Contact: Giovanni Lamb
Eventide
201-641-1200
glamb@eventide.com

GET ANGRY FOR NOTHING

LITTLE FERRY, NEW JERSEY, April 1st, 2014 - You're angry. And you have a right to be. So you record a song to show just how angry you are. You listen back and, yes, you nailed it. At least you feel you did. But maybe, just maybe, it's not angry enough. Or, maybe it's too angry? Is your anger clouding your judgment? Face it, it wouldn't be the first time. So, you play it for a friend. He agrees. He says "Man, you nailed it!" But you know you can't trust him; you never could. So what now? Where do you turn?

Eventide has the answer. Today, Eventide announced the availability of a new, free plug-in called "Angry." Angry is a plug-in that analyzes the emotional content of music by measuring, in real time, the tempo, spectral components, dynamics and musical key to create a multi-dimensional signature of your song. It then compares that signature to a database created by people rating angry songs - lots and lots of angry songs. People just like you.

"Until now you'd have to rely on your 'gut' to tell you if your song is as angry as you think it is. But the gut is a fickle thing. Especially if you're in a bad mood," said Eventide spokesperson, Giovanni Lamb. "Eventide's Angry plug-in applies cold, calculating science to the task of measuring the emotional content of your music," continued Lamb. "With Angry, you'll know exactly how it feels."

Industry analyst, Josef Polka, commented, "It's sad that a company with a sterling reputation like Eventide's would even consider such a pathetic, weak-minded enterprise. It's as if Eventide is now being run by George Costanza. Frankly, I suggest that they next work on a plug-in to help them make better decisions. I'm angry."

Angry is now available for free. It is not copy protected and can be downloaded without entering an email address or any other personal information. Installers for Mac AU/VST/AAX 32/64-bit and Windows VST/AAX 32/64-bit can be found here:

Angry Installers
Angry 32 bit / 64 bit AU for Mac
Angry 32 bit / 64 bit VST for Mac
Angry Native AAX for Mac
Angry 32 bit VST for Windows
Angry 64 bit VST for Windows
Angry Native AAX for Windows

Is this a joke?
Yes and no. Well it is April Fools' Day! While, on the one hand, Angry is an arguably misguided attempt at humor, it is in fact a real, working plug-in that attempts to measure the degree of 'anger' in a musical passage. The algorithm underlying the analysis is certainly no joke. The analysis is complicated and the algorithm has undergone extensive training.

What is Angry?
Angry is one of the four emotions measured by Eventide's Mood plug-in. The others are 'Calm', 'Happy', and 'Sad'.

Can Angry be fooled?
Yes. The algorithm has been trained by people listening to pop and rock songs and rating their emotional response. Through this 'training' a database has been created. When the plug-in encounters a new song, it performs an analysis and compares the result to the entries in the database. The result is only as good as the training allows. With additional training the results will improve.

Angry claims to be real time so why, when I run it, is there a lag?
The lag is unavoidable. The algorithm needs to 'listen' to a couple of seconds of audio before it can determine the mood. In fact, so do you.

What is Mood?
Mood is a plug-in that attempts to answer the question "How does it feel?" by analyzing a song's key, spectral content, tempo, dynamics, etc. to create a set of 'descriptors' which are then compared to a database. The database has been populated by people (OK, mainly by us) listening to and rating pop songs. Mood displays, in real time, the relative intensity of four emotions - angry, calm, happy and sad. The intensity of these emotions are output as MIDI and OSC values which could be used, for example, to control the brightness and color of lights on stage or in a dance club.

Why is Mood?
Good question. Many of Eventide's effects require various audio analysis techniques and we're constantly developing new ones. Some of these techniques can be used to characterize music, and so, we thought that it might be interesting to train an algorithm to characterize the emotional content of music and, somehow, use the results. Mood outputs its measurements as MIDI data which could then be used to control, for example, lights. Truth is, we have a long history of creating audio tools with little forethought as to how they will ultimately be used. We believe that any tool can be used for both good and evil. It's up to the person wielding the tool. And, we simply refuse to underestimate the creativity of our fellow humans."

Where is Mood?
An installer for Mood can be found here:

http://eventideplugins.elasticbeanstalk.com/mood.jsp

When is Mood?
No official release date has been announced. Training is ongoing. Mood was offered as time-limited free plug-in through March 31st, 2014. We received a fair number of songs from users that 'fooled' Mood and are using those songs for further training. Some of the users that submitted songs will receive a free copy of Mood when it is released.

Is Mood Copy Protected?
Yes. Mood uses a software-only license. Mood does not require an iLok dongle.

Why is Eventide squandering resources on this rather than making good on its promise to port Anthology?
None of Eventide's Anthology developers have worked on Angry or Mood. Porting all of the Anthology plug-ins to the many hosts and formats which will be supported has proven much more time consuming than we anticipated. We're making progress and expect to complete the task over the next few months.