Audio Mastering Research Articles

인공지능과 인간 전문가의 오디오 마스터링 비교 연구

인공지능에 의한 직업의 대체가 빠르게 진행되고 있지만, 창의성이 중요한 예술 분야에서는 예외로 여겨졌다. 예술과 기술의 경계에 있는 직업인 음악의 마스터링에서는 현재 여러 인공지능 마스터링 서비스가 운영 중이다. 일반적으로 인공지능의 마스터링은 전문 마스터링 엔지니어의 작업에 비해 품질이 낮다고 여겨진다. 본 논문에서는 인공지능 마스터링과 인간 마스터링을 음향 분석, 청취 실험, 전문가 인터뷰 과정을 통해 비교해 보았다. 음향 분석에서는 전문 마스터링 엔지니어의 결과물과 인공지능의 결과물에서 큰 차이는 관찰되지 않았다. 청취 실험의 경우 비음악인 그룹은 전문 마스터링 엔지니어의 결과물과 인공지능의 결과물의 음질 차이를 거의 구분하지 못했다. 음악인 그룹은 특정 음원에 대한 선호를 드러냈지만, 어느 특정 마스터링에 대한 일반적인 선호가 유의미하게 나타나지는 않았다. 전문가 심층인터뷰에서도 전문 마스터링 엔지니어와 인공지능 마스터링간의 음향적인 차이는 거의 없으며, 가장 큰 차이는 마스터링 서비스 제공자와 사용자 간의 소통방식에 있다고 응답하였다. 또 향후 더 많은 데이터를 통한 훈련으로 인공지능 마스터링이 빠르게 품질향상을 이룰 것이고 사용자와 인공지능 간의 소통방식에서도 더 개선이 있을 것이라고 예상하였다.

Tuning sound for infrastructures: artificial intelligence, automation, and the cultural politics of audio mastering

ABSTRACT This paper traces the infrastructural politics of automated music mastering to reveal how contemporary iterations of artificial intelligence (AI) shape cultural production. The paper examines the emergence of LANDR, an online platform that offers automated music mastering, built on top of supervised machine learning branded as artificial intelligence. Increasingly, machine learning will become an integral part of signal processing for sounds and images, shaping the way media cultures sound, look, and feel. While LANDR is a product of the so-called ‘big bang’ in machine learning, it could not exist without specific conditions: specific kinds of commensurable data, as well as specific aesthetic and industrial conditions. Mastering, in turn, has become an indispensable but understudied part of music circulation as an infrastructural practice. Here we analyze the intersecting histories of machine learning and mastering, as well as LANDR’s failure at automating other domains of audio engineering. By doing so, we critique the discourse of AI’s inevitability and show the ways in which machine learning must frame or reframe cultural and aesthetic practices in order to automate them, in service of digital distribution, recognition, and recommendation infrastructures.

Audio mastering in the logic of art history discourse

The purpose of the article is to determine the specifics of audio mastering in the context of modern art of sound recording; to characterize the phenomenon of audio mastering in the context of enhancing the aesthetic features of the sound recording of a musical work. Methodology. The interdisciplinary nature of the tasks posed in the study led to the use of an integrated method of modern art history. In particular, the following were applied: a comparative method (for a comparative analysis of scientific publications of foreign researchers in which the problems of audio mastering are considered from the perspective of modern cultural studies and art history); analytical (contributed to the analysis of analytical and empathic methods in the context of the specifics of audio mastering); typological method (to identify typological signs of audio mastering); a method of description and analysis (to study and comprehend the processes of creative activity of an audio mastering engineer as a representative of the field of technical arts); theoretical generalization method (for research findings). Scientific novelty. For the first time in the domestic art criticism, the phenomenon of audio mastering is studied in the context of the formation of the listener's emotional reaction to the sound recording of a musical work; the activity of audio mastering engineers was examined and its specificity was determined, in particular, the expediency of using analytical and empathic methods in the process of audio mastering in synergy was discovered in order to improve the aesthetic indicators of musical composition. Conclusions. A study of audio mastering from the standpoint of modern art criticism revealed that this phenomenon, synthesizing aspects of technology and art, consists in the skill of combining methods and methods for improving the sound recording of a musical work in order to enhance the effectiveness of its impact on the listener, satisfy aesthetic needs, and preserve and transmit the heritage of modern musical art in the global art and information space. The specificity of the art of audio mastering is to “mask” for the listener the very fact of the vocalist and/or musicians performing work in front of a microphone or using a dynamic range compressor – masterfully performed audio mastering largely goes unnoticed, forming the listener's emotional reaction and his perception of unique qualities over time musical performance.

Automating the black art: Creative places for artificial intelligence in audio mastering

In this paper, we consider the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in the creative economy of music production. One sector in particular, audio post-production, is experiencing rapid change due to AI and various other forms of automation. This spells major changes, now and in the future, for skills, employment and work. Many accounts on the role of machine automation in occupational instability—specifically, reductions in human employment—have focused on the manufacturing (assembly lines) and service (financial, legal and administration) sectors: so-called blue- and white-collar jobs. However, there are as yet only limited forays into the possible consequences of AI in the creative economy, in particular on ‘no-collar jobs’. Creative occupations were previously understood to be immune from the disruptions of AI due to the high levels of intuition, affective knowledge, ‘gut instinct’, and other human ‘assets’ difficult to replicate by complex algorithms and intelligent machines. Drawing on empirical research on AI in audio post-production, this article contends that there are conflicting notions of the possible impacts of these new innovations on human expertise and digital skills. The article highlights change underway in this profession of audio mastering as workers in the creative industries collaborate and compete with AI-driven technological innovation.

