rooms, including the mastering suite at the Ball State University School of Music, run Sonarworks Reference 4. As a Music Media Production undergraduate degree program there are in fact several learning outcomes that Reference 4 fills for us. First, it is our primary room calibration tool. Our rooms never sounded better and the dynamic structure of the software allows us to quickly recalibrate to respond to multiple monitor selections. The students will never properly develop critical listening skills if the room is skewing the listening environment.

Second, the ease of use and the informative interface makes it a cakewalk to explain the correction to students. Any second-year student who has taken acoustics and the first recording techniques class will understand what is going on. And this is where I would like to make an important point: Sonarworks is great, but it is much better in the hands of someone who has taken an acoustics class and knows what to listen for. Since room calibration is an essential skill we made Sonarworks part of the curriculum. In our Studio Maintenance course, our students autonomously measure and calibrate rooms: Perfectly designed rooms in our studios, as well as their personal mixing spaces. The gained results then get analyzed as a group, and solutions that would improve the listening environment acoustically are debated. From an educator’s standpoint Reference 4 is a great teaching tool because the results can be so drastic that beginning students can hear them and the visual feedback supports what is taught in acoustics and recording classes.

One of the most difficult challenges our students face is creating a "flat" listening environment, for their laptops and home studios, on a budget. Our speakers and headphones are slightly lying to us at all times and then our room lies to us again if we are using speakers. Reference allows us to flatten the EQ curve of what we are listening to so we can make informed decisions regarding balance and EQ.  A flat monitoring environment lets us instinctively balance the instruments in our mix and yield far more accurate results effortlessly. Fine-tuning that balance by utilizing the Mono button on Reference while monitoring at around 80-85dB (for a decent equal-loudness curve) gives us the best chances of our mixes translating well outside of our personal listening environment. This set-up solves a lot of technical issues and frees our mind to focus more on creative work.
 

At Mastering.com we help audio engineers, producers, and artists achieve commercial quality sound by teaching them how to master music like a pro. We also teach the ins and outs of how to actually charge for these services so that you can make a living doing what you love! 

In order to achieve all of this, we stress two objectives that are prerequisites for becoming a professional mastering engineer:

1) Become an objective listener
2) Work in an objective environment  

We teach everything about becoming an objective listener, that is, having the right ears and mindset to get Grammy-winning quality in your masters.

The first step to getting there is not training, not plug-ins, not tools, not tutorials, not experience, but an objective environment. 

Mastering is the last 10% of the process, therefore you need to have a careful finesse and critical ear to perfect this art. In order for anyone to make objective decisions, they need a completely flat listening environment.

That is why we give all of our students Sonarworks so that they can fully rely on their room and give them the tools to trust their gut and their ears.

Confidence is key in this industry, and what better way to add confidence in the production process than to quite literally give someone an objective listening environment so they never need to guess their decision making in the mix and master stage.

I require 100% of my mastering students to use Sonarworks, and if you are serious about your work, I recommend you do the same.
 

When I took over as director of the recording studios at Sunway University, I found a studio that had clearly been designed and built without consulting any professionals. Of particular concern was the control room, a long narrow room, with a window that was much too large. The only good thing is that the walls were all covered with absorptive materials. 

The first mix I made in that room was a hot mess. While it sounded fine in the studio when I played it anywhere else, the bass disappeared, and the balances were off. So, I did what I could to improve the sound, removed some fixtures, and added some bass traps. But the university wasn’t interested in putting much money into it, as we’re building a new arts building with recording studios that are being designed by pros. 

Eventually, I did manage to make the room usable. The bass was still too prominent, but I could work with it. But the students were another story. They were beginners and didn’t get to spend enough time in the room to really get to know its sound. And as the program grew, the scheduling got even tighter. So we added a couple of smaller rooms for editing and mixing. Of course, these rooms sounded quite different from the control room.

I installed Reference 4 on the computer in the control room and listen to a couple of mixes with which I was quite familiar. I was impressed. The bass bump was gone, and the overall balance of the mix improved. Next, I installed it in the mixing rooms and listened to the same mixes. They sounded remarkably similar. So, now our students can work in any of the rooms and expect pretty much the same result. 

