So Apple came out with its revamped Ipod range. Many are calling it a bit limp with the biggest news being that Steve Jobs is back at work and healthy. However I think a mild repositioning has taken place.

What was new then? Ipod Nanos were given a ton of functionality from cameras (video) to pedometers. Apple are trying to make them a lifestyle product which happen to play music. They increased storage capacity on the old school Ipods and upgraded the Itouch to similar internal specs as the Iphone but without the camera. Thats right, without the camera.

Whats goings on here? Its simple; ever since they launched the Iphone it was expected that at some point there would congestion and overlap with the Apple product portfolio. Hence Apple have clearly decided to give with some products but take with others. Want an Ipod that has a camera but can’t afford the phone? Your option is the Nano. Want a touch Ipod but do not want the phone, get the Itouch, but it won’t do everything you need. Each product is either reaching out to specific consumers or are designed in such a way as to infruite them and hence force them to own multiple devices or continually upgrade!

Now on the music front, there was no demonstration of a Tablet, and hence my prediction for what it might mean for the music industry is still out there. Whatch the next 6 months for that story to continue to bubble as it won’t die down. However they did launch their new version of the LP. A download that includes a lot more artwork, interviews, lyrics and other content. Itunes LP is what they are calling it, and Im not going to say that for the cost to produce that content, ‘it won’t work’. Im sure it will bring in extra revenue for the labels and publishers and should be welcomed. However don’t for a minute jump to hyping this to a return to the ’shared experience’ of all of us buying an album again.

Id like to see them sign some exclusive album or content deals and only sell them in this format. It would be an interesting experiment. If the content was compelling enough and sold at the right price would the LP format harm, boost or make no difference to sales?

Recent other developments, in Europe at least, are that Apple has approved a Spotify app, which means you can now get music onto your Itouch/Iphone devices from places other than Apple. A lot has been written about how major this is. Its not. Not really. For quite sometime we have been able to buy music from Emusic, Amazon and many others and place it on our Ipods and Itouch devices. So this is just a wee bit different as its an integrated app, and hence feels much more embedded into the device.

Maybe Im pushing for Apple to move into a space they will never move into, but whether it be the tablet or new functionality for the Itouch and Ipod range, I feel that at some point they will have to embrace music interactivity. Its not as if they are  unaware of it, Garage Band is a key free product with their Macs, but perhaps they have not yet joined up the dots and seen its value as a lifestyle element for their lifestyle products as well as their computers.

Once again I have left it too long to update the blog. Apologies! I hope though that those regular users of MusicResearch.com have been downloading our podcasts (music industry news) which have been more regular. In fact we are due to record very soon!

So what has happened in the music industry since I last posted? In some ways its been a rather retro three months, and the trend looks to continue. Some of the main stories that have made it big include:

The death of Michael Jackson. Clearly a sad and historic moment. Some would argue that we had seen the best of his work, and that all that lay ahead of him was an opportunity to relive that history with him in London. However I think its too early to make that call. It well known that he was working on new material with a range of interesting artists and producers. His record label have said that it WILL be released. Clearly he will have the last word on his career after all, and we shall see if it was just Michael Jackson doing an impersonation of Michael Jackson or whether he was treading new ground. I hope it was the latter.

Meanwhile ironically, but in many ways to be expected, sales of his music have rocketed since the announcement of his passing. Download stores and streaming services have seen his material dominate audience choice. I can speak from my own example, in that one of the first things I did when hearing the news was to go to Vid Zone on my PS3 and choose Thriller. A classic.

Another retro slice of news was one we have mentioned before on this site. Beatles Rockband. The game has now been shown off to the general public and pre-orders are already being taken. I expect demand for this game to be terrific if its not priced too high. The young will use it as a vehicle to explore classic music that they might have heard in passing but never actually owned whilst it will take music games to a wide demographic reaching out to older people who remember the Beatles first, second or third time around (in terms of re-releases of their albums!). It might also fuel an increase in CD sales of the new remastered recordings.

