The Automix Technology
The secret weapon for websites such as Spotify, Apple/Beats music, Pandora, Deezer...?
   
  Two problems that every music streaming service have :

1. Providing music is not enough

Why paying $10 per month for a music streaming service, when listening to the same music on Youtube is free? People don’t necessarily see the point since Youtube is still by far the largest online music source according to several market studies.

Therefore, to justify their higher prices, streaming music services must offer more than just music with add-ons such as : discovery tools, smart radios, social features, smartphone access, offline mode…

2. Music streaming is a crowded market

Everyone agrees that music streaming is a big part of the future of music. It is so clear that an impressive number of players popped up last years, including very powerful brands such as : Spotify, Apple/Beats, Google music, Pandora, Deezer, Rdio, Amazon music, Xbox music...

The problem is that all these great services provide more or less the same offer. Therefore, the key of success is to differentiate from the others!



Our contribution to help solving these problems is the automix technology !

The automix technology is a unique technology which generates amazing transitions between songs by imitating the behavior of a real DJ.

It turns any playlist into a seamless mix. It greatly enhances webradios. It boosts user engagement by making them feel someone is mixing the songs just for them. Great transitions really add value to music especially in parties, in bars or while listening to music at work.



So what the automix does exactly ?

To generate amazing song transitions, the automix algorithm is actually a combination of several actions and algorithms, here is the details :

All actions Detailed info
1. it mixes the songs at the right moment Exactly like a real DJ, the automix algorithm will decide the right moment to fade-in the next song and to fade-out the current song. For this, the song structures and the beat patterns of both songs are analyzed. The next song is not picked by the automix algorithm, you are in charge of providing it when the algorithm will ask for it.
 
2. it plays both songs together for a while Between songs, the automix algorithm generates long transitions from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. The transition duration depends of both songs and is automatically detected by default. This transition duration can also be tuned manually. The song transitions are not precomputed, it is a real-time process.
 
3. it synchronizes the beats and the melodies During the long transitions, both songs are played at the same time. The magic power of the DJ and the automix algorithm is to synchronize the beats but also the melodies together (the 4/4 downbeat). During 2 years, we developed one of the most powerful "beatsync" algorithm in the world which gives extreme reliability and accuracy with any kind of music. Our beatsync algorithm is (secretly) used in a couple leading DJ softwares.
 
4. it adjusts the tempo of the songs without altering their tones Syncing two songs together implies to adjust the speed of them. To avoid any "mickey mouse" effect, we developed in-house one of most efficient realtime "timestretch" algorithm which allows to adjust the tempo of the songs without altering their tones. This algorithm relies on advanced signal processing and is merged with the beatsync algorithm for a better result.
 
5. it normalizes the perceived volume By nature, the perceived volume between songs differs. Some songs feel louder, some feel quieter. This comes from the fact that the human ear is much more complex than a microphone. The science of the sound perception is called psychoacoustic. The automix algorithm also integrates a top-notch loudness normalization algorithm which automatically adjusts the volume between songs in order to maintain a constant perceived loudness.
 
6. it smartly crossfades Crossfading is the linked action of fade-in one track and fade-out one other. All DJ mixers integrated a crossfader. The crossfader is more complex than it looks because it relies on a so called "crossfading curve" which is computed for maintaining a constant power during a full crossfading. Our automix algorithm implements a crossfading curve which can be found on the best DJ mixers.



The automix technology can be integrated into any application !

Because it is a standalone module (it doesn't rely on any external API), the automix can be integrated into any application on any platform :
> iOS, Android, HTML5, Flash, MacOS, Windows...

The source code is provided and any modifications or improvements can be done to fit your integration.



Why our automix algorithm is so unique ?

As described, the automix technology is a combination of several complex algorithms (song structure analysis, beat synchronization, timestretch, volume normalization...). Because all these algorithms are so specific, the only way to have them is to develop them in-house, there is no way to buy them. This requires to have some very skilled signal processing engineers around and this also requires a couple of years of research.

With 12 years experience in signal processing applied to DJ technologies and 7 years experience in web audio, we are one of these few actors which has been able to develop all these technologies and to combine them into a single product, specially made for online music streaming.
We are also very passionate about what we do and we really took the automix as a technical challenge.



We will sell the automix to one company only

Because the automix technology aims to solve the differentiation problem above, we will sell the automix technology to one company only !

So which player will have it? We will see...



Finally, listen to the automix technology in action !

 



back to the main site...

 
© iWebDJ 2007-2019