This is by far your best review. You actually read the manual, did some research and didn't rush through the process. Well done!

Well after i fully treatment my room (as possible) I had issue with frequency around 140-150 hz . With sonaworks it completly make my sound flat and was hearing for the first time a warm and powerful bass. Also comparing my previous mixes, now i have waaay better especially in my low ends.

You make really good content. Even the little edits that you do keep me listening.

Thanks for all the great videos! Been using sonarworks for years, it's been helping me loads. I usually measure with a mic stand and I always do a couple of measurments and try them out and choose the one I like the most.

The more of your videos I see the more impressed I am. This was a great, honest review of a product taken through it's paces. The video was kept simple and easy for me to understand and learn from. Very well done, thank you for taking the time to make this and other videos!

This video ended up convincing me to get the product and it worked really well! I had just treated my room with foam but I noticed even more of a difference after running this software. It really does make an audible difference and smoothed out my bass.

You determined most of my choices to get a material and know how to use it !!! Thank you all the way from Morocco !!!

Sonarworks is great stuff. I’ve had it for about 8 months and it’s phenomenal. Great review!

I love what Sonarworks has done for my studio, hands down the best thing ever, supper easy to set up and it really works!

I've just installed the latest version (4.2.1.7). What you say about the all important calibration procedures is correct. It is most important to keep the mic as close to consistently at ear level as possible. Excellent video, and we all appreciate the hard work...especially the music comparisons (SW on/off.)

I just got the software and mic setup and am pleased to see your thorough and positive review. Thank you for making the video.

I`m using Reference 4 in an acoustic not optimal "livingroom" studio and it helped me a lot reducing room influance. Everything sounds more honest and more relaxed to my ears. For me it makes a big different! THX for your nice videos by the way ;-)

I used a mic-stand to keep the heights consistent

Great review, been using since version 3. Two things... I'm sure they may have been mentioned already, you can (and should) use a stand, you just need a suitable clip and a sturdy stand with a good boom arm, far less straining on your arm and probably quicker. Second thing, not sure if you were pointing the mic straight ahead during all your measurements, the idea is (and shows in the software) to point the mic at the centre of your speakers, the mic get's a better idea of room reflections from each speaker that way - crazy spooky science stuff but it really does work. The software picked up a 0.6dB difference in my speakers outputs too (both run at full volume), a pretty well known producer mentioned to me 6 months before I got sonarworks that he notcied my guitars leaned a little in certain mixes, I would never have guessed it was a volume difference in speakers. Haven't upgraded to 4 yet but the zero latency is tempting. I use full linear mode for mixing, it's a cpu hog but so worth it. Subbed and bell'd, good channel!

I’ve managed to get our control room pretty neutral and good sounding over the years. I bought ref 4 just after it was released and it gave me the last 15 percent. Brilliant software.

Awesome Review! very thorough and well thought out.

I very like how this software affects on my headphones. I have a pretty bright headphones and they have a little dip in a middle. So I made them sound warmer on less harsher.

Btw, watched many of your videos now. really good channel and you present it very well its very authentic. good job.

Well done review. I've been using Sonarworks Ref. 3, then Ref. 4, for about 2 years. When combined with some acoustic treatment, it works very well. I have also been using IK Multimedia ARC 2.0, then ARC2.5, for around 3 years. It is also very effective for room correction when combined with physical treatment. For some reason, I prefer using the Sonarworks Reference. I guess it sounds better (?). Smaller rooms almost always need correction. It is expensive to properly correct a room with just acoustic treatment. These correction plugins can help get more accurate monitoring without killing one's budget. And room treatment/correction works great for home theater and listening rooms. And good quality physical acoustic treatment never breaks, or blows a fuse, or becomes obsolete.

