Focusrite VRM

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bolla
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Focusrite VRM

Post by bolla »

Anybody using the focusrite VRM box?
I'm doing more and more projects from home, often late at night with headphones. This looks like an intriguing reference option.

I'm wondering how mixes created using "the box" relate when played back on their real world counterparts.

Thanks, Bolla
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triviul
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Re: Focusrite VRM

Post by triviul »

bolla wrote:Anybody using the focusrite VRM box?
As it happens, I just posted a big user review about the VRM Box, specifically from a mixing angle, on my site. Here's a link:

Focusrite VRM Box user review

Let me know if that helps!
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Shea3
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Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2011 5:39 am
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Re: Focusrite VRM

Post by Shea3 »

bolla wrote:Anybody using the focusrite VRM box?
I'm doing more and more projects from home, often late at night with headphones. This looks like an intriguing reference option.

I'm wondering how mixes created using "the box" relate when played back on their real world counterparts.

Thanks, Bolla
hi bolla, i am using it and you know i enjoy listening on headphones, and I enjoy listening on speakers. But I’m very aware that the sound is quite different – headphones offer clarity and intimacy, but also exaggerate reality. Stereo becomes super-stereo, reverb that sounded mixed in the back becomes more prominent, and there’s no interactlon with a room to give the warmth and depth you get with speakers.

Focusrite’s VRM (Virtual Reference Monitoring) technology attacks this problem by using DSP to emulate the sound of being in a room, listening to speakers. If you think this is all about EQ, it’s not; sure, that’s part of the modeling process, but so is controlled crosstalk between channels, delays, reflections, and an emulation of how ears actually intercept moving air. This is a very complex task, but the results are surprisingly realistic.

VRM first appeared in Focusrite’s Saffire Pro 24 DSP interface, which was the subject of a Pro Review here on Harmony Central. Given the interface’s relatively small size, laptop jockeys could take a Pro 24 DSP into a hotel room and mix on headphones far into the night, without disturbing anyone – but also enjoy the satisfying vibe associated with mixing through speakers.

But VRM has another, perhaps more universal use. Back in the days of big studios, it was common to have multiple speaker systems as a “reality check.” Sure, the studio would have big speakers that sounded (and were) expensive, and you’d mix on that. But you’d also realize that few listeners would ever hear your work over an equivalent system, so you’d switch over the bookshelf speakers, boomboxes, and other speaker types to get an idea of how the real world would hear your mix. At that point, it was common to make a few tweaks so that the mix would sound as good as possible on any speaker type, which led to the emphasis on creating “transportable” mixes. (Interestingly, one of VRM’s emulations is of the Auratone Cube speakers, which were the de facto reality check speakers many years ago.)
macguy

Re: Focusrite VRM

Post by macguy »

There was a sentence
In my opinion this unit can't substitute for a set of nearfield monitors in any useful way
so I guess it's not going to do what you'd need. I think moving air in a room is a bit different than anything you could DSP design on headphones. Kinda like guitar amps and speaker sims... nothing can beat an amp at authority... nothing. Cool idea though because if you train yourself of the strengths and weaknesses of it, then you may get pretty decent results if you live somewhere where you simply couldn't use reference monitors. Best to just mix in an appropriate environment for best results.
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