Just got Waves Nx to try, it is interesting. Updated with Headtracker opinions.
I don't have the headtracker yet (apparently get it next week or so). Tried it with the camera. Works ok. I'd give it a C+ for simulation believability and probably an A- for quality.
The sound quality is pretty good overall. The room ambiance sounds fairly realistic, not really like a synthetic reverb (which it is, of course). Even cranked all the way up, it doesn't get that nasty synthetic sound many do. No obvious artifacts or messed up sounds like you get with some of the crossfeeds. It sounds good with basically any settings.
It is somewhat believable in terms of sound. It does help take the sound out of your head, but it doesn't make it sound just like speakers in your room. Maybe with different/better headphones it would be better (I use Denon AH-D2000s) and I'll also have to recheck my head measurements. It works, but it isn't the "wow that sounds totally real" effect you can get with something like the SVS Realiser. You still get things that sound more like it is in your head. In particular cymbals seemed to stick back in the ear cups more. Also low bass, but that was more that you feel it from the earphones in a very different way than speakers.
I imagine it is more useful for surround than for stereo. When I panned the speakers behind me, it gave a pretty reasonable "sound coming from the back" effect. So I imagine you could mix in surround using it and have some decent results. You'd want to check them on surround speakers, but it would work. Also should work pretty well for playing games with surround sound at night, which is what I really got it for. You can't use surround in Sonar near as I can tell, since Sonar doesn't have support for surround VST plugins.
For stereo I'm not as sold, I don't know that the effect is dramatic enough to make it worth just mixing over headphones. You'd have to see. I'll play with that more when the tracker comes in.
The headtracking does help with the realism, but it doesn't work all that well, at least with my camera. The headtracker is supposed to work a fair bit better. It tracks your movement over a full sphere, and has faster updates. Doesn't track your XYZ position (you can use both together if you want that) but that part isn't as important for realism cues.
So I dunno, worth trying the demo at least. If the headtracker works well, probably worth the current asking price for both ($99). Don't get me wrong, my surround sound system is staying in place, but this looks to be a reasonable thing for late night messing around and on the road.
Also for people who do real studio work, not just playing as I do, it could be worth it for musicians. With the trackers it can supposedly do like 6 people at the same time, giving each their own tracked version so could be useful if musicians want something to try and get the music out of their head a bit and still have the isolation of headphones.
post edited by Sycraft - 2016/10/11 21:37:26