sustaining trends in audio land, 2024 edition

This year’s edition is all about the one and only megatrend: AI and all its facets. Plus a brief commentary on a wannabe trend.

AI: Tools in audio production

As mentioned earlier, the current trend of emulating effect devices with deep learning seems less exciting in the AI context, as it is just yet another form of effect sampling where we might see little innovation. Much more exciting and promising is the impact on areas such as composition, mixing and mastering and first tools have already arrived in this area. We’ve seen little groundbreaking innovation in digital audio workstations in recent years. With the advent of this new technology, however, an exciting new prospect is emerging, one that is essentially about DAWs becoming copilots.

AI: Business opportunities

The DAW example shows how profound the changes can be, affecting not only the adaptation of the tools, but the companies and their businesses themselves. In much the same way that the Internet has penetrated every aspect of our lives, this technology is shaping not just production itself, but a market and a business as a whole. For example, traditional gatekeepers may disappear because they are no longer needed to create, edit and distribute things, but the market may also be flooded with mediocre content. To some extent we can already see this happening in the music industry, and the emergence of AI will just be an accelerator for all of this.

AI: Visions for content creators and creatives

But in the light of such a huge impact, what might a vision look like for content creators and creatives? From a pure market perspective, creativity is interchangeable wherever content is mass-produced in the same way. The only raison d’être is the uniqueness and novelty of the work and its presentation. And it is precisely this that will become more and more important the more arbitrary and interchangeable (AI based) content gets produced. So basically you should avoid sameness and be unique. Or give a shit about all that and be creative just for the sake of it and your very own fulfilment.

Multichannel Audio: Not a sustaining trend

Despite the impressive efforts of some of the big players to make everyone believe that this is the next big thing, there is simply no way around it: It is completely irrelevant to consumers given their current music consumption habits. It is relevant to (home) cinema and events, but nothing more.

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sustaining trends in audio land, 2023 edition

sustaining trends in audio land, 2022 edition

sustaining trends in audio land, 2021 edition

What will be the next plugin release from “Variety Of Sound”?

I just asked this to ChatGPT and here is the answer:

As an AI language model, I don’t have access to real-time information about upcoming releases from specific companies or developers. However, it’s worth noting that “Variety Of Sound” is a well-known developer of high-quality audio plugins, with a particular focus on analog-style signal processing.

In the past, “Variety Of Sound” has released a range of plugins, including EQs, compressors, tape saturation emulators, and more. These plugins are known for their attention to detail, their intuitive interfaces, and their ability to add warmth and character to digital audio signals.

While I don’t have information about any specific upcoming releases from “Variety Of Sound”, it’s possible that they may continue to expand their range of analog-style plugins, or explore new areas of audio processing. As with any developer, it’s likely that they will release new products based on their own interests and expertise, as well as feedback and requests from their user base.

So, what about “feedback and requests” from your side?

A brief update on the future of VoS plugins

First of all: I hear you!

While receiving so many questions and requests on this topic on all the different channels these days a brief update here seems to be overdue.

Plugin downloads might be online again as soon as I manage to find a decent free cloud space to offer hassle-free downloads without any traffic/bandwidth limits (or advertising). Hints appreciated.

There are no plans to make them payware.

Some of my plugin designs needs to be revised to assure that they will stand the test of time for yet another decade 🙂 and this means also that they are going to support 64bit of course.

With some selected VoS plugins, there will be a 64bit public beta which is planned to be held this July. I hope you’ll gonna join.

The story continues, stay tuned!

Herbert

re:publica 2013

Probably over 5000 geeks, nerds and wannabes attended this years re:publica event to discuss the emergent trends concerning the nets culture and ethics as well as politics and economics. There were lots of sessions and keynotes about the Open Data/Government/Invention/Whatsoever movements  but to me the two current hot spots were Intellectual Property Rights and the Net Neutrality discourse. Anyway, I’ve had a great time in Berlin (once again).