The accuracy of this mic location feature, along with the previous measuring of the distance between your speakers and sweet spot, starts to shed light on just how accurate the Sonarworks system is. Measure will show you where to place the mic for each measurement, impressively locating the mic and telling you if adjustments are needed-even within a few inches! (You don’t need a mic stand holding the mic by hand away from your body will suffice.) You’ll take a total of 24(!) measurements in and around your sweet spot to provide an accurate profile that isn’t skewed by odd resonances or room nodes. With these measurements, the software is ready to calibrate based on corrections needed at your listening position. Double checking the software measurements with a measuring tape proved them to be quite accurate. This includes measuring the distance from your sweet spot to the monitors, and the distance between the monitors themselves. Place the mic in your listening position and Measure will start a couple exercises to ensure proper gain staging for measurement and playback.

So how does Reference 4 hold up in real world applications? Many of us who work in rooms that haven’t been built and tuned by a professional face the issue of skewed playback to some degree, whether we know it or not. That amount of attention to detail gave me great hope that all this isn’t just snake oil.

From here, you can download the measurements for that specific microphone to take into account as you tune your room.

The mic has the serial number right on the side, which is important because along with downloading the installation software, you also need to input that serial number on the Sonarworks website. Reference 4 Studio comes in a small box with download instructions for the software, along with the XREF 20 measurement microphone. It has three software components: The plugin itself (VST, AAX, AU and RTAS compatible), Systemwide-an application for both Mac OS and Windows, and finally Reference 4 Measure, which by the use of the included measurement mic, does exactly what its name implies. The latest iteration of their flagship offering, Reference 4 Studio Edition, is a convolution-based EQ designed to circumvent acoustical problems and other monitoring issues in your studio by making compensating adjustments to the signal that comes out of your monitors.

Sonarworks trial key