REVIEW: Sonarworks Reference 4 for Studio Speakers reviews
Review video about my thoughts of the Sonarworks Reference 4 software, including how to measure using their measurement microphone, a before and after comparison and some critical notes. Check more about Sonarworks over here:
https://www.sonarworks.com/
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38 reviews for REVIEW: Sonarworks Reference 4 for Studio Speakers reviews
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EL Lane –
I'm not quite SOLD yet. But, I agree that it helps improve the referencing at the desk.
Smitty Trill –
Snake Oil Deliver no benefit and I know my room is acoustically screwed KRK Rokit 5's Apollo twin Alienware R7 nothing was different but a boost by 12db once I changed it to neutral and toggled on and off (bypass) it was the same. Ask yourself did all the grammy winning artist and platinum selling artist have this? NO they didn't. I did hear a change with the headphones but it's a predefined preset of your head phone before you apply it.. Snakey
Jellyfish Soundz –
So much tech to make sound better when in the end it gets compressed to mp3…..
TrsN –
i have 2 monitors and a subwoofer. is there an option for a setup like this?
TheCunnu12 –
Man! I can see you are from Holland! You’ve got a pair of Philips MFB 587 black edition. I think that probably 98% of the people here don’t know what I’m talking about. Great choice! Because of that….SUBSCRIBED! I trust people who understand what those speakers are capable of! Impressed that a young guy appreciates the MFB speakers. Got a pair of 545 studio here as well as the 587,585,541,544
Android Graffiti –
Another interesting point is that if you use tonal balance control or something that analyzes signal in order to suggest better frequency choices, it would probably be wise to put this after them as they are essentially eq'ing the signal.
Arnold Hauer –
Well done! Thanks!
Real Home Recording 2 –
This is by far your best review. You actually read the manual, did some research and didn't rush through the process. Well done!
Jono Grant –
Hopefully I can get your opinion on this. (Great video BTW!) I think after using Sonarworks a few times I can think of a couple of flaws in the concept. 1. SPEAKERS – most professional monitors are designed to have bumps and valleys in their sound, it's what makes people like mixing on them. The reference 4 software is great but it's measuring the sound of a CERTAIN set of speakers in your room and showing you the curve they send out. I think what you really want is to see the curve of your room without the coloration of your speakers added to the equation. If a Yamaha NS-10 has a huge bump say, at 1.5 Khz, it was designed like that and people like to check on NS-10s perhaps to make sure their mix isn't harsh in those areas. If it was harsh, the NS-10s would tell you and you'd mellow them out a bit. But if Sonarworks levels out the curve of everything you're hearing, it would flatten out that intentional 1.5 kHz bump as well right? Along with any other inherent boosts and cuts designed into the speaker. Because of this, I would say making your room treatment flat is great; you get to hear your NS-10s (or whatever) in a flat room that doesn't add room coloration. Whereas Sonarworks doesn't compensate for the speakers being used. Perhaps they could look into either having a speaker that they design that has a completely flat calibrated response so it didn't colour the measurement and you could purchase it and use them to omit the test tones. Or, perhaps they could have a list of pro audio monitors to choose from and then apply an additional curve (the curve of those monitors) to bring back the sound of the speakers into the equation. The best might be an advanced section where the software could first measure the frequencies of the speaker at close range or something. I assume when using SW with headphones, it DOES adjust the curve according to the particular headset you're using but NOT the room. This brings me to number 2. Speakers and listening environments out in the real world are anything but flat. Listening speakers are designed with hype in certain frequencies for a more pleasing sound and people's room acoustics are all over the place, not flat or consistent. If mixing on flat speakers was the best way to go, all studio monitors would be designed completely flat and that would only be good if all listening speakers were completely flat. I think monitors are meant to be coloured and engineers get used to what those monitors do, so out in the real world their stuff will translate in different environments. Having said all this, I think SW can be improved but I also think it has uses in it's current form. Bottom line: I wouldn't use it exclusively and real room treatment is much more important. Longest post ever! Sorry! but someone might have a good argument for me or consider all this when using Sonarworks.
Burning Zeal –
How would you rate the headphones?
Boi Mesa –
Did they change anything after your suggestions??
Boi Mesa –
Do u have a sub woofer??
Mike G –
I remember those jean jackets were"cool" when I was 7yrs old…. I guess their back?
gerard steen –
Engineer correction eq-ing. That's pretty interesting.
Echay –
About the mic stand, even though they show a human holding the mic, it is always recommended to use a mic stand.
Tom Cavanaugh –
Like the video. Not sure I want to purchase this yet, going to research other reference programs as well. My only question would be that you mention the interface should be measured separately and I wonder why because wouldn't the software be analyzing the combination of the mic and interface at the same time anyway? What is the difference if it analyzes the interface, then analyzes the mic, then analyzes the combo of the two anyway in the end? BTW, Yer funny! 🙂
Александр Н –
I very like how this software affects on my headphones. I have a pretty bright headphones and they have a little dip in a middle. So I made them sound warmer on less harsher.
Maxime –
What is this mess? Use a tripod to hold your measurement mic.
Also there is no way the curve they show as the simulated one is the one you end up with. I absolutely do not understand this "simulated" thing, why don't they measure again after correction to show the actual frequency response curve you end up with, not a useless simulated one.
Mentor Latifi –
To me did away better than before …so it's worth buying !!
Bitcoin Helper –
how do you rate genelec SAM ?
DEBARSHI CHOUDHURY –
Wtf is SNAKE OIL
Brad Ferguson –
Great review – thank you!
Jakob Pearson –
Should have just used a tape measure lol
jackrob5 –
Steven Wilson looks young in this video! 😮
Ital Soops –
I use Sonarworks headphone edition inserted post Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 which I'm not sure whether you've reviewed or not. I'll check but if not please do one. Killer combination that translates extremely well. I've never enjoyed mixing through headphones (DT770) as much as I do now.
OUTSHADES –
You should do cosplays!!
Thegod Ausar –
yo, I like that beat that started playing at 12 mins in. Can I sample it?
ErkaMau –
Hi, did you compare it with Ik Multimedia ARC ?
Adam Peter Shinn –
Nice video. 4 versions of Darude – "Sandstorm". Is that an inside joke? Lol
george jones –
Hey bro, thanks for the upload. I just had a question…
Once you have calibrated the speakers and the curve is set, will it just run in the background on the stereo out, or do you need to run it as a vst on your master output on your DAW?
Ivan Borcin –
Does it have sense when I´d do it with any mesurement microphone? Or must it definitely be one from Sonarworks?
A Better Sound –
The only thing I hate is their quality control. Look at the release notes: https://www.sonarworks.com/blog/release-notes/ …I've been evaluating it and every version on Windows 10 has a different sets of bugs.
Wes The G –
It would of been nice to know what you thought about the correction to headphones but always like to hear from you!
BKM –
Another think I wanted to throw in is that if you already did some corrections to your room but you're not sure if it's enough, the measurement can reveal where there's still larger problems in your room treatment.
Hiram Stern –
Awesome Review! very thorough and well thought out.
Wyda –
I prefer the flat response…. While sitting here listening to my coloured sounding speakers 😛
Self Made Musician –
Your voice reminds me of gold member from Austin powers and it makes me happy
raal007 –
Love your videos. Thought your comments on mic stand usage and preamp corrections were right on. We measured using a mic stand to make the height consistent. Do like and use the product. Take care.