by Pedro Firmino

In this article, we will give you an alternative way of recording and coloring your guitar tone using the ZYLIA ZM-1 microphone by taking advantage of multiple channel recording.

At 25 cm distance, the results were quite flexible to work with, however, if you see clipping happening on the VU meter of ZYLIA Studio, reduce the gain on ZYLIA Control Panel or move the ZM-1 further from the sound source.

​Record your take and take some time to listen to the results. If you’re happy with the tone of the guitar you may proceed to mixing stage, if not here are some options for you:

- increasing distance of the ZM-1 and the guitar for more room tone and less presence.
- positioning ZM-1 closer to neck, giving you more treble and percussive sounds.
- positioning the ZM-1 closer to the soundhole, provides more lower end and less treble.
- using another channel of the ZM-1 recordings to add brighter tone to the mix.

This last option shows one of the great advantages of recording with the ZM-1, which it will be mentioned next.

Using ZYLIA Studio or ZYLIA Studio PRO, you are able to get different tones from your instrument with a single recording due to the multiple channels. It can also be useful if you want to add some reflections from the environment.
After Separating the take, try using the Auto-mix feature. The tone resulting of this feature might surprise you, but if that’s not the case you are always able to mix the tone by controlling the different channel parameters in the MIXER window.

Are you looking for more low end in your tone? Simply adjust the level of the channel correspondent to the microphone closer to the sound-hole of the guitar (In this example Musician 2).

Or perhaps you want more room tone and a wider stereo image of your recording? Increase the levels of the back microphones and apply panning (Musician 4 and 5).

We are happy to share the ProSound News product review featuring ZYLIA hardware and software. 

"Zylia Studio software is surprisingly good and is hands-down the easiest way I’ve encountered to record multiple musicians in a single room."

"Recording with the ZM-1 is an enjoyable process, and the quality is surprisingly good. Tracks are natural and smooth, and the isolation between instruments is impressive."

​What would happen if on a rainy and cloudy day, during a walk along a forest path, you could move into a completely different place thousands of kilometers away from you? Putting the goggles on would get you into a virtual reality world, you would find yourself on a sunny island in the Pacific Ocean, you would be on the beach, admiring the scenery and walking among the palm trees listening to the sound of waves and colorful parrots screeching over your head.
​
It sounds unrealistic, but such goals are determined by the latest trends in the development of Augmented / Virtual Reality technology (AR / VR). Technology and content for full VR or 6DoF (6 Degrees-of-Freedom) rendered in real time will give the user the opportunity to interact and navigate through virtual worlds. To experience the feeling of "full immersion" in the virtual world, realistic sound must also follow a high-level image. Therefore, only each individual sound source present in virtual audio landscape provided to the user as a single object signal can reliably reflect both the environment and the way the user interacts with it.

There are many possibilities of using a 6DoF VR technology. You can imagine exploring a movie plan in your own pace. You could stroll between the actors, look at the action from different sides, listen to any conversations and paying attention to what is interesting only for you. Such technology would provide really unique experiences.

​A wide spectrum of virtual reality applications drives the development of technology in the audio-visual industry. Until now, image-related technologies have been developing much faster, leaving the sound far behind. We have made the first attempts to show that 6DoF for sound is also achievable.

​It's extremely challenging to record high-quality sound from many sources present in the sound scene at the same time. We managed to do this using nine ZYLIA ZM-1 multi-track microphone arrays evenly spaced in the room.

In our experiment the sound field was captured using two different spatial arrangements of ZYLIA ZM-1 microphones placed within and around the recorded sound scenes. In the first arrangement, nine ZYLIA ZM-1 microphones were placed on a rectangular grid. Second configuration consisted of seven microphones placed on a grid composed of equilateral triangles.

​Microphone signals were captured using a personal computer running GNU/Linux operating system. Signals originating from individual ZM-1 arrays were recorded with the specially designed software. 

​We recorded a few takes of musical performance with instruments such as an Irish bouzouki (stringed instrument similar to the mandolin), a tabla (Indian drums), acoustic guitars and a cajon.

To present interesting possibilities of using audio recorded with multiple microphone arrays we have created a Unity project with 7 Ambisonics sources. In this simulated environment, you will find three sound sources (our musicians) represented by bonfires among whom you can move around. Experiencing fluent immersive audio becomes so natural that you can actually feel being inside of this scene.

​During exploration experiments, MPEG Standardization Committee has realized that there is a lack of test material for audio and video experiments into MPEG-I Immersive Video. Our recordings have been accepted as a reference material in MPEG Standardization Committee. Each of the experts involved in standardization works on MPEG-I can now use the Zylia recordings to develop and test audio technologies for VR/AR applications. 

It took us some time to develop ZYLIA. Finally, we are almost there, we are very close to saying that we made it. We want to share with you some insights of this long but very exciting way of product development.

It all started as a research project in Poland in 2012. Piotr Szczechowiak and Tomasz Żernicki, ZYLIA co-founders, very quickly came up with an idea for a product applying innovative technology they were developing. Soon thereafter a product roadmap was defined and the ambition to develop a new innovative tool, with the potential to change how musicians and audio creators work, became a reality. 

More than 10 generations of hardware prototypes were made. They all came through endless acoustic tests. Parallel to hardware development digital signal processing algorithms and software was developed. 

​Fig. Tests with musicians and sound engineers.

Years of our expertise in audio processing, music recording, and hardware design has been packed into this unique and innovative device. At the end, we also paid a great attention to the final design of a product. It is also important to surround yourself with nice and good-looking things.
Every detail of the ZYLIA ZM-1 reflects the cutting-edge technology and simplicity with elegant product design.

Fig. Pre-production design.