Does your track sound good even when a DJ plays in the red? G-Sonique’s PA Club Soundsystem Emulator lets you find out
Get working with a precise emulation of 10 different clubs, sound systems and rooms (including reflections).
Image: G-Sonique
Ever tried playing your music in the club, only to find that it sounds completely different — or maybe worse — than it did in your studio? The discrepancy between small monitors or home systems and powerful PA setups used in clubs can amplify flaws in your mix, causing frequency collisions to become glaringly apparent.
For producers of electronic dance music especially, making sure your tracks sound great in club environments is crucial, but testing each mix in an actual club setting is often impractical. Here’s where G-Sonique’s new PA Club Soundsystem Emulator comes in.
As its name suggests, the plugin lets you test and hear tracks as they would sound in a real club PA. It accounts for not only various sound systems (advanced IR response + modelling technology), but also amplifiers and processors such as the amplifier’s Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).
The interface is pretty straightforward: you get a giant volume knob in the middle, a dropdown menu for selecting club presets (there are 10), and a bypass switch.
But is it actually useful and practical? Peter Kirn at CDM thinks so, saying that “at this price, it’s a no-brainer to recommend as a learning tool to novice producers…It’s convincing enough that you can hear the strain of the amp and mixer (and my stress level as I watch a DJ redline from the booth), as you turn up the knob.”
G-Sonique has also included a variety of venue sizes and sound system conditions ranging from “a spatially divided club” with “many acoustic obstacles” and “a DJ who plays too loudly sometimes into clipping” to the perfectly tuned PA system with the listener standing right where they should be.
The brand also notes that in addition to DSP engineers, they’ve involved live sound engineers, DJs and producers such as Toxic Elements, Synthaix, DJ Byg Byzniss or DJ Adidaso with Slovakian slav squad in the plugin’s development process.
G-Sonique’s PA Club Soundsystem emulator is available as a 32-bit or 64-bit Windows VST, and will cost you €30 The first 70 customers can enjoy an introductory price of €18
Check out the plugin in action below.
Learn more at G-Sonique.
