Product Option

Mac/Win

Check Your Mixes in Abbey Road’s Studio 3 Control Room

Abbey Road has set a standard of excellence for decades, and mixing there is an experience only a few can have—until now. Thanks to advanced 3D acoustics modeling, just put on headphones, and you’ll be transported to mixing stereo or surround projects in a truly historic control room.

Waves has modeled every sonic nuance of this premier mixing space—and with correction EQ curves for 270 headphone models, now you can mix with realism you have to hear to believe.

Better Mixes—Anytime, Anywhere

Sometimes, headphones are your most convenient monitoring option. But mixing on headphones can be unreliable: you might easily add too much ambient reverb, or too much low end, etc. Abbey Road Studio 3 corrects the inherent limitations of the headphone experience, so you can create mixes that will translate perfectly to any system.

Monitor in Abbey Road’s Flagship Mix Room

The Abbey Road Studio 3 control room was designed by the world’s greatest acoustic experts, to provide the ultimate mixing environment. Contemporary mixes and remixes of the Beatles and Pink Floyd, modern classics by Radiohead, Amy Winehouse, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and more—all were perfected at Abbey Road Studio 3.

Choose from 3 Sets of Custom Abbey Road Monitors

Check your mixes through the studio’s three sets of custom-made speakers: Near-fields for critical listening, mid-fields for a hi-fi sound, or far-field for a big speaker sound with a club-like feel.

EQ Correction for 270 Headphone Models

Abbey Road Studio 3 uses the state-of-the-art Harman Headphone Target Curve method to correct EQ response for over 270 studio headphones, including models by Sony, Beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, AKG, Audio Technica, Audeze, Focal, and dozens more brands.

Powered by Waves Nx® Immersive Audio Technology

Waves Nx uses channel crosstalk, inter-aural delays (ITD), filters (ILD), early reflections, and head motion tracking to replicate the immersive experience of hearing audio in the real world. All these are coupled with precision measurements of the acoustic response at the physical Abbey Road Studio 3 control room, to faithfully deliver the original monitoring experience.

Personalize Your Studio Environment

Use the precise emulation of Studio 3’s acoustics, or dial in slightly wetter or drier room ambience. For personal adjustment of the 3D effect to your head/ear anatomy, enter your personal head measurements into the plugin’s head anatomy calibration section.

Track Head Motion for Enhanced Immersion

When you’re in the studio and turn your head, the sound changes. And it can here, too: for an immersive, VR-like experience, track head motion with your computer’s video camera, or with the advanced Nx Head Tracker.

Mix and Monitor 5.1/7.1—on Any Stereo Headphones

In addition to stereo mixes, Abbey Road Studio 3 includes components for mixing in 5.1 and 7.1 surround. Breakthrough binaural processes and spatial modeling accurately reflect surround mixes—even with stereo headphones.

Features

Provides the sound and feel of sitting in front of studio monitors
EQ correction curves flatten response for 270 headphones
You’ll know that your headphone mixes will translate over speakers
The neutral, accurate sound is ideal for all types of productions
Created in close collaboration with Abbey Road Studios
Choose from classic near, mid, or far monitors
Having a common acoustic space is optimal for team projects
Optional head tracking for hyper-realistic, immersive mixing

OS Requirements

Mac Requirements

Cpu: Intel or Silicon Architecture
Ram: 8
Disk: 16
Version: macOS Catalina 10.15, Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13, Sonoma 14
Additional requirements: Minimum: 1024×768
Recommended: 1280×1024 / 1600×1024
USB displays are not supported as the primary display.

Windows Requirements

Cpu: X64 compatible Intel or AMD CPU
Ram: 8
Disk: 16
Version: Windows 10 64 bit Windows 11
Additional requirements: Minimum: 1024×768
Recommended: 1280×1024 / 1600×1024

