A great review! Having watched numerous videos on the NX plugins I have to say that you're video contains the most technical information and this has helped me to decide which NX version to purchase. A big thank you for your informative video's.
So glad you find it helpful! I'm a scientist by training so I try to include data in my videos instead of just opinions. Hope you find the NX plugin helpful!
Great review mate - I reckon I’ll go buy this now. I’m still gonna be listening to my mixes on my phone and in the car, but this looks like a great way to reference as we mix. Particularly that it’s matched to NS-10 and also a sub option. One question - do you rate Waves NX over similar plugins from other companies?
I don't have a review, but I've tried a lot. Something that is different, but works really well is canopener by goodhertz. I've heard good things about slate vsx, but I have lots of headphones already and didn't want to drop $500 on another pair. How that helps!
Would be nice if you could do a comparison of similar plugins :) I am looking for a plugin to mix with headphones (DT 990 Pro) and don't know which one is 'the best' in the range of Waves NX, dsoniq realphones, canopener, sienna etc.
I'm on your side, the CLA Nx is much better, the CLA 10+SUB for the overall mix, the Mains to check the bass, the Boom box to check the highs. I usually set the ambience to 100 but will try at 75 on CLA next time, thank's for the video !
Hello! Thank you very much for this great video! I was checking another video that recommends using Sonarworks in the plugin chain, before NX, but here I can see that you recommend doing it the other way around! Now I'm a bit confused..! can you please explain why? Thanks again...
Concerning mixing with headphones perhaps more in general: how do you dial in a safe volume level to mix on with head phones? I mean when I use my monitors I use a dB meter (using pink noise in my DAW) to dial in a safe level of about 70 dB which is a healthy level for a longer period of time (I have a small room). But... you can't simply do that with headphones. So what to do then?
This is a really interesting question and something I haven't thought about before. I think if you've spent a number of years mixing at a particular level on monitors, you will probably have a sense what that level is on headphones. But the only way to know for sure is to actually measure the pressure level... The only thing that I can think of is to literally surround the earcups of your headphones around the meter to get a reading. Will it be perfect? Not at all, but it will give you a ballpark estimate! If you have time, set your headphones to what you think is the same level as your monitors and try measuring it with the meter. Let me know if it's close! I'm super curious!
I appreciate you mentioning the plugin order. I have Sonarworks SoundID Reference and several NX rooms. I was putting Sonarworks first. Thanks for letting me know that was backwards. Great vid!
oops ! In a video 1 year earlier (Mar 6-2021 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-szGvojr9Z0k.html )he said the "official order" from Waves was that the EQ correction comes first, then the NX plugin. You had it right and he probably misspoke or changed his mind.
I need a little guidance pls. Is the goal to listen to the NS10's and get the ears accustomed then mute Germano and adjust the mix and go back & unmute the NS10's and compare and so on, backwards and forwards until you think they sound the same..... is this the way to use it? Thx
That is an interesting approach. I don't think I would try to do it that way. What you will end up with is an average between the two which might not be the best. What I would do instead is listen to reference songs with the monitors that you know sound good and then quickly switch to your mix to see if it has a similar balance. I would then use headphones with something like Germano and listen to the references again and then switch to your mix. If anything jumps out in terms of balance or harshness in either of those cases, you should try to make some adjustments. This way you get two perspectives of your mix from different listening environments. And the only way to know what will sound great is to use a mix to reference that you know really well and that sounds great everywhere you play it. Often times when making final mixing decisions on a song, we can lose perspective and it starts sounding really bad quickly. This is why I recommend always checking with references. Hope that helps!
In Cubase it is better to put NX and Sonarworks in the control room (listen through the control room, no need to deactivate NX or Sonarworks when bouncing). Cubase is an amazing DAW…
@@beatsbyrena44If you put NX or Sonarworks on your master then be sure to deactivate them prior to bouncing/exporting. Remember - NX and Sonarworks are there just for your own monitoring purposes…
@@NNokia-jz6jbNX and Sonarworks you can put on your masterbus as shown in the video, but if you got Cubase you can activate Control Room and put them there instead and you then don’t need to deactivate NX/Sonarworks when bouncing/exporting…
So I Loaded this on my protools session. And I know I don't have the headphones they refer to use, but its sounded very flat, and when I made adjustments to my mix, to brighten or give body to the Mix it still didn't hit the mark. Is this the purpose of the plugin overall, to produce the worst it can sound. Please comment and let me know...
