Head-Fit: Software Crossfeed and EQ

[zephyr90]

I have tried various crossfeed plugins and VSTs now and Head-Fit so far has been the best I've heard. The others I've tried (foobar standard, b2b, VNOphones, Naive) either sounded artificial or made the upper mids suffer which made voices sound a lot worse, even if they did give me an impression of roomyness.
Head-Fit is simply great, it is a little difficult to adjust but I just leave it on stock setting and it sounds fine to my ears. In fact, as opposed to the other plugins this one is beneficial to those mids and makes voices sound so much more natural! When I turn it off now, everything simply sounds "flat" to me...
After some getting used to the different sound this plugin for the first time made me enjoy crossfeed and now has me nodding my head along to Santigold and Aesop Rock. Alessandro MS-1, selfmade circumaural pads, straight into the soundcard & foobar, no DAC, no amp. Now listening to Tango (Astor Piazzolla): All the instruments simply sound like they have more "body", it's great!
Thanks a ton for this thread! It should be pinned...

PS: Is there a way to embed this VST into my system so that I can use it for all applications? (e.g. games)
PS2: Haven't tried isone because the full version costs money. Is it worth getting?

 

[ROBSCIX]

It may sound better if you tune it using the setup procedure. Dial it right into your phone!

Yes, you can just run the application from the folder, IIRC. It has a standalone version also and should run fine with other applications such as games.

 

[zephyr90]

It does have a standalone application which uses Savihost, the problem with it is that whenever I check "external source" to use other sources, it doesn't alter the sound output of the PC. It only works when I load it with Foobar.
PS: I imagine I would have to make a full duplex of some sort, so that Savihost processes the sound signals from the operating system before I hear it. Is that even possible? Would it require to have two soundcards?

 

[ROBSCIX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zephyr90 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It does have a standalone application which uses Savihost, the problem with it is that whenever I check "external source" to use other sources, it doesn't alter the sound output of the PC. It only works when I load it with Foobar. PS: I imagine I would have to make a full duplex of some sort, so that Savihost processes the sound signals from the operating system before I hear it. Is that even possible? Would it require to have two soundcards?

Sorry I am not really sure of the settings as I have never used it in this mode. I was just relaying that it has a standalone application. I am not sure of the exact settings when used in this mode. Not really sure why it would have this mode if it was not for using it with other applications.

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zephyr90 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is there a way to embed this VST into my system so that I can use it for all applications?

install VAC, set it as the main windows soundcard, then route into a VST host et voila

latency would suck in games, though.

 

[zephyr90]

Thanks for your advice. You were right though, latency does suck, even with normal Windows audio, so I didn't even bother to try gaming with it.
I also tried using the built-in stereomix which I was assuming should do the same thing as VAC but apparently it doesn't, it's simply not working, not getting any signal from playback.
Is there a way to have this VST applied on all Windows applications or will I have to get a hardware crossfeed for that?

 

[ROBSCIX]

..you will get similar latencies when using Viirtual AC for any audio when using a VST host.

 

[zephyr90]

Sooo is there a way to install a crossfeed driver that applies crossfeed to all applications and doesn't use a VST?

 

[leeperry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zephyr90 /img/forum/go_quote.gif latency does suck [..] Is there a way to have this VST applied on all Windows applications or will I have to get a hardware crossfeed for that?

you could get lower latency w/ a standalone VST host and output to ASIO, but it'd still be very noticeable and unbearable in games or movies anyway.

the only hardware xfeed I tried was on the Corda Arietta, and it was worthless...mono, duh!

Quote:

Originally Posted by zephyr90 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sooo is there a way to install a crossfeed driver that applies crossfeed to all applications and doesn't use a VST?

Vista/W7 support DSP audio plugins I think? maybe someday some coder has been/will be motivated to offer a system wide xfeed plugin.

 

[jlo]

Hello,
glad to see that there is some interest to head-fit. A new version is available here that should have improved compatibility to some VST hosts (ie Cubase,..) : head-fit
In the development of Head-fit, the most important goal for me, was to get the finest adjustable crossfeed while keeping the lowest signal colouration.
Have a nice listening.

 

[leeperry]

thanks for the headsup Jean-Luc! but what happened to the lighter version I was testing?

 

[jlo]

Quote:

what happened to the lighter version ?

here it is : head-fit-lite
It does not have internal generator and FFT display of Head-fit but the same process quality. Recommended to be used as a VST for a player.

 

[donunus]

Some things Ive noticed with headfit...

I just noticed when tuning headfit that the LF and HF ms needs pairing for the tonality of the crossfed signal to be right. I came up with 3 setting pairs with good tonality where the hf doesn't noticeably bleed too much to the opposite ears separate from the lows... theres .23,.18 .25,.20 and .32,.27 at the stock ILD levels. Changing the ILD levels may need different ms adjustments but I am still content with the stock levels at the moment.

The difference between .25,.20 and .32,.27 for example are that the former is more subtle sounding and more natural to my ears for example while the latter sounds slightly more processed and The doors recordings for example sound more dare I say REMASTERED with the latter setting. For now the former setting is what I prefer. There is a better sense of coherence from left to right with that one.

 

[zephyr90]

I really like the display, what I noticed is that in the newest version the delay between the sound and the FFT display seems to have shortened. The display now is only like a milisecond or so ahead.
also, this hasn't been stressed enough:
Merci beaucoup, Jean-Luc!
Head-fit is the best software crossfeed I have tried. All of the others color the sound in a very bad way. I can not imagine listening to headphones without it anymore. When I first heard about crossfeed I was eager to try it but didn't feel like spending tons of money on a hardware solution that I didn't know whether I would like it. So far, head-fit totally does the trick for me, I can't describe exactly what it changes but the overall presentation becomes so much more lively. By the way I have always used the standard settings and they're fine with me, I really don't understand all the crossfeed options or what they're for.

 

[donunus]

try something like "Fly Away" by Lenny Kravitz. Listen to the tonality of the hard panned electric guitar in the beginning of the track. When you change the ms settings you will notice that the lower and higher frequencies go to the left side together when the settings are balanced between the 2 ms settings for example. The default setting bleeds the high frequencies of the guitar audibly around the center which doesn't sound quite right when at the default setting of .32, .20. You might not notice it right away if you are not keen on what it exactly does but you will see what happens once you play with the sliders. Try my 3 settings for example and compare the guitar with the default settings and you'll see what I mean. One thing I'm not sure of though is whether the headfit version affects the right balance between ms settings though. I have the older version of headfit lite here. I like it better because there is no annoying master volume slider and it is always at full