Apple Music launches DJ mixes in Spatial Audio, exclusive mix from Jeff Mills
Apple Music today have announced the launch of DJ mixes in Spatial Audio, available to stream on Apple Music for the first time.
Boiler Room sessions from Boys Noize, Benji B, India Jordan and FJAAK also made available in Spatial Audio
The news marks another step in Apple’s continued embrace of the DJ mix format, following a program launched last year that saw mixes made officially available to stream on Apple Music for the first time, with the correct track identification and compensation involved.
Additionally, Apple announced the relaunch of their One Mix series, celebrating the occasion with a mix, available to stream in Spatial Audio, from techno pioneer Jeff Mills. Titled the Outer to Inner Atmosphere: The Escape Velocity Mix, it’s said to be “conceptualised and designed to stimulate the listeners’ three dimensional senses and sensations using the subject and idea of breaking Earth’s gravitational pull and leaving the planet.” Not your average techno mix, then.
“The response to Spatial Audio from both subscribers and creators has been incredible, and we’re thrilled to expand this innovation in sound,” commented Apple Music’s Stephen Campbell. “It’s an honour to have Jeff Mills create our first One Mix in Spatial Audio. He is a generational icon and a true techno pioneer.”
In addition, Apple Music have made 15 Boiler Room mixes available in Spatial Audio. Captured in nightclubs, raves and festivals across the globe, these have been remastered in Dolby Atmos, and feature performances from The Blessed Madonna, HAAi, FJAAK, Object Blue, India Jordan, Boys Noize and more.
Fiedler Audio has introduced Spacelab, a 3D spatial audio production plug-in that they say combines state-of-the-art reverb, 3D-panning, and spatialization in one plug-in.
The plug-in treats incoming audio as objects, which are positioned in the space of a virtual room. That room creates a “stunning reverberation” of the objects. The objects, plus their reverb, can then be rendered to any output format, ranging from stereo up to any 3D-audio format, be it for speakers or for headphones via binaural rendering.
Spacelab is also fully compatible with Dolby Atmos and MPEG-H workflows.
Spacelab can be used as a classic send and return reverb effect, but the object-based approach unlocks Spacelab’s full capabilities for workflow and for sound design.
Providing easy control over object positioning and a virtual “listener”, which can be moved around freely, Spacelab facilitates creative workflows for music, film, broadcast, VR/AR, games, etc. Rendering the reverb for each object individually, depending on its position, creates a unique sonic landscape with amazing detail and realism which is impossible to generate with a channel-based reverb.
Preview On Headphones
The internal binaural renderer of Spacelab can be used for monitoring as well as for production. Any speaker layout can be rendered to headphones, enabling mixers to monitor and work anywhere. Producing for binaural reproduction provides every producer and musician with the opportunity to start projects with 3D-audio and distribute later to everyone, even in mp3 or AAC.
Spacelab comes in two versions:
Spacelab Ignition supports up to 24 independent objects and is designed to make it easy to get started with 3D audio.
Spacelab Interstellar supports up to 256 independent audio objects in space. The reverb section provides a unique spectral EQ to shape the reverb sounds in detail and also provides unique features like “spread in space“ which lets the creator define the size of audio objects in space.
Martin Rieger, a renowned expert for immersive media, specializing in XR with 3D spatial audio spent already some quality time with Spacelab and told us: “What makes Spacelab outstanding is that it is so easy to use on the one hand and can be so complex on the other. The innovative workflow allows creative possibilities and combinations that I don’t know from any other tool. Due to Spacelab, I gained new inspiration about mixing in 3d space and had a blast during the whole process”
Key Features (Interstellar):
High-end algorithmic reverb developed by the experts at the renowned Fraunhofer IIS, the inventors of mp3
Realistic room simulation, from small boxes to huge venues
Any format from mono to full sphere 3D-audio
Quick access to all essential parameters
Spectral and spatial sculpting of the reverb tail with the Spatial EQ
Reverb time is separately adjustable on 9 frequency bands
Individual early reflection patterns for each object depending on its position, continuously changing when an object moves through space
Object-based 3D-panner
Positioning of objects around the listener in the virtual room
Record movement with the mouse as automation
3D-view for the best overview of object arrangement
Virtual listener with 6 degrees of freedom, perfect for film and VR/AR
Individual dry/wet and spread for each source
Rendering
Up to 256 inputs (objects) and outputs
Arbitrary speaker layouts with up to 256 speakers
Full sphere binauralizer, monitor through, and produce for headphones
Classic mode for send/return
Object mode for object-based mixing
Ultra-realistic rendering of object motion and corresponding reverb changes
Workflow
Automate snapshots to switch between different reverb settings throughout your session
Dynamic automation for simplifying complex automation of hundreds of parameters
Create individual speaker layouts with the speaker layout editor
Use the Spacelab Beam plugin to bypass any routing limitation of your DAW and send audio from anywhere into Spacelab
MPEG-H Exporter plugin (optional)
Export your work in the MPEG-H production format for further processing and publishing for object-based music applications.
Spacelab Tutorial Videos:
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Spacelab Interstellar is available now $669/Euro 599, and Spacelab Ignition for $279. Fiedler Audio is offering Spacelab Ignition for a special introduction price of Euro 149,/ $169, until May 18th, 2022.
Mystic Circuits has introduced IDUM, a gate processing effect for Eurorack systems that promise to make creating IDM (intelligent dance music) easy.
Making complex electronic music with a modular can require a large system and a level of expertise beyond the reach of many modular users. Mystic Circuit says that IDUM puts making IDM “into the hands of people with average intelligence.”
And, if you do happen to be a brainiac, IDUM is based on open-source code and Arduino-based hardware, so you can go wild bending the module to your will.
IDUM acts like an effects processor for the sequences that run through it. The module manipulates the gates and sequences of connected modules, but with a level of playability normally inaccessible to a sequencer. IDUM can vary carefully crafted sequences or turn your music into an onslaught of controlled chaos.
IDUM has eight effect modes:
HOLD – Alter the length of incoming triggers.
BURST – Generates a ratcheting effect with timing determined by the clock.
MULTIPLY/DIVIDE – Generates a ratcheting effect with timing determined by incoming triggers.
BALL – Generates a bouncing ball effect.
ROTATE – scrambles the connections of inputs and outputs.
DELAY – postpones incoming gates by a dynamic amount of time based on incoming triggers.
BREAK – preset rhythms that turn incoming triggers into breakbeats.
SKIP – manipulates the clock output to multiply the clock speed or skip forward multiple steps.
In addition to these modes, IDUM features an eight step looper that loops incoming gates as well as any effects that were active on those steps.
To control when IDUM’s effects are active, the CHANCE slider sets the likelihood that on a given step an effect will activate and the LENGTH slider sets how many steps the effect will last for. The PARAM knob controls a parameter unique to each effect while the MODE knob selects the mode. All of these controls as well as the LOOP status have their own CV modulation inputs.
Unique to IDUM is its ability to manipulate external sequencers using the clock output. This includes functions like: pausing the clock when an effect is active for dynamic clock division, skipping forwards or multiplying the speed of the clock in SKIP mode, and looping a sub-section of sequencer steps in the looper. To keep everything tamed while manipulating the clock, the CYCLE switch will send out bursts of clocks to catch your sequencer up with its original sequencer position after an effect has completed.