The game really does look terrific and the music has been remastered from the original tapes especially for this release by Sir George Martin’s son. It was pushed heavily by Microsoft at E3, the large games convention in May, but itll be cross platform and I would expect the Wii version to do extremely well.

Lastly, some pretty uptodate news. Well its more rumour than news. Apple is expected to bring out new IPOD Touch technology in September. However alongside the new Itouch and Ipod devices it is believed they will launch their ‘take’ on the tablet format of computer. The tablet has existed for sometime now, so what can Apple do to change things? Well from a technology front, it might have 3G or even 4G tech built in. It will be very thin and probably have multi touch tech on the front like an Iphone.

However it will clearly also have some key content tie ins. One of these is ‘Cocktail’ which some are describing as Apple’s attempt to redefine the album and make a ‘package’ of content valuable again to the consumer. Content to be included would be ongoing video footage, behind the scenes and other extras, which clearly might be experienced better on a larger screen device such as this tablet. However Im inclined to think that even if that content IS included, its not exactly ground breaking. Certainly not enough to make it a reason to buy the device.

Perhaps Apple have looked at the music game market and the clever music making device which uses LEDs made by Yamaha (the TENORI-ON) and thought that the way to go is to make music interactive to the masses. I can see the Apple Tablet having a type of simplified Garage Band built in (software on a regular Apple Mac), and when you download the ‘album’ you also get the seperate instrument and vocal tracks. This in turn would allow consumers to either listen to the studio mix or make their own.

Along with Apple’s recent move into the gaming world via the Iphone and Itouch, this in many ways, would be a nice fusion of their history of wanting to be seen as the facilitators of creative production (hence Imovie, Garage Band, Idvd etc on macs) and being seen as an alternative form of ‘fun’ via their appstore.

Now we just have to wait a few weeks to find out….

For a while now I have been doing talks at various universities or even at the Dana centre (part of the London Science Museum), and the focus of the discussion often falls on the ‘quality’ of audio today.

In essence I find myself stating my case that the MP3 format might have helped the digital music player industry grow, but that it has held back the progress and sound quality of music for the majority of people.

The MP3 was launched at a point in history when memory capacity was limited. The MP3 format compresses the audio which results in the file taking up a lot less space. For example a CD quality file lasting around three and half minutes can be reduced from 38.5 Mb to around 3-10Mb depending on the amount of compression applied. 

Of course ‘compression’ cannot be done without a hit in the audio quality. The MP3 format in effect results in parts of the recording being removed. Normally its the part of the audio which is not crucial to the sound and ‘narrative’ of the music. This results in a range of frequencies being removed. Although not crucial to the listening experience these frequencies are noticeable, especially if played through a decent hifi rather than the standard Iphone headphones. Placed against a CD, a MP3 is clearly inferior for the majority of music genres. However, this reality has not stopped MP3 taking off and being the ‘format’ of choice for the majority of people. Apple have their own version called AAC, but this too is inferior to CD. 

Where as the visual would has not only avoided reducing quality (yes I know compression is used for digital broadcast - but it always has so compared to SD television its a win, win) but its actually gone HD and FULL HD mad. Maybe its because watching things is a primary activity, where as sound takes place whilst something else is taking place for the majority of people? However, I still believe that many people still listen to music just for the sake of listening to music, and hearing it in its full glory is something which most people would appreciate. Why else spend money on that expensive Bose Ipod dock if you don’t care about the sound quality?

Believe it or not audio HAS gone HD. We have 24 bit audio and it can be recorded and played back 192Khz (the frequency at which a sample is taken - the higher it is the more accurate the recording). Its just that, except for the production environment, these formats have failed to take off. Home cinema has helped a little as Blue Ray can support some of these formats, but for most people CD quality sound is still the best they have ever heard, and they live in a MP3 world for most of the time. 

The success of the MP3 format has been the main factor holding back progress. MP3 players were created to play back MP3s and hence new or even older alternative formats were locked out of the consumer offering. However the owner of MP3, Thomson, have now come up with MP3HD. This is excellent news!

