Perception

Find your music's loudness "sweet spot".

Ever wonder, "how loud should my music be?" Many people prefer louder music - that's how the loudness wars started - but too much "loudness processing" can do more harm than good... Squashed, dull, flat sound - or even pumping and distortion. Now, with Perception, you can zero in on your music's loudness "sweet spot".

Better? Or Just Louder?

Loudness changes our perception of music. As a mastering engineer, you must constantly ask yourself, "Is this really better? Or just louder?" Making accurate, impartial judgements about this has always been a key skill of the mastering engineer, which can take years to learn. Until now...

Loudness Deception

Make informed decisions about your music.

Perception allows you to hear through “loudness deception” and make truly impartial, accurate decisions about the best possible sound for your music - quickly and easily. You can instantly bypass entire FX chains to make A/B comparisons of EQ settings, compression and more. Even better, Perception will level-match and sync your sources so that "loudness deception" and plugin delay do not influence your decisions.

Level-Matched A/B Testing

How does it work?

Simple. First, insert the Perception Source plugin before the FX chain you want to A/B test. Second, insert the Perception Controller plugin after the FX chain. Now you can toggle Perception’s Bypass FX button to compare your music with and without the FX chain. Then press Balance and Sync to level-match and sync the sources.

Features

• Bypass entire FX chains
• Fast A/B testing
• Loudness matching
• Plugin delay compensation
• Peak to loudness ratio display
• Dynamic range tweaking
• Snapshots

System Requirements

• Mac OS X 10.7 or greater
• Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8
• AAX, Audio Unit, or VST 2.4 compatible DAW

Compatibility

• Mac: AAX (Pro Tools 10.3.7+), Audio Unit and VST 2.4 (all 32 & 64­bit)
• Win: AAX (Pro Tools 10.3.7+) and VST 2.4 (all 32 & 64­bit)