The Mastering Show ジョナサン・ワイナー氏 インタビュー！iZotope AI機能との向き合い方！

ポイント

• テクノロジーの変化は、避けられない
• 昔に比べ、たくさんのプロセシングを行っても、ノイズなどの音的な問題が減った
• テクノロジーの進化を感じたのが、Lookahead Limiter。アナログ機器は、インプット信号の調節（ゲインステージング）が非常に大事だが、デジタルになって、その幅が大きくなり、レベルをかなり上げてもよくなった。（実際にいい音か、と言うのは別の話）
• 現在最も求められるのは、状況を読む力。近年のラウドネスの問題や、クライアントが欲しいと思えるプロダクト、様々な事を考慮した上で、テクノロジーと接する事。そして、それでいい音に出会えるなら、それは最高のテクノロジーとなる。

”It is inevitable as time goes on, the technology improves so that we can use a heavier hand in signal processing with fewer artifacts than we used to be able to. 

The moment was when we started having the lookahead limiter. Before we had digital limiter in early 90’s, if you pushed as much level into an analog limiter as we do now, it would sound horrible. Nobody would listen to it. And then the digital limiter came along and you could.  We can debate whether or not the artifact of it is unpleasant or how far is too far and all of that, but the fact that of the matter is that you can push level more than you used to be able to and it doesn’t sound as bad. So the technology is always going to let us do more interesting things.

You gotta take everything you’re doing in context. Artistic context (intent), level as it relates to loudness and loss of dynamics, that’s something that needs to be managed in a way it helps the music as opposed to hurt it. And there’s another bunch of other issues like what the clients want but we have to understand in context of what we’re doing and when you understand it, when you’re doing the good work that sounds good, having a great tool is awesome! You’d rather cut a piece of cheese with a sharp knife than the blunt instrument.”

ポイント

• AIの目的は、アシスタントであって、プロセスを完全自動化するものではない
• AIは２つの事を可能にしてくれる。スタート地点の提供と、ミックス・マスタリングの処理方法を教えてくれる存在だ、ということ
• AIが、どういったアプローチをするのか、それを見て勉強するのはアリ
• クリエイティブな作業ができるか、それはあなた次第

”The intention behind the AI is to offer you an intelligent starting point. There’s a very strong commitment to the idea that an assistant should help you with tasks that are easily quantifiable to get you to the good starting point and to leave you at a point where you can start making more interesting and creative decisions, and maybe teach you something about the track that you’re working with. But it’s meant to be assistive and not meant to be automated. People are sometimes inclined to think about this as an automated tool or assistive tool as automated or taking away choices or doing things for us,and that’s absolutely not the intention. I would not suggest that somebody rely on Master Assistant to master the record. It is a great way to get to the great starting point, to get initial thoughts about overall tonal shift, level set.”

ポイント

• 音量レベルが一番高い箇所でMaster Assistant機能を発動
• EQのセッティングは、参考にするけど、オフ
• このAIが自分より優れてると思ったのは、Dynamic EQの設定。ピークポイントを教えてくれ、後のリミッターが、最適なレベルで稼働してくれる
• 結論を言うと、Dynamic EQ、リミッターだけを使用

”And probably the most interesting thing that the Master Assistant does is that, something that I actually rely on the Master Assistant and not to try to do it myself because it’s so good at it, it parks dynamic EQ before the final limiter to pull down some of the resonant peaks in the level of the track before it gets to the limiter so that limiter isn’t working as hard. It’s a neat way to think about the interaction between the input signal and the limiter.

When I use it, I will run it on the track. It’s important that you run it on a fairly dense section of the track so that the limiter is dealing with something that’s top of the dynamic range as opposed to lower because otherwise it’s gonna suggest way too much level into the limiter.

It looks at the level, sets the dynamic EQ. It will apply compression only if there’s a real abration in terms of dynamic range. I would say 80 or 90% of the time, it turns off compression then suggests broad blush stroke EQ. I will listen to the EQ, sometimes I just turn it off or I might find it interesting as a suggestion to what to do but I will turn that off and then pick up from there. I’ve got this preset thats customized for my audio between the limiter and the dynamic EQ, and it’s quite useful.”