Devin Townsend Uses Waves Nx Headphones for Mixing

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Guitarist, composer, producer, and recording and mixing engineer Devin Townsend (The Devin Townsend Project) employs Waves Nx - Virtual Mix Room over Headphones and Waves Nx Head Tracker for Headphones for mixing. Townsend comments, The last two albums that I have released, Ocean Machine Live in Plovdiv Bulgaria and Empath, were the biggest projects that I have used Waves Nx on. However, having said that, the only reason I had not used Nx on more projects is simply that I have only known about Nx for this amount of time.

My latest album Empath was a massive undertaking, with many moving parts. To mix remotely and while on the plane with Nx was an absolute lifesaver. I used Nx to replicate surround mixing environments (for example, the Empath documentary, which was recently screened in London).

He adds, Waves Nx enables me to mix on headphones when I am away from my studio - as a reliable reference that will translate well to speakers once I am back at the studio. It is also great for mixing for 7.1 / 5.1 surround on headphones, when I don't have access to a surround speaker setup, and it is another great mix reference in addition to everything else you're using as well.

Powered by Waves' groundbreaking Nx technology, Waves Nx Virtual Mix Room is a virtual monitoring plugin that delivers immersive 3D audio on headphones - the same three-dimensional depth and the panoramic stereo image you would be hearing from speakers in an acoustically treated room. This plugin recreates the acoustics of a high-end studio inside your headphones, so you can make great mixing decisions anytime, anywhere. In addition, you can mix for 7.1, 5.1 or 5.0 surround on your regular stereo headphones - all this without coloring your sound or introducing any artifacts. What you hear is your mix, exactly the way you want it to sound - only now you have a more accurate way to monitor it on headphones.

Nx includes a Headphone EQ calibration feature, allowing you to select a correction EQ curve for specific headphone models. The immersive 3D audio experience created by the Nx Virtual Mix Room plugin can be enhanced by head tracking, using either your computer camera or the Waves Nx Head Tracker for Headphones, a small Bluetooth device that latches on to your headphones and tracks your head movements in real time. You can use the Nx plugin along with the Nx Head Tracker in order to recreate on headphones the ideal spatial acoustics of a high-end room, improving your headphone experience when mixing and recording, as well as helping prevent ear fatigue on headphones.

Townsend remarks, Another great aspect of Nx is that I use it to decrease ear fatigue in headphone environments. Most noticeably, when the Nx plugin is by-passed, you immediately notice the shock as to how much a virtual mix space can not only provide an accurate sound field, but also with that virtual space, your ears can breathe and the fatigue that is usually experienced as a result of the lack of virtual space is almost entirely eliminated.

About using the Nx Head Tracker for Headphones, he remarks, It becomes very much akin to not wearing headphones at all. It's easy to forget you're even wearing phones, since the tracker responds to your physical movements and really places you in the experience.

Townsend adds, about using the headphone EQ calibration/compensation feature, I have used it with my Audio-Technica headphones while mixing during a flight on a plane. The sound canceling, and the consequent flattening of the frequency spectrum that Nx provides presents a very reliable and accurate representation. My mixes have been turning out quite good lately, and a lot of that I attribute to being able to hear the deficiencies in my mix by using Nx. I would attribute a lot of this to the EQ calibration/compensation feature.

Townsend sums it up: Waves Nx has changed the way I mix in some fundamental ways: having an accurate representation of a balanced virtual room has allowed me to mix with confidence in almost any scenario. It's a game-changing piece of technology that can level the playing field when it comes to articulation of accurate mixes. I highly recommend it!

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About Waves Audio Ltd.:

Waves is the world's leading developer of audio DSP solutions for the professional, broadcast, and consumer electronics audio markets. Since its start in the early 90s with the introduction of the Q10 equalizer plugin, Waves has gone on to develop a comprehensive line of over 150 audio plugins, including industry standards like the L1 and L2 Ultramaximizers, popular vintage console models, and innovative mixing tools like Vocal Rider and the Artist Signature Series. For its accomplishments, Waves received a Technical GRAMMY Award in 2011, and the Q10 was selected as an inductee into the TECnology Hall of Fame. In 2016, Waves released the eMotion LV1 mixer, a revolutionary live digital mixing console that provides real-time audio mixing for front-of-house, monitor, studio and broadcast engineers. All other product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with Waves.

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