Any thoughts?

Hey guys... im currently in the process of developing a virtual mixing room, if you had the opportunity to handpick the features the studio would allow u to utilize what kinds of things would u include? Just wanted to pick your brains, gain alittle insight...
 
What do you mean by *virtual* mixing room specifically? Is this an actual structure filled with happy audio equipment, or a computer with tons of software on it + an input/mixing board of some sort.
 
Oh, happy, happy, joy joy. :D

OK. Can I start from the assumption that we're talking about a mixing room designed specifically for mixing film audio?

If so, what I'd like to see is for the interface to visually represent the three dimensional illusion created by the movie and then allow me to plot the sound for various speaker configurations.

Basically, if I have a jet plane come in from over the horizon and then fly at fifty feet over my character's head, whilst he screams "Hit the deck"... I'd like to be able to plot the sound's source as it travels in 3D space and have the computer figure out what adjustments need to be made to the sound to create that audio illusion for various speaker set ups. (5.1, THX, basic stereo, TV speakers and a headphone mix)

I think that this would involve having a grid at 90 degrees to the footage, where I can plot the depth of the sound within the sound scape. I'd also have to be able to key frame this, in real time.

I think the best analogy is the Motion interface... but for audio and 3D... and then mix that with all the capabilities and ease of use of something like abelton live 7.

And if you build it, could I have a free beta version for the Mac to test for you? ;)
 
I'd second that bid to beta for you :) I have two different Mac configurations to offer. I don't know what I'd like to see different than soundtrack though...maybe better under smaller RAM configurations. I can choke out my 2Gb machine pretty quickly.
 
The difficulty for anyone designing a virtual studio is Reason already did a fantastic job of creating a studio engineer's mixing desk, including patchbays.

Now, where Reason falls down as an application, is it presupposes that those people who need to manipulate sound professionally come from a Real World studio environment...and therefore need tools that emulate that studio.

In fact, what most film makers really need is an intuitive way of processing sound, which they can use without having a background in sound engineering.

I think that's why Abelton Live is such a great product... it broke the rules in terms of emulation of real world devices and looked at processes.

I also think it's worth being aware of the "three clicks" principle. The guys who developed Palm Pilot worked to the principle that any process should be achievable in three clicks or less.

I really believe that the key to creating an innovative virtual audio studio for film, is about understanding about the interface and what the desired end result the user is aiming for.
 
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