Speaker Emulation Manual
Headphone mix-check tool: crossfeed, tiny interaural delay, head-shadow filtering, optional room, and speaker-type tone curves.
Version 1.0 | produc.ing
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Overview
Speaker Emulation is a lightweight “speakers in a room” approximation designed for fast A/B decisions while mixing on headphones.
It adds crossfeed, a small interaural time delay, gentle head-shadow filtering, optional room reflections, and a broad speaker-type tone curve.
Note: This is not an IR-based room simulator; it’s meant to stay quick, subtle, and useful.
Quick start
- Click Speaker Mode to enable.
- Pick Speaker = Monitors (neutral starting point).
- Pick Angle = 30°.
- Set Intensity around 0.35–0.60.
- Add a touch of Room (0.05–0.20) if you want more externalization.
- Level-match with Output Trim and A/B often.
Interface overview
All audio controls live on the main page:
- • Speaker visualization (top) shows the virtual speaker geometry, crossfeed paths, and the selected speaker type.
- • Correlation meter (under the visualization) shows stereo correlation of the output.
- • Speaker Mode toggle.
- • Speaker and Angle dropdowns.
- • One row of knobs: Intensity, Drive, Air, Room, Mix, Output Trim.
Preset management lives in the header (preset browser + save/load actions).
Additional info (like the About page) is available via the Settings button in the header.
Controls
Mode & selectors
Speaker Mode
Turns the emulation DSP on/off.
- • When Off, the emulation is bypassed.
- • Output Trim still applies even when Speaker Mode is Off (handy for level matching).
Speaker (type)
Selects a broad tone curve (HP/LP + a broad presence peak).
| Type | Character | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | Aggressive band-limit, forward mids | “Will this translate on a phone?” |
| Laptop | Small-speaker rolloff, slightly present | Everyday consumer check |
| Radio | Narrower bandwidth, “broadcast-ish” | Vintage / mid-focused sanity check |
| Guitar | Stronger mid bump, darker top | Amp/cab-style reference tone |
| PA | Wider bandwidth, a bit of presence | Live / club-style check |
| Monitors | Most neutral of the set | Default mixing reference |
Angle
Sets the virtual speaker angle and updates the crossfeed timing/filtering.
- • 20°: smaller interaural delay, slightly brighter crossfeed
- • 30°: balanced (good default)
- • 40°: wider angle, slightly more head-shadow and a little more “out-of-head” feel
Knobs
Intensity
Crossfeed strength. Higher sends more of each channel to the opposite ear.
Internal mapping is slightly eased (uses a
sqrt()-style curve) so the mid-range feels
more usable.
Drive
Adds soft saturation / warmth after the spatial processing.
Air
Adds brightness (a high-shelf-ish boost up to about +12 dB at max). Use it if crossfeed/head-shadow feels too dark.
Room
Adds subtle early reflections (short multi-tap network) for externalization.
Tip: keep it low; 0.05–0.25 usually goes a long way.
Mix
Wet/dry blend of the emulation. 0% = dry (emulation skipped), 100% = full effect. Output Trim still applies either way.
Output Trim
Output gain compensation. Applied even in bypass so you can level-match A/B comparisons.
Correlation meter
The correlation meter shows stereo correlation of the output signal, from -1 to +1:
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
| +1 | Perfectly correlated (mono / very centered) |
| 0 | L/R uncorrelated |
| -1 | Strongly anti-correlated (out of phase) |
Speaker-style crossfeed often nudges correlation upward (more mono compatible). That’s expected.
Factory presets
Speaker Emulation ships with these factory presets:
- • Mix Reference
- • Late Night
- • Phone Speaker
- • Vintage Radio
- • Gaming Immersion
- • Guitar Cabinet
- • Studio Nearfield
If the factory preset folder is empty, the plugin generates them automatically on first run.
Tips
- • Mixing: treat this like a reference monitor. Toggle Speaker Mode on/off frequently.
- • Level match: use Output Trim so "louder" doesn't win.
- • If it feels too narrow: reduce Intensity and/or Room; try 30°.
- • If it feels too dark: raise Air a little (0.05–0.25) or use Monitors/PA.
- • Creative lo-fi: Phone/Radio + higher Drive can be a quick vibe.
Technical notes
- • Host-reported latency: none (no latency is reported to the DAW).
- • Internal timing: crossfeed includes a tiny interaural delay (roughly 0.32–0.66 ms depending on Angle).
- • Stereo: designed for stereo operation.
Keyboard / control shortcuts
Standard JUCE control interactions apply:
- • Double-click a knob to reset to default.
- • Shift-drag for fine adjustment.
- • Mouse wheel adjusts knobs.
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