Professional mixing and mastering of recorded audio is a challenging task. The process involves creating a mix that performs well across various listening environments, which can be quite cumbersome. With existing tools, audio engineers must render the audio, test it in different settings, and then remix it. This iterative process continues until the audio track is completed. The introduction of 3D spatial audio has further complicated matters, resulting in even more complex and varied mixes due to different speaker configurations. To address this, we propose an application that enables users to stream their mix in spatial audio to another location: MixShare. By doing so, the mix can be evaluated simultaneously in multiple listening environments without the need for rendering and re-mixing.
MixShare is made up of two individual applications: The host app and the client app. The host app is a multi-input and output virtual effect that can be hosted by a DAW. Specific audio channels can be bused in and out of the host to be heard individually. The client app is a stand-alone application. When a user changes one of the parameters on the host app, an interrupt will stream the change to the client and vice versa. This ensures that mix parameters are synchronized between the two applications.
Each channel bi-directionally streams gain and Dolby Atmos Music Panner information. This allows for realtime interaction between host and client.
We came up with 6 desirable features that a collaborative mixing app should have. We compare our application with other past collaborative mixing applications using these features.