iZotope makes an interesting purchase

iZotope has bought a little company in San Francisco called Imagine Research, which specializes in "sound recognition". The audio-analysis angle makes sense, since that's what iZotope is all about. I was curious as to where they might be going with this acquisition.

Here's the Imagine Research website. There, it says the company's software "allows a computer to listen to a sound and understand what it is listening to...the way human listeners can identify and classify sounds". If true, this could be as big as Celemony cracking the problem of polyphonic pitch editing.

I have been predicting the next phase of audio tool development for years and wondering why my predictions have not been coming true. I work with data analysis, attempting to glean significance from large collections of numbers; the more numbers the better the chances of extracting new information from them. And what is digital audio but a very long sequence of numbers? What would happen if we applied data-mining principles to audio analysis tools?

What I've been waiting for are next-generation tools for recordists and other audio-handlers that are truly intelligent. A few first-generation examples do exist. We have "intelligent release" limiters such as Ozone. Many wave editors have noise and click eliminators. I recently picked up a tool called Trans-X that picks out transients and modifies them. These are examples of quasi-intelligent software that analyzes and modifies very small segments within the data stream. The next generation might analyze musical sections and entire songs.

OTOH, I could be totally wrong and such tools are still far off. But I'm hoping iZotope is on to something very interesting.

So we might as well forget about a plug-in chain consisting of a virtual Geoff Emerick and a virtual George Martin on the master bus then, uh?

There goes another dream...

Bit of a thread here, Kreative http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2501535

I'd challenge anyone to watch the FabFilter videos without developing a severe case of G.A.S. They are great products to begin with, but Dan Worrall presents them in a way that makes them irresistible. At least, I couldn't resist them, despite the steep prices. I had to play a lot of sappy country songs for silver-haired animal-club patrons to save up the money, but it was worth it.

However, don't expect any of them to enhance vocal tracks. They're just good, solid ergonomically-friendly plugins. If you want better vocal tracks, by far the best bang for your buck is acoustical treatment. Bad rooms are the number one reason for bad vocal tracks. (OK, I suppose bad singers are probably #1, but you can't buy your way around that one.)

Second-best bang for the buck is a good microphone. But only after addressing acoustics. Seriously, you'll be surprised how much better an SM58 sounds in a good room, or at least a dead room. Spending thousands on a mic is a total waste of money if the room sounds like crap.

And I am not speaking from a theoretical point of view, but as someone who has been through the upgrade treadmill myself. I have blown a lot of money based on marketing promises, wishful thinking, and more than a few fervent online testimonials. It's made me very skeptical about what to expect from any product, soft or hard. Luckily, there is a healthy market for selling your mistakes to those who've not yet reached that epiphany.

So we'll be able to sumit our latest and get a thumbs up or a thums down, from the app?

bitflipper


Regarding the Primacoustic panel and similar products (e.g. SE Reflexion), I'd seriously suggest spending the equivalent amount of money on rigid fiberglass. It might not look as pretty, but you will get much better results.

You needn't attach fiberglass to the walls or drill holes in the ceiling, so no worries about getting your damage deposit back from your landlord. You can put the material into free-standing frames that you can take with you if you move, or reconfigure for different recording scenarios. Mine are tall enough that I can lay another panel over the top, eliminating the need for suspending a cloud from the ceiling.

Great idea, thanks! I would like to get my damage deposit back, Lol. That's an excellent alternative to something that would otherwise give me very limited improvement.