112dB Redline Monitor v2.0.3

Redline Monitor is a listening, mixing, and mastering tool that makes your headphones experience more natural: as if the sound came from a pair of external speakers.

It replaces the extreme stereo separation that is characteristic for headphones by the detailed stereo image of near-field monitor speakers without any detrimental effect on the audio. Basically it is a so called ‘crossfeed plugin’ with a few nifty extra’s, that add extra spatiality while keeping the sound as clean as possible. It combines filtering, frequency-dependent delaying, mid/side processing, and room simulation to create a convincing acoustic soundstage that allows you to properly localize sound sources. It also adjusts the relative levels of panned sources as they appear on speakers, and moves the soundstage from an indeterminate location inside your head (with headphones) towards a clearly defined location in front of you.

Now you can accurately judge levels, stereo placement, and overall balance on your favorite set of headphones–anywhere, anytime, and without ear fatigue even after prolonged listening. No more night long headphone sessions that turn out lifeless and with too little reverb and separation on speakers. Redline Monitor makes mixes sound identical on speakers and headphones.

Redline Monitor is an indispensable tool for any serious use of headphones… you will wonder how you ever did without.

The theory behind Redline Monitor

Listening to music on headphones is essentially different than listening to speakers. When you listen to speakers, both ears receive the output of both speakers but in different proportions. Your right ear will hear more of the right speaker, and the left ear more of the left. And because the left ear is slightly farther away from the right speaker, it hears the right signal a fraction of a second later than the right ear. This time difference between the ears is one of the main cues that your brain uses to figure out the left-to-right position of sounds.

When you listen to headphones each ear will only receive one channel. The sound isn’t mixed, and there are no time differences. In short: the listening experience lacks any similarity to natural hearing. Any regular headphones user will be familiar with the problems this causes: the stereo image is lost due to extreme separation of the left and right channels and has no discernible phantom center (the non-existent ‘center speaker’ that vocals often appear to come from when listening to speakers). Sound sources are impossible to locate and, because of the unnatural stereo image, ear fatigue sets in even after short listening sessions.

Redline Monitor uses sophisticated acoustic and psycho-acoustic processing to trick the ear into perceiving the stereo and depth information that is missing when you listen to audio with headphones. It makes mixes sound identical on speakers and headphones, at least within the tolerance of the different frequency responses of headphones and monitor speakers. (That’s the best anyone can hope to achieve – no two pairs of monitor speakers sound identical either, and they definitely sound different from the speakers in headphones.)

This gives you a portable uniform listening environment even in home studios and untreated rooms that is rivaled only by a set of good monitor speakers. Whether in the studio or on the road, whether on a full-blown studio rig or your notebook, the stereo image, tonal balance, and sound are identical where ever you go.

Redline Monitor gives you direct access to the best from both worlds. Headphones provide detail in a way that no speakers can, allowing you to zoom in on even the tiniest details. Clicks, room ambience, and soft details that are nearly impossible to distinguish on speakers are easily revealed on headphones.

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