For multi-Grammy Award–winning producer, mixer, and engineer Vance Powell (Chris Stapleton, Jack White, Phish, Elle King), referencing mixes across multiple playback systems is a crucial part of the workflow – shifting between high-resolution monitoring and everyday listening environments helps ensure a mix translates beyond the studio.
To streamline that process and eliminate time-consuming exports and file transfers, Powell has adopted Audiomovers’ AirCaster macOS plug-in, allowing him to send a live mix to any AirPlay-enabled speaker in real time.
In the control room at Sputnik Sound in Nashville, Powell works across a familiar hierarchy of monitors. ‘I’m mixing on ATCs – the bigs,’ he explains. ‘Small ProAcs are my mid and near-fields. And then NS-10s, of course.’
But checking how a mix holds up in everyday listening situations remains essential: ‘I use AirCaster to throw to one of my Sonos speakers, in glorious mono, over to the side, like it might be in your kitchen.’
That ability to beam a live mix directly to consumer-style playback devices has become a core part of Powell’s decision-making process, whether listening through ‘a TV speaker or a boombox – anything someone would realistically listen on’.
Before adopting AirCaster, that process was far from immediate. ‘I’d have to put the mix into my iTunes library,’ he says. ‘Let it upload, using iTunes Match so it would show up on my phone. Because Sonos is tied to my AirPlay, I’d play it from the phone. It’s a lot of steps. It’s semi-insecure – more insecure than secure.’
Each mix revision meant repeating the entire chain. Tweak, export, upload, match, re-stream. AirCaster replaces that workflow entirely, transmitting audio straight from the mix bus to the speaker. ‘You don’t have to print. You don’t have to waste any time,’ he says. ‘It’s simple.’
Beyond the control room, Sputnik Sound – the private production and mix studios he co-owns with Mitch Dane – features multiple televisions and a lounge sound system connected via AirPlay.
‘One of the televisions has stereo audio that goes to my lounge,’ he says. ‘I can throw the mix up there and send people to listen on connected speakers in real time. Or use the Apple TV. Anything with AirPlay works – and AirCaster works really great with all of it.’
Additionally, multiple instances of AirCaster can be run simultaneously, sending different channel pairs to speakers across several rooms or locations.
Like Audiomovers’ ListenTo, which Sputnik Sound uses to share immersive mixes and binaural renders with remote clients for real-time review, AirCaster removes friction locally. The result is faster referencing, clearer perspective, and quicker creative decisions grounded in how music is actually heard.