I had heard/read a lot of good things about Sonarworks, so on Black Friday I grabbed the Headphone Edition on a discount. It is a limited version of the software that doesn’t include speaker calibration, but I already have a tool for that (IK’s ARC). It’s compatible with Reaper as far as I can tell, but it doesn’t like my audio interface. I have an old Digi 003 interface, and their support desk is telling me (in so many words) that there have been problems with supporting that and that it likely won’t work at all. When I tried to load the “Calibration profile” in the plugin, to use the software, I got the BSOD (multiple times) and diagnosed the error to the interface through the Windows BSOD Minidump.
They don’t seem to have any documentation on which audio interfaces work with their software, only supported headphone models that are profiled.
To be more detailed, there is a “Systemwide” component as part of the software install that I allowed (though I think you can cancel or bypass that part of the install), and this is what connects the software to load the Calibration profiles. There is an Offline Activation option, which can download an activation file with all the profiles inside, which would probably work if my interface was supported … but apparently it’s not. That would bypass having to use Systemwide to pull down the profile(s). Systemwide is a program that runs on Windows, but can be inactive until using the plugin to load the “Calibration profile”. When trying to load the profile for the headphone, it prompts me to “Open Systemwide”, which is when the BSOD occurs. Presumably that tells Windows to launch the program, and that program doesn’t like my interface.
I am angling toward a refund on the purchase, but if I’m stuck with the software I’m trying to figure out the options. Getting a newer interface would probably solve it (specific models being one of my pending questions to the support desk). I’m not planning on that though, ATM. And I can probably use it with my computer soundcard, but don’t really have a need for it there, per se.
Just wondering what others have experienced, and any suggestions or recommendations going forward. Thanks.