Waves CLA Nx

Check your mixes in Chris Lord-Alge’s studio

CLA Nx brings Grammy®-winning mixer Chris Lord-Alge's famed Mix LA studio control room to any pair of headphones – so you can monitor reliably on headphones and make better mixing decisions anywhere, anytime.

After faithfully modeling Chris’s console and classic hardware gear in previous plugins, Waves and CLA have finally teamed up to replicate Chris’s room acoustics and monitoring system. The CLA Nx plugin combines Waves Nx spatial audio technology with precise measurements of Mix LA, to model the acoustic response of Chris’s mix room inside any set of headphones.

Built by premier studio designer Vincent Van Hoff, Mix LA has been Chris Lord-Alge’s studio since 2008. This is the room he has trusted to deliver mixes for Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Muse and countless top artists.

Chris’s complete monitoring setup is now available over any headphones via CLA Nx. This includes the acoustic response of Chris’s NS10-modeled CLA-10 nearfield monitors, coupled with his subwoofer system; his custom-built Ocean Way farfield speakers, modified to his specs; and even the boombox model he relies on to check how his mixes will translate to small-speaker devices.

With CLA Nx you can:

Trust your headphone mixes to translate reliably to diverse sound systemsReference your tracks on an expertly calibrated monitoring environmentMake better decisions on headphones about mix depth, stereo imaging, low-end response, reverb amount & moreIf your room doesn’t have great acoustic treatment – now you can monitor through CLA’s expertly designed Mix LA acoustics on your headphones. Even if you do have a well-treated mix room – CLA Nx gives you another great reference environment to check your mixes.

CLA Nx is powered by Waves’ pioneering Nx technology for immersive spatial audio. 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 acoustic measurements of Mix LA, to deliver a faithful three-dimensional “out-of-head” representation of the real room.

CLA Nx also supports head tracking – via your webcam or the dedicated Waves Nx Head Tracker Bluetooth device – for enhanced realism of the immersive three-dimensional spatial effect.

FEATURES

• Headphone monitoring plugin for better mix reference
• Developed with Grammy®-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge
• Precision model of Chris Lord-Alge’s private Mix LA control room
• Check your mixes on Chris’s three sets of custom studio monitors
• Nearfield monitors: CLA-10 (custom NS-10 model) + subwoofer
• Farfield monitors: Chris’s custom modified Ocean Way HR1s
• Boombox to check how mixes translate to small-speaker devices
• Better reference for mix depth, panning, reverb, low-end response
• Compatible with all headphone models
• Adjustable studio Ambience control
• Personalized head anatomy calibration
• Supports head tracking for enhanced realism, via webcam or the Nx Head Tracker (purchased separately)

Compatibility

 MAC OSX    WINDOW

 Windows Requirements

• Host application compatible with:
  
  • AAX Native plugins
  • VST3 plugins

• CPU
  Intel Core i5, i7, i9, Xeon (all Gen 5 and above)
  AMD Quad Core
  AVX Support required
  
  Memory
  Minimum: 8 GB RAM (16 GB recommended)
  16 GB free disk space on the system drive
  
  Operating System
  Windows 10 64 bit (21H2)
  Windows 11 (21H2)
  
  Screen Resolution
  Minimum: 1024x768
  Recommended: 1280x1024 / 1600x1024
  

 Mac Requirements

• Host application compatible with:
  
  • AAX Native plugins
  • Audio-Unit plugins
  • VST3 plugins

• CPU
  Intel Core i7 / i9 / Xeon-W / Apple M1
  See notes regarding Apple M1 (ARM-based) processors
  
  Memory
  Minimum: 8 GB RAM (16 GB recommended)
  16 GB free disk space on the system drive
  
  Operating System
  10.15.7, 11.6.5, 12.3.1
  
  Screen Resolution
  Minimum: 1024x768
  Recommended: 1280x1024 / 1600x1024
  USB displays are not supported as the primary display.
  
  V14 plugins require a graphics card that supports ‘Metal’. Learn more.