Waves Audio has released the Waves Nx Ocean Way Nashville plug-in, emulating the acoustic environment and monitoring system of Ocean Way Nashville’s studio control rooms via any pair of studio headphones.
Developed by Waves Audio in collaboration with Ocean Way Nashville Studios at Belmont University and with Ocean Way Audio, this plug-in represents a technological breakthrough in accurate 3D spatial audio modelling of a real acoustic environment.
Designed from the ground up by Ocean Way founder Allen Sides, Ocean Way studios (now owned by Belmont University) were planned and built to meet his vision of the ultimate recording, mixing and monitoring environment. The studios’ control rooms in particular are designed to provide an accurate acoustic response that readily translates to other listening conditions. Ocean Way Nashville’s spacious control rooms combine unusually large ‘sweet spots,’ resulting from the rooms’ construction specs, with the Allen Sides-designed Ocean Way Audio HR1 and HR5 monitors, built for even dispersion across the room.
Given the acoustics of an untreated mix room, headphone monitoring is often a necessity. However, headphones are notoriously challenging when it comes to critical decisions about stereo image, mix depth, low-end frequencies, and more. Closely supervised by Sides himself, the Waves Nx Ocean Way Nashville plug-in promises faithful representations of the control room’s acoustics, as experienced through the Ocean Way Audio HR1 and HR5 far-field and close-field monitors.
Nx Ocean Way Nashville is powered by Waves’ Nx technology for immersive spatial audio. Waves’ Nx uses channel crosstalk, inter-aural delays (ITD), filters (ILD), early reflections, and head motion tracking to replicate the immersive experience of hearing audio in the real world. Coupled with precision measurements of the acoustic response at the original Ocean Way control rooms, the Nx algorithm delivers a three-dimensional ‘out-of-head’ representation of the original acoustic experience.
As with all Waves Nx software, Nx Ocean Way Nashville supports head tracking (via user’s webcam or dedicated Waves Nx Head Tracker Bluetooth device), for enhanced realism of the immersive effect.
‘With Ocean Way, it was always about the sound. In all the studios we built over the years, the single most important thing was the monitor systems,’ Sides says. ‘What this plug-in gives you is the space to create a better mix. You can put on a set of headphones, and it sounds like you’re sitting in this amazing control room, with an amazing set of speakers in front of you. This is a phenomenally accurate reproduction of what we created at Ocean Way Nashville – a remarkable replication of what it sounds like to sit in my studio control room. I think it’s a valuable asset to anyone trying to define what a truly great mix is. It simply makes the mixing job easier.’
Key features:
- Precision model of the Ocean Way Nashville studio control rooms.
- Replicates control room acoustics and HR1/HR5 monitoring on headphones.
- Powered by Waves Nx immersive audio technology.
- Compatible with all headphone models.
- Selectable Ocean Way Audio HR1 and HR5 monitors.
- Adjustable studio Ambience control.
- Personalised head anatomy calibration.
- Supports head tracking through webcam or Nx Head Tracker.
