Tech // back page blog Artificial Intelligence and Front Row Seats Mike Levine: Mix Technology Editor, Studio
Steve La Cerra: Mix Technology Editor, Live
Get Smart?: I recently read a fascinating op-ed in the New York Times called “How to Build Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust.” Its basic premise is that although AI is good at looking for particular patterns in data, it doesn’t factor in time, space and causality. That got me thinking about AI and music software, and whether a related argument applies. These days, there’s no shortage of “intelligent” music software. You have smart compressors and EQs that analyze your audio and come up with optimal settings; smart channel strips that set multiple processors based on your track; and smart mastering software (both computer and cloudbased) that can analyze your mixes and create mastering settings for them. Many of these programs use machine learning, a form of AI, to digest vast amounts of musical data to use as reference when analyzing your music. They recommend settings based on recognition of the patterns in your music. But can such software do as good a job as a musician, engineer or producer? My answer—which is not based on empirical data but simply intuition and logic—is “not really.” That’s because the software lacks an important contextual item: your creative vision. That said, I do think such software can be quite useful. I’ve used iZotope’s Ozone mastering software quite a bit and Neutron channel strip to a lesser extent and found that they can often be convenient for getting you to a useful starting point. In fact, iZotope goes out of its way to point out that that the results from its AI-based “Assistants” are just that: starting points. I think that’s critical. As long as you view this type of software as a tool, rather than a substitute, for the judgment of a mixing or mastering engineer, it’s fine. If the results you get don’t fit your vision, be ready to tweak them or start over. It’s similar in some ways to when you’re scrolling through presets and trying out different ones. Some work, some don’t.
The Expensive Seats Aren’t Always the Best: One of the issues that I deal with on a constant basis is making a P.A. sound good for the front rows of a venue. It sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? But the truth is that while the first few rows of seating provide patrons with a great view, they don’t usually provide patrons with great sound. It’s simple physics: those seats are usually too far forward to be within the field of the house P.A. system. In fact, there are some venues where the first several rows are behind the house P.A.—which means you simply ain’t gonna hear it if you’re in those seats. Vocals in particular are a problem because unlike guitars, bass and drums, they don’t produce any volume coming off the stage. In the old days, when the stage was raging with blazing loud wedge monitors, this wasn’t so much of an issue. Sound from those monitors would spill into the house, making it easy for the front rows to hear the vocals (as well as the rest of a musician’s monitor mix). Eventually the band went to IEMs, the wedges disappeared, and so did the spill from those wedges that allowed the front rows to hear vocals. Buy a cheaper seat? Maybe. Enter the front fill. In a club or theater, a front fill, or lip-fill—small speakers placed across the front edge of the stage—is the solution. I typically route an aux send to those fills that primarily consists of vocals, thus restoring vocal balance to the money seats. At some venues I’ll add a bit of lead guitar or keys—but never bass or drums because they’re loud enough coming off the stage. Part of my soundcheck routine is to test drive the front seats. I’ll dial vocals into the front fill, go and sit in the seats while the band plays, and listen for the vocal mix. Usually after a few hundred trips back and forth I have it dialed in.
Product of the Month: TC Electronic Finalizer Software options for DIY mastering are getting more plentiful and powerful. The latest entrant in the space is TC Electronic with an application called Finalizer, a standalone program for Mac and Windows. The Finalizer software offers both individual modules that you can load into the signal chain and preset module chains. Its processor lineup includes a 5-Band Parametric EQ, 3-Band Parametric, Low-Cut and High-Cut filter modules, Dynamic EQ, full and multiband compressors, a Stereo Width module, and a Limiter, Master Limiter and Loudness Limiter. The module list offers multiple variations of each processor, with settings for purposes such as Brighten, Lift 2kHz, Mud Reduced, Comp Soften, Slow Leveler, and so forth.
Product of the Month: Tectonic Audio Labs DML500 Tectonic Audio Labs has expanded its line of flat-panel loudspeakers with the addition of the DML500. Based upon Tectonic’s patented Distributed Mode Loudspeaker technology, the DML500 is a diffuse di-pole loudspeaker employing a carbon-fiber composite panel coupled to four highly optimized electrodynamic transducers. This unique design produces audio across a broad frequency range, delivering exceptional intelligibility with an extremely wide and predominantly diffuse coverage pattern of 160 degrees in the horizontal and vertical planes. Frequency response for the DML500 is stated as 90 Hz to 20 kHz ±6 dB, with a 10dB down point of 75 Hz. n
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