VIRTUOSO v2.3 Introduces the 2L Mastering Room Preset in Collaboration with Morten Lindberg

Posted on 26 Apr 2026 by APL

Bringing the 2L Mastering Room to VIRTUOSO v2.3

We are delighted to announce that APL VIRTUOSO and VIRTUOSO Lite now include a new 2L Mastering Room preset, created in collaboration with Morten Lindberg.

This is a particularly meaningful release for us. It is not simply the addition of another room preset. It is the result of our long-standing exchange of ideas, philosophy, and techniques with Morten, all centred on the pursuit of the highest possible standards in immersive audio recording, reproduction, and binaural delivery.

Morten Lindberg and the 2L Mastering Room

Morten Lindberg, founder of 2L, is one of the world’s most respected immersive recording engineers, with 50 Grammy nominations and two wins across the craft categories of Best Engineered Album, Best Surround Sound Album, Best Immersive Audio Album and Producer of the Year. His productions are widely admired for their pristine resolution and spacious, enveloping rendering of acoustic space, achieved through his microphone arrays 2L Cube and 2L PRISM.

For final delivery, precise monitoring is essential, and the 2L Mastering Room is one of the finest immersive audio reproduction environments in the world. Designed specifically for immersive work, it offers exceptionally accurate acoustic performance and conforms to all criteria specified in ITU-R BS.1116-3 recommendations.

The room was built to avoid discriminating directionality and to provide a spacious, enveloping listening experience across the full audible range. With carefully controlled reflections, diffusion, absorption, low-frequency treatment, and a Genelec ONE + W 9.1.6 monitoring system, it delivers a listening experience that is both rich and highly detailed.

Emulating the room in VIRTUOSO

The new 2L Mastering Room preset in VIRTUOSO v2.3 has been developed to reproduce the essential acoustic character of this remarkable space with a very high degree of accuracy. Across all key acoustic parameters, including reverberation time (RT60), room response, early reflection level, clarity (C80), interaural cross-corrlelation coefficient (IACC), and direct-to-reverberant ratio, the emulation achieved measured errors within just-noticeable-difference thresholds, which means there is minimal audible difference between the real and virtual rooms. Following extensive scientific validation and tuning by Prof Hyunkook Lee of the APL, the perceived quality of the room emulation was also endorsed by Morten himself.

The result is a preset that serves two purposes. For engineers and producers, it provides a highly reliable virtual environment for monitoring and quality control. For music listeners, it offers the opportunity to experience immersive playback in one of the world’s most acoustically precise mastering rooms, wherever they are.

Why room acoustics matter in binaural listening

In binaural rendering, room acoustics are not an optional extra. Acoustic cues such as early reflections and reverberation play a vital role in making sound feel externalised, supporting accurate localisation, and creating a convincing sense of presence. Without these cues, binaural listening can resemble listening in an anechoic chamber, which most people perceive as unnatural.

At the same time, not all room acoustics are beneficial. Excessive reflections, uncontrolled reverberation, and poorly balanced room responses can introduce comb filtering and undesirable colouration. This is exactly why standards for critical listening rooms, such as ITU-R BS.1116-3 and IEC 268-13, exist.

Drawing on more than 20 years of our research into the psychoacoustics of 3D audio and room acoustics, VIRTUOSO uses ASPEN‘s perceptually optimised virtual acoustic simulation to reproduce the benefits of a real listening room while avoiding unpleasant room-related artefacts. The goal is not simply to add “reverb”, but to recreate a trustworthy acoustic reference for monitoring, quality control, and immersive listening.

A shared workflow for remote QC

This collaboration also reflects a practical workflow we have already been developing together. Through the VIRTUOSO partnership programme, Morten has been using VIRTUOSO and VIRTUOSO Lite to support remote quality control with his clients and collaborators.

As Morten puts it:

In the process of immersive music production, we actively invite composers, conductors, and musicians to participate as directly as possible. Between attended sessions, we provide our project partners with the APL Virtuoso software, which now emulates our 2L mastering studio. The ADM file format allows for remote evaluation of edits, mixes, and masterings with reliable sonic qualities. APL Virtuoso overcomes traditional limitations in binaural rendering, offering a glimpse into the potential of future immersive virtualization for headphone listening.

This is exactly the kind of application we believe will become increasingly important in immersive production: enabling reliable remote evaluation without giving up the acoustic qualities of a trusted reference room.

ADM playback and the APL-2L offer

The collaboration also highlights the value of ADM as a master format for immersive audio production and delivery. By combining object-based metadata with lossless audio, ADM preserves the full fidelity and flexibility of a production for rendering, exchange, and delivery. Both the VIRTUOSO and VIRTUOSO Lite standalone apps include ADM playback, allowing users to experience immersive releases in true master-quality form. Morten has already been using this capability to support remote QC with his clients.

To help more people experience immersive recordings at mastering quality, APL and 2L are currently offering a joint promotion:

• VIRTUOSO and VIRTUOSO Lite is available at up to 50% off until 31 May.

• APL customers will receive a voucher for 20% off 2L ADM files or any other products from the 2L Music Store.

• 2L customers will receive a voucher for an additional 10% off VIRTUOSO and VIRTUOSO Lite during this period, and 20% off the regular price thereafter.

A shared vision

For us, the inclusion of the 2L Mastering Room preset in VIRTUOSO v2.3 represents more than a product update. It reflects Morten’s and our shared belief that immersive audio should be delivered with both highest possible quality and perceptual realism, and that binaural headphone listening can go far beyond its traditional limitations when the room, the rendering, and the monitoring philosophy are all treated with the seriousness they deserve.

We are proud to bring this collaboration to VIRTUOSO users, and we hope it will help both professionals and listeners experience immersive audio in a new way.