Does Cubase offer (or is there a plugin for this) “Lo fi” speaker simulation? Something to check how the kitchen radio would make your song sound?
I am about to buy some Avantone active monitors for this, but I will not use them that much and thought I may be able to safe 500€ with a software solution.
Not aware of anything in Cubase itself, but you might want to check out Sonarworks Reference. This is actually a software designed to correct your actual speakers, but it also offers “emulation” of other speakers.
I use MixChecker from Audified for speaker simulation
Thanks for the tipps. A single (I guess mono would do) Avantone costs 300€. Advantage: I can use my Big Knob to switch monitors. Sonar Reference with a mix costs about 300€, too. I can calibrate my monitors with that so that is nice. It looks rather scientific though, probably more than I could swallow. MixChecker is 150€ and it looks like this does what I originally wanted and is very easy to use. Still 150€ is quiet a price tag for an EQ with a nice UI, but I downloaded the trial and so far I like it.
For what it’s worth, you can Google the frequency response for the Avantone and set up the curve to mimic. If you also set to mono and pan over to just one speaker you will get what you are looking for. I call my preset “KitchenMono” in Frequency. I also use the Cubase stereo plug to switch over to mono. Finally I pan the outboard mixer hard right, and presto, crappy kitchen radio mix. I have JBL lsr305’s it works well to start getting initial balance in a mix.
REVerence can load custom impulse responses. These can be used to simulate all sorts of speakers and cabinets if you set Mix to 100%.
Great idea, put in the control room it is easy to try out different IR’s without the danger of rendering it down by mistake.
A quick google and I found this:
http://www.aaronbrownsound.com/free-impulse-responses-from-the-ipad-iphone-and-behritone-speakers/
I just found an auratone response impulse here: https://stash.reaper.fm/v/13569/Auratone_441kHz.wav
and using Romantique’TP’s suggestion loaded it into ReVerence with a surprisingly good result.
Great, I didn’t know what Reverence is capable of. Imported the auratone response file and compared that to the MixChecker Auratone (at least the icon looks like one) setting. Similar, just the MixChecker produces some audible digital artifacts which Reverence doen’t. Best solution for me so far - with no additional cost.
@timvdh
I didn’t much like Auratones back in the day, but they were quite good for placing the vocal level just so and there was little else competing with them. I recall they were fairly clean sounding unless driven hard. I used to like the small speakers that were in many of the better 1/4 tape machines - Studer A80 for example they were a great tool. If anyone has an impulse made with one of those??
Since making that other post, I also found a way of reproducing the general characteristic of NS10s (using Vozengo Curve EQ, the method is on YouTube) that reminded me how much I hated NS10s! It wasn’t so much the muddy lower mids or splatty highs, it was just that I found them really tiring to use for any length of time. I know lots of people swore by them, but they just didn’t do it for me.
I have no doubt that a quick fix simulation such as a REVerence impulse won’t match the real speakers or a dedicated emulation like MixChecker, but it’s unbeatable value for money!
My Lo-fi simulation looks like this: I put a monomaker (MonoToStereo can do that) and an EQ with a lowcut at 200Hz and a highcut at 2000Hz (12db/oct) on the master out. If you can hear everything “clear” with this settings it should sound good on any cheep kitchenradio. 