It feels important to start by noting that the COVID pandemic this year certainly set a new path for the world, and our industry, that no one could have expected. Despite all that 2020 has brought, we are hopeful that 2021 can only be vastly improved. Over the past several months, we’ve seen innovation and development occur at a pace beyond any before, opening the door for endless creativity in the New Year.
Before the pandemic, streaming media was skyrocketing and, since March, its trajectory has been astounding. From Netflix and Disney+ to YouTube and Spotify, content — albeit quite different — is being made available (and consumed) at impressive rates. Even more noteworthy, of course, are the innovative ways in which it is being done. Television shows have been shot and produced from living rooms, music is being recorded in spare bedrooms and all of this is posted from the comforts of people’s homes. We expect this creativity will continue to barrel along in the early months of 2021.
At Nugen, we’ve been working tirelessly on new software solutions that will benefit not only the TV and film production market, but all facets of audio post. Our most recent offering — a convolution reverb software known as Paragon — is a perfect solution for people editing audio captured at home. Already receiving rave reviews from mixers, engineers and producers around the world, Paragon offers full control of the decay, room size and brightness via state-of-the-art re-synthesis modeled on 3D recordings of real spaces.
This technology analyzes, decomposes and re-synthesizes 3D impulse responses to create new, authentic spaces. That means, when editors are sent audio from different artists and actors, regardless of equipment and environment during capture, they can provide a final cohesive package that sounds as though it was recorded simultaneously. With this solution, editors can take at-home productions to an entirely-new level.
As a company, we are looking forward to providing more tools and product updates that will support an even greater range of needs, while simultaneously working with our existing customers to develop their skills and enhance their projects. As everyday people, we simply just cannot wait for the world to get back to normal — even if that means something totally different than what we were used to.
Dr. Paul Tapper is the CEO of Nugen Audio (https://nugenaudio.com), based in
Leeds, UK.