I’ve got a pretty solid home studio setup for mixing and producing tracks, but I’ve always wanted to get the low end more accurate in my space. I typically check my mixes on different monitors, earphones, and in the car, so the results are good overall. Still, I wondered if I could get things a little closer before jumping into other reference checks.
For context, here’s what my room looks like:
There's plenty of room treatment, but nothing professional.
Enter… SonarWorks SoundID!
SoundID is software that tests your room using their calibration mic, analyzes how your room and monitors affect your sound, and then compensates with an EQ to fix the room’s issues. The result is a more accurate listening environment for your audio work.
I’ve known about SoundID for years, but I wasn’t fully sold on it at first. The original way of using it involved placing the plugin on your master bus. Since the EQ it applies is designed to balance out your room, it would probably sound off anywhere else. I could already picture myself forgetting to turn it off before bouncing a mix and getting emails like, “Why does my mix sound weird?” That was enough of a deterrent for me initially.
But last fall, UAD announced that SoundID would now run directly on their audio interfaces. Huge game-changer! I upgraded to a newer UAD interface (the X4 is even better than I expected by the way) and recently bought the software.
I’ve set it up, and while the software is a bit clunky, the results are fantastic.
The system works best with the mic they sell as an option—makes sense, right? The setup involves entering a code from the mic to get its sound profile. Although the mic is supposed to be completely accurate, that’s not really feasible, so the software adjusts for any inconsistencies.
Next, the software guides you through placing the mic in various positions to test your speakers and room. To test your speakers, you place the mic where your head would be when listening, and then half an inch from each speaker. After that, you position the mic in 39 specific spots around the room. I thought I’d mess this up, but what they do is pretty clever: on the screen, you see a square representing your room, and a flashing circle indicating where to place the mic for each test. The speakers output clicks, and using the timing of the clicks from both speakers, the software triangulates the mic’s location—kind of like a bat using echolocation, but instead of finding bugs, it finds your mic placement. Once it’s in place, the software does a few frequency sweeps.
Here’s a video of what the screen looks like during the setup with me moving the mic:
I ran the test twice for my two sets of monitors. Here’s the eq curve for my Dynaudios:
Once you've saved your custom presets, you can load them into your UAD software, or use the plugin version of the software if you’re not on UAD.
After a few days of using SoundID and bypassing it to compare, I’m honestly amazed at what I was hearing before. I’ve got some mix projects coming up and can’t wait to dive in with the software enabled. I’ll update this post once I’ve done that.
If you're interested in checking out the software, feel free to use my affiliate link where you can purchase or get a trial version for free:
https://www.sonarworks.com/?_ef_transaction_id=&oid=5&affid=703
If you need some help with your productions or mixes feel free to reach out!
Ashton Price
www.MorphProductions.com
