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Want to know what's going on with Shane Felux, Producer / Director of Star Wars "Revelations", "Pitching Lucas" & "Trenches" ? Then this is the place to be. See what's going on in my world from the next project, the adventures it brings, and the basic rantings of Shane. I will try to be gentle.
Mark did all the sound work for Pitching Lucas and has uber years of experience in his field of audio. I am so glad he joined me again to work all all things audio for Trenches.
Here is his knowledge and convention coverage notes for your enjoyment.
Take it away Mark!
Report from the 123rd convention of the Audio Engineering Society
Jacob Javitz Convention Center
By: Mark Edmondson
Conventions are a funny thing. In order to truly get a sense of what one has to offer, of its place in the world, one must try to attend a few, year after year. In this way, patterns begin to emerge; what people want, what the industry can (or in many cases, can not) seem to accomplish, and how, year after year, manufacturers manage to stay afloat by (no surprise here) trying desperately to offer higher quality at lower prices, and more importantly, continuing to refine each of their little niches.
Oh sure, Mix Magazine still manages to have a new picture of some sweet, unbelievably über-hip recording space on its cover every month (and one must wonder… where exactly are all those facilities, 6 months after their cover story?). Of course, there will always be a need for the Abbey Roads of the world, to handle those moments when only John Williams and the LSO will do. And maybe, just maybe, the era of the Big Room will make a comeback.
Or then again- maybe not.
Rather than simply embrace the needs of the small/home studio market, audio manufacturers have set out to redefine it, make it… professional.
Acoustic treatment, for example: thanks to CAD-assisted acoustic modeling and design, there are now available at least 10 competing systems for acoustically tuning your average 10X12 space to accommodate advanced recording and mixing needs; duties that only a decade ago would have been solved with carpet remnants and egg cartons. Everything from bass traps to HF absorbers to midrange diffusors can now be brought home in a ready-to-install box for about the price of taking the family to a dinner and movie. And man, does this stuff look cool.
But in the end, it’s about the gear. And by gear, of course, one means, software.
Since its inception in the early 90’s, Pro Tools has reigned supreme as the de-facto method of recording and manipulating sound on a computer. However, during this time, not all were enchanted with its system of (relatively) expensive and proprietary hardware cards and rack units; so, for the last decade or so, a large number of very smart, talented people have been developing… perish the thought… alternatives to Pro Tools. And if anything is clear, it is that those alternatives have arrived.
Manufacturers of DAW’s based on the proprietary hardware concept are realizing their need to not only support open standards, but that any goal of “owning” the recording industry, of establishing “the standard”, is simply no longer realistic. The recording studio of the future will be based on many platforms, all speaking the same language.
The more things change, the more they stay the same
One area which seems to have gained little to no ground is the ongoing debate over how to measure loudness. In a 3-day panel, experts from TC Electronics, the (recently defunct) ITU, Dolby, CBC, and others firmly dug in and held their ground, as they have for the past few years; loudness is too subjective to measure… it’s easy to measure… it’s hard to measure… we should just compress everything, we should all just buy this one box… we should just give up…
If anything did in fact change this year, it was in the length and, at times, pitch of the debate. Short of finger pointing and name-calling, it became clear that no conclusions would be unanimously agreed upon by the end of this year’s panel. With the exception, perhaps, that it may simply be time for the AES to step in, establish some standard (one that many would certainly reject), and encourage the industry to continue moving forward.
If anything, it seems that the current level of disagreement can in large part be attributed to the fact that virtually all those on the panel were, in fact, representing an equipment manufacturer, or at minimum had a vested interest in some piece of gear or code.
One thing’s for sure: where there’s money to be made, there’s an agenda. Or sixty. Hence the loudness debate seems to be something that broadcasters will continue to be forced to shoulder, and push forth on standards, alone, for some time to come.
In that spirit, Dolby Labs has announced their automated quality control system for broadcast, the DP600. Based on the LM100 loudness monitoring technology, it is able to, via network, ingest, correct and output any program content, all in a fraction of real time. Their recent adaptation of the ITU response curve in future iterations of the LM100 might indicate some concession that there are at least a few valid ways to measure loudness, rather than just one.
Dolby was also discussing their soon-to-be released Dolby Volume - a technology aimed at the consumer market that corrects, or “smooths out” uneven broadcast audio levels, while reportedly, not utilizing any form of compression or audible alteration of program dynamic range. Dolby Volume would likely be installed in mid- to premium- priced consumer receiver units, and depending on implementation, may or may not offer any degree of user control. They were clear to point out two key facts- Dolby Volume is not based on the LM100 engine, and, it is not a “loudness button”.
While it remains to be seen whether the LM100 will “win” the loudness debate (or, certainly, at this point, if anyone will win), Dolby is clearly willing to go the long haul and stand behind their unit, and offer support to all customers who choose to utilize this standard.
“Standard”, of course, as in “one, somewhat contested and hotly debated, way of doing it”.
The real question, always, is this- how does one cull all the information bouncing around the halls of an AES convention, and get a sense of where we’ve been as an industry, and where we’re going? And will that sense be realistic? Will it hold true?
Trying to predict the future of audio is like, well, trying to predict the future. But, one thing is clear: we have turned a few corners.
The Big Rooms have closed; the Home Studio is now just The Studio. Hardware is software, and software is king. Including the word Digital in your company’s name now elicits the response, “um, duh…?” Networks are now multiprocessor grids.
Great stuff. Unfortunately, still nobody can agree on what the word “loudness” even means, much less how to measure it.
The best news is this: despite the decade of fears of the dumbing down of the industry by affordable, accessible computer technology, one thing is clear: no matter how many low-end players enter the market, Pro Audio ain’t going away. In so many ways, the low end is the high end.
Article by Mark Edmonson
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