What is great about MP3HD is that its backwards compatible with older players. So if you download a MP3HD file but your player can’t play HD files, it will still read it and just play a traditional MP3 version. However, when you upgrade your player then your files are already HD and you haven’t got a wasted download. Now these MP3HD files are not better than CD but are promising the same as CD sound, which is good. However, one assumes that the format could be extended to a FULL HD audio standard with the same backward compatible principles being applied.

The pressure to act is now with the actual download stores and hardware manufacturers to adopt this new standard. We want Amazon and co to offer MP3HD files for download and for hardware to support the files. Clearly download stores won’t jump at this despite the improved experience for customers. This is because of the extra bandwidth the stores will require to be able to send all this data to consumers. Additionally consumers will need fast broadband connections to recieve a file within a reasonable period of time. The latter of these concerns is not really relevant in most of the developed world with broadband fast enough to deliver this for most people.

The earlier concern, regarding the bandwidth download stores will have to use to deliver the files, is relevant. Indeed, this would most probably result in the files carrying a higher price. Though, this might stop the format establishing itself in the first place. Perhaps Thomson should lower any licensing fees required to use the format, at least to begin with, to help it take off?

Either way, its good to see that the quality of Audio is at last being made relevant at the consumer level and is not just an academic issue for the producers and professionals in the industry.

As expected Apple have at last unlocked the music from Itunes. They have also allowed people to purchase music on the move not only by Wi-FI but by 3G (which is getting faster and faster). Still, that leaves all the video content locked up tight. Thats a bigger issue, and remember NOT just for film makers but for muscians and labels too.

The market for downloadable video will still fail to go mainstream until these locks are taken off, and that affects everyone. After all, a great source of income for song writers, labels and composers is from tv shows and films. The arguments are the same, the actual risk is similar. However the perceived risk is higher as at present film companies still make very good money from DVDs and are seeing growth with BlueRay, hence they are not so keen to embrace the download future whole heartedly.

Meanwhile, when will Apple offer streaming via the Itunes store for music? This would clearly need a separate form of agreement with the labels and would have to be priced and pitched to compliment and not compete with the download service. However, as we move into the world of cloud computing, surely its the logcal step? As discussed in previous posts, why download when I can stream? I would happily pay a yearly ‘pass’ which would allow me to download and stream unlimited (fair usage applies of course) amounts of content. It would also allow Apple to cement their traditional hold on Ipod users, which has now been lost with DRM free music. If their favourite ‘interface’ for streaming became the Ipod/Itouch/Iphone then that would become the de-facto ’experience’ for accessing content for many people - thereby locking them into that platform for sometime (with their favourites and listening profiles locked into it).

Why are people dragging their heels on these services? Is it a technical issue holding us back? Is it legal in nature? Or, is it just that executives are just too scared to go into the water for a swim and still prefer to hold on to the edge of the pool and chat whilst watching the other swimmers do full lengths?

Apart from the speculation on Steve Job’s health (and we wish him well), this week’s MacWorld is key to lovers of music. Everyone is waiting and watching to see if Apple dump DRM on music (films and tv would be cool too!). As the BBC reports here, deals have supposedly been struck with all the major labels (much of the indie catalogue is already DRM free on Itunes). 

Additionally, would Apple start a music streaming service via Itunes? Remember you can now access Wifi on the go via your Itouch etc, so turning it into a streaming service at home and on the move would be swell. On the hardware front, there is also speculation that either at this MacWorld or another, a tablet device will be shown. 

This could be of great interest to music producers. We have already seen various Itouch/Iphone applications that give limited music making functionality to the platform. However the power, and screen size limits the functionality. A tablet device could really be used as a live instrument and a new sort of portable sequencer if required. 

As always, MacWorld, technically a non- music event continues to be of great importance to the music industry in general. And to think that Apple computer signed a deal with Apple Records all those years ago saying they would keep out of the music industry. Now thats what I call Irony.

