Audiomovers: The Remote Revolution
The internet offers a whole world of possibilities for music collaboration. From sharing music, finding musicians to collaborate with, and producers to record your songs, to sharing recording sessions with musicians worldwide. The main limitation has been streaming high-quality audio in real time for professional audio work.
Two decades ago, when real-time streaming audio was needed for feedback or editorial decisions, it was only possible via satellite, or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). These systems, although doable, were not practical and caused many technical issues. Streaming became easier when digital audio became more ubiquitous, and video calls allowed you to send audio from the computer. However, this opened up new problems. Audio data was always in a lossy compressed format, lowering the quality of final recordings, and a huge roundtrip delay made it impossible to sync music from the individual collaborators. The only way around this was sharing files through the cloud or email, then listening and working on them independently. At least, this was the case until 2017, when Audiomovers came into the picture.
Audiomovers
Founded in 2017 by Igor Maxymenko and Yuriy Shevyrov, Audiomovers is an audio software company that allows music professionals to stream, listen and record high-resolution remote audio in real-time.
Yuriy and Igors’ collaboration started when they crossed paths at Waves Audio. These two innovators took their years of experience as high-end audio software engineers and applied it to provide a solution for remote collaboration. That’s how Audiomovers was born.
Their software LISTENTO mimics in-person collaboration and allows thousands of music professionals worldwide to collaborate. From a producer working on a track with their co-writer to a large-scale scoring post-production facility, streaming multichannel audio to multiple listeners simultaneously, anywhere. The solution includes a set of plugins and mobile apps that allow you to listen, perform or even record audio remotely without losing any information in real time. Artists can sing or play their instruments from their home studio while being recorded thousands of miles away in a professional recording facility. It supports multichannel audio and even 7.1 surround sound, which is great for post-production facilities to stream their mixes with clients around the world. All of it without compromising the quality of the audio source and providing the ability to give instant feedback on the job being done.
2020’s Breakthrough
It was in 2020 when Audiomovers’ software became a must-have tool for many audio professionals. The pandemic forced us to find solutions to keep our creativity flowing without compromising the quality of work. Audiomovers gained recognition quickly during this time by meeting the rapidly changing demands of producers, mixers, songwriters and studios needing to collaborate remotely. Studios such as Abbey Road started using the software to share their live recording sessions or post-production sessions with industry professionals worldwide when they couldn’t be together.
For the team here at Abbey Road Institute, Audiomovers quickly became the go-to tool for sharing music between lecturers, guests and students during the pandemic. We could screen share Pro Tools, Logic or Ableton sessions through video calls and stream high-quality audio. This allowed students to do meaningful critical listening and continue their studies remotely. And not only that, the software allowed collaboration between students when we were limited by social distancing. Students were able to use our recording facilities remotely while performing from their home studios, sharing mixes with artists they were working with for instant feedback.
The New Normal
In March 2021, Abbey Road Studios acquired Audiomovers. With over 90% of Abbey Road’s sessions now involving remote connection and the Studio’s history as music tech innovators, the acquisition is a perfect fit. In their own words: “This marked the studio’s entrance into the remote music production universe, setting the foundation for a platform capable of connecting music professionals beyond its iconic physical studios.”
Today, we still use this method of collaboration with our students. It is fantastic to virtually bring in producers and engineers from all around the world as guest lecturers and listen to their work with no quality loss. It also provides a reliable system for our alumni worldwide to collaborate in real time.
To learn more about Audiomovers, watch their video tutorials for lots of practical guidance. You can also read the interview with their founders on Abbey Road’s website and watch Production Expert’s recent interview with the Audiomovers team here at Angel Studios.