Waves 14 Supported Hosts

Mac Apple Silicon Support	Windows
Pro Tools 2022, 2023 (AAX Native, Audiosuite)	Pro Tools 2022, 2023 (AAX Native, Audiosuite)
Ableton Live 11.2, 12 (VST3)	Ableton Live 11.2, 12 (VST3)
Audition 23 (VST3)	Audition 23 (VST3)
Bitwig Studio 4,5 (VST3)	Bitwig Studio 4, 5 (VST3)
	Cakewalk by BandLab 2022 (VST3)
Cubase 12 (VST3)	Cubase 12 (VST3)
DaVinci Resolve 18.5	DaVinci Resolve 18.5
Digital Performer 11 (Audio Units)
FL Studio 21 (VST3)	FL Studio 21 (VST3)
Garage Band 10.4 Audio Units)
Komplete Kontrol 2 (VST, VST3)	Komplete Kontrol 2 (VST, VST3)
Logic Pro X 10.7 (Audio Units)
Luna 1.3 (Audio Units)
Nuendo 12 (VST3)	Nuendo 12 (VST3)
OBS Studio 29 (Intel Only) Via StudioRack, Stereo only	OBS Studio 29 (Intel Only) Via StudioRack, Stereo only
Premiere Pro 23 (VST3)	Premiere Pro 23 (VST3)
Maschine 2 (VST, VST3)
Main Stage 3 Audio Units)
	Pyramix 14 (VST3)
REAPER 6 (VST3)	REAPER 6 (VST3)
Reason 12.6 (VST, VST3) Apple Silicon Supported with VST3 only	Reason 12.5 (VST, VST3)
	Samplitude Pro X7, X8 (VST3)
	Sequoia 16 (VST3)
Studio One Professional 6 (VST3)	Studio One Professional 6 (VST3)

The DAW versions listed above are the latest on which we tested and officially qualified each version of our products.

Waves’ latest version works on newer sub-versions of these DAWs, unless stated otherwise.

If your DAW (or DAW version) is not listed here, we recommend you demo the product you wish to purchase to confirm it works.

Your DAW must be running on an operating system that supports it in order for plugins to work properly. To confirm that your DAW version is supported on your operating system, please refer to your DAW’s website.

Exceptions & Notes:

General:

Multiple versions of Waves plugins (for example v13 and v14) should be able to work on the same system (as long the system supports each of those versions)—but please note that we no longer test or officially support this scenario.

These specs are for software version 14.

V14 supports 64-bit only.

In hosts that support both VST and VST3 plugins, we highly recommend using only VST3 plugins in new sessions from now on, and migrating plugins in old sessions to VST3.

With the release of Waves V13 plugins, we announce full official Apple Silicon support for host applications that are themselves Apple Silicon-compatible. We will work to provide official ARM support for more host applications as they become Silicon-compatible. We will update this page with new developments as they are available.

MIDI Support: The following hosts do not offer MIDI support: Pyramix, Premiere, Audition and OBS.

Mono to Stereo components are not supported in Cakewalk by BandLab, GarageBand and Luna.

Sidechaining is supported on the following hosts: Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Nuendo, Cubase, Cakewalk by BandLab, Audition, Ableton Live, FL Studio, REAPER, Bitwig Studio, Samplitude, Sequoia and Studio One.

Demo Mode: Audio mutes are not synced between plug-ins running in Demo Mode, when tracks are set to Input Monitoring and the transport is stopped.

Surround plugins are supported on the following hosts: Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, Nuendo, Cubase, Audition, Premiere, REAPER, Pyramix and DaVinci Resolve.

Drag and Drop support: ‘Drag and Drop' of samples and audio files in to CR8 Creative Sampler is possible only on DAWs that support this feature: Ableton Live, Cubase, Nuendo and Studio One.

GarageBand: The Preset Browser is not available on Intel Mac computers.

Adobe Premiere on Apple Silicon Macs: While loading plugins / changing parameters, you may experience a slow graphic refresh rate.

Maschine/ Komplete Kontrol: The following plugins will not function correctly when loaded as VST3 plugins: API-2500, C1 Compressor, dbx160 Compressor / Limiter, H-Comp Hybrid Compressor, Renaissance Compressor, SSL G-Master Bus Compressor, V-Comp. Maschine 2.17.2 and Komplete Kontrol 2.9.2 include a fix for this issue.

FL Studio: FL Studio 21.1.1.3318 may produce graphics issues on Mac computers with Intel processors.
Solution: Update FL Studio to the latest version (21.0.3.3352 or later).

DaVinci Resolve: Tempo Sync is not supported.

Ableton Live:

Plugin parameters are not auto-populated in Ableton Live for some plugins with many (over 67) automatable parameters.

Ableton Live sessions created with previous versions (V10/V11) of the plugin components listed below, will not load in the sessions after the plugin version is updated:
- C4 Multiband Compressor: Mono component
- C6 Multiband Compressor: Mono component
- L2 Ultramaximizer: Mono component
- Q1-Q8 Equalizers: Mono component
- F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ: Mono component
- Nx – Virtual Mix Room over Headphones: 5.0, 5.1 and 7.1 components

Plugins:

Abbey Road Studio 3:
- Not supported under Audition, Premiere on Mac.
- Surround is supported on Pro Tools, Logic Pro (no 7.1 support), Cubase, Nuendo, Digital Performer and REAPER. Surround is not supported on Ableton Live, GarageBand, Main Stage, Studio One, Samplitude, Sequoia and Cakewalk by BandLab.

Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain - Not supported under Garage Band.

