What are the implications of this new software?

Question

I kind of just needed an excuse to post this fabulous article from the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12510702

It is basically a software that does what the leighman has always asked of us - and we have always laughed at them for... (Do I sound really old now?)

So what do you guys think? Will it take over for Pro Tools? Or integrate in it? How is it useful for us who generally work in the exact opposite direction? Implications for cleaning up production sound, etc, etc...

Would be fun to hear your thoughts on this. Or better yet, anyone tried it...?

Answer 1

It seems a nice software. The first thing I can think of is sound cleaning and restoration. There are a lot of possibilities in composition as well but I'm not sure this software is better than others. May be it'd be very good for remixes or useful if you want to extract just a track from a mix.

Answer 2

This isn't something you couldn't do before with Sound Forge, EQ and a little knowledge and creativity. I've been abusing audio software like this since I started 17 years ago.

It's actually even easier now with iZotope RX, FFT and Spectral DSP. Not to mention the capabilities of Celemony.

And for someone that likes the "Homeliness" of Acid, his software sure does have a lot of unnecessary frills that look a bit like Rock Band. Besides that, the results didn't sound any better than what I could do with the rudimentary and current tools I mentioned in my opening statement. Actually, his personal remix sounded a bit muted and worse than the original source, I'm sure video/mp3 compression has something to do with that and I can't properly judge it based on that, but the example of the original was moderately clear and his "beeps" were a bit muted, so that certainly has to account for something.

Maybe I should remix the BBC theme and they'll write an article on me because it's just shy of shameless self promotion.

All I have to say is that I hope it lives up to it's claim. If it does and he markets it as a novelty (which it sort of seems he is), then that means it'll be a big push for the pro side of the industry to keep innovating.

Answer 3

Celemony has had something like this out for a while now (Melodyne). You can check out information about it at: http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=products_editor

Answer 4

well, I was just going through some drones and I'll bet the new software could help take out some annoying beeps that are in there but spectral repair could do the same

Answer 5

All good, but I am more interested in what this means in terms of industry standards etc. Both Auto Tune, Melodyne, the Izotope bundles and other more forensic software does this, but basically this software takes all of these functionalities and wraps them in a nice, user friendly (melodyne-like) interface. Would it in any way make our lives as audio proffesionals easier?

Think of a scene from a symphonic orchestra playing, and you have a long steadycam shot that swipes by differend instruments - all the sound supplied from recordings are one close and one 20m AB-recording. Could this SW now - or in the future if they keep developing - be a tool to amplify the perspectives we're seeing on screen?

And I agree, Syndicate Sythetique, that the sound quality is a bit iffy, but to play devils advocate - when did 1. generation of anything actually work... ;o)

Also, it brings up the question of copyright again, should anyone be allowed to mangle someone elses work?