Digital Audio – seeing into the future of software development.

As well all know only too well, the relationship between musicians, engineers and producers and their technology is crucial. The progress of those who develop the music often spurs on those who develop the software and visa versa.

Technology has benefited those involved in making and selling content in a variety of ways. Its led to a reduction in the cost of recording and editing sound (the often referred to ‘democratization of the production process’). Its also facilitated the development of new genres and techniques previously only dreamt of by content creators. Lastly, in recent years, the effect digital audio and software has had on the consumer experience has become very clear in terms of distribution, place and time of listening and fragmentation of fans and genres.

Queens Mary University’s Centre for Digital Music is at the cutting edge of software development involving digital music and audio. Setup by Mark Sandler, the centre is focused on creating radical software solutions, which will without doubt find their way into our lives over the next few years.

When asked what the Centre for Digital Music is about, Mark is pretty clear. Its ‘Research where technology, music and audio meet!’

Mark is not new to this area of research and development. Indeed his background is a rich history of study, design and progress in the areas of music, audio and in some cases vision.

Mark Sandler

He studied electronics at Essex University and his final year was in Audio Engineering followed by a PhD looking into and designing Digital Power Amps (his work on Digital Power Amps have won him a Fellowship from the Audio Engineering Society).

From here he went to Kings College and continued research into a range of areas, especially where vision and sound came together. He was mainly involved with trying to analyze the images and sound with the idea of drawing meta data from it, which would allow the computer to build up a parallel picture describing and thereby categorising elements of the content.

He has been involved in a number of projects including a startup, which developed software that could scale the level of compression used on an audio stream as the speed of the Internet fluctuated in real time. That never took off (but perhaps now is the time for someone to develop a similar technology, what with the talk of ‘cloud based technology and the growth of streaming’), but this again drew upon Mark’s focus on the ability to analyse audio and from there prioritise the most important ‘bits’ allowing the codec to loose parts which were not integral to the listening experience.

Mark joined Queen Mary University in 2001 as Professor of Signal Processing and in 2003 the Centre for Digital Music was formally established, with £5 million in grant funding. It now operates with a number of IT suites, a bespoke Studio for testing applications and has over 30 staff and research placements.

Mark explained what he felt would be the next big change. “By the late 90s or early 00s I believed we had done everything. I felt that if there was to be real change then the Internet was going to make the difference. I didn’t fully get what I meant, but searching for music and accessing the long tail (the independent and semi-pro music world), I realized that, that would make music different. By looking at the parameters based in the content of the music, this would allow consumers and creators alike to look at audio and music in a new light.”

One of the examples of how this might affect consumers is simple but powerful query. Imagine using a search engine and asking ‘I like REM, find me something that sounds like them, for under £5 and/or and are playing thirty miles of where I live, and send me the tickets’.

Now this would require human data entry such as bands informing the net where they were performing, and how much for. However, it would also require the type of software the Centre for Digital Music is developing. Software that can ‘listen’ to REM and determine what gives it ‘its’ sound. From there, the computer would search the Internet for similar sounding audio, link that to its creator (via the human inputted meta data) and then to where they might be performing.

Consumers could use the same software to highlight a chorus they like and then ask the software to find similar sounding choruses in other songs. As a consumer you can see how this can help grow one’s playlist, but as a producer I can also see where this technology can be used. For example, I might have a drum loop I like, but to be honest, I over use! I could ask the software to search an online or offline selection of loops for something similar in terms of rhythm, speed but with different sounds (electronic rather than live for example).

The nirvana that Mark is targeting via his centre is one where we get “technology to help us filter music to allow us to find human elements in music and not music based on technology.” Mark’s vision of what software can do for us, the producers and consumers, is very exciting.

Sitting down with his staff I was shown a range of working applications. For example, Andrew Nesbit demonstrated his application that can take a stereo file and then turn it into a number separate audio tracks, with each of the instruments/sounds isolated. It wasn’t 100% perfect but its 90% of the way there! Ideal for remixers everywhere, or mastering engineers who need to isolate a certain area of sound to remove unwanted frequencies.

