Anyone that's into mixing down music has no doubt been through the experience of checking a mix in your mixing room, followed by burning a CD version and rushing out to the car to see how it stacks up. It's a slow process to get those final EQ tweaks right, so everything translates properly across different sizes and types of speakers.
MixChecker allows you to quickly flick between 12 different acoustic models all from the comfort of your studio. The plugin loads as the last item in your chain with a crisp, satisfying GUI that looks like a physical monitoring box. There are no complex hidden features: just 12 buttons, a bypass switch and an optional compensation section that tweaks the output for average five or eight inch speakers.
MixChecker is based on a convolution engine, with some very carefully thought out impulse response, and with each model volume - balanced to help with comparisons. The balancing between models is well done, but doesn't offer this ability to adjust to personal tastes. The best way to get the most out of MixChecker is to learn how each model sounds by playing reference material that you know well though it.
The price may be an issue, as it's arguably quite simple. But you're paying for a slick GUI, ease of use and the developers time spent refining the perfect settings. Depending on how you work, it's either going to be an essential new element that will speed up your work flow and improve your mixes, or something that you can easily live without. The fact its iLok only make it a little harder to test but a 30 day demo is available.
Rating: 8/10
Original source available at Music Tech Mag