Finally, for fun, I tried it at home. I had recently moved to a new condo and set up an office studio. I purchased an inexpensive but decent pair of near-fields, but the room was untreated and revealed awful resonances. Reference tamed the resonant frequencies and made the room functional. I won’t be doing any serious mixing in there, but I can listen to student projects.

Our next step is to install Reference in the Mac lab. We have a couple of classes where students work mostly on headphones. Students are required to have a decent pro-level set of headphones, and adding Reference will make what they hear as accurate as possible. 

Ideally, all of your workspaces should be measured and treated by professionals, but for those for whom that isn’t an option, Reference 4 is the best solution I’ve found. 
 

No amount of plugins or listening skills help if you can't trust what you are hearing. With Sonarworks, I know I can trust what I hear. It gets me the best possible sound, in every environment, I work in.

I had already used Sonarworks Reference 4 in my personal digitization and restoration studio to identify and treat issues with frequency response. When teaching critical listening to a class of aspiring audio engineers and producers, I knew this software would be a fabulous tool for illustrating just how different playback systems can sound. Illustrating! I know, a visual word to understand audio concepts. But the visual mapping of headphone calibration profiles in Sonarworks Reference 4 truly helped my students comprehend how monitors and headphones are designed, as well as the impact of listener position and the value of utilizing acoustic measurements and treatment in critical listening environments.
 
In the classroom, I had students call out their preferred brand of headphones. We pulled up the headphones’ calibration profiles on Sonarworks Reference 4 and compared them to each other. Students were honestly blown away by the vastly different equalization curves built into their favorite headphones. This was a real eye (and ear!) opening moment. Visualizing the frequency response helped them better understand how their monitoring systems impact their perception of the music they are creating. Especially when it comes to low end, this tool helped my students comprehend the extent to which something as basic as their choice of headphones impacts the decisions they make as mix and mastering engineers.

One of the big obstacles students face when they start their education is that they are experiencing their music on many different systems, oftentimes not knowing what to trust. This could be a world-class studio, but also headphones as well as their own home studio. Sonarworks Reference 4 really helps them to become much aware of the strengths and pitfalls of each of these systems, balance them out and eventually create music that translates much better.

Sonarworks starts students down the path of critical listening with a fun and engaging platform. With sonic consistency, students build trust in their listening environment. This allows for greater creative freedom and more inspired musical expression.

Sonarworks allows me to confidently work from anywhere. That makes my work more efficient and organic. I can make decisions now, not later. And, it puts me and my students on the same page. I can easily critique their work and know that they will be able to implement and hear my suggested changes.

Sonarworks Reference 4 software is a game-changer! It lets our student engineers compensate for flaws in the monitors and listening environments—even headphones. The end result is complete confidence in mixes that translate well on any system.

It is an area we all have extensive experience in, yet it requires a focused effort to develop improvement in the area of listening critically to one’s environment and the sounds we are exposed to.

The human body’s ability to translate simple atmospheric disturbances (sound waves) convert that to neurological impulses via the brilliant mechanics of the ear, and then the brain understands and reacts, essentially instantaneously, is not only a marvel but may often appear magical.

Unlike learning to play the piano or play guitar where one has to learn a whole new environment surrounding that instrument, posture, scales, rudiments, etc. Developing the ability to listen “critically” to the sounds and music we hear is already an area we have extensive experience in. Hearing is the one sensory that we cannot “turn off.” It is always working for us, day and night. As a result, this has gifted us years and years of experience deciphering sound. Similar to learning to play the piano or guitar however, this development process does require continued practice, focused effort, and is ultimately a lifelong pursuit. To further develop this process for us professionals, we now only need to learn how to dissect these sounds. Doing so will allow us to make a better recording, production, and musical choices. 

Now that we know what kind of experience and expertise we all have, let’s look at strategies to develop this skill even further!

When we break down Critical Listening, it’s important to consider the different categories/attributes that make up the sounds we hear. I refer to these as our 3-Strategies. All sounds will consist of the following components and are thus the basis for the strategies and methodologies we will use: spectral properties; dynamic properties; spatial properties.

Consider now any sound you just may have heard. A train whistle or a car horn. How loud was it? Did it drown out other sounds? Did you hear the sound echo off buildings or a canyon wall? Did the sound resonate in the environment in which you heard it? Where did it come from? Could you tell how far away it was?

