The company added a calibration feature to the Headphone app in the fall of 2019. With this tool, Sony says the software can adjust settings after taking a few photos of your ears. My experience with this has yielded subtle differences from the standard 360 Reality Audio sound, but it’s good. The platform on its own is definitely as immersive as standard stereo tracks.
“Everyone has different hearing characteristics to listen to music over a headphone,” Okazaki said. “How they listen is deeply related to the shape of the ear, which is why we developed the app that recognizes the best hearing characteristics.” Without giving specific figures, he explained that the use of the customization feature has increased tenfold since its launch.
By October 2019, Sony was ready to launch. Unfortunately, it did so with a small content library: the company only collected 1,000 songs at the time. On top of that, it did not have any speakers of its own that supported 360 Reality Audio. The new platform that the masses wanted to evangelize about was only available on his headphones – like the then flagship WH-1000XM3. You also need a high-streaming subscription from Amazon, Tidal or Deezer to access in the first place.
These services did not wait for more haunting tracks. Since Dolby also does something similar with Dolby Atmos Music, the expensive stream levels also give you access to its haunting songs. This of course means you have more songs to choose from, although Dolby’s library is also limited. On the hardware front, Amazon’s Echo Studio was the first speaker to support 360 Reality Audio (it also supports Dolby Atmos Music). At the end of 2019, the Alexa-connected speaker gave a taste of what Sony has been up to – one you can experience in your home.
Billy Steele / Engadget
At CES last year, it looked like Sony was still trying to make 360 Reality Audio a thing. The company had more demonstrations, including a lounge setup with a soundbar and another prototype speaker. The latter will eventually become the SRS-RA3000: the second speaker that Sony launched last week and plans to ship this spring. Once again, the company built captivating demos, but apparently did not have a clear plan to get its haunting sound in the ears of the masses.
After Sony was largely silent on the project for a year, Sony announced its strategy just before CES 2021. The company clearly realizes that limited content selection is a problem (at this point it is only 4,000 tracks), so it offers tools to creators and producers. so they can easily add 360 Reality Audio to their workflows. Sony has partnered with Virtual Sonics to build the 360 Reality Audio Creative Suite, a software plugin that works with existing Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) applications such as Pro Tools. The add-on should be available for use later this month. Dolby is also trying to expand by opening up a bit and giving indie artists access to tools and distribution through a partnership with Pro Tools developer Avid. Both companies are doing this to expand their music library to make the extra investment convincing.
Sony
“As long as there are stems available, or as long as we have multi-band recordings, we can mix them,” explained Jun Makino, senior manager of Sony Home Entertainment and Sound Products. “The mixing process does require the creativity and intention of the artist, so it requires discussions.”
Sony Music Entertainment is the parent company for major record companies such as RCA, Columbia and Epic. The labels are home to Travis Scott, Doja Cat, Harry Styles and many more big names. In other words, Sony is busy these days with artists and producers who make a great deal of new music these days – because it owns several major labels. The company has also expanded the number of studios equipped to record 360 Reality Audio for new recordings. Starting in New York, it now offers capable setup in LA and Nashville, as well as in Germany, the UK and Japan.
Sony is also no longer trying to add 360 Reality Audio content with studio recordings. After all, the idea is to put you in the music, which is why it makes a lot of sense to add live performances – or at least archived concerts on demand – to the pool. The company launched this push with a concert by Zara Larsson this week through the Artist Connection app. As COVID-19 rages, Sony hopes it will be a substitute for personal attendance, as nothing is known when we will be able to return to arenas and other venues. For now, the company is focused on recording live performances for viewing and listening on demand, but the use of the audio format for live dreams and concerts is certainly possible in the future.
“We developed real-time 360 Reality Audio,” Okazaki noted. “It will be available later.” Makino quickly reminded me that many ‘livestreams’ that we all watch from home were actually pre-recorded, but also reiterated that Sony wants to do this to apply the platform to real-time audio.