New multi-track format may supplant MP3
updated 10:50 am EDT, Mon May 26, 2008
Music 2.0 Audio Format
A new audio format in the works could provide much more flexibility for both listening and editing to music, according to its creators. Developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute and put into public use as Music 2.0 by Audizen, the MT9 standard would provide six audio channels for different instruments, similar to multi-track recording at a studio. Listeners could separately adjust the volume for each track to either balance out audio quality or alter the track for specific purposes: karaoke singers could mute vocals to use their own, while remix artists could selectively drop out certain parts of the track without needing access to the master recordings.
While already in use for a small number of newer albums, classics are also available as long as the original tracks are available for a digital conversion, MT9's backers note. The current MT9 format is also copy protection-free and so can easily be swapped between devices.
Both Audizen and ETRI have passed the standard to the Motion Picture Experts Group, which is responsible for certifying all MPEG audio and video formats and is reportedly considering making MT9 an official format that could be supported by any device. LG and Samsung have already committed to adding support to the media players in cellphones and could have phones with the necessary support by early 2009. [via Korea Times]
QT?
05/26, 08:44pm reply
QuickTime has allowed this for at least 15 years now. As many tracks as you want, many different Codecs, lots of options. Not sure what this "new" format is introducing...
derbbre
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2000
Editing in GarageBand
05/26, 09:44pm reply
What would be good about this format is if it a CD recorded using this format could be imported into GarageBand as separate tracks so you can edit it and remix it etc. Something tells me this will happen on a cold day in h***.
lowededwookie
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2008
Re: QT
05/26, 11:37pm reply
Well, for one, it is just one codec, not a mess of many different ones which you may or may not have support for on your platform.
Oh, and it's open. I guess you don't consider that different, either?
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
Quicktime is open
05/27, 04:57am (1 reply) reply
Testudo - last time I looked the Quicktime container format was an open standard supported by the MPEG group (and loosely known as MP4).
If MT9 is 'just a codec' then it will still need a container format anyway (which allows you to, say, have a H264 video track and an MT9 audio, which would be very useful for Singstar type games).
AAC is also open, and copy-protection free. Fairplay is a DRM scheme that is wrapped around files, whether AAC or H264.
But people delight in confusing these things together, to imply Apple are using some whole proprietary system, rather than just a proprietary DRM system - when there is no such thing as a standard DRM system.
JulesLt
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2005
re: QT is open
05/27, 09:34am reply
people delight in confusing these things together
especially clueless PC fanbois, Jobs-haters, and testurdo.
climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2001
to clarify
05/27, 09:43am reply
H.264, MPEG-II Layer 3 (MP3), and MT9 are all codecs; QuickTime is not a codec. It is a 'container' into which one can 'pour' media encoded by any of these codecs (among several others). QuickTime itself also happens to allow multiple audio tracks. So, conceivably, one could 'pour' a multi-track MT9 file in a QuickTime 'container' and deliver it as QT. The alternative would be to bypass MT9 and just use QT's multi-track capability to deliver the separated audio tracks. The difference would be that the former would not necessarily require the QT container.
climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2001
iklax mulitrack format
07/08, 10:05am reply
Lots of bable here... Please don't confuse "channels" and "tracks".
Now a real multitrack audio format, the iKlax, shows some promise for our ears in the future offering lots of possibilities for artists' creativity.
Its not a codec... see for yourself (http://www.iklax.com)
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
iklax mulitrack format
07/08, 10:05am reply
Lots of bable here... Please don't confuse "channels" and "tracks".
Now a real multitrack audio format, the iKlax, shows some promise for our ears in the future offering lots of possibilities for artists' creativity.
Its not a codec... see for yourself (http://www.iklax.com)
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999