Great video Wytse! I recently subscribed to your channel! Freaking awesome content man! I've been learning a TON of stuff!!! Keep up the great work and as always, enjoy what you do! :)

Great video! That 37- time-shifting looks funny as hell :D I received mine this afternoon and run a measurement for my home studio. I must say my system did sound much better. Of course the acoustic treatment will never make a room "perfect". But with this product you can surely put your room further to a good sounding studio, in reasonable cost. I can't imagine how much effort i need to make my speakers sound balanced in an asymmetrical apartment. Also, in my case, there is a bump in my system at some 110Hz and it bothering me for a couple months. Now I feel saved. ps. agree with you that zero latency mode sounds more natural than linear phase mode.

This was your best SO episode, although I like the others as well. But this was a serious review. Thanks!

Great Vid and Review! No wasted time. Straight to the point!

Thanks so much! Love this review, watched it all. I will definitely get it so im starting up saving! Thanks i can see all the effort you made

This is great! I was shocked when you played the A/B example of on and off. I didn’t expect the stereo field to be so much effected.

That demo is legit. Bought Reference 4 today, so excited to use it soon!

Thanks for an excellent review, it was very helpful

really cool review. it definitely changed your monitoring, and your room didn't look that bad in the first place. i can only imagine what an untreated room would test like. i am surprised however that many commentors are using this or similar software without any room treatments up. I wouldn't try to replace acoustic treatment with monitoring software. that sounds like a bad idea. glad yall posted your results from using it in untreated mix rooms, as it does give a better idea of the product though. thanks! i'd probably try it with a stand. only because they give the directions in 2-d, so i assume they only want me to move the mic in 2-d. thank you for showing how your reading changed from measurement to measurement, and for the nicely in-depth review in general. this was very helpful and very well done. putting up their price page was very helpful too!

Great review - thank you!

the low is so much cleaner after the processing imo! great vid!

The preamp is precisely what I thought when I saw you measuring. Also, I don't think there might be an issue if you use a stand.

best software I've used yet! haven't had mix translation problems on different speakers since using this reference software!

You surely know how to record and also have the right gear for that, for few seconds I thought that was the line signal recorded directly. Nice review also. And an honest too. Best regards.

This package changed everything for me. My kick drums are audible now and present which after much room treatment and building bass traps and all that, I just couldn’t get right. Amazing software. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT

Awesome showcasing of the results, man! It also comes through nicely how much clearer your room got.

Thanks for the review , I have the software , I don't think My room is perfect after the calibration but it sure sound better more organize like you said , the center is more there, it is like upgrading to speakers with better imaging and closer to flat ( but not perfect of course ).

Just bought soft soft! So excited to get started!!

Really want to try this for my home studio!!

I love Sonarworks! I have a rather untreated room, but with good dimensions and perfect symmetry. The speakers have enough room from the walls, but listening at louder volumes always use to create issues for me. After calibrating my Yamaha HS80M and HEDD Type 05 monitors, the bass sounded so much tighter and well defined, the mids a lot clearer, as the room reflection overaccentuated them. For my Beyerdynamic DT-770 & DT-990's Sonarworks works brilliant too. I dialed the Dry/Wet down to 75%, since the headphone profiles are calibrated to about 3dB, so not exactly accurate. It's the perfect balance for me, but if your headphones are closer to their references your mileage may vary.

Great review. Thanks Wyste. I'd still love to hear a mix comparison, with and without reference 4. After all that matters is, does it make my mixes better?

Great video ... a bunch of really useful information ... blessings

Great video and great software! It took my K&H O300Ds to the next level. It will not replace your room treatment so if your room isn't treated properly, do not waste your money. I wanted to add that Sonarworks Reference 4 software also calibrates selected headphones and I could not believe how much it improved my already great Audeze LCD-X ! This software is more important than any of your studio gear combined. You can mix using just stock plugins if you have accurate monitoring, but if you're monitoring is lying to you, even the most expensive outboard gear won't help much.

amazing review

Thanks for the great video. Your remark about the preamp calibration seems very valid to me. In fact, on the Sonarworks website someone asked that last year (maybe after seeing your video :-) ) but so far no one seemed to have noticed that question (or at least no one responded) and I wonder if their R&D is currently working their way through that. Anyways, great review on a very interesting product. Cheers! Erwin

Super helpful! Thank you!!!

