Can I simulate multiple speaker types on a single monitoring set-up?

Much as we’d all love people to listen to music exclusively through hi-fi gear (or, even better, exactly the same monitors we’ve used to mix it…), the fact is that it’s more likely to be heard through a pair of cheap headphones or – horror of horrors – built-in laptop speakers than it is a good set of speakers.

This being the case, it makes sense to road-test your mixes on as many systems as possible before you sign them off. You’ll often hear stories of producers doing this in a very literal sense by listening to tracks in the car, and it’s wise to play them on a few other ‘consumer audio’ devices as well.

Of course, this can take a bit of time, and if that’s something you’re short of, there is software that could help. As well as being a room correction tool, IK Multimedia’s ARC 2 system also features a ‘virtual monitoring’ feature that mimics a range of listening devices; and then there’s Audified’s MixChecker, a ‘mixing assistant’ that’s dedicated to the job. Just choose the device you want to emulate (phone, TV, car stereo, headphones etc), tweak the profile to suit your actual speakers or headphones and, in theory, you’ve got a super-quick way of hearing what your music sounds like on a range of different systems. MixChecker costs $149, but you can demo it for 30 days and decide if that’s a price worth paying.