All of those questions can be answered by the three previous properties mentioned above. A great exercise would be to take the next 5 sounds you hear and ask these types of questions. You’ll be amazed by how much you will be able to determine about these sounds by applying this type of simple analysis. These are the questions that will train us to listen critically.

Let’s consider now the makeup of each of these categories and ways to improve upon our experience with them.

Spectral Properties:
Dynamic Properties:
Spatial Properties:

Strategy #1 - Spectral Properties: 

Simply put, Spectral Properties can be thought of as frequency balance. Let’s consider three basic bands, Low, Mid, High. We all have boosted or cut the balance of a radio in the car or home. The same thing applies here. The beauty of an EQ allows us to alter the sound in ways that make it more appealing or sit more appropriately with other sounds. There are many different software tools that can help with this, but I personally enjoy using EQ’s that allow you to solo various bands so you can get a sense for exactly what that band might be affecting. There are many different tools that offer this, but the important part right now is to listen to each of these three bands on your desired sound independently to hear what they sound like. 

We will loosely define the Low-frequency range as 20Hz - 250Hz. The Mid-frequency range as 250Hz - 4kHz, and the High-frequency range 4kHz - 20kHz.

If you don’t have an EQ handy, pull up some music you enjoy and know well. Either on your stereo, phone, or music streaming application, manipulate the Low, Mid, and High-frequency ranges. Listen to how they interact with one another. Do different instruments pop out? How do these changes modify the listening experience?

Defining these spectral properties in this way will allow you to take a sound and ask the questions; “is it too “boomy?” or “does it need more clarity?” You can then cut the low frequency or boost the high frequency based on your assessment to achieve the results YOU WANT!

Strategy #2 - Dynamic Properties: 

Dynamics! Is a sound loud or soft? Is a sound not “present” enough to be heard due to other sound sources? Much can be written about how to manipulate dynamics processors and you have probably read many yourself. What we are concerned with are the questions that will inform those decisions.

Often we reach for a compressor to give us the results that a simple volume (fader) balance may be more suited for.

How loud should it be. Do we want it to blend or draw attention to it? Consider working on a drum kit where the cymbals are coming through the overhead mics just fine. However, by the time we add all the tom mics, snare mics, the kick is really lost...maybe almost to a dull-thud. This is a perfect example when a compressor should be used. Placing a compressor on the kick drum to give you anywhere from 3-5 dB of gain reduction at peak moments may be perfect to allow you to reduce the source’s dynamic range-thus allowing you to more suitably blend in the kick drum so it’s presence may be not only heard but also FELT!

Strategy #3 - Spatial Properties:

Where does the sound come from? Where should it come from? The brain is brilliant in hearing a sound and our body can instinctively react and turn to see where that sound came from. Spatial properties involve not just positioning of a sound (left, right, in front, or behind) but also other attributes such as delay and reverb.

As we continue to assess our sound environment, we need to know where things should be placed, but also in what type of environment should they be placed within. Remember back the recommendation about listening to the next 5 sounds and to apply these properties to them to form an assessment?

How does the environment change how the source sounds? Does the environment distract from the source? Does the environment enhance sound? When you listen to great classical recordings you will notice the important role the environment plays on the recording. The bloom and sustain of the sounds helps blends the instruments together in a powerful and cohesive performance. Can you hear the room’s characteristics in the sustain and decay of the music? You can close your eyes and have a mental image of just how large (or small) the environment is.

Imagine someone is speaking with you. Listen to their voices. Are you speaking in a kitchen, in a garage, outside? All of these environments sound different and affect the voice differently. Knowing what type of environment we want to maintain or create will help us know what type of reverb or delay to employ.

We then can decide just “where” should something be placed. By this, we mean using a pan control to position things from Left to Right. The key in all of this is balance! Having too much information on one side will sound unnatural and cause a mix/production to be imbalanced. Also listening for how sounds interact, you may find placing things on one side or the other, or maybe between the Left and Center position will help a source be heard as intended physically or artistically. 
 
Lastly, when we are listening, it’s important to consider how well can we trust the system we are listening to. Not all of us have access to studio-quality headphones or loudspeakers, so this can cloud one’s judgement because after al if you can’t hear it, how can you assess it. Fortunately, there are some fantastic tools out there that will help us be able to trust what we are hearing, one such product is Reference 4 from Sonarworks. This is an invaluable tool for those of us working in different environments, on different speakers, and working in environments that are not purpose-built studios.