Before

After

I was lucky enough to experience a plug in (already in a form for Audio Units and VST) which adds a delay in real time. It tracks the tempo as dictated by the performer rather than the sequencer. Perfect for a live setting, using software based plugins with tempo changes as directed by the performer. Its creator, Adam Stark, also told me about a colleague (Matthew Davies) who has worked on Rhythm Morphing Software which can take 2 completely different tracks, analyze them both and then make one match the other in terms of bar, tempo and time signature. It works amazingly well and only takes a couple of clicks on a mouse to work!

One member of staff, Rebecca Stewart, has software which allows you to listen to four (or more) tracks at a time by placing them in a 3D space. They all play at the same time but you can tilt a device such as an Iphone or Wii remote to move between them and isolate the sound whilst they all play. One application for this is simply to choose what track to play on your ipod without crudely flicking through them. Yet, it could also be used by DJs to beatmatch and mix between tracks.

The future of music and software is very exciting. If we really can start to teach a computer what makes up a piece of music (something we do without thinking when listening to it ourselves) and identify instruments, notes, ‘styles’ etc then the ability to take that information and use it to create new sounds, music or genres will be open to us in a way people have only dreamed of. We will also find that the gap between the consumer and the creator continues to blur as the process of listening to a piece of music and doing something with it to create anew starts to become one act.

Wen Xue – Research Assistant 4 years.

Sound and Music analyzer.

Xue’s software looks for pitched events in an audio file. He demonstrated this with a piece of classical piano music. He was able to isolate individual notes and then remove them (ideal for mastering – it leaves everything else in the same sample time intact). Apart from mastering he could see the software being used an information retrieval tool, as it allows the performance to be analyzed in great detail. He is currently working on the software’s ability to separate fine notes (notes where there is a semi tone or less in proximity).

The man himself

György Fazekas – 2 years PHD

Intelligent Audio Editing

György is developing an application that can be used by content creators to embed Metadata into an audio file or accompanying script. You can input simple data such as performers, producers, studio recorded in and more. This is key to protecting rights. However the software is also being developed to take a snapshot of a sequencer’s setup including, instruments, Devices and plug ins, and accompanying settings.

The idea is that it would be able to talk to many types of sequencer (or better, the script would become and industry standard adopted by all companies) and that when loaded into the song, the sequencer would recreate the session using comparable plug ins and settings (where available). Ideal for recreating mixes on different studios or for producers saying ‘I want that sound on a particular album’.

Lastly it has the ability to look at a song, and use colour coding to immediately indentify the sections, allowing for fast editing and comparisons between verses or choruses when editing audio.

By his workstation

Enrique Perez Gonzalez 3 years PHD – masters in music technology university of york

Automatic Mixing

Enrique wanted to develop an application that can help musicians who cannot mix. Its ideal for a live environment from bars to stadiums! So far he has developed a simple eight channel mixer with basic tools – panner, EQ and volume. The user tells the software what instruments are most important (by the order in which the tracks are loaded in) and after a small period it can adjust panning and volume after analyzing the music (we are talking seconds!).

Additionally he has developed other applications such as an automatic feedback destroyer but, one that is pre-emptive rather than reactive. Having seen the demo I’m pretty confident that this will be a life saver!

With his setup

Andrew Roberston

B-Keeper

This is a software program that will modify the tempo of a sequencer so as to stay in time with a drummer. That means if he speeds up or slows down, the sequencer will also change tempo with him.

Whether in the studio, or playing live a band, any pre-recorded virtual instruments would adapt to the human interpretation of tempo, rather than what currently happens which is that the human has to control their natural urges to get slower and faster by keeping with an artificial click track.

UK band Hook and the Twin (formerly two members of DB-signed Psychid) are currently working with Andrew at incorporating B-Keeper and Ableton live into their complex 2-man live set-up.

Check it out at: myspace.com/hookandthetwin

working away!