The Control Spot – Free Stereo-speaker simulation

The french developer madBee::audio has released “The control spot“, a free stereo-speaker simulation for headphones.

“This plugin recreates some of the physics involved when listening to stereo speakers (without the room acoustics for the moment).
It can be useful to easily check your mix on a stereo system without the downside of having a quiet place with nice acoustics and a hi-end (& generally high-priced) loudspeaker system (even if it can’t replace that). It can be used while mixing and in order to relieve the ears tired by exaggerated stereo separation caused by headphones.
– Note that the process modifies the harmonic content of the sound by creating comb filters. This is totally normal and occurs the same way with real stereo loudspeakers in a real space. It is due to the time delays between the 2 speakers and the 2 ears and the phase interactions they produce. So it is better bypassing the plugin when the goal is to focus on the spectral balance of the mix (e.g. during equalization…).
– Don’t forget to bypass the plugin before rendering audio.
– Extreme width settings can sound unnatural for some people. In this case, try to reduce width a bit.

SPECIFICATIONS:

– width control of the loudspeakers position (0° to 180°)
– mono summing function to check mono compatibility while mixing.
– soft clipping option to prevent hardware clipping when the plugin is placed at the end of the master chain. If you don’t want to use this function, place the plugin just before the master limiter.
– bypass (when clicking on the head) ”