Abbey Road Studios has partnered with Waves to create the Abbey Road Studio 3 plugin. Based on Waves Nx 3D audio technology, the plugin is placed over the main output fader in a DAW, where it can provide a ‘sense check’ when it comes to the more important spatial elements of a mix, when using headphones.

 Head of Audio Products, Mirek Stiles says “You can get a feel for how your tune is balancing over a set of three stereo speaker fields—near, mid and far—in one of the best-sounding mix rooms in the world. This simple-to-use, but incredibly effective plugin is a powerful tool to provide a reality check when it comes to the most important aspects of your mix.”

The beauty is you can easily bypass the plugin back into headphone mode if need be to double check those dodgy edit points, he adds. Getting the centre content of a stereo image is one of the hardest things to achieve when working with headphones, says Stiles.

And for those that primarily mix over headphones, the Studio 3 plugin “could be a genuine game changer,” says Stiles. It’s designed to help ensure the balance translates to the outside world.