Embody Immerse Virtual Studio

Before we dig deeper to see how everything that makes up the Audeze LCD-XC works in practice, let's consider the software side of things once more. We did a deeper dive of the Audeze Reveal+ plug-in as part of the LCD-2 Classic review, noting that it was borne out of a collaboration between Audeze and Embody. Reveal+ is an excellent professional plug-in using HRTF (Head Related Transfer Function) profiles to allow for quite a few nifty things in addition to the EQ profiles for Audeze products. The latter section was and will remain free with the former being the HRTF section itself. So when I was asked if I would like to take a look at Embody's own engine, Embody Immerse Virtual Studio, I simply had to agree, especially with it having recently hit a major feature update and another on the way.


Audeze Reveal+ is a small part of the entire Embody Immerse Virtual Studio offering, with Embody making a few other specialized versions for others, including AVID and Audio-Technica. These more specific versions cost a certain amount and only cater to that particular program and/or hardware set, so the aptly named Immerse Virtual Studio All Access (henceforth IVS All Access) ends up being a one stop shop for it all. This is currently in version 1.2.0. Released recently, it brought with it a lot of welcome updates, including support for Apple M1 processors, allowing those on the other side of the camp to use their fancy new MacBooks without the laptop heating up like crazy and the fan turning into a turbine, or simply thermal throttling instead. The installer for IVS All Access can be found on this page, where you have the option to get the one for your platform of your choice as a free two-week trial or paid scheme. The installer for Windows goes through simple steps as seen above, which are identical regardless of whether you have already paid for a license or not. As with the full program, the 14-day trial can be installed on up to five computers simultaneously, allowing users to try it out before deciding whether it is worth the money.

Given IVS All Access is a plug-in family, there are some other caveats to consider. Currently, OS support is for Windows 7 through 10, although support for Win 7 is likely to be stopped since Microsoft has declared it EOL, in addition to macOS 10.9–10.15 and 11.0. Any halfway decent CPU is plenty enough (think better than Intel Core 2 Duo), but the actual software suite the plug-in will be used with is another matter entirely. As of today, it is available in AU, AAX, VST, VST3 plug-in formats, meaning it is compatible with DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation) or media players that use these, including ProTools, Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, Digital Performer, REAPER for DAWs and JRiver, Fidelia, AudirvanaPlus, Sound Source, and VOX for media players. Users of Pure Music, but more importantly also Foobar2000 or Equalizer APO, are currently out of luck. I use JRiver personally, and think it is absolutely fantastic, too.


Once installed, simply open the plug-in in the DAW or media player of your choice. In this case, IVS All Access was made available as a JST plug-in, which, as seen above, is quite easy to add to JRiver. Everything will look the same past this step, beginning with a prompt to enter the email address registered to the license, trial or otherwise. In this case, I began with the trial itself and simply used my email address to register for the process/account. A pin-based verification later, I got a QR code that directly took me to the next steps over a web page rather than having to download a separate mobile app, which I do appreciate.


At this point, you still need to have a smart phone with a front-facing camera, or any other means to take a photo of your ear. There are examples of how the photo should look, and once you are satisfied, the same link allows submission to the Embody cloud to create your own HRTF profile. This is separate from the likes of Creative's Super X-Fi, which chooses between certain groups for your best fit, and Embody is proud of generating a unique profile for every single person with a lot of granularity from what I am told. There is seamless communication between the Embody compute segment in the background and IVS All Access, which is always nice to see. The plug-in recognizes the profile and applies it to your account, meaning any computer with the plug-in installed to your license will have it as well. At this point, the full plug-in shows up with a decent tutorial you can access at any time.

This entire review took over a month for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was purchasing and getting the parts for the new headphones test setup assembled and running. As a bonus, it did make for more time to get used to the LCD-XC than usual, talk to both Audeze and Embody to clarify some questions I had, and get used to Embody's Immerse Virtual Studio All Access. You will notice that the video above was taken during the trial period—I was also fairly familiar with the layout, having used it before with Audeze Reveal+ 2.0. So while I won't pretend to know the nuances of sound mixing or how IVS All Access will look and behave with DAWs, I am familiar enough with the product as it pertains to its core functionality even within media players themselves. As seen in the video above, the quick tutorial can be pulled up any time, and the account section also allows for updating the HRTF profile by adding more images.