Wow, quite a big difference - as you say the sound is cleaner and more structured, rather impressive!

Just installed the headphones edition and it took some time to get used to the "new" sound of my beyerdynamic's, but after 2 hrs i can't go back. Great review, great Software!

Nice video. My mic just arrived, looking forward to setting up.

Thx for this review! U were right. They to fix the problem how to get the mic at the same high as your ears. Cuz for me it’s the sweet spot! Thumps up!

Another think I wanted to throw in is that if you already did some corrections to your room but you're not sure if it's enough, the measurement can reveal where there's still larger problems in your room treatment.

Been using Sonarworks for over a year now. For sure it won't fix a bad room, but it does helps greatly in correcting your speakers response and at least for me it totally removed the need to go check my work on other speakers or my car. Now i know i can trust what my ears are hearing.

Thanks for review man!!

i bought it yesterday its totally worth it

Pretty cool that you showed the complete process you have to go through. One question comes to ming: Wouldn't it be possible to just mount the mic on a stand and measure that way?

@3:16 I do the opposite but equal adjustment. I leave my monitors as-is but listen to lots of program material to have my brain and ears adjust to what is bassy and what is bright. While initially it may not be how I like to feel the mix, I'll soon adapt to the relativity of the speakers and change my baseline preferences.

Excellent video! Easy to follow, even for a novice. English is not my natural language, but your explanation is so clear that I understood just everything you said (at least I think so :-))

Nice ! I wonder if it was a good opportunity last month. You replied ;) Thanks

Man! I can see you are from Holland! You’ve got a pair of Philips MFB 587 black edition. I think that probably 98% of the people here don’t know what I’m talking about. Great choice! Because of that....SUBSCRIBED! I trust people who understand what those speakers are capable of! Impressed that a young guy appreciates the MFB speakers. Got a pair of 545 studio here as well as the 587,585,541,544

one thing i mightve missed but want to add anyways: the effect is a lot more noticable on bad speakers/headphones (because they have more flaws that need correction) and it handles those about as well as good headphones/speakers

Very good review Sir. I agree with your opinion that placing the mic on a stand will likely get more accurate measurements. Also, the results are not "perfect", but nothing really is. Your room was much better acoustically than mine, the curves on my measurements were DRASTIC. The improvement on the sound of my system were also MUCH more noticeable, but I want to commend you on the job you did showing the DIFFERENCE in the sound of your system. You were correct when you said no one can hear how good your system sounds unless they are in your room, but you clearly demonstrated the difference the software made on your system. Your video has reaffirmed my opinion that I need to treat my room then recalibrate my Reference 4 measurements to take my system to the next level of sound accuracy. Thanks again for all the work, excellent video.

Definitely a big improvement in my room. Only problem is the low output volume on the Systemwide app. Can't use it on headphones directly from my laptop, volume is too low to hear properly and raising it clips the app. Otherwise a great product. Really improves imaging and separation of the instruments.

im so glad that i found you, good stuff my fella!

very good review ! thanks and i agree...

I’d love for you to review IK miltimedia’s ARC correction as well to see if there is a big difference between it and thia one. The IK version is much less expensive.

Another interesting point is that if you use tonal balance control or something that analyzes signal in order to suggest better frequency choices, it would probably be wise to put this after them as they are essentially eq'ing the signal.

I like the software mine was quite a pain to set up though I did it eventually. I did know about keeping the mic at exactly the same location is key to precise measurements . I read recently about if the speakers are too close to the wall you may need to adjust the bass response at the back of the speakers but now its not necessary because the software works around this but if you adjust afterwards you would need to remeasure again.

The headphone correction is fantastic too

Great stuff, thank you.

