TAKING THE CURVES

The SoundID Reference plug-in gives you a surprisingly deep toolset. In fact, every time I revisited the software I found new and handy features not immediately revealed in the main page which greatly enhance the value of this package.

Apart from the FLT response you can design your own Custom Target responses by modifying your tonal corrections via multiband equalisation or import wholly different settings from elsewhere. In my case I dialled down the top-end boost with a shelf EQ and finessed the midrange and bottom end a little to suit my ears.

The other mode available is Translation Check and this offers an array of common consumer device response curves. This is a very handy feature indeed, providing useful representations of how various ear buds, headphones, laptops, car, TV and home cinema systems will reproduce your mixes. Kudos to Sonarworks here for providing a very compact way to road test your mixes for the cruel realities of modern music consumption.

Rounding out the main display are long vertical stereo I/O meters and an output volume control. Mono, channel swap and mute switching are also cleverly integrated here.

TOUGH LOVE TONED DOWN

Under the bonnet lurk many more fine tuning controls. You can choose between zero and low latency modes as well as a linear phase mode where superior phase distortion performance is traded off against a higher latency rate. Any subtle, detected volume discrepancies in L/R performance from the listening position can be corrected and a set of limit controls allows the user to dial-in stepped preset processing limits.

An automatically engaged -10dB Safe Headroom setting can be disabled if you are satisfied that any extra boosts the software introduces aren’t putting your monitors at risk.

Most usefully, SoundID Reference also includes a Dry/Wet continuously variable slider. If, like me, you find the FLT mode a bit of a shock to the system after years of familiarity with your speaker/room/listening position relationship’s non-linearities, it’s quite a pleasurable experience to dial the correction effect down to 50 or 60 percent where you can still hear your old tone but also partake of the software’s best intentions. Unlike a modern compressor’s ‘blend’ control, this process does not, in fact, mix the unaffected and effected signals together but simply reduces both EQ boosts and cuts by the percentage dialled in so there are no phase issues introduced.

Further features include: GUI resizing options and a ‘dark’ mode that changes the plug-in display to a more aggressive white on black to freshen things up.

CARRYING THE CANS

The other main capability of the SoundID calibration system is aimed at both consumer and pro-grade headphone users. Federal Audio generously supplied a pair of Adam Audio Studio Pro SP-5 cans for this review as none of my ageing fleet were listed, though over 300 new and popular headphone model’s ‘average’ profile calibration settings are. The term ‘average’ here simply means several examples of each model have been measured and an average frequency response calculated between them. If you want your individual set of cans measured you can go the extra mile and send them in for customised calibration. 

It was a pleasure to use the very capable SP-5s while testing the software and both my clients and I took a real liking to them. Loading up their calibration profile was quick and easy and the frequency curve here involved some gentle low-range boosts and cuts and noticeably steeper cuts around 5 and 8kHz. The Adams are a beautifully-made headphone with a fairly forward treble register which helps detail cut through during denser tracking sessions. The SoundID calibration did a great job of smoothing out this forward top end and made the headphones noticeably more even overall. With this particular model of headphone, the process worked very well to my ear. Indeed I found I liked the Flat Target mode better in the headphone environment than I did when monitoring with speakers. As with monitors, headphone tone is a very subjective thing and people react differently to a different tonal emphasis. I sometimes find a singer will perform or pitch better with a brighter or darker set of cans, so access to a few different profiles brings yet another creative use of the software into play. The full range of mix-checks, EQ tweaks and modifications detailed above are also available to headphone users and studio engineers who want to mediate or customise the listening experience further. 

REFERENTIAL TREATMENT

In the studio there’s a number of ways the SoundID Reference system can be used. Its abilities as a speaker and headphone calibration system and/or mix-checker are formidable, but there’s also the option to render mixed tracks in stand-alone mode, instance the plug-in on your master bus either as a corrective process or a very nuanced tone shaping tool.

Last but not least you could most certainly get creative by misusing the Custom Target and Translation Check modes to transform the tonality of individual tracks.

The software displays and controls are presented in a somewhat forensic yet user-friendly maner that quickly dispels any notion that this might be a gimmicky piece of software jazz for consumer audio enthusiasts. Everything is well put together and sonically the results are head-turningly convincing. While the headphone software is no doubt aimed partly at the consumer-grade area of the market, the speaker calibration mic-and-software package undeniably positions SoundID Reference as a serious tool that is capable of delivering both accuracy and flexibility when optimising your listening devices for both home and studio use.