New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Elk, developers of the world's fastest, award-winning Elk Audio Operating
System (OS), has begun piloting its new Aloha by Elk service with professional musicians, capturing the real-time, remote collaboration of artists
Simon Little, Sharooz Raoofi and Tom Varrall. With the mission to connect every musician and musical instrument, Aloha digitizes the live interaction in sync from different locations, connecting artists in real time for an immersive creative experience. Collaborating for the first time together Little, Raoofi and Varrall experimented with the capabilities of Aloha's low latency service while dispersed across London, noting the outstanding sound quality and fidelity with uncompressed audio providing opportunities for artists to collaborate and record remotely as if they were playing together in the same room.
Sharooz, who is a producer, sound designer and software synthesizer developer that has worked with industry legends, Moby,
Robyn and
Howard Jones, offers his initial insights collaborating through Aloha, "The fact that Aloha doesn't compress the sound like other technologies and there is no delay, made it real easy to collaborate," Sharooz adds. "It's an incredibly cool and profoundly professional application. The sound quality is so good - it has the power to bring musicians together who may not have been able to collaborate and record together because of time and distance or in today's case, a pandemic."
Little, a sound designer, musician and composer who has worked with iconic brands such as Bose, Nike, and Mercedes on musical direction and experiential events and films, adds his thoughts on the Aloha experience, "It was the perfect test for this type of technology because as a group, we have met face to face only once. So to test Aloha on the merits of true remote collaboration was perfect and it worked incredibly well. I'm critical with sound quality and fidelity and very impressed with how well the interface works and with the overall sound."
Aloha's pocket-size device and app combines the lightning-fast performance of Elk Audio OS with a powerful audio processor to keep remote users in sync with an uncompressed, high-quality audio experience. The Aloha device, which is purpose-built for low latency and stability, plugs into a standard router and has audio inputs for instruments and microphones and outputs for headphones or speakers. The app provides the video chat, audio controls and option to live stream. Elk Audio CEO and Founder Michele Benincaso explains the magic behind Aloha, "The Aloha app allows the users to control the experience and provides the familiar video chat interface while the Aloha device, which is an audio interface, converts the audio into code and sends it over the network where it meets your bandmates box so you can jam in sync. It's a real time stream of uncompressed audio that goes peer to peer, making it incredibly efficient and an outstanding experience."
Aloha by Elk comes at a time when brands are looking to reinvent the live performance, opening up opportunities beyond collaboration.
Little explains, "There are so many possibilities with a service like Aloha. Any string recording session I have done - I have had to be there for the whole day minimum. Something of this quality and that is this stable could make it possible for me to do professional recordings from my home studio without having to spend the time or cost traveling. I could be in a session in the control room collaborating with an artist - who is located somewhere else - in real time. You cannot do that on Zoom or on the phone. It just doesn't work. Aloha is one of those technologies that as soon as people realize you can collaborate creatively and easily - the whole world opens up. This could change how studios work in the future."
Sharooz echoes the comments on future opportunities. "There is currently no solution in existence where you can do everything Aloha will do so easily. Add in that it is so accessible, and will be even more so when 5G hits, making it invaluable. I would recommend it to anyone who does anything creative and collaborative. This isn't just for music, but also for personal musical connections."
Benincaso concludes, "The pandemic has profoundly impacted the music industry, throwing the live creative collaboration aspect of it into crisis. Aloha can help artists overcome the social distance hurdles and once again practice, perform, record, and share with the world their creativity."
About the Artists
Simon Little is a highly experienced expert in audio and sound design. Specialising in musical direction and production for experiential events, his projects have taken him across the World, working with agencies and directly with brands including Bose, Nike, Mercedes, Johnnie Walker, HP,
Stella Artois Tate Modern, and many more. Learn more at https://simonlittle.co and www.littleredstudios.co.uk.
Sharooz Raoofi is a UK-based electronic music artist, producer and sound designer. His work has appeared on a variety of record labels such as Modular, Fool's Gold and Record Makers. Sharooz is also a founder of various electronic music ventures including sound design company Audiaire, Sample Magic, Attack Magazine, record label La Bombe and the Principle Pleasure recording studio in Los Angeles. He has remixed a range of artists including Moby,
Robyn and
Howard Jones.
Tom Varrall is a musician, producer, and teacher based in London. He tours and records with Jamie Cullum, Wilkinson,
David Rodigan and others. He is currently working on a free improvisation project and accompanying education project.
Elk plans to launch a limited Aloha open beta program in Q4 2020. For more information please visit alohabyelk.com.
About Elk
Elk is a Stockholm based company that develops technologies enabling a new generation of connected musical instruments and audio devices. Elk's ambition is to create new ways to bridge the gap between musicians and technology, changing how to learn, create, record and share music.
Aloha is a groundbreaking new service from Elk that lets you play music together live from different locations, even though you're miles apart.
