Ollo Audio USC, a calibration system for your headphone

Ollo Audio headphones are acoustically flat-tuned to ~2dB tolerance out of the box.

To get even better tolerance with the S4R, S4X, S5X models, the designers are now able to fine-tune every unit individually to ~1dB tolerance from the target curve.

The calibration method

The USC is a plugin that uses a calibration file made for every specific unit.

The calibration tunes to 1dB tolerance by playing pink noise through a live EQ until the frequency response on the IEC60318-4 ear simulator is matched to the target curve (+/-1dB 1/3oct RTA smoothing).

Keep in mind that generic correction software operates within +/-3dB to Harman target or similar reference curves. The capability of achieving such a result is provided by a new plugin: Ollo Audio USC.

The acronym stands for Unit Specific Calibration. The plugin allows for the compensation of the headphone response inside the DAW.

Supported platforms are VST and AU on Windows and iOS operating systems. USC is therefore compatible with all DAWs that support these standards.

You need a calibration file which is provided by Ollo Audio. This, linked to the serial number of each headset, must be loaded into USC in order to implement the compensation algorithm.

Once the calibration file has been loaded, the plugin must be inserted into the headphone monitoring bus.

The USC plugin is actually in Beta version. The production release will be provided for free to all users as soon as it is ready.

Check the following video by Rok (Ollo Audio founder) for further details:

How to upgrade if you already have a Ollo Audio headphone

The USC plugin is included with any new purchase. Existing Ollo Audio users can upgrade from the Ollo Audio Website.

The update, for those who already have the S4R v1.2, S4X v1.2, S5X v1 models, has to be paid.

When ordering, the user must indicate the serial number of your headphones so that Ollo Audio engineers can generate the specific calibration file.

This file is sent via email within a few days and, as mentioned, must be loaded into the USC plugin to enable the specific compensation.

USC supports also the Waves NX technology

For an even better mixing experience, Ollo Audio has partnered with Waves to provide access to their NX technology.

This technology emulates real mixing environments making the headphone mixing experience a lot closer to mixing in a real studio.

Several models are available. Just to name a couple we can mention Abbey Road Studios or CLA mixing room.

The experience can be enhanced by using the Waves Head tracker to modify the HTRF (Head Related Transfer Function) according to the effective head position while working.