Now such a format would pose a couple of challenges. Then we would also need one "master" channel which stores mastering information. For very similar tracks only the differences need to be stored. An audio signal is as simple as just a list of values.īasically, we would just have every "channel"/"track" from a digital audio workstation rendered into a file. I think this could be done, probably easier than doing the same for video production.
You don't necessarily need to ship all the original bits to generate the optimised postscript - just the postscript which will display the same thing everywhere. > Yeah, DAWs are pretty close, but I was thinking of distribution itself.
Just like in software though, I think there's a set of people interested in actually distributing their source tracks, made with open source software - and IIRC, that's exactly what's happening here as the base of these source separation efforts!
Just as with proprietary software, the exact combination of synthesizers, instruments, plugins and settings are closely guarded secrets of musicians, mixing and mastering studios.Īnd just like in software, some of those "shaders" aka plugins are actually proprietary themselves and can cost multiple hundred dollars each - so redistributing the "source code" can be not just difficult but actually illegal or impossible.Īs you see, the incentives generally aren't aligned towards this form of distribution. You get something usable and distributable to end users that you can reverse only partially.
But there we don't just dive into the specifics of audio, but also back to an analogy that's closer to software developers.īouncing a full track to stereo is a lot like compiling software into bytecode/assembly. We have that already, it's the native save format of the DAWs. Printing the instruemnts individually can kill the vibe. Sometimes the only option you have to preserve that exact balance between the instruments is to print the stereo buss. Some of the magic or "vibe" of a given recording can go away when you selectively mute or disable certain instrument groups. Any given song could have numerous dynamic relationships like this that are set up by the audio engineer. This dynamic relationship between instruments helps to make a song groove more and have greater impact. For example when the kick drum hits, the bass might "duck down" out of the way (temporarily) so that they aren't occupying the same sonic space. It's not uncommon to use three microphones to capture different aspects of the kick drum alone: 1) Inside the kick by the beater, 2) outside the kick by the resonant head and 3) a mic that captures the subby "chest" frequencies that you only feel in your body.Īdditionally, certain groups of instruments have interdependent relationships that react to one another. Drum kits in particular are among the most complicated instruments and can have anywhere from 3-16 channels dedicated to it. There is no standard for these effects, nor for the mixing parameters, so to achieve the final result would require, essentially, shipping the workflow for a specific DAW application.ĭepending on how granular someone wants to get, you can break a session for any given pop record into upwards of 60+ channels. Often these mixing and effects parameters is dynamic, changing throughout the song. Then that final drum bus is mixed into the next level. Eg, there might be six mics on a drum kit, and the engineer will work hard to shape the sound mic by mic, changing EQ, reverb, panning, etc, to get the desired effect. Second, most songs have a great deal of post production - effects are applied to dry tracks often groups of tracks are mixed down to a "bus" track, which is then mixed into the next level of the mixing tree. If they shipped on CD a 20 track song you'd get under 10 minutes of music. 74 minutes of music fit on a standard CD. 30+ tracks is not uncommon (though not all tracks are active for the entire song). One is the problem of distribution of the data - until recently when bandwidth has become inexpensive enough it was prohibitive to send all the tracks.