Waves CLA Nx Plug-in Models Chris Lord-Alge’s Control Room Over Headphones

It uses Waves’ Nx spatial audio technology plus precise measurements of his Mix LA studio control room

A plug-in to replace the real Vincent Van Hoff-designed room with a pair of headphones? Well, maybe not 100%, but Waves’ latest CLA-series (named after Chris Lord-Alge) plug-in is intended to get as close as possible.

The idea is for you to be able to make good mixing decisions over headphones. This plug-in models the acoustics of his room, the response of his Yamaha NS10-ish nearfield monitors, his subwoofer, Ocean Way HR1 big speakers, and naturally a boombox he uses as a check.

Now, there are reasons that engineers haven’t been using headphones all along instead of calling in the architects and room designers. But CLA Nx has proprietary tech to provide immersive spatial audio; channel crosstalk and inter-aural delays to deal with the problem of headphones being totally separate from one another; and filters, early reflections, head motion tracking and personalized head anatomy calibration.

We’d have to try the plug-in to see what’s going on, but Waves has a long history with highly advanced and scientific audio DSP.

Video links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acv_U8Kp6Us
Chris Lord-Alge Explains the CLA Nx Headphone Monitoring Plugin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dyPyEXNCMA

Product page here