I have this and love it but also noticed that the calibrations can vary a lot. Always in the same rough area but obviously not totally precise. I reckon it's worth doing a few calibrations of the same room and then switching between them as you mix so you can work towards something that translates well across them all, working to a kind of average.

Great video! I just bought Sonarworks 4 and will start measuring tonight. You mentioned the improvement of using a mic stand at fixed ear height and that's exactly what i'm planning to do! Why do you think, they should change the software for that? Why not just do it?

It would of been nice to know what you thought about the correction to headphones but always like to hear from you!

It is an excellent product. I used it and it really works great.

Great video man.Thanks!

love these videos

So, now for the big question: After room correcting 2 different sets of speakers, can you still hear a difference between them ? Of course, frequency response is only one part of the whole listening experience, but it would be interesting to get a direct comparison of how much of a factor it really is.

I use Sonarworks headphone edition inserted post Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 which I'm not sure whether you've reviewed or not. I'll check but if not please do one. Killer combination that translates extremely well. I've never enjoyed mixing through headphones (DT770) as much as I do now.

Room and/or speakers seems to sound pretty accurate just by looking at the freq response graph before Sonarwork adding it's own filters.

The lack of preamp color consideration was my first question as to why they didn't provide a preamp with a known profile. Granted that the low end was full without hollow place like before. Really gave the track a much better bed for everything to sit upon.

Really cool software, good that it doesn't use iLok even though its authorization part is buggy sometimes. Tbh I never expected it to be perfect, that's phisically impossible. The mayor downsides I think are the max sample rate and the price. Also, I stand still to my request: please make a Snake Oil video about TDR Kotelnikov.

Totally buying this once I treat my room and upgrade my monitor setup.

A couple tips about SonarWorks Reference: - YES, you can use a stand. Do it! - While measuring, put a webcam or any camera connected to your computer in between your speakers. Then, look at the screen whenever you move your microphone to make sure is directly pointing to the camera.

Good videos bro !! Keep up the good work and thank you :-)

I'm not quite SOLD yet. But, I agree that it helps improve the referencing at the desk.

Well done! Thanks!

Steven Wilson looks young in this video! :o

Thank you for your very interesting review - this got me trying the software myself. I am a hobby musician but I am a professional audio engineer and loudspeaker designer. My room is acoustically treated and my loudspeakers are DIY DSP solution which I know inside out. In my room I was able to get repeatable results between measurements and started to wonder why you did not. After a bit of thinking I think I know one reason to it - the microphone. You see, the mic used may be (your signal chain's) by far the weakest link. I would not be surprised if your cables would cost more than the mic! Based on calibration file it is far from linear, I would not be surprised if the polar pattern would not be a perfect omni and there would be more non-linearities in amplitude response. Despite of this, each and every signal in your studio is affected by the performance of this microphone. Myself, I used trial license, I took higher grade measurement mic (Isemcon emx-7150) from work and applied its calibration file to get everything ruler flat. I would recommend everyone mixing professionally with high-budget setup, to upgrade their microphone to a Class-1 measurement microphone. This doubles the investment but if you have already spent thousands of euros on your mixing rig, it makes sense. So IMHO this software IS snake oil, if the studio setup is already on same quality level with yours is AND you use 45 Euro microphone for the measurements. Others with less perfect studio setups, this software makes them better. And with mic upgrade, even better! However I see a lost opportunity here, as same measurement could be used to analyze reverberation time, standing waves, reasons behind the nonlinearities etc. I had a strange dip on my Right-speaker measurements that got me baffled, I am sure I'll haul ALL my measurement gear home some day, to analyze it. This software should tell it's opinion on room acoustics, not just squeeze everything to flat by using EQ. Sonarworks could make a nice pile of money through a partnership with a acoustic treatment gear -company, WHILE helping their clients to get a better studio and better mixes.

