I decide I prefer not to be locked in - it just feels ‘spacier’ not being restricted to one mix position, as mad as that might sound, when you consider I’m not in a control room at all.! I find my optimal sweet spot (the Nx allows you to set your own, and lock it in), and unlock it again, several times over. Hilariously, I find myself sinking into my seat, lowering my head, eyes closed (we’re now passing Doncaster, by the way) as if these virtual speakers are in fact real, and I’m suddenly back in that old barn with my Soundcraft Ghost console in front of me. Two ‘Speaker Position’ dials allow you to widen or narrow your image from mono all the way to 90-degrees each side, and it does genuinely capture that feeling I remember when I used to close my eyes and position my head as central to my old studio monitors as possible some years ago. It’s remarkably accurate, too when I move my head left, right, up, down (which people are already finding odd on the train, I notice) I can see Nx tracking my head movements, at almost twice the speed that a camera can manage (Nx allows for camera tracking also, but if you’re on a Mac, you need to move into low light mode to get the right rate, so I stick to no camera). When it comes to speaker position, you can have a lot of fun with this little device. Much like you would a reverb, you can decide how ‘wet’ you want it to sound, and depending on the level, it’ll offer various virtual reflections, which will impact on your pair of virtual speakers (or handful, if you’re mixing a surround session). Personally, I feel that ‘less is more’ when you’re tweaking your ‘Room Ambience’ setting on the Nx. I’m sure your results using Nx will depend on your choice of headphones, but the theory is, it essentially replicates a mix room with monitors and when I pull on my Audio-Technica ATH-M70xs, I quickly get the idea.
I’m using the Nx with Reaper – my preferred DAW – and as I bring up the Nx plugin, it automatically sets the Head Tracker as the active tracking sensor. To make sure it works properly, you need to attach it to the top centre of your headphones – just make sure you know your left and right!
In this series, we’re trying to work out whether or not it’s at all feasible to mix a master on headphones while on the go, or in a particularly tricky environment, and I’m hoping this little device will lend me a helping hand as I attempt to mix a track on a bustling train.įirstly, you can attach the Waves Nx to any set of headphones (I tried this with several pairs before boarding the train, and it’s very easy to do), and it then tracks your head movements, sends information nice and quickly to the Head Tracker plugin, and will track in 360 degrees. The Waves Nx Head Tracker is a small, battery-operated wireless Bluetooth sensor, which is said to transform the whole experience of mixing while wearing cans.
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