Focusrite VRM

drumdrum

Hi guys,

Was doing a bit of monitoring shopping recently and came across this device by Focusrite:
Focusrite VRM box


Looks good on paper, especially since it claims you can mix with headphones as if you were mixing on monitors.

any thoughs on this, or anyone tried this or something like this before? Is it a worth while alternative to monitors or is it more better suited as a referencing tool?

Cheers!

emeraz

Very interesting! Worth demoing to say the least

GTE

As far as i know sound on sound has a feature on this product either this month or last.
It seems good for the money.

Id say its better then mixing on bad speakers. Quite interested but it would be better if you could input from a headphone out on a normal interface. No regular monitor outs is a downside.
I could be mistaken though. Maybe you can use it with a standard interface and input through its digi in?

emeraz

Reading a little more into these I don't think they are the answer. For one, it's not going to make a cheap pair of headphone act and sound like a highend set of monitor like the KVR's. Plus every set of headphones sound different so on that basis it can't accurately recreate the sound of any monitor.

I don't think it would be better than a decent set of monitors but it might be great to compare mixing environments but I am not sure I would trust it 100%.

Could be completely wrong but my it's my opinion

PaulBrewer

My heart say 'Load a cock' ...

However my head say I should have a listen before I say ..... 'Load a cock'

GTE

PaulBrewer wrote: »

My heart say 'Load a cock' ...

However my head say I should have a listen before I say ..... 'Load a cock'

Indeed, I would give them a chance.

With a set of reasonably neutral headphones and the way already have pretty impressive impulse response technology which is what convolution reverb and 3D or real surround sound is based on then I think its perfectly possible to get better results in terms of reference listening from good headphones and this little box then bad monitors.

SeanHurley

I got one there recently as the headphone jack went on my macbook and to get it fixed would involve getting a new logic board. This little box seemed like a good option as it is a relatively good usb headphone amp when used with out the vrm software.

From the get go let me say this does not sound like you are listening through the various different speakers listed - it does give the impression that the audio is coming from in front of you rather than the thru the middle of your head vibe of headphones and you do get the "vibe" of each speaker it tries to emulate.

However, what it is really good at doing is checkin mixes for how they will travel, the different frequency responses of each emulation let you see how your mix sounds on different speakers i.e. while they are maybe not exact emulations of each speaker, the ball park of each speaker is there to try.

I wouldnt do a mix solely thru the thing but it is a useful tool for checking mixes plus it solves my headphone out issue on my mac. It's hardly a bank breaker at 100 yoyos either.