Like any other technology, the audio industry has gone through some massive breakthroughs in the past few years. This blog post is dedicated to discuss some of these breakthroughs and take a look at what the future of Audio would be from an Audio Engineers perspective. Let’s check these 3 Next Big Things in Audio.
The Digital Era of audio has led to a time where audio has become extremely accessible to anyone who wants it.
VR and AR
With google spearheading the growth of the VR Content with their newer daydream devices, the need to reproduce the same experience with audio is also simultaneously growing.
So far the use of this technology was limited to just Games and other immersive content but slowly big players like Sony are making headways and approaches in this sector with Music. Conventional Music has always been and for the majority of part will always be consumed in stereo sound, but applications like the Sonys 360* Audio is revolutionizing this and are on the cusp of a breakthrough. Instead of me trying to explain what 360 audio is, check this video out
Machine Learning and AI
We, Audio Engineers, have already seen this happening around us. Ever heard of LANDR?
Well, LANDR claims to be an AI Mastering Suite, which can automatically master your audio if you upload your mix to the cloud? Well, it has a long way to come in terms of quality if ever wants to replace conventional mastering engineers, but with the Technology already there, a few years and improvements and we might start seeing a tool that can actually deliver use able masters in the near future.
Similarly, even plugin manufacturers like Izotope have started integrating AI assistants into their plugins to make it easier for engineers and to automate some of the work. It will be quite interesting to see how other plugins use this feature and add to the workflow of Audio Engineers.
The application is not just limited to this, but people are using principles of machine learning to remove specific audio from an already interlaced audio file.
Check this out
Convenience and Quality:
Over the years, we will see the growth of streaming services that support extremely high-quality source material. We are also seeing a growth in standardized loudness levels set by these platforms to counter the loudness wars like the EBR 128. The limitations set by the streaming platforms might also give us a chance to consume more dynamic music over time.
If you have any doubts or would like to have a discussion about these new technologies, you can write to me at ronak@gray-spark.com
