Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1152266
32 S U M M E R 2 0 1 9 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y depth added to the source material relative to just listening on headphones. Normally, the spatial content on headphones can be very extreme at times but engage the Aural ID and the imaging narrows as if to incorporate Interaural Time Differences. For kicks, I adjusted the azimuth to 45 degrees and the imaging became closer to what the headphones naturally reproduced. Phasing became noticeable with some speech on occasion. For one show I sampled, the narration's vertical position seemed to elevate slightly higher with the Aural ID engaged compared to when bypassed. When I tested some of my music reference songs, I could really hear how hard panned instruments and vocals were compared to when I bypassed the Aural ID. I took a number of breaks over the days I experimented with Aural ID. If I came back to a session and listened first with Aural ID engaged and then bypassed, I preferred the Aural ID characteristics. If I first listened with it bypassed, I would initially prefer it that way. I'm looking forward to trying it out with surround and immersive sources. CONCLUSION I My initial thought when I decided to look into Aural ID was that I'd find something that could more accurately replicate mixing on monitors. However, by itself, that is not the point of the Aural ID as it does not include room characteristics. If you were to also incorporate an impulse response of a specific My .SOFA files at three different sampling frequencies. Top: Exciting shot of my left ear. Bottom: When the only ruler you can find is a pink one from your daughter's elementary school days. Getting ready to record a video of my head. not natively do this, so I used one of the recommended plugins Genelec listed in their literature, the free SPARTA/ COMPASS Binauraliser (how's that for a name?) plugin from Aalto University (research.spa.aalto.fi/projects/sparta_vsts/). Unfortunately, this is not available in AAX format, so I also used DDMF Metaplugin (ddmf.eu) which can convert AU and VST format plugins to AAX. This is a very useful tool given that these are common plugin formats but aren't supported by Pro Tools. Inserting Metaplugin across my stereo program master and then selecting the SPARTA Binauraliser, I imported my .SOFA file that matched the sampling rate of my session. As you can see in the snapshot of the Binauraliser, the default azimuth is 30 degrees and -30 degrees. As you'd guess, this is the recommended "ideal" equilateral triangle listening angle when working in stereo. While I worked in stereo, Binauraliser allows 64 independently controlled channels and the Aural ID .SOFA file allows you to have tons so that you can replicate nearly all monitoring formats, as mentioned earlier. For all sources, you can adjust angles and many other attributes to your liking. Doing so for stereo, however, will yield results that are not in line with typical speaker positioning. REACTION I It was interesting to engage and bypass the Aural ID since I didn't have a room IR file that I was trying to replicate listening in. There is definitely some Goodhertz CanOpener Waves Nx Virtual Mix Room