Loudspeaker sound in headphones
Headspeaker v1.0 Beta makes audio on headphones sound like it is coming from loudspeakers. This gives listeners on headphones a better sense of stereo field of their music, rather than the super wide headphone sound. Its function is similar to for example the SPL Phonitor (hardware) or Goodhertz Canopeners (software). However, I don’t own those examples so I cannot say if and how similar they are. The effects rack works in Ableton Standard and up, just drop it into your project.
Features
The basic principle relies on Crossfeed: audio from the left channel gets mixed in with the right ear and vice versa. The crossfeed is EQ’d as it would be in the real world, with low frequency content being louder, while high frequency content is softer, as it would get blocked more by your head. The crossfeed gets a delay, as the sound needs to travel further to reach your far ear. The default delay of 220 ms gives an equilateral triangle, meaning that all angles of the triangle that you and the speakers make, are all 60 degrees. This delay is adjustable so you can place speakers closer together or further apart. The frequency response is as flat as possible, so other than the spatialisation, there’s no noticable coloring of the sound. For precise settings, hover over the knob and the info box shows which delay time corresponds with which angle of speakers.
A little bit of reverb on the crossfeed makes it sound more spacious. You may remove that by turning the Room Size knob to 0%. The reverb is still basic and will be updated in future versions of the rack.
A typical problem with this approach is phase cancellation between the original and crossfeed signal. You might know that there’s only one place in your room where the frequency response is as true (flat) as it can be, but even then it isn’t perfect. Because in real life we move around, even by breathing, the phase cancellations continually change. This helps our brains to make a picture of what the total sound without phase cancellations sounds like. It’s impossible to add something like a movement tracker , but I added the next best thing: a continuous subtle change the delay time of the crossfeed signal. This way you don’t make EQ adjustments for something that turned out not be a problem in the first place.
The last feature is a simple one: a panning knob with limited range. If you are like me, one ear is slightly (or a lotly) better than the other. Panning helps you to put the center back in the center. The rack can be bypassed with the bypass knob at zero, but panning stays active.
I hope you enjoy! Please download and leave your likes or suggestions down below.