Waves Audio has announced the Abbey Road Studio 3 plug-in, created in collaboration with Abbey Road Studios and powered by Waves Nx immersive audio technology.
The Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 plug-in brings the acoustics of the Studio 3 Control Room – Abbey Road’s flagship mix room – to any set of headphones through Waves’ Nx technology.
The plug-in emulates the acoustic of the Studio 3 control room in three-dimensional sound, powered by Waves’ pioneering Nx technology for immersive 3D audio, promising the acoustic response, use of close-field, mid-field and far-field speakers, and its accurate low-end sustain (notoriously difficult to achieve on headphones).
In addition, the plug-in delivers full 5.1 and 7.1 surround-sound, modelled after the studio’s original surround set-up. This facilitates starting a5.1 or 7.1 mix workflow in a DAW without access to a full set of surround speakers, or creation of a 5.1 or 7.1 premix before going into a surround sound mix studio.
‘Abbey Road has historically been very protective of the acoustic properties of its studios for software emulations, and the Studio 3 control room is no exception,’ says Mirek Stiles, Head of Audio Products at Abbey Road. ‘After speaking with Yoni Zlotkin [Waves Product Manager] and the Waves team at length over many months, I began to feel more confident these guys had some groundbreaking theories on how such a sensitive task could be realised.
‘Not everything worked first time and we went back to the drawing board on a few occasions. Our breakthrough moment was when Giles Martin came into the Studio 3 control room with some Universal Music executives and we did a playback. The positive reaction from all in the room was immediate and confirmed our suspicions we had created something special and unique. This plug-in was probably the most challenging yet and I’m extremely grateful to the Abbey Road engineers for their feedback and input, and to the talented, resilient and patient team at Waves Audio. I hope this plug-in inspires music creators worldwide to realize their visions with more confidence than ever before.’
‘The Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 marks a pivotal point in the prolific cooperation between Waves Audio and Abbey Road, which began in 2011,’ adds Waves EVP of Sales & Marketing, Mick Olesh. ‘This plug-in is not only a technical breakthrough, it faithfully mirrors Waves’ ongoing commitment to serve our user base, by offering them tools that augment and enrich their workflow and especially their creative options. With the Abbey Road Studio 3 plug-in, we have managed to overcome a common yet critical missing factor for many engineers, producers and musicians: not only the ability to obtain a professional-sounding work environment, but easy and affordable access to one of the best-sounding rooms in the world.’
Key features:
- Abbey Road Studio 3 acoustics in immersive 3D audio over headphones.
- Precision modelling of Studio 3’s stereo and surround soundstage.
- Studio 3’s close-field/mid-field/far-field speaker set-ups.
- Mix 5.1 and 7.1 surround on stereo headphones
- Personalised head anatomy calibration.
- Headphone EQ calibration for popular headphone models.
- SoundGrid-compatible.
