Audionamix: Interview with Little White Lies

Tom Seymour writes for Little White Lies is an Independent Film Magazine. Tom was a real professional in this phone interview. The quality of the questions were clearly superior.
It is a real pleasure to answer smart questions from passionate journalists. This is one of them and when you see the list of people they interviewed, this is even more impressive.

Audionamix: Hans Zimmer and Alan Meyerson use Audionamix Technology to unleash their creativity for "Inception"

Audionamix is proud to have been able to contribute some of its proprietary technology to the creative genius of Hans Zimmer and Alan Meyerson in their work on "Inception" Chris Nolan's new Sci-Fi Thiller, staring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The ADX technology was able to split a specific song into it's atomic stems, thereby providing Alan Meyerson and Hans Zimmer with the raw materials with which to build complex new musical themes that preserve the original recording's essence and interpretations. Mr Zimmer's idea was to take a time proven classic interpretation, dissect it's essential core components, and then forge it into a new audio masterpiece.
From what we have seen and heard, prepare to be amazed!

Audionamix: Scientists in France who make science fiction ?

ZIMMER: [...] We found some scientists in France who could do that for me. So I actually have a pristine, clean version of Miss Piaf singing the song without any backing track. It's a bit like, you know, pulling out one cell out of a DNA of somebody.

Audionamix: The genetics of sound: Audionamix and audio restoration

What do Psycho, the vuvuzela and Inception have in common? They have been enhanced in one way or another by sound separation specialist company Audionamix. Digital2Disc spoke to the company’s CEO, Olivier Attia, about these topical projects.

The vuvuzela, of course, has caused as much comment as the World Cup football where TV viewers first became aware of the instrument. Viewers in France may have lost their enthusiasm for the World Cup but at least they will be able to watch without the sound of the controversial vuvuzela.

Audionamix found a unique solution to eliminate the ritualistic and now famous South African trumpet heard vibrating across the airwaves during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Numerous vuvuzelas playing at the same time produce a constant droning sound or buzz which can be a severe distraction and annoyance to fans viewing the game.

The team focused on removing the sound of only the vuvuzela, and not the joyous celebration of the crowd, by integrating their solution into the broadcasting pipeline. French pay TV channel CANAL+ was the first to integrate the Audionamix solution into their live transmissions of the FIFA World Cup, and Attia told Digital2Disc some of the story behind the solution.

“For the first three days, when we were watching the World Cup with the noise of the vuvuzelas, we all thought that someone would do something about it, but as time went on no-one did,” Attia said. “I asked the team to look for a solution so they went off and came back very quickly with a prototype solution. We approached Canal+ and they not only wanted it, they wanted exclusivity in France so that they could provide what they saw as the best experience for the viewer.”

Audionamix was able to provide the solution to Canal+ within 48 hours, an achievement that Attia admits, while impressive, is what can be expected of the company’s team of highly-qualified engineers, many of whom have PhDs in sound process. “We have been in the business of sound separation for eight years, so while it was challenging, we knew we had an opportunity where we could respond quickly.

“One of the real challenges was not the sound extraction itself but being able to do it in realtime for a broadcast company, who needed a relatable product that could be integrated into broadcast realtime and as fast as possible.”

While other broadcasters were offered the technology, they turned it down, said Attia, on the grounds that they felt that the vuvuzela is a cultural phenomenon and they would prefer to leave it in. “However, we think the vuvuzela will now become a significant part of sports festivities and other occasions and many people will want to be able to experience these occasions without that particular sound.”

The official website definition of the Audiomanix technology (ADX Technology) is that it approaches audio signal analysis as genetics. All audible sound is composed of energy that is allocated in certain patterns in a similar way to cells being determined by their DNA code. ADX Technology determines what the audio DNA for a specific sound is (the ‘learning source’) and then applies it using our various algorithms to extract the specific sound from the full mix.

The analogy that Attia uses is that of some play dough: “If I give my 7-year-old son four different colours of dough to play with he can eventually mould it all together so there is one lump that is a uniform yellowy grey colour. That lump is still made up of those separate colours and in order to return the pieces with their individual colours, you have to be able to separate very tiny fragments. That’s our job, to do that with sound.”

The term ADX technology is partly a way of being able to differentiate: “It is a way for the studios, for instance, to be able to show the viewers that this is the original work in all its glory but with an audio track that has been remastered and enhances the experience.”

Some of the other projects that Audionamix have been involved in are the restoration, for Universal, of the 50th anniversary version of Psycho, which premiered in the Classics section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. That involved taking the mono track and upping it to a 5.1 surround sound system.

“It is the same music and the same sound, but whereas before the music was in front of the viewer, on the screen, now they are immersed in it. It is like a time machine, someone told me: we can take the recording system of the 60s and transpose it into the technology of today.” It is, Attia said, as though the viewer is experiencing the same sound of the orchestra as Bernard Herrmann and Alfred Hitchcock would have enjoyed during the making of the classic movie.

The company also worked with Hans Zimmer, a notable perfectionist, on the music for Chris Nolan’s thriller Inception. “I can’t discuss which particular pieces of music we worked on” said Attia, “but our remit was to take an old piece of music on a mono track and provide a more modern experience of that music for the viewers.”

Inception (“a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind. This summer your mind is the scene of the crime”) will hit the movie theatres on July 16.

A detailed feature on Audionamix and its technology will be published in a future issue of the Digital2Disc printed magazine.

www.audionamix.com

Interview on the BBC

I cannot believe they played the same file during the interview. 

One of the several interviews I gave during the world cup 2010.

Audionamix: Interview about the Vuvuzela Remover on IEEE Radio

When I told Pierre Leveaux that I was interviewed by a journalist from the renowned IEEE, I saw a great smile. For scientists, IEEE is a brand. I am proud to share with you the content of this interview published in IEEE radio.
With the World Cup semifinals fast approaching, football (soccer) fans are all too familiar with the droning B-flat of the vuvuzela horns the South Africans trumpet during games. But if you’re watching the games on the French broadcast channel Canal+, you’ll hear all the yelling and hooting of a true football match, but without the horns. Host Steven Cherry talks to Olivier Attia, CEO of Paris-based Audionamix, the company behind the “Vuvuzela Remover.”


Download the MP3 file here.

Interview on BBC Radio 5 Live

It is 1am in Los Angeles, I barely slept in the Vuvuzela craziness and I have two interviews back to back scheduled with BBC. This is the first one. A couple of minutes before this interview the producer wanted to have a before / after sample of their own from a BBC recording.

The team in Paris worked very quickly to provide this sample. Unfortunately the engineer played twice the same recording.

Download or listen the interview here

This is what should have been heard for the before and after. As usual Simon did a wonderful job.

This is a extract of the email I received from BBC producer:

Hi Olivier,
Thanks for coming on the show this morning - I listened to it and I'm worried we played the wrong clip second time. I'm really sorry if this was the case - it sounded like we just played the same clip twice.
I guess this kind of ruins the story. It wasn't my doing - but I can only apologise if this was the case.

France Info - Les vuvuzelas supprimées électroniquement à la télé

I love this type of long interview and at the end you get a minute of content. This interview was done through Skype! A request from the journalist. 
When I recorded the interview? I was in Los Angeles and it was 2:15 AM! What a night!

Building a brand with Audionamix

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Explaining Psycho