New Music Gear Monday: Blue Cat Audio Re-Head Headphone Response Plugin

Once upon a time any thought of doing serious mixing on headphones would have been laughable, but we live in a different world now. With artists, engineers and producers constantly on the go and under deadline, having the luxury of mixing in the studio is now a luxury, and headphone mixing is a very real process that now happens all the time. To that end, a number of products have been released recently to help getting a better mix when using phones, and Blue Cat Audio’s Re-Head is the latest.

The Re-Head plugin is based around a unique ‘head response’ model that simulates the way the listener’s head affects the audio coming from the studio monitors. To create a simulated acoustic space, Re-Head also uses stereo processing to avoid the hard-panned sound associated with listening on headphones, since in real life you’re actually hearing every sound with both ears.

The interface is simple. On the main user page you’re able to adjust the position and the angle between the virtual speakers, adjust the overall brightness and gain of the signal with dedicated controls, and select the frequency compensation that’s right for most popular headphones.

A second page features a built-in EQ and spectrum analyzer to fine-tune the frequency response of the virtual room. You also have the ability to load in an impulse response file to mimic your favorite listening room.

The developer is careful to say that that Re-Head is not intended to totally replace studio monitors, but rather make the transition from speakers to headphones and vice versa a less dramatic one. The plugin works on both PC and Mac and with most plugin formats. It has zero latency, no CPU load during silence, and noiseless bypass. It’s available for an introductory price of just $37. A limited trial version is also available.

You can find out more on the Blue Cat page or on the video below.

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