Redline monitor

Redline Monitor has 300 μs ITD as low frequencies, while Phonitor 2 has 200 μs ITD.Sonic DifferencesIn order to perform an ABX test, I've processed several music excerpts using Redline Monitor, and also recorded them via Phonitor mini crossfeed matrix (after I have discovered that my Phonitor simulation lacks group delay, I decided I shouldn't use it for tests). The same processing settings were used that are specified in the section above. The goal was to check can Redline Monitor and Phonitor mini be distinguished, and which one would I prefer.The results are not very conclusive. Perhaps, the choice of tracks wasn't revealing enough, or I do need to train my listening skills better. With the modest processing amount I was applying, I couldn't even reliably distinguish the source from processed tracks, and distinguish Redline Monitor from Phonitor. The good news is that there isn't much change to the tonal balance with either crossfeed implementation."Distant" ModesLet's go back to Redline Monitor's settings and check what happens to its transfer function when we start increasing the simulated distance to the speakers. Here the center image is at 0 dB attenuation, the soundstage is 60 degrees. I started with 0 m distance, proceeding in 0.5 m increments up to 2 m setting. Below is the graph of resulting frequency response, where darker colors represent larger distances. The blue plot is for the left channel, the red plot is for the right channel:I guess, the ripples simulate the interaction of reflected sound with direct sound that happens when listening to loudspeakers in a room. The farther the listener is, the more enveloped they are in the reverberant field. As we can see, the amplitude of ripples is increasing with the distance, making the sound more and more colored.It would be interesting to judge correctness of this simulation from the psychoacoustic point. In real conditions, the ears and the brain can "listen through" the room, discarding these colorations, but the brain has much more information, e.g. changes in received sound with subtle head moves, which are absent in this simulation. So the question is open whether these ripples just color the sound, or are they "converted" into speaker distance information by brain, or both processes happen to some degree simultaneously.ConclusionsI think, Redline Monitor can be used as a substitute for Phonitor mini when the latter is unavailable. Although, their processing is a bit different, one needs a very trained ear in order to distinguish between those two implementations.For Redline Monitor, I would recommended to use 0 m distance setting in order to avoid comb filtering occurring with the other settings of the "Distance" control.

Redline Monitor is a listening, mixing, and mastering tool that makes your headphones experience more natural: as if the sound came from a pair of external speakers. It replaces the extreme stereo separation that is characteristic for headphones by the detailed stereo image of near-field monitor speakers without any detrimental effect on the audio. Basically it is a so called 'crossfeed plugin' with a few nifty extra's, that add extra spatiality while keeping the sound as clean as possible. It combines filtering, frequency-dependent delaying, mid/side processing, and room simulation to create a convincing acoustic soundstage that allows you to properly localize sound sources. It also adjusts the relative levels of panned sources as they appear on speakers, and moves the soundstage from an indeterminate location inside your head (with headphones) towards a clearly defined location in front of you.Now you can accurately judge levels, stereo placement, and overall balance on your favorite set of headphones--anywhere, anytime, and without ear fatigue even after prolonged listening. No more night long headphone sessions that turn out lifeless and with too little reverb and separation on speakers. Redline Monitor makes mixes sound identical on speakers and headphones. Redline Monitor is an indispensable tool for any serious use of headphones... you will wonder how you ever did without. The theory behind Redline MonitorListening to music on headphones is essentially different than listening to speakers. When you listen to speakers, both ears receive the output of both speakers but in different proportions. Your right ear will hear more of the right speaker, and the left ear more of the left. And because the left ear is slightly farther away from the right speaker, it hears the right signal a fraction of a second later than the right ear. This time difference between the ears is one of the main cues that your brain uses to figure out the left-to-right position of sounds.When you listen to headphones each ear will only receive one channel. The sound isn't mixed, and there are no time differences. In short: the listening experience lacks any similarity to natural hearing. Any regular headphones user will be familiar with the problems this causes: the stereo image is lost due to extreme separation of the left and right channels and has no discernible phantom center (the non-existent 'center speaker' that vocals often appear to come from when listening to speakers). Sound sources are impossible

Ask any pro and they'll tell you that mixing using studio headphones isn't a very good idea. However, 112dB claims to have addressed the problems inherent to doing this and come up with a plug-in based solution.It's called Redline Monitor and is described as a "high-quality near-field monitor simulation for headphones". 112dB states that it replaces the extreme stereo separation characteristic of headphones with the detailed stereo image of nearfield monitor speakers.In theory, this should enable you to create an accurate listening environment in which to mix.Redline Monitor sports just a few simple controls, and lets you switch the output to mono so you can check for compatibility. Sample rates of up to 384kHz are supported and there's MIDI learn.The plug-in is Mac- and PC- compatible, supports the RTAS/AU and VST plug-in formats and costs €69/$69. A fully-featured 60-day demo is available from the 112dB website.We'll have to wait and see (hear) how it performs, but if Redline Monitor lives up to its developer's claims, it could prove useful both for laptop musicians who like to work on the move and home studio owners who have sleeping children upstairs.Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here.

