SoundID Reference for Multichannel: Speaker and Room Calibration Plugin Free Download

The process starts with speaker measurement. Sonarworks includes its own measurement microphone, which comes with individual multi-angle calibration curves for accurate readings. A guided measurement process walks you through each speaker in the room.

Once the measurements are done, you can apply the calibration in one of two ways. You can run the plugin in your DAW, or you can export the calibration profile to supported hardware units. The developer lists Avid MTRX with SPQ DSP, Avid MTRX Studio, DAD AX32 with SPQ DSP and the Dolby Atmos Renderer Mastering Suite among the export targets.

For speaker measurement, the audio interface needs +48V phantom power, and the same interface must be used for both input and output.

The plugin offers three target modes: the Dolby Atmos Music curve, a flat frequency response, or a custom profile. You can narrow the calibration frequency range or adjust the target curve by hand, and you can set different targets for the whole setup or for separate channel groups.

Sonarworks states that phase-based time alignment works on satellite and LFE channels with sub-millisecond accuracy. The developer also describes the plugin DSP as zero latency for multichannel use.

It also supports headphone calibration, with ready-to-use profiles for 480+ models, which is useful for checking a mix away from the room.