Listening without ears: Artificial intelligence in audio mastering

Since the inception of recorded music there has been a need for standards and reliability across sound formats and listening environments. The role of the audio mastering engineer is prestigious and akin to a craft expert combining scientific knowledge, musical learning, manual precision and skill, and an awareness of cultural fashions and creative labour. With the advent of algorithms, big data and machine learning, loosely termed artificial intelligence in this creative sector, there is now the possibility of automating human audio mastering processes and radically disrupting mastering careers. The emergence of dedicated products and services in artificial intelligence-driven audio mastering poses profound questions for the future of the music industry, already having faced significant challenges due to the digitalization of music over the past decades. The research reports on qualitative and ethnographic inquiry with audio mastering engineers on the automation of their expertise and the potential for artificial intelligence to augment or replace aspects of their workflows. Investigating audio mastering engineers' awareness of artificial intelligence, the research probes the importance of criticality in their labour. The research identifies intuitive performance and critical listening as areas where human ingenuity and communication pose problems for simulation. Affective labour disrupts speculation of algorithmic domination by highlighting the pragmatic strategies available for humans to adapt and augment digital technologies.

Validating YouTube Factors Affecting Learning Performance

YouTube is often used as a companion medium or a learning supplement. One of the educational places that often uses is Jogja Audio School (JAS) which focuses on music production education. Music production is a difficult material to learn, especially at the audio mastering. With tutorial contents from YouTube, students find it easier to learn and understand audio mastering and improved their learning performance. This study aims to validate the role of YouTube as a medium of learning in improving student’s learning performance by looking at the factors that affect student learning performance. The sample involves 100 respondents from JAS at audio mastering level. The results showed that student learning performance increases seen from factors that have a significant influence of motivation, instructional content, and YouTube usefulness. Overall findings suggest that YouTube has a important role to student learning performance in music production education and as an innovative and efficient learning medium.

“EL RESULTADO DEL PROYECTO QVO: METAMORFOSIS 5”

Abstract.“THE RESULT OF QVO PROJECT: METAMORPHOSIS 5”If you look at each of the arts and try to see them as large containers of disciplines, we find that cinema is the most porous of all. The film has a tremendous ability to filter and take - bind - hundreds and thousands of disciplines not only inherent in the result, the film, but in all the stages involved in the creation process. To cite some examples that are found only in the most superficial layer of all film production : script writing, deco-architecture, costume design, storyboard drawing, acting work, capturing sound, camera operation, still photography, graphic design posters, video editing, audio mastering and sound, com ¬ position soundtrack etc. Over and above this surface layer film no limits, for example, a master armory, insect specialist, animal trainer, technician in augmented reality and motion capture, and 3D designer, special effects technician, historian, technical animator pyrotechnics, and even industrial engineer aerospace engineer. That is why in the QVO, Enrichment program for children gifted project we decided to work with cinema, from cinema and to make cinema.Key Words: Enrichment, High Capacity, Film, Screenplay, Building, Decorations, Performance.Resumen.Si nos fijamos en cada una de las artes y tratamos de verlas como grandes contenedores de disciplinas, comprobaremos que el cine es la más porosa de todas ellas. El cine posee una enorme capacidad para filtrar y asumir –aglutinar- cientos y miles de disciplinas no sólo inherentes al resultado, la película, sino en todas aquellas etapas que intervienen en el proceso de creación. Por citar algunos de los ejemplos que se encuentran solo en la capa más superficial de toda producción cinematográfica: Escritura de guión, arquitectura de deco rados, diseño de vestuario, dibujo de storyboard, trabajo actoral, captación de sonido directo, operación de cámara, fotografía fija, diseño gráfico de cartelería, edición de vídeo, masterización y sonorización de audio, com posición de banda sonora etc. Profundizando más allá de dicha capa superficial el cine no encuentra límites, por ejemplo, maestro en armería, especialista en insectos, adiestrador de animales, técnico en realidad aumentada y motion capture, diseñador y animador 3D, técnico de efectos especiales, historiador, técnico en pirotécnica, ingeniero industrial e incluso ingeniero espacial. Es por ello que en el proyecto QVO, programa de Enriquecimiento para niños y niñas de altas capacidades, nos hemos decidido a trabajar con el cine, desde el cine y para hacer cine.Palabras Clave: Enriquecimiento, Altas Capacidades, Cine, Guión, Arquitectura, Decorados, Actuación.

Gateway of Sound: Reassessing the Role of Audio Mastering in the Art of Record Production

Audio mastering, notwithstanding an apparent lack of scholarly attention, is a crucial gateway between production and consumption and, as such, is worth further scrutiny, especially in music genres like house or techno, which place great emphasis on sound production qualities. In this article, drawing on personal interviews with mastering engineers and field research in mastering studios in Italy and Germany, I investigate the practice of mastering engineering, paying close attention to the negotiation of techniques and sound aesthetics in relation to changes in the industry formats and, in particular, to the growing shift among DJs from vinyl to compressed digital formats. I then discuss the specificity of audio mastering in relation to EDM, insofar as DJs and controllerists conceive of the master, rather than as a finished product destined to listening, as raw material that can be reworked in performance.

The Error-Correcting Scheme in the 3M Digital Audio Mastering System

The Error-Correcting Scheme in the 3M Digital Audio Mastering System