Rebuilding the studio in your headphones: Realphones + USCII unpacked
If you’ve ever struggled to get a reliable mix on headphones, Realphones is probably already on your radar. But the new Realphones Ultimate Edition takes virtual studio monitoring to a whole new level. In this exclusive interview, we sit down with Aliaksei Khaiminau, founder of dSONIQ, the brains behind Realphones, to dive deep into the thinking, technology, and evolution behind the plugin - and, of course, demo the new features.
Whether you're mixing on the go, working in untreated rooms, or looking for a trustworthy secondary reference, Realphones promises to give your headphones the consistency of a properly treated studio. And in this video, we put that promise to the test.
Why Realphones Exists
Aliaksei didn’t start with a lab or funding. He started with a pair of headphones and a problem.
“I wanted to mix,” he said. “But I didn’t have a proper room, proper gear. So I used headphones. And I hated it.”
That frustration with unnatural sound - those hard-panned vocals, off-balance drums, strange resonances - wasn’t just annoying. It was disorienting. And it kicked off a long journey of DIY measurements, early prototypes, and eventually, Realphones: software that turns headphones into a space you can trust.
USCII: What We Took, What We Trimmed
For OLLO users, our USCII plugin is a stripped-back version of Realphones. We kept what matters: your headphones calibrated to our flat target, plus a few mix environments - neutral studio, club, car. Enough to get you mixing confidently, right out of the box.
But the full edition of Realphones? That’s a rabbit hole.
Speaker placement, angle adjustment, HRTF profiles, monitoring in nearfield vs midfield vs farfield, industry-favourite studio simulations... it’s a deep toolkit for engineers who want to shape their environment down to the last reflection.
And here’s the catch: that’s not just about accuracy. It’s about inspiration.
“You don’t always want neutral,” Aliaksei says. “You want a space that helps you create.”
The Importance of Reference Monitoring and Personalisation
In the world of audio engineering, reference monitoring is all about neutrality -reproducing sound with as little unwanted colouring as possible. This means simulating an idealised listening environment where the mix can be judged fairly.
However, music lovers and professionals alike know that certain speakers have distinctive characters. Take Yamaha NS10 monitors, for example - they are far from flat but are beloved because they reveal specific vocal range issues that other monitors might hide.
The USCII edition covers many standard scenarios well, but advanced users want more flexibility. They may switch between nearfield, midfield, and farfield monitoring to explore spatial details and groove differently. Different genres and creative choices demand different monitoring setups, and Realphones supports this diversity by offering simulations of real studios, each with its own flavour.
Finding What Sounds Natural and Consistent
Many users are content with the factory presets, relying on engineers and presets to deliver a solid sound. But for those who dive deeper, personalising the sound is crucial.
The ultimate goal is to achieve mix translation - the ability for a mix to sound good across different playback systems. An intermediate goal is getting a natural sound during playback, which means reducing undesired colouring and making the mix comfortable and authentic for the listener.
Because every ear and listening environment is different, this process is personal. For instance, someone with a longer ear canal might perceive certain frequencies louder, making their mixing decisions unique. Despite this, the universal reference remains acoustic music - live instruments and voices - which sound the same to everyone and anchor our idea of natural sound.
Why Headphones Are a Unique Challenge
Unlike speakers in a room, headphones sit directly on your ears, creating a unique acoustic coupling. The size, clamping force, and exact positioning of headphones all influence sound dramatically, and these small changes have a big impact.
This variability makes establishing a universal headphone calibration difficult. That’s why Realphones offers multiple settings and presets, allowing users to tailor the experience to their specific headphones and ears.
Realphones and Real-World Listening
A studio environment is a controlled space, but the real world isn’t. People listen in cars, cafés, clubs, or concert halls - each offering a wildly different acoustic experience.
Realphones lets you quickly switch between these environments with a click, helping you hear how your mix behaves outside the studio. Some simulated spaces are even intentionally challenging, such as large concert halls that reveal flaws hidden in more forgiving environments.
This broad range of simulations helps mixers prepare their work to translate well everywhere, not just in their perfectly tuned control rooms.
Final Thoughts: The Future of Realphones
Realphones is a powerful tool built on years of research and experience, blending scientific measurement with the human ear’s sensitivity. The software integrates smoothly with popular plugins and hardware, offering flexibility to professionals and enthusiasts alike.
While no system can be perfect for every ear, Realphones brings us closer to a personalised and reliable headphone monitoring experience that helps musicians and engineers work confidently, wherever they mix.
Watch the Demo
At the start of the video, you can hear the plugin in action on Studio One’s Rhythm of the Night demo track. Rok goes through presets, tweaks settings, and shows just how much the sound changes across environments. No fluff, no over-explaining - just real audio, live demo, and a chat with the mind behind it all.
Whether you’re using our USCII edition or thinking about upgrading to the full Realphones experience, the conversation with Aliaksei offers a rare peek into the thinking that shaped it all.
