Zylia Takes Portable 360-Degree Recording to New Territory With Tablet-Based Control of Its ZM-1 Microphone

"Field recordings can yield unique audio samples that bring terrific character and richness to a variety of applications," says Tomasz Żernicki, co-founder and chief technology officer of Zylia. "Sound engineers use the ZM-1 for ambient sound recording in the field and to create spatial soundscapes. Musicians heading to outdoor concerts and jam sessions use the microphone to capture live shows and one-of-a-kind collaborations. Now requiring only the microphone and tripod, a tablet, and headphones, field recording with the ZM-1 is unbelievably simple and convenient.

Originally designed for multitrack simultaneous recording of bands and musical ensembles, sound engineers, podcasters, and audio creatives have discovered the potential of working with the ZYLIA ZM-1 spherical microphone array for 3D audio, Ambisonics, and virtual reality, and the company has been supporting those possibilities with new software tools that provide the required control features in such applications. 

Apart from being one of the most affordable spherical microphone arrays in the market, the ZYLIA ZM-1 is an incredibly light, compact, and beautifully designed recording solution capable of delivering 48 kilohertz/24-bit resolution while capturing the full spatial sound scene. Boasting 19 high-quality digital MEMS microphones, the spherical array together with software can auto-detect sound sources from around the microphone and capture that sound as separate tracks for further editing on a digital audio workstation.

Setting up tablet control over the ZM-1 is straightforward. Users need only install the ZYLIA ZM-1 Windows 10 driver (www.zylia.co/zylia-pro.html) and ZYLIA Studio software on a tablet equipped with a 64-bit processor and 64-bit Windows operating system. Once the ZYLIA Studio application is activated, the system is ready to go. The recording workflow is no different than with a laptop or PC. Users just set up the ZM-1 microphone in the desired location, plug the microphone into the tablet using a USB cable (and microUSB adapter if necessary), open ZYLIA Studio, and begin recording.
  Recordings can be processed with the ZYLIA Ambisonics Converter plugin. Users can convert audio samples to 3rd-order Ambisonics and perform further processing if needed. Zylia software even enables users to fine-tune the position of a sound scene to reflect a particular camera position. The company produced a very simple video of an actual location recording with the tablet control to illustrate the possibilities. Available here.
www.zylia.co