Turtlerock Forum

Replaced by robots? I don't think so....

I spotted this website which is using some algorithmic process to master songs. https://www.landr.com/

You simply drop your song into the window and it produces a "master" for you.

I went hmmmm....So...I tried it...of course

The result wasn't awful but I compared it with a recent master I did and there was really no comparison.

Made me wonder though...
What is our fascination with trying to get computers/algorithms to replace what humans can ultimately do better?

Haven't computers taken over enough human jobs, and to the detriment of the required skill?

Automated processes like this don't take a large number of human factors into account.

Have we gone too far?

Who would use this?

I'd like to hear feedback from others... Did it work for you?

I have little doubt that this process will improve drastically in the future - to the extent that "flavours" of mastering can be selected. Just look at the ITB "revolution" and demise of big studios.

I'm more surprised that people in some of the foreign countries that are stealing our other local jobs aren't getting in on the act and doing manual mastering / mixing at low labour rates (ITB).....

Spotted this article this morning which highlighted Landr.

Marketed as "automatic mastering".

I guess "automatic mixing" is next?

http://www.fastcolabs.com/3032642/why-t ... ing-studio?

from the article;
"If you thought the Internet was finished disrupting the music industry, hang tight. With music consumption and distribution having been fully upended, the other side of the equation is ripe for change: Production. Accessible music creation software has been around for years, but a new wave of cloud-powered tools aims to revolutionize things even further.

LANDR is a new service that's likely to rattle some cages by providing recording mastering online and automatically. Traditionally, mastering is a skilled task performed by a recording engineer, but LANDR uses a sophisticated learning algorithm in order to eliminate the manual, human-powered work.

First, a song gets recorded, then mixed. Finally, it’s mastered as the final step in the recording process. Mastering involves finely adjusting the audio for things most people won’t be able to audibly detect without guidance. The mastering process also involves properly preparing the audio for a vinyl format versus a digital one.

“Our system does many different tasks, including the standard mastering processes like equalization, limiting, excitation, compression, tape emulation, and more,” says Justin Evans, VP of products and innovations at MixGenius. “Which processors are used and how they are applied depends on the analysis of the incoming content.”

LANDR is attempting to crunch big data in order to provide unique tweaks and improvements to songs automatically. The system isn’t applying generic presets or any other blanket method to cover multiple songs. Instead, the service is using techniques similar to what Pandora and Shazam use to automatically analyze music.

“The algorithms were built by analyzing thousands of tracks, and by doing significant research and analysis of engineers' self-perceived behavior of what they are doing vs. the actual spectral and frequency changes that happened,” Evans explains.

The mastering aspect is just the latest, but it isn’t the only part of the recording studio being dramatically changed by the Internet. There are quite a few different services trying to alleviating the need for musicians to be in the same physical space for instance."

This was in the laneway behind our studio for years.