The UI can seem busy at first glance, but is actually well laid out. Unlike Reveal+, we are no longer restricted to Audeze products, and IVS currently supports a lot of reference headphones from the likes of AKG, Audeze, Audio-Technica, beyerdynamic, Sennheiser, and Sony. There is also an email form to request more headphone presets that will seemingly be added as a free update, but the timing remains to be seen. For one, Embody is still missing a few in-house items, including the Audeze Euclid and newer updates to the LCD-X and LCD-XC, with the current presets in IVS making things worse than what you already get since it is anticipating the older version that clearly had some.. less popular.. tuning out of the box. I used the same email contact form to better experience a general customer's experience without going through the PR rep and am glad to report that I got a reply within 24 hours confirming that the next update will have the new presets! This update is scheduled to arrive soon as of this writing, and may well have arrived by the time you read this. Embody says the older presets will remain, with the newer ones identified as such. In its current form, it makes more sense to use the generic profiles and then tweak the HRTF section slightly instead of using the actual, outdated preset. This is another reason I was complaining about Audeze's mostly silent updates to the sound signature—Embody will have to support multiple generations of the same device and call them differently without confusing the end user who paid $$$ for a plug-and-play solution to cut down on the editing and playback workflow.

The list of supported headphones shows it is best to get a set that emphasizes accuracy and a neutral response for audio monitoring and audio creation. Embody Immerse Virtual Studio or, rather, the base software, recognizes the playing audio file, and the plug-in shows the sampling rate and number of channels right away, helping you choose between any of five mixing studios and configurations as best appropriate. There are some images, videos, and social media links to these studios as well, but most of your time will be spent configuring the mixing as you want it to sound based on the positioning of the speakers and the setup of the same. Expected options are seen here, including gain, channel balance, and ambiance, but also the headphone settings, which is where the profiles generated for you and your chosen headphones come in. One UI tweak I mentioned to Embody is that movintg the slider to the minimum position should turn the associated effect off. Instead, you currently need to click on the small button above to activate/deactivate said effect. This will no doubt will be addressed soon, but these are growing pains of a startup you should be aware of. This latest version also allows further customization of the extent of the HRTF profile and its effect on the mixing, which plays a huge role depending on whether you messed up or feel your profile is not true to your own interests or preferences. Once done, you can save the settings and go back to either listening to the audio with the newly configured settings that can also be saved as a global profile associated with the program or edit the audio file further in the DAW, knowing that you are mixing it in a similar environment as the studio of your choosing.

I do not necessarily belong to the target audience here and likely would not pay for the license, either. However, I will say that it does have a positive impact even with just media playback, including lower-sampling-rate stereo movies and high bit-rate FLAC audio files. The whole notion of Audeze LCD headphones benefiting from EQ may be valid enough, but using IVS All Access with the correct presets helps negate most of that need assuming the profile generated based on your ear shape is accurate. It, as much as possible, recreates the effect of listening to the speaker setup in the studio you chose with your stereo headphones, which is similar in principle to what Creative tries to do with its Super X-Fi headphone holography. Curiously enough, a few things are missing in IVS All Access relative to Reveal+, including some in-ear and legacy Audeze headphones and the generic Live Room studio. I have asked Embody about this as well and was told that there is a unique relationship with Audeze as it pertains to Reveal+, wherein the latter gets all the Audeze headphones featured first, so the missing headphones will all be added in the next update again. As it stands, Embody Immerse Virtual Studio All Access costs $399 for a lifetime plan or $19.99 on a flexible monthly plan that gives you lifetime access after 24 total payments. You may also be interested to know that Embody routinely sends out 30% discount codes via email newsletters, so it is worth waiting for those if pricing is a concern. Assuming you have the compatible hardware, I suspect these prices are well worth it for music engineers and recording artists to recreate the sense of playback in world-class recording studios on far less expensive headphones, or to take this experience with you on the road. Keep an eye out for a future deep dive article on Immerse Virtual Studio and the tech behind it, since it was interesting enough for me to warrant it.