[Lunatique]

Some of you know that I'm a huge fan of Tonebooster's Isone, which is a feature-rich HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) based plugin that allow you to simulate realistic listening environments (including ideal mastering studio space) and different speaker types (including full-range mastering speakers), as well as high-quality crossfeed. I use it to create the realistic illusion of listening to speakers in front of me, in the perfect acoustic space befitting a mastering studio, and this realism is only possible with HRTF algorithm and not possible with typical crossfeeds.
 
Well, now Tonebooster's released Morphit, another very useful plugin for headphones. It corrects your headphones frequency response and makes it as neutral/accurate as possible, and can also simulate how other well-known headphones sound, as well as allow customizable EQ. It has a pretty extensive list of well-known headphone brands/models in its database already, and more will be added in the future. It's similar to Sonarworks, but has additional features that Sonarworks doesn't have.
 
My experience with it is that is makes my headphones sound a lot more clear, getting rid of any "veils" and "muddiness," essentially achieving a flat response, but it is not using the Harman Target Response Curve, so it does not make the boosts that HTRC does to make the headphone sound more like full-range speakers in an ideal acoustic space. I'm going to suggest to Jeroen to add a new feature that will allow you to toggle on and off the HTRC for those of us who swear by it. While we can create our own custom EQ to simulate HTRC, it's better if it's included.
 
Being able to simulate other headphones is such an awesome feature because it allows you to "try" so many other headphones virtually, without having to go out there to headphone meets or visit a bunch of different stores. The simulations are quite good and really captures the overall character of the various well-known headphones. It's not going to be totally faithful with 100% accuracy for obvious reasons, but it's a good emulation to give you a basic idea of how different headphones sound in terms of frequency response (but not soundstage and other characteristics).
 
Anyway, when Jeroen (the audio engineer who created Isone and Morphit) told me about Morphit, I was pretty excited, although I rarely use headhphones these days (I much prefer my Klein + Hummel O 300Ds and Neumann KH805 in my acoustically treated studio, corrected by IK Multimedia's ARC 2 system. This setup is pure aural bliss), but I hope those of you who spend a lot of time with headphones will get a lot out of Morphit. 

 

[castleofargh]

thanks for letting us know. I tried sonawork not long ago and will try this one too. I'm specially curious to find out the decisions they made for IEMs(same target than headphones or not?). I've spent so much time making my own EQ for everything that I'm unlikely to want to buy it(reason I didn't get sonarwork), but I'm very curious still ^_^.

 

[dukefx]

I wish they'd make standalone versions instead of plugins. Having to route through virtual devices and using a VST host is a pain in the ass. It's the only reason I don't like Sonarworks Reference 3. I'll give this a try, but I doubt it'd be better.

 

[castleofargh]

offering both would be the ideal situation. in my case, I already have more virtual outputs than I have real ones and it has become a problem of it's own. but of course for basic computer user, a system wide correction in a standalone solution is the best.

 

[Lunatique]

I wish they'd make standalone versions instead of plugins. Having to route through virtual devices and using a VST host is a pain in the ass. It's the only reason I don't like Sonarworks Reference 3. I'll give this a try, but I doubt it'd be better.

Generally speaking, the design philosophy behind plugins is based on the perspective of audio professionals and musicians, not really for average music fan or audiophiles. This means the developers expect that user to have a host program they use for their audio projects, such as an audio editor software or DAW (Digital Audio Workstation software). They also expect that the users are using their plugins mainly for audio/music projects they're working on, and not for leisure listening. Audio effects plugins are especially dependent on hosts because they are used to mainly for audio projects, and to do production, you have to have a capable host program. For virtual instruments, it's much more likely that they have standalone versions, because musicians often perform with just the virtual instruments and don't need a hosting program. For example, a drummer playing a set of electronic drums only needs to open up a drum virtual instrument when he performs live, or a keyboard player only needs to open up a soft synth and not a whole DAW program.
 
I think compared to Sonarworks, the choice between the two isn't about the corrections applied to the headphones, since in that respect they are very similar. The real difference is in the features, such as being able to simulate other famous/popular headphones and apply custom EQ. Also, the available brand/models of headphones in their databases will be different too, as well as what you have to pay for them.

 

[dukefx]

I did some testing and the corrections curves (graph) are way off and oversimplified, at least on the K712. It sounds nothing like Sonarworks which did a really good job, the difference was quite noticeable. With Morphit I can barely hear any difference, and when I do most of the time it's because it sounds even more off than without any "correction".

 

[Sound Eq]

are there no such plugins for android or ios

 

[Lunatique]

  are there no such plugins for android or ios

No, because serious pro audio work is pretty much all done in full-blown DAW programs on desktop computers. iOS/Android has some audio/music-making apps, but there's no VST wrapper AFAIK. Take a look at this thread: https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/943833-vst-intrument-wrapper-ios-ipad-app.html

 

[dukefx]

You can look at the graphs and use some equalizer app to compensate. I've had better results with Equalizer APO (had to manually set 39 points in my case to match the graph) than with Morphit.

 

[Hutnicks]

  are there no such plugins for android or ios

If you are on the droid and rooted have a look here.
 
http://vipersaudio.com/blog/
 
There's a thread somewhere on hf as well.

 

[Berdine]

At least as of several months ago, Sonarworks was working on Android and apparently iOS players that apply their correction.  Searching around the internet should turn up some further info.

 

[marathonman]

I am currently trialing the Morphit and Isone plugins. I'm a little confused about how to start up in terms of settings on Isone. What is the best way to set it up in a DAW when mixing in your view in terms of order on the master channel? Any suggestion or tip would be appreciated it. Also, is it possible to apply the Harman Frequency Target now that Morphit is able to equalize my headphone(SONY 7520)? 

 

[stuck limo]

If anyone knows how to set this up on MusicBee, that would be amazing. I've tried now for about a month or more and cannot get it to work, AT ALL. 

 

[ironmine]

I wish they'd make standalone versions instead of plugins. Having to route through virtual devices and using a VST host is a pain in the ass. It's the only reason I don't like Sonarworks Reference 3. I'll give this a try, but I doubt it'd be better.

No, it's not a pain in the ass, it's quite easy to do:

I use Foobar2000 software player and I installed Yohng's Foobar2000 VST Wrapper as a Foobar DSP Component.

It connects to ART Teknika Console, it's a VST chainer (a plugin host). It provides a very visual interface, where you just drop any VST plugins and connect them anyway you want. Once you've set up a certain chain of plugins and configured them individually, you can save the whole configuration as one preset file. So, in this way, you can quickly switch between various presets.

I have may presets saved for speakers, and for headphones.

It's fun to try different plugins and their effects and compare them.

But, in the end, I only use 0,05% of what I tried

 

[dukefx]

Looks about the same to me (compared to VSTHost). Any comparison on delay and stability? They have a standalone version since I wrote that, but it's instable as hell. I tested 2 different versions and got tired of it. Virtual Cable + VSTHost + Sonarworks with ~50% phase correction created enough delay to make it visually out of sync in movies and games (but at least this combo worked 100% of the time). The standalone wasn't any better (for those few minutes/seconds it was working).