Most people want to know “how do I EQ my bass guitar?” or “how hard should I compress this snare drum?” The sound-world we live in is entirely source dependent. This means that the proverbial “it depends” is often the answer we receive. This is really hard to understand and grapple with when we are desiring to learn how to make better use of an EQ, Compressor, and other signal processing. The more important question to be asking is analyzing the sounds you are hearing based on the three-sound categories. By so doing, you will begin to draw on that listening expertise you already have, and can then know exactly how you want that sound to “interact.” Does the sound completely mask other important sounds? Maybe some EQ should be employed to make space, or a compressor to reduce the dynamic range to help it sit better in the mix. These strategies will give you better results when producing and mixing music as opposed to trying to mimic “tricks” or relying on hard “this is how you EQ a trumpet,” style-rules.
 
Just as a great engineer is repeatedly asking oneself questions such as “Do I like that?” “Is this loud enough?” “Is the bass too big?” When listening and evaluating one should be taking a similar approach in assessing sounds in an environment to listen to the many different cues that are part of the listening experience. 
 

Sonarworks Reference 4 cleared up so much. After hearing my speakers properly calibrated for my room, I had to go back and re-check everything I had been working on. Now that I use it from the start, I spend less time running from speakers to speakers on different systems to see how my mixes sound. Now they just sound right. It is nice to trust my speakers and headphones.

I teach critical listening to music production and engineering majors. Explaining to students how to listen is a major challenge. Seeing the crazy diversity of headphone responses in Reference 4 and flattening it, it’s a game-changer.

Doing the same to reveal the acoustic chaos in a room with speakers takes this to another level. The mic and software are an elegant toolset, even for less experienced engineers. Using these tools to watch and listen to headphones and room anomalies, before and after software treatment, firms up these acoustic principals. I hope to get a version for teaching that lets us manipulate parameters to demonstrate even more if these hard to teach concepts. Thanks for making this exceptional acoustic solution.

Sonarworks provides consistency between various playback situations, which is especially important at the early stages of the audio engineering career. Lack of proper monitoring system and acoustic treatment can lead to some unwanted bias during critical listening and Reference 4 provides a convenient and accessible solution. Sonarworks is also a great educational tool, which helps to understand the importance of the monitoring systems and calibration.

Powerful, easy to set-up, must have!
Listening with confidence at home before going to the stage or studio will save a lot of time that can be used to focus on the creative aspect. Very useful for education purposes, students are able to design sounds and prepare their mix for the dub stage, knowing they are listening to flat speakers or headphones. Setting it up is so easy, it takes around 20 minutes to get your home studio speakers into a reliable mixing set-up. With a few seconds, you can set up a headphone preset to listen with confidence on the go. 
 

We use Reference 4 for sharing a common monitoring reference in mixing classes through loudspeakers and through headphones in all of the different studios on campus. It is also invaluable in the personal bedroom studios of the students. We can now focus much more on the music and aesthetics while teaching music mixing instead of discussing why are we listening to "this or that," guessing "what might have been the reason for such frequency unbalances." The curves are pretty straightforward to show this. Reference 4 is a simple to use and an affordable tool for students who are mixing audio in less than ideal monitoring environments It makes different mixing environments monitoring closer to each other. This is an enormous time-saver.

Sonarworks 4 was a great addition to our recording curriculum! My students found it much easier to understand speaker calibration by seeing it in action and hearing the results.

Students work in all kinds of environments and with all kinds of monitoring equipment. They work with headphones in dorm rooms, with low-quality monitors in acoustically untreated rooms... The list goes on. Then they listen to their projects in the studios that their classes take place and, to their disappointment, everything sounds different! This is where Sonarworks Reference 4 kicks in. It provides a very important thing that the students need: consistency between various playback situations! Considering this, I can confidently say that this affordable and easy-to-use tool is absolutely a game-changer! Furthermore, Reference 4 is also invaluable for education in terms of understanding monitor calibration, and differences and deficiencies of monitoring systems, as well.

Reference 4 represents a paradigm shift for my students - whether working in a computer lab setting or in dorm rooms producing music on headphones - they now have access to a level of reliable and accurate monitoring that previously was unattainable.  I’m also using Reference 4 in the classroom to drive discussion on frequency response, phase, acoustics, and perception. As both a Producer/Engineer and Educator Sonarworks has been extraordinarily impactful for me.
 

