© 2022 Grayspark Audio
Powered by Campus Times Media
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.
No. 1
VR and AR
Up until a few years ago, 4k and UHD content was the next big thing. Now slowly everything is moving towards Virtual Reality and Augmented reality. Virtual Reality is a medium in which consumers can experience events happening around them in real-time, Video and Audio. This is quite an amazing development if you still haven’t experienced something like this, I would suggest you get your hands on a device like Google Cardboard and experience some of the content that they have available on there.
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
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
AR, on the other hand, works on the concept of Augmenting and showing you a Virtual reality through your mobile devices. There is much to be learned about how this can be applied, but companies like bose are already making a move on this and trying to capture a niche in the market.
As opposed to Audio being transmitted as 3D information, in AR the audio is placed in 3D in front of you and you can choose to interact with this audio through the device.
Let’s take the Bose AR for example.
Using this device you can make calls, or interact with audio placed in 3D space around you by just head movements. How cool is that?
The bose AR will be a device that will be a mix of Google Glass and this!
No. 2
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
Don’t confuse this with the horrible “Karaoke Track” creating software, this is way more detailed and complex than that. Here they have used ML to analyze and remove a part of a certain type of audio form an already merged sound. The result is quite amazing, this has a lot of application in Audio Forensics and Audio Retrieval
No. 3
Convenience and Quality:
The Digital Era of audio has led to a time where audio has become extremely accessible to anyone who wants it. With the advance of Mobile phones and Streaming services, almost anyone at any point in time can have access to any music they fancy. Although, this is a big achievement it still comes at quite a big loss. Loss in audio 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
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
Get in touch!
If you guys have another other questions you would like to shoot at me, just shoot me a mail at ronak@gray-spark.com.
Exclusive