Abstract
The creation of multitrack mixes by audio engineers is a time-consuming activity and creating high-quality mixes requires a great deal of knowledge and experience. Previous studies on the perception of music mixes have been limited by the relatively small number of human-made mixes analysed. This paper describes a novel “mix-space”, a parameter space which contains all possible mixes using a finite set of tools, as well as methods for the parametric generation of artificial mixes in this space. Mixes that use track gain, panning and equalisation are considered. This allows statistical methods to be used in the study of music mixing practice, such as Monte Carlo simulations or population-based optimisation methods. Two applications are described: an investigation into the robustness and accuracy of tempo-estimation algorithms and an experiment to estimate distributions of spectral centroid values within sets of mixes. The potential for further work is also described.
Highlights
The mixing of audio signals is a complicated optimisation problem, in which an audio engineer must consider a vast number of technical and aesthetic considerations in order to achieve the desired result
Many tasks in audio mixing are performed on a mixing console. Such a device consists of a series of channel strips, one representing each audio track, on which various operations can be performed such as adjustments in equalisation, panning and overall level. While this format is useful for allowing a hands-on interaction with the audio content, it is not the most direct or efficient way of exploring these parameters and discovering mixes in the process
While effective in certain cases, and certainly straightforward to visualise, this definition produces a solution space which is sub-optimal when searching for mixes
Summary
The mixing of audio signals is a complicated optimisation problem, in which an audio engineer must consider a vast number of technical and aesthetic considerations in order to achieve the desired result. Such a device consists of a series of channel strips, one representing each audio track, on which various operations can be performed such as adjustments in equalisation, panning and overall level While this format is useful for allowing a hands-on interaction with the audio content, it is not the most direct or efficient way of exploring these parameters and discovering mixes in the process. These control vectors allow for a variety of results, such as polarity correction, delay correction, panning and source separation, depending on their implementation Each of these equations considers the mix as the sum of the input tracks, there is little agreement on terminology or nomenclature in this general definition.
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