Waves Audio introduces the Abbey Road Studio 3 plugin, created in collaboration with Abbey Road Studios and powered by Waves Nx immersive audio technology.
The Studio 3 control room is Abbey Road’s flagship mix room, designed by top acousticians to provide an exceptional music production and mixing environment. The Abbey Road Studio 3 plugin is designed to bring these acoustics to any set of headphones in three-dimensional sound, powered by Waves Nx technology for immersive 3D audio.
In addition, the plugin also delivers 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound, modeled after the studio’s original surround setup.
Mirek Stiles, head of audio products at Abbey Road, states, “Abbey Road has historically been very protective of the acoustic properties of its studios for software emulations, and the Studio 3 control room is no exception. After speaking with Yoni Zlotkin (Waves product manager) and the Waves team at length over many months, I began to feel more confident these guys had some groundbreaking theories on how such a sensitive task could be realized. Not everything worked first time and we went back to the drawing board on a few occasions.
“Our breakthrough moment was when Giles Martin came into the Studio 3 control room with some Universal Music executives and we did a playback,” Stiles continues. “The positive reaction from all in the room was immediate and confirmed our suspicions we had created something special and unique. This plugin was probably the most challenging yet and I’m extremely grateful to the Abbey Road engineers for their feedback and input, and to the talented, resilient and patient team at Waves Audio. I hope this plugin inspires music creators worldwide to realize their visions with more confidence than ever before.”
Waves EVP of sales and marketing Mick Olesh adds, “The Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 marks a pivotal point in the prolific cooperation between Waves Audio and Abbey Road, which began in 2011. This plugin is not only a technical breakthrough, it faithfully mirrors Waves’ ongoing commitment to serve our user base, by offering them tools that augment and enrich their workflow and especially their creative options.
“With the Abbey Road Studio 3 plugin, we have managed to overcome a common yet critical missing factor for many engineers, producers and musicians: not only the ability to obtain a professional-sounding work environment, but easy and affordable access to one of the best-sounding rooms in the world.”
Abbey Road Studio 3 Overview:
— The acoustics of Abbey Road Studio 3 – in immersive 3D audio over any set of headphones
— Precision modeling of Abbey Road Studio 3’s stereo and surround soundstage
— Hear music the way artists such as Pink Floyd, Amy Winehouse, Radiohead, Frank Ocean and Kanye West heard theirs
— Choice of three sets of stereo loudspeaker setups: nearfield, midfield, farfield
— Mix 5.1 and 7.1 surround reliably on stereo headphones
— High-precision head tracking for enhanced realism
— Personalized head anatomy calibration
— Headphone EQ calibration for popular headphone models
— SoundGrid-compatible; for SoundGrid-powered performance, offload the plugin’s processing to a SoundGrid server
