Recording a musical performance usually requires audio engineering knowledge and a lot of equipment such as microphones, cables, stands, mixers and sound recording devices. Not only the equipment is expensive but it also takes time to set it up properly. When musicians are just jamming or trying a new song it would be great to have it recorded but musicians often choose to use a smartphone to record the rehearsal, or simply record with one single microphone, which captures too much ambience and will never sound right because whatever was closer to the microphone or playing louder muffles everything else. Unfortunately, that recorded material is not useful in further post-processing.
Even on the studio, sometimes having a quick recording solution that provides different tracks for different sources can be a lifesaver. Musicians could greatly benefit if there was an easy tool to record rehearsals, capturing the moment when inspiration comes or the band hits a magical moment - and if that material would be available in useful a way, with instruments or musicians recorded on separate tracks.
ZYLIA was developed to fil that gap. It’s an integrated audio recording system which packs 19 microphone capsules into one compact device, combined with recording software and a cloud processing service. A spherical microphone that can simply be placed among musicians to record rehearsals or everything that happens around it. Cloud processing extracts tracks of the individual instruments and vocals and the user is able to mix the session to produce a demo recording ready for sharing.The concept starts with the ZYLIA ZM-1 spherical microphone array which is portable and ready to set up in seconds. It’s patented sound-source separation technology and audio processing service isolates each instrument in a music piece. No cables lying around and no complicated setups. The solution can be carried anywhere and moved around freely. No need for a separate microphone for every band member, and still any recording becomes available with individual tracks for all the audio sources.
The ZYLIA Portable Recording Studio solution supports an unlimited number of simultaneously recorded tracks / sources, with automatic separation of recorded sound sources and automatic removal of background noises done via cloud processing. A MacOS, or Linux (Windows on development) computer, running the ZYLIA software, is able to create, cut and store recordings, with an Internet connection needed to extract individual instruments into separate tracks. The same software is used to create a balanced recording by mixing individual instruments and produce stereo tracks in WAV or export tracks to any DAW software.
The ZYLIA ZM-1 microphone array allows recording an unlimited number of simultaneously recorded tracks / sources, with automatic separation of recorded sound sources and automatic removal of background noises. Recording with this multi microphone array generates something like 3 Gigabytes per hour using lossless (FLAC) compression at 44.1 kHz, 16 bit, or 500MB per hour using MP3 at 44.1, 16 bit. FLAC compression is necessary for transmission of all the 20-channel signals to the cloud while stereo recording can be generated locally in uncompressed WAV files, 16/24 bit 44.1 to 96 kHz.
The microphone uses 24 bit A/D conversion, configurable for 44.1 kHz / 48 kHz / 96 kHz sampling rates and allows recording also in 24-bit/96kHz FLAC or a RAW signal in WAV/PCM format, using an USB 2.0 interface. The USB connection to a Mac or PC also powers the ZM-1 microphone array.
The microphone array can be adjusted for -12dB to +32dB (0.5dB steps) gains, while the capturing pattern is software-defined, allowing to point the microphone in any direction in the surrounding 3D space with automatic control of spatial/frequency characteristics depending on separation type and using an unlimited number of “virtual microphones”.
The system configuration can be automatic or manual. Users can choose sound sources in the space by playing individual instrument in sequence (semiautomatic calibration) or can run fully automatic calibration. The number of “virtual” sources and tracks is the result of all the channels that are sent through the USB cable to a computer, with processing done one the cloud, allowing for an unlimited number of virtual microphones.
This allows musicians - duos, trios, quartets or larger ensembles - to create and rehearse songs on the road, in hotel rooms, anywhere. Rehearsals in the garage or recording sessions in the studio; teachers and students in music classes; creating a personal archive or preserving a live concert, in every situation the ZYLYA Portable Recording Studio becomes a convenient solution.Zylia’s research and development team combines software, services and applications, multimedia and signal processing, and networking expertise, and has participated in multiple research projects founded by European Commission (EU FP7 programme), EUREKA and the Polish Government (NCN, NCBiR). The ZYLIA Portable Recording Studio is now available for pre-order through the company’s website.
zylia.co
