Ian Shepherd's Perception AB
Eliminate loudness "deception."
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For a limited time, get Perception AB at the special price of only ! That's 30% off. Existing users can upgrade for an even lower price. Click here to upgrade.
Perception is recommended without reservation, for anyone involved in mastering, at any level. Hugh Robjohns (Sound On Sound Magazine)
Loudness changes our perception of music. Louder may seem better at first, but it's easy to be fooled. When mixing and mastering, you must constantly ask yourself, "Is this really better? Or just louder?" The way to make reliable, real-world judgements is to listen with matched loudness. This has always been a key skill for mixing and mastering engineers, which can take years to learn. Until now...
Perception is one of those most useful things, a plug-in that doesn't make your music sound better, instead it makes you listen - helping you to make better choices with the plug-ins you already have. I've been using it in stereo for years now, and I'm excited to be able to use it on Atmos projects going forward. Mike Hillier (Metropolis Mastering — RAYE, Chase & Status, Oasis)
Perception AB instantly and automatically matches the level of the music you're listening to, allowing you to hear past the "loudness deception" and make clear, real-world decisions about the best possible sound for your music, quickly and easily. You can bypass entire processing chains to make before and after comparisons of EQ settings, compression and more while mixing or mastering. You can even bypass external analog gear!
Simple. First, insert the Perception AB plugin before the processing chain you want to test, and select "Pre". Second, insert the plugin at the end of the chain and select "Post." Click "Match Level" and you can toggle between the Pre and Post audio to compare your music before and after the processing chain with level-matching and full delay compensation.
The original award-winning Perception was ground-breaking - the first ever plugin to offer easy, loudness-matched A/B comparisons in mastering, for any processing chain. Now Perception AB is the first to be fully optimized for mixing as well, enabling you to seamlessly bypass your entire mix (or any part of it) with a single click, without hearing a change in loudness.
Perception AB is invaluable for judging the results of your processing choices - it's practical and easy to use for level-matching complex processing chains in both mixing and mastering projects. Highly recommended! Emre Ramazanoglu (MPG Dolby Atmos Mixer of the Year 2025 — David Bowie, Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins)
An immersive mix raises the same question as a stereo one: is it really better, or just louder? Perception AB works across surround and immersive beds all the way up to 7.1.4. Or put Perception AB on the object tracks - a whole session's worth - and then sync, match and bypass all of them from a single window. Switch on Auto Match Level and they stay matched as the mix moves, so you are never re-matching object after object by hand.
The time saved easily justifies the price. It's so good you'll be asking yourself why nobody came up with the idea before. I just wish I had this in my toolbox long ago! Bill Lacey (Resolution Magazine)
Every now and again a plugin comes along that makes you think 'How did I work without this?' - Perception is such a plugin... even as an experienced engineer, Perception helped my workflow massively. Alan Branch (Audio Media International)
The phrase 'game changer' is flung about too often these days... [Perception is] as near as you'll get these days. Recording Review.com
Watch “Mastering With Perception AB” 
Watch “Atmos Mastering with Perception AB”