Car Test Is A FREE Car Speaker Simulation Plugin For Your DAW

Rocket Powered Sound releases Car Test, a FREE plugin that simulates typical car speakers.

If you make music, you’ve most likely heard of the car test; it’s something musicians have relied on for a long time, and it’s an important real-world listening experience.

Whether setting up a commercial studio or a space at home where you can make music, you do everything possible to create the perfect listening environment. I use the word perfect very loosely, but between studio monitors, and acoustic treatment, amongst other things, we do whatever we can within our means to make the most of our surroundings.

When your mix sounds fantastic in your studio, it’s no confirmation that it sounds fantastic everywhere else. The average listener won’t be playing your music in a studio with nice monitors; they’ll be playing it on their phones, tablets, laptops, consumer stereo systems, and in their cars.

Those are real-world listening experiences, and it doesn’t get any more real than in the car.

Rocket Powered Sound’s Car Test simulates typical car speakers’ frequency response to tell you how your mix will react to that environment. Hearing your mix through car speakers or the Car Test plugin for the first time might be a little disheartening; it’s not unusual (Tom Jones reference again, I’m sorry!) to go from reasonably polished to very rough around the edges. Don’t worry if your mix sounds a little harsh; that’s why the car test is an important step; it lets you know what to fix.

Car Test is a straightforward plugin with just a power button and a Level knob to make sure you aren’t clipping when specific frequencies are boosted.

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The one thing the plugin doesn’t give you is an actual car to sit inside, which is why, as cool as I think Car Test is, it shouldn’t replace a real car test. When you get out of your studio and into the car, it’s not just about the frequency response but the environment. The change of location helps you get out of that engineer tunnel vision mode that can become a problem when stuck in the studio.

Car Test might be the perfect first step, and your mix might not sound so harsh when you get in the car for real. Cool Plugin.

Don’t forget there are deals on iZotope products and free plugins on offer at Plugin Boutique until July 31st.

Car Test is available in AU and VST3 formats for digital audio workstations on Windows and macOS. If your DAW doesn’t support the VST3 plugin format, contact the developer, and they will send you the VST2 plugin.