In the past, our students worked around room frequency issues by trial and error. They adjusted their mixes for the dips and peaks encountered in a given control room and tested mixes on a variety of sound systems. With Sonarworks, there’s no more guesswork. Our students use the calibration system to achieve excellent and consistent audio clarity. Above all, it helps them create a better mix.​

Students often encounter the situation in which a mix produced in their home studio sounds noticeably different when presented in a different playback environment. Sonarworks helps students learn about how their monitor loudspeakers interact with the playback room in ways they might not previously have foreseen, leading to more consistent and predictable results. Reducing presentation variables and related uncertainty is a key part of good engineering, and Sonarworks provides a convenient tool to include in the students’ skill set.

My high school age students perform most of their mixing work from home on inexpensive headphones. Sonarworks has given them a fighting chance to make mixes that translate. They love it and it’s almost like hearing for the first time when you compare the before and after.

At the Conservatory, students have access to a wide range of rooms and monitors to practice mixing. All of our main rooms have Sonarworks Reference 4 Studio Edition installed. Still, most are mixing on their laptops and headphones when not on campus. As well, references between CRAS studios and their laptop mixes translate better by the Sonarworks correction of their headphones' frequency response.  
 
During mix clinics, we stress the importance of headphones for checking across platforms. Because of Sonarworks, I can confidently say that if they have to mix entirely on headphones, they can! In fact, If students do not have access to a decently treated room or do not have time to learn the room, I feel Sonarworks is a valid reference.  
   
Personally, I have been relying on Sonarworks to confidently finish the first draft of my clients' mixes on headphones. I then check that mix on a few different speaker systems. Though I must confess, when working under time constraints and not having time to reference on speakers, I have submitted mixes directly after working 100% with Sonarworks Headphone Edition, passing client scrutiny. Something I would never have attempted before Sonarworks.

Sonarworks has made a revolutionary product in Reference 4. Aside from their own ears, an engineer's listening environment is their most valuable tool, and Reference 4 ensures that one can trust what they hear coming out of their monitors and in their room. My mixes and masters translate better than ever before thanks to Reference 4. For bedroom producers, students in dorms, and even engineers in higher quality rooms, I highly recommend Sonarworks Reference 4.
 

I like Reference 4: its quality and the way it interfaces with the user. I'll strongly recommend it to the many cinema mix studios in Italy when the multichannel version will be available, in substitution to the terrible 3rd of octave filters usually put in the chain!
In the meantime, I enjoy the improvements in my audiophile listening room.
 

At the University of Massachusetts/Lowell, we are incredibly lucky to have well-designed rooms with top-quality monitoring available to our students for their class projects, but we also encourage them to be active in projects beyond their school work. That inevitably means that students do work outside of our facilities and on more modest equipment. Reference 4 gives them a fighting chance at achieving a translatable mix on their entry- and mid-level monitors in a less than ideal acoustic environment like a dorm room. It also allows them to overcome some of the deficiencies with the types of headphones they typically use at a point when higher-end headphones are not an option. The setup process is straight-forward enough that even a new student in the program can go through it with little difficulty, yet the results are powerful enough to serve even advanced or graduate students.
 

For my students, there is finally an environment correction option that allows them to effectively work with the gear they already have.

Sonarworks Reference 4 is a very useful calibration tool that every home or project studio needs, no matter if you use monitor speakers or headphones. It is a powerful tool for educators in the audio field who want to explain and show students how important the influence of the room acoustic environment is during recording, mixing and mastering.  The software graphic interface, that guides the user to execute the calibration process does so in a very easy and interactive way, almost like a game, to get a more confident monitoring frequency response.

Sonarworks Reference 4 changed the game for me as an educator and as a professional. Being able to take room acoustics out of the equation and just focus on listening to your mixes with confidence is what makes Reference 4 a must-have in the classroom and in the studio. Whether on speakers or headphones, my students can now trust their ears and dedicate themselves to learning the craft.

I’ve spent several years trying to fix the problem of the sounds being modified by the environment I played them in, finally thanks to Sonarworks I found the ultimate solution! I truly believe hearing sounds as they really are can make a big difference providing a boost of confidence and speeding up the workflow. Reference4 really makes an impact!