Sienna
by Acustica Audio · Utility · Headphone correction and room emulation
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Sienna is an Acustica Audio headphone plugin that corrects headphone response and emulates studio rooms, consumer speakers and cars.
It aims for a mixing-in-the-room feel on any headphones, for €149 (about $169).
Best for: Mix Bus, Mastering. Genres: all genres.
Keywords: hardware emulation, mixing, reference & monitoring, wide, bass, full mix, bus processing, downward expansion, mastering, mix bus, neutral, spacious, standalone app, utility.
What it does
Sienna is Acustica Audio's headphone mixing suite. It first corrects the response of your headphones, then places you in sampled studio rooms with high-end monitors, aiming to recreate mixing in "top-tier, acoustically designed studios".
- Four plugins: Sienna Reference (headphone correction), Sienna Rooms (room and playback emulation), Sienna Guru (the expanded version with fine-tuning controls) and Sienna System Wide.
- Headphone correction: over 200 measured and profiled headphone models, from the Audeze LCD-X and Sennheiser HD650 to the Beyerdynamic DT250.
- Magic Q and tuning controls: Magic Q morphs the target between a linear and a diffuse-field response; a Perfection slider balances the raw and corrected room sound, and Depth adjusts the HRTF for differences in head and ears.
- Rooms and monitors: three studio control room emulations and eight sets of high-end monitors, plus an anechoic room for a neutral reference.
- Consumer checks: everyday playback systems such as car stereos, phone and laptop speakers, TVs and Hi-Fi systems; the base product includes two consumer devices.
- Dolby Atmos rooms: three HOG Studio 1 room emulations with stereo, surround and surround sync options.
- Guru extras: crossfeed EQ, width simulation and panning options for deeper control.
- System Wide: a standalone version that applies Sienna outside the DAW.
More rooms are sold as expansion volumes (Sound On Sound listed Volumes B and C in 2021). KVR lists version 2.3.5. The sources don't mention a demo.
Source: Acustica Audio product page
When to use it
Sienna is the pick if you mix mostly on headphones and want them to behave like a treated room with good monitors, which helps when judging low end and stereo width. It does a different job from REFERENCE 3 and Metric AB: those compare your mix with reference tracks but leave your headphones' response as it is, so Sienna can sit alongside them. Unlike Insight 2 it shows no meters; it changes what you hear rather than measuring it. Compared with Sonarworks SoundID Reference, which centres on correcting headphones and speakers, Sienna goes much further into room, monitor and consumer-device emulation. The trade-offs are Acustica's higher CPU use and a more complex set of plugins and controls.
- Best for: mixing on headphones in an untreated space or on the road, checking bass and stereo image, and quick checks on car, phone and laptop speakers.
- Genres: any.
- Look elsewhere if: you only need simple headphone correction (SoundID Reference) or want to compare against reference tracks (REFERENCE 3).
- Tip: when the options feel overwhelming, use the anechoic room as a control, and try the Magic Q defaults before fine-tuning.
What producers say
Reviewers found the speaker-in-room emulation very convincing, with the interface and the number of plugin variants the main complaints.
- Sound On Sound (Matt Houghton, June 2021) called it "a superbly convincing emulation of listening over good speakers", praising the bass reproduction and the Magic Q control.
- Mixdown (Liam McShane, April 2021) called it "an absolute game-changer", praising the correction across 170+ headphone models at the time and the inclusion of phone, car and NS10 checks.
- Criticisms: Sound On Sound felt the four plugin variants were unnecessary, wanted a clearer GUI and manual, and noted user presets couldn't be named and the rooms were all Italian studios. It also lacked a system-wide version then, which Sienna System Wide now covers.
Where to buy
- Acustica Audio: $169.19 (€149 converted to USD (ECB rate, 29 Sep 2026); price as listed on KVR)
Tutorials and reviews
- Acustica Audio Sienna Review
- Mixing on headphones - Sienna Rooms plugin by Acustica Audio - Quick Overview
- Acustica Audio SIENNA
- Recensione e Tutorial Acustica Audio Sienna - Episodio 5 (in italiano)
- Acustica intros Sienna, The headphone mixing plugin you were waiting for
Similar plugins
- Sienna Sphere by Acustica Audio · Binaural immersive monitoring
- Abbey Road Studio 3 by Waves · Headphone room emulation · $47.04
- dearVR MIX by Dear Reality · Virtual mix room for headphones · Free
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