What they should do is allow you to take 100 measurements (of ones that you felt you did accurately) and then average them out so that its consistently within the average of all of your measuements, assume that the majority of your measurements were "more accurate than not accurate" ones. The stand would help. Also, when taking the measurements, you hold it within a small sphere that is considered acceptable. They could reduce the diameter of the acceptable sphere and make it more closely set to a specific point in space. Getting the mic placed exactly at a point would be impossible but smaller spheres would help (and like you said, the stand). I did notice that my entire room sounded more balanced, after doing it once (no matter where I stood, in the room... so its nice for "jam room studio sessions," as well. It does sound the most balanced, if I keep my ears in one spot (which also is difficult to do, even though the spot I picked is where I am most comfortable). The main issue is that we need to move around and be in different positions during our work day, if we want to avoid back pain. But, like I said, it does sound more balanced, no matter where my ears are. There is a possibility that it is my ears tricking my brain, or my expectations causing an "audio libido effect," but I think that is mostly not the case.

Absolutely agree. This is one of the best plugins I own. Everything translates from monitors to earbuds to iphone. It is "My Truth". It's a really good place to start.

nice review

With the systemwide zero latency option, can you use Reference 4 for tracking purposes, or is it just for mixing? Thanks and great video!

Regarding initial profiling, it would be nice if it could could use an average of 3-5 complete (x37) references. Made a huge difference to my setup, but I only did the profiling once.

I'm curious as to how this would compare to just doing manual impulse responses, and using a good matching eq or something to see if it's actually doing anything better than just doing that. It's such a subtle difference, that I wonder if it's truly doing anything more than that. All the sweeps going on in there is the same stuff when you just make your open impulse responses, theoretically you could make a IR to correct for your pre-amp in a similar method. Might be an interesting experiment.

Wow, Witse! That's an amazingly flat reference you measured. Personally, I reckon you don't even need this software. It's correcting so little. That's what I would expect from a professional engineer in a professional studio. Regarding the mic stand, that's what I did for my measurements to address exactly your concerns. Also, you forgot to mention that there is a mix knob for the correction curve which is super handy

Thanks for the video. I had luck to try very early experimental versions of this software and at that time it was designed to have a loopback cable, which allowed to achieve more accurate latency & distance measurements. I saw your speaker distance measurement yield 20cm inaccuracy, while in the early versions with the loopback cable and a crappy cheap computer microphone, if I remember correctly, the measurement error was never greater than 5 - 10cm. I guess they decided to get rid of the loopback cable thus sacrificing the latency measurement accuracy (and more advanced features, e.g. preamp coloration measurement, as you mentioned) for simplicity of use. Also, when you manually enter the real distance between your speakers, the software can use the difference between your entry and its measurement as a correction value for later latency measurements, so that is a clever workaround to get rid of that loopback cable for latency & positioning measurements.

Excellent job, bud. Subbed.

I did actually put it on a mic stand with wheels. Not that I thought about the accuracy but engineer laziness. It did remove a noticeable mid boost in my room very well. (It's a terrible small "home" studio.)

I have a stand up desk and a drafting chair... I tested it and found that MY body wants to switch(stand/sit) about every 17 minutes. DO NOT sit down for long periods of time. That’s a recipe for bad health, heart issues and general lethargic life. Just a positive thought for us sound guys.

Good review! One comment re: mic preamp coloration- Any mic preamp of reasonable quality should have far smaller deviations in frequency response than the response of the room at any given point. Averaging the response of the measurement locations for the final eq settings should make the tenths of a decibel differences between decent mic preamps unnoticeable. Most mic preamp coloration is due to various distortion and phase artifacts. I wish Sonarworks would offer more information about the acoustics of the room. A waterfall plot to show ringing and time domain anomalies would help studio owners learn where other acoustic problems are coming from. A room that measures flat from a frequency perspective can still have huge issues with different frequencies decaying at different rates. Low frequencies can continue to bounce around inside a room many times as long as high frequencies if the room is not sufficiently bass trapped.

That's was a really well done video .

They sell specially factory calibrated headphones too. Using them when no studio space available. U might want to check a pair too. Nice vids, btw 👍