Of course, the big draw here is that the Waza Air is supposed to simulate playing through a real amp in a room. The effect relies on two main ingredients: reverb and positional audio. The reverb effect isn't that unique, and others have tried it. The goal is to try and recreate the natural ambience and presence of sound waves bouncing around a room. At it's best the effect is subtle and the Waza Air do a decent enough job of giving the illusion that the guitar amp isn't just blasting directly into your ear drums. Meanwhile the positional audio tries to place amp in a specific place inside the virtual room, using some algorithmic tricks.

There are a few different modes and settings all with distinct pros and cons. There's stage, static and surround modes for the positioning, and a choice of stage or studio ambience within each. Surround mode puts the virtual amp roughly in front of you at all times, but in general doesn't rely on positional tricks that much. Instead the sound envelopes you. That combined with the studio ambience setting was actually my favorite of the bunch. With the level set to around 20 or 25, the difference between just playing a guitar through normal headphones and through the Waza Air is subtle, but noticeable. Without the aid of some sort of cabinet simulation, whether through a pedal (such as Neunaber's Iconoclast), amp or a software plugin the sound can be overbearing and honestly a bit exhausting for your ears. The Waza Air creates enough virtual space between you and the guitar that it doesn't feel like you're punishing your brain.

Boss attempted to make things even more realistic with the static and stage modes. Let's start with stage, which is meant largely for practicing along to backing tracks. You can queue up your favorite song, stream it via Bluetooth from your phone and then jam along with it. And the stage positioning puts your amp and the virtual band behind you, which more accurately represents what it's like to perform live. (Unless you're the sort of weirdo that likes to play with their back to the crowd, eyes locked with the drummer the whole time.) The actual placement of the audio is pretty convincing, and you can tweak the positioning so your amp and the rest of the band are in different locations. Just know that the ambience options don't really up the realism factor here. Studio is simply too tight to convincingly recreate anything than the smallest of clubs. And stage is so cavernous that even at low levels it sounds like you're doing sound check to an empty room.