While looking around for other crossfeed implementations, I've found Redline Monitor by the audio company called "112dB". It's a plugin which is intended to be used with DAWs for simulating loudspeaker sound on headphones. On Mac, with Audio Hijack Pro it's quite easy to hook it up to the system audio output. The plugin has several emulation options, some of them missing on Phonitor headphone amplifiers, but it's price ($69) calls for a thorough evaluation before buying it. Thanks to generosity of 112dB, the plugin is available for a 60 days trial period, which I'm using the get some insight into how it works.ControlsLet's check out the controls of the plugin. Those are very similar to the controls found on Phonitor:I would start with the rightmost control—the simulated distance to loudspeakers. I think, it's the most interesting control because the type of processing and the resulting sound changes dramatically depending on its current value. When the value is "0 m", the plugin effect is the most non-intrusive and resembles Phonitor's processing. All other settings of this switch introduce rather serious phase shifts and comb filtering to simulate room reflections.The "Soundstage" control defines the total angle between the simulated speakers. "Center" is center signal attenuation. The "Dim" switch pre-attenuates the input signal to make sure that the processes signal doesn't clip. The rest of the switches are mostly needed for professional monitoring purposes, they are covered in the manual.ConfessionWhile doing my comparisons between Phonitor line of headphone amplifiers and Redline Monitor, I went through manuals for Phonitor 2 (this manual I have never opened before) and Phonitor mini. This was the first time when I discovered the tables and graphs in Phonitor 2 manual (page 17), and also noticed the statement "With the Angle switch you define the frequency-corrected channel crosstalk. In this case, we are dealing with „Interaural Time Difference“ (ITD)" in Phonitor mini's manual.This was a very surprising discovery for me, because previously I was sure that Phonitor has almost linear phase response, and doesn't introduce any group delay. The delay was never showing up in my measurements, for reasons yet unknown. But from the manuals, it was obvious that Phonitor also employs ITD.But that was all for good. And in fact, making such discoveries that I would otherwise have missed is one of the reasons I write this blog.Equalization DifferencesFirst I've checked how the equalization graphs of Redline Monitor look like, compared to similar settings on Phonitor mini. I've made the following settings on Redline Monitor:Phantom center: -1.2 dB Soundstage: 60 degrees Distance: 0 metersWhich are semantically equivalent to the following settings on Phonitor:Crossfeed level: Low Angle: 30 degrees (this is between the speaker and the center, thus soundstage is 60 degrees) Center: -1.2 dBSurprisingly, the graphs look very different:The amplitudes, the knee frequency, the inter-channel level—just everything is different, only the general principle stays the same.However, if we look at group delay graphs, they look very much the same (again, at equivalent settings):One small difference is that

Redline In a document review environment, reviewers such as managing editors and copy editors make changes to projects. The Redline feature provides a way to track these changes so writers, editors, project managers, and other users can see what is happening to a project and confirm that changes are appropriate. Using the Redline feature, you can view the insertions and deletions made in a project and decide whether to accept or reject the changes. When used with Quark Publishing Platform®, the Redline feature uses settings defined in Quark Publishing Platform. For more information, see A Guide to Quark Publishing Platform. Tracking changes To turn on tracking, do one of the following things: Make sure Utilities > Redline > Tracking is checked. Display the Redline toolbar (Utilities >Redline >Show ToolBar) and then click the Tracking button . You can use the Redline toolbar to turn change tracking on and off. When tracking is turned on, QuarkXPress tracks all changes made to the text of the active project. Deleted text is not displayed in WYSIWYG view, but the deletions are still tracked. Deletions are visible in Galley and Full Screen Views. You can use the Redline feature to track changes you make Formatting changes are not tracked. Viewing tracked changes To display all tracked changes, do one of the following: Make sure Utilities > Redline > Highlighting is checked. Display the Redline toolbar (Utilities > Redline > Show ToolBar) and then click the Highlighting button . You can navigate through the changes