No it's to help you make better mixing decisions on headphones so your music will translate better to more playback devices. Try listening to a few references through the plug-in to calibrate your ears first. That helps a lot.
Did you happen to also check the frequency response of the NS-10 CLA Nx? I’m curious if it is flatter (and most likely more extended because of the sub)?
I did check that, but it's not in the video. I'll pull up the data and let you know. It definitely extends down a lot more compared to ga2 or the ns10s in germano
It would be great when you can make a Review about the Slate VSX , im looking for a Room Simulation and i dont know which is the best bang for the Buck . One Site Slate VSX with cheap build Quality and on the Other Hand Beyerdynamik Dt1990 Pro with some waves Nx Plugins .
I have had VSX since day 2 of the founders release. I also have hd600, dt770 and more. I can't speak for the dt1990. But I CAN say, if one has the hd600, plus sonarworks correction, then CLA nx is a very very very healthy competitor. I have a tuned home studio, and CLA nx has a bit more low end, but sonically and espeeeecially directionally, which is super important to me when looking for something that correlates to what I'm familiar with, CLA nx nails it better than most of VSX, for me. I find the "popular" rooms in VSX to be hyped and wide, a solo guitar is still beside me. It's like I'm listening to my physical monitors and I cup my ear behind my head as if to listen, and that information is there. Take my hands away, and it goes away. So the tech they used has "super hearing". I'm not interested in that, because it's not authentic. Though, using references, VSX can absolutely get you mixes that translate. But, if someone already has high valued headphones, PLUS correction for those headphones, then CLA nx is what I'd suggest because it's only an additional $29. Right? I like the clean low mids in CLA nx. In VSX, the most authentic rooms to me are the audiophile room (which no one talks about because it's 2lufs lower than Steven's mix room. lol) and Sonoma Mid, a bit bright, but directional quality and phase is very good, and NRG near/mid. I like NRG far because it's among the only monitors that represents the obvious poke/click of when a kick is too much in my honda civic. I find the cars in VSX to be a mess and don't represent my own car which I can pick crap out in 5 seconds. I think the failure of these car type emulations is that we don't get the resonances of when you turn a car volume up, and it gets shrill and sufferable because of how it all relates to the panels in the physical car etc... the emulations are forgiving. But... apparently there's an expansion pack coming with the best car reference we've ever heard. Which makes no sense... Because the whole idea of the car test is it shows you all the instant bad in your mix, not how great your mix is. Anyhow... lol. Hope that helps. I might as well add, that Acustica Sienna has a free lite version. I'm not a fan of that room, but the mastering room is great, and the guru settings are cool. Sienna gives more focus to transients, I find, which is a good thing on the flip side. But it's tough to tweak if you don't have a room to compare it too. Oh... one more thing. If you use NX, don't use their eq profile. It's sweetening, it's not doing what sonarworks is doing. Cheers.
So, now Waves has FOUR of these Modules? I stupidly bought the first three. Also got the little device for on top of my Headphones, an extra cost of course, and they never worked from the get go.
@@iasyama1999 both these processes are linear and therefore can be applied in any order and be exactly the same. Intuitively this doesn't seem right, but mathematically it is.
@@iasyama1999 yes the EQ in waves nx does flatten the headphone response, but I'm not sure to what target. Personally I like the sound of sonarworks, but you could probably get away with just using waves nx + their headphones correction profile. Hope that helps!
Nice video. I mix with my monitors that are corrected by Sonarworks, and I check my mixes with a single Avantone in mono. However my monitors have a drastic cut at 80 Hz. So normally I use a similar plugin to Nx to check the low end with my headphones corrected also by sonarworks. I am trying now the NX Studio 3 and gave me more bass when used the 3rd option, so that's neat and after watching your video, now I want to try Germano. These Nx plugins are pretty neat and I see that could be a nice plugin to use to check the mix in different ambients.
Shame i came across this video AFTER i bought Abbey Road🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️. Bought Germano this morning . I honestly prefer mixing/listening over monitors because it feels more natural to me. Headphones are too intimate and flat to me.
Might not be for everyone, especially if you are used to mixing on monitors. It takes some time to get used to the sound, so reference a lot in the beginning! You can also try rolling the ambience back. I find that at 60% it sounds the best to me.