Bass Fingers - Not supported under Pyramix on Windows.

B360 Ambisonics Encoder – 5.1 to 4.0 and 7.1 to 4.0 are not supported by Logic Pro X. In Pro Tools, B360 Ambisonics components are available on standard ‘QUAD’ tracks only, and not yet available on ‘1st order Ambisonics’ tracks.

CLA MixHub:
- The insert slot is not supported under Bitwig Studio.
- Inserting a plugin in the insert slot while automation is in touch mode and all automation lanes enabled may result in a crash or unexpected behavior.
- CLA MixHub V14’s insert slot supports V14 and V13 Waves plugins.

CLA Nx - Not supported under Audition, Premiere and FL Studio on Mac.

DeBreath - Not supported under Main Stage and Premiere on Mac.

Dorrough Stereo: Only the vertical version of Dorrough Stereo is available in SuperRack, eMotion LV1, SoundGrid Studio and StudioRack.

Dorrough Surround: Only the vertical version of Dorrough Surround is available in SuperRack.

eMo Generator:
- When using eMo Generator in Logic or Digital Performer, make sure to enable the input monitor on the channel where the plugin is inserted.
- Not supported under FL Studio on Mac

Grand Rhapsody Piano, Electric 200 Piano, Electric 88 Piano, Electric Grand 80 Piano, Clavinet and Bass Slapper are supported on the following hosts: Pro Tools (AAX Native), Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Digital Performer, Nuendo, Cubase, Main Stage, Studio One, Cakewalk by BandLab, Reason, Samplitude (VSTi), Sequoia (VSTi), FL Studio, REAPER, Garage Band (on i7), Maschine and Komplete Kontrol.

Lofi Space and Retro Fi: Tempo Sync is not available in Premiere Pro.

GTR3 / GTR Solo – Not supported under Audition, Premiere and FL Studio on Mac.

Kaleidoscopes - Not supported under Luna

Morphoder - Not supported under Garage Band

MultiMod Rack - Not supported under Garage Band

NLS Non-Linear Summer – Not supported under Audition, Premiere and FL Studio on Mac.

Nx Virtual Mix Room:
- Not supported under Audition and Premiere.
- Surround is supported on Pro Tools, Logic Pro (no 7.1 support), Cubase, Nuendo, Digital Performer and REAPER. Surround is not supported on Ableton Live, GarageBand, Main Stage, Studio One, Samplitude, Sequoia and Cakewalk by BandLab. In Pro Tools, Nx Ambisonics components are available on standard ‘QUAD’ tracks only, and not yet available on ‘1st order Ambisonics’ tracks.

Q-Clone is not supported on the following hosts: Main Stage, Garage Band, Audition, Premiere and FL Studio.
Q-Capture component not supported on Main Stage.

Scheps Omni Channel:
- The insert slot is not supported under Bitwig Studio and Garage Band.
- Scheps Omni Channel 2’s insert slot is not supported under Bitwig Studio, Garage Band, in SoundGrid Host applications and in SuperRack Performer with third-party VST3 plugins.
- Inserting a plugin in the insert slot while automation is in touch mode and all automation lanes enabled may result in a crash or unexpected behavior.
- Scheps Omni Channel V14’s insert slot supports V14 and V13 Waves plugins.

SoundShifter: On Pro Tools, SoundShifter Graphic & Parametric support AudioSuite only.
On all other hosts, only SoundShifter Pitch is supported.

UM225 & UM226 are supported on the following hosts: Pro Tools, Nuendo, Cubase, Audition, Premiere, REAPER, and Pyramix. UM226 is also supported on Logic Pro and Digital Performer.

Waves Harmony cannot be controlled by MIDI in GarageBand.

Waves Stream: The Waves Stream Receive component is not supported in GarageBand running in macOS Sonoma on Intel Macs.

Waves Virtual Instruments are not supported on Adobe Premier.

Waves Tune & Tune LT are fully supported on the following hosts: Pro Tools (AAX Native 64-bit), Logic Pro, Digital Performer, REAPER, and Cakewalk. Waves Tune & Tune LT are also supported on the following hosts, but without ReWire support: Ableton Live (Arrangement view only), Nuendo, Cubase, GarageBand, Audition, Premiere, Studio One, FL Studio, Reason, Bitwig, Luna, Samplitude, Sequoia. ReWire is not supported on Apple Silicon processors.

X-FDBK is not supported on Adobe Premiere and Pro Tools Audiosuite

Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 Overview #gettingstarted

Waves product manager Yoni Zlotkin walks you through the Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 plugin. See how you can mix and produce with the perfect acoustics of the Studio 3 control room—inside your headphones.

More...

v14 Waves Abbey Road Studio 3