Ok yeah, I thought someone might find this interesting? What does anyone else think? How does the article read?
Future of the studio?
There is raging debate as to whether all studio hardware could ever be replaced by software equivalent. There is still some hardware still needed obviously, acoustic instrument need mics and preamps, there is also need for control surfaces to interact with the software and of course the computer itself. After all a piece of hardware such as an effects unit still only just manipulates the sound in a certain way, with computers of sufficient processing capability it would be possible to recreate the sound manipulation of the hardware in software form. All this will be possible but this all depends solely on the reliability of the computer and currently home computers are nowhere near reliable enough, all computers even supercomputers crash and imagine in the middle of a recording session EVERYTHING just stops. All of the sounds are dependant on the computer. Separate hardware units are so much more reliable, when was the last time the mixer crashed or the compressor needed a reboot? Even when a separate hardware unit does die for some reason it does not take the entire system down with it. Plus how do you convince a die-hard analogue fanatic to pack all his ‘classic’ gear away and take to the mouse?
A system could exist where the computer is used as a central ‘hub’ for all the other equipment and not itself be doing mass amounts of processing. Each piece of new equipment would have just one connexion. This connexion would combine midi, audio, control and power requirements down a standard cable to the computer that would have a number of sockets for these. The computer would act as digital midi/audio patchbay for routing midi/audio to and from wherever it needed to be going. To carry all this information a high bandwidth cable would be needed, a single optical fibre with a diameter of only a few microns can carry vast amounts of data. When bundled together there would be more than enough bandwidth to work entirely in 192khz 32bit if that was needed. The cables would be standard for all equipment and so cheap to manufacture in bulk. For any old equipment some standard analogue, S/PDIF, ADAT etc connexions would still exist and incorporated into the rest of the network of connexions. New equipment could take the form of enclosed hot swappable boards or more traditional rack mounted products if controls were desired on the unit itself. All the parameters would be controllable from the central computer which would have onscreen representations of the equipment, not necessarily bearing any relevance to the actual hardware unit which could be absolutely plain with nothing but a wire coming out of it. From the computer a simple touchscreen patchbay routing system would let the user configure all the midi/audio inputs and outputs as desired. This system would allow for incredible versatility and instant setting up of entire studio setups. A variety of physical controllers would exist to allow users to control equipment hands on or input note data with MIDI style guitars, wind controllers, keyboards etc. With lights to show position and electronic labels to inform user what parameter is being altered. They would come in a wide range of styles from traditional rotary knobs and modulation wheels to weird and wacky air controllers and more, all of these easily assignable using the touch screen and a ‘learn controller’ approach.
In a studio it is very much desired to achieve separation between instruments when recording live this can easily be achieved by physical separation and use of separate rooms but at the expense of less communication which could have a detrimental effect on the energy and vigour of the performance. Using glass walls can aid communication but badly affected sound isolation because they are never going to be 100% soundproof AND be useful for communication. A video wall would solve these problems using video cameras to project images of elsewhere in the studio in the individual live rooms. This also opens up the possibility of the parts of the studio being physical separated, connected by a optical fibre bundle to transfer data. Rooms could be in different parts of the city, country or even world. Studios around the world could be interlinked via very high-speed connexion; practise rooms could also be linked to enable live jams around the world. This would bring people from all around the world from different cultures together. It would break the boundary of geographical location in creating music; people could collaborate from opposite sides of the planet. This would be a revolution for music. This is far sighted and a long way from now but believe it will be possible and will happen save for mass destruction of the planet/human race.
Ta
Nick
Future of the studio?
There is raging debate as to whether all studio hardware could ever be replaced by software equivalent. There is still some hardware still needed obviously, acoustic instrument need mics and preamps, there is also need for control surfaces to interact with the software and of course the computer itself. After all a piece of hardware such as an effects unit still only just manipulates the sound in a certain way, with computers of sufficient processing capability it would be possible to recreate the sound manipulation of the hardware in software form. All this will be possible but this all depends solely on the reliability of the computer and currently home computers are nowhere near reliable enough, all computers even supercomputers crash and imagine in the middle of a recording session EVERYTHING just stops. All of the sounds are dependant on the computer. Separate hardware units are so much more reliable, when was the last time the mixer crashed or the compressor needed a reboot? Even when a separate hardware unit does die for some reason it does not take the entire system down with it. Plus how do you convince a die-hard analogue fanatic to pack all his ‘classic’ gear away and take to the mouse?
A system could exist where the computer is used as a central ‘hub’ for all the other equipment and not itself be doing mass amounts of processing. Each piece of new equipment would have just one connexion. This connexion would combine midi, audio, control and power requirements down a standard cable to the computer that would have a number of sockets for these. The computer would act as digital midi/audio patchbay for routing midi/audio to and from wherever it needed to be going. To carry all this information a high bandwidth cable would be needed, a single optical fibre with a diameter of only a few microns can carry vast amounts of data. When bundled together there would be more than enough bandwidth to work entirely in 192khz 32bit if that was needed. The cables would be standard for all equipment and so cheap to manufacture in bulk. For any old equipment some standard analogue, S/PDIF, ADAT etc connexions would still exist and incorporated into the rest of the network of connexions. New equipment could take the form of enclosed hot swappable boards or more traditional rack mounted products if controls were desired on the unit itself. All the parameters would be controllable from the central computer which would have onscreen representations of the equipment, not necessarily bearing any relevance to the actual hardware unit which could be absolutely plain with nothing but a wire coming out of it. From the computer a simple touchscreen patchbay routing system would let the user configure all the midi/audio inputs and outputs as desired. This system would allow for incredible versatility and instant setting up of entire studio setups. A variety of physical controllers would exist to allow users to control equipment hands on or input note data with MIDI style guitars, wind controllers, keyboards etc. With lights to show position and electronic labels to inform user what parameter is being altered. They would come in a wide range of styles from traditional rotary knobs and modulation wheels to weird and wacky air controllers and more, all of these easily assignable using the touch screen and a ‘learn controller’ approach.
In a studio it is very much desired to achieve separation between instruments when recording live this can easily be achieved by physical separation and use of separate rooms but at the expense of less communication which could have a detrimental effect on the energy and vigour of the performance. Using glass walls can aid communication but badly affected sound isolation because they are never going to be 100% soundproof AND be useful for communication. A video wall would solve these problems using video cameras to project images of elsewhere in the studio in the individual live rooms. This also opens up the possibility of the parts of the studio being physical separated, connected by a optical fibre bundle to transfer data. Rooms could be in different parts of the city, country or even world. Studios around the world could be interlinked via very high-speed connexion; practise rooms could also be linked to enable live jams around the world. This would bring people from all around the world from different cultures together. It would break the boundary of geographical location in creating music; people could collaborate from opposite sides of the planet. This would be a revolution for music. This is far sighted and a long way from now but believe it will be possible and will happen save for mass destruction of the planet/human race.
Ta
Nick