79 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
79 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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layout: page
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title: v2 Announcement
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---
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# v2 Announcement
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When we began in 2019, Noice was just under 3 MBs packed with tiny and
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low-quality sounds. It has grown a lot since then. Last year, we introduced an
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advanced dual-sampled sound engine, an idea offered by a user.[^1] It allowed
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Noice to work fully offline while maintaining comparable audio quality and
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surpassing performance than its peers.
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## It's time to rethink our priorities
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Over time, we have gathered ample feedback from our users. While we promptly
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acted on the most, some of it requires changes at a basic level. Starting
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v2.0.0, we will begin phased releases incorporating these changes.
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### State of the art sound engine
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The dual-sampled sound engine works well, but it's time for the next best thing.
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The operating principle for our peers is looping a 5-30 mins sound indefinitely.
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We want to change that by building a sound engine to generate highly dynamic
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soundscapes that feel more natural.
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### Remote sound library
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With growing requirements, we no longer think it best to pack sounds with the
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APK. It raises the APK size and hence, doesn't allow for longer or many sounds.
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To remove these constraints, we'll start serving the library over the internet.
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### Cross-platform service
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The cross-platform operation has always been a concern. In the future versions,
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we'll begin shipping a web interface along with the hosted library. It will make
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Noice available to virtually every device with an Internet browser.
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### For creators
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Many bad reviews on the Play Store indicate that creators want to export
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soundscapes to use them in their videos. We'll be working on facilitating this
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on both the software and the audio licensing levels.
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### A freemium model to sustain future development
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We found the "pay what you want" model unsustainable for Noice. It has barely
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generated any revenue in the past year, although Noice has upwards of 6k active
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users from Google Play and some more from untrackable sources[^2]. Hence, we've
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decided to offer paid subscriptions. Noice will remain open-source, and whatever
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was free before will be free forever, but many new features will require an
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active subscription.
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<div style="display: flex; justify-content: center; margin-top: 3rem;">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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<p lang="en" dir="ltr">
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We are making some radical changes to Noice. Let us know what you think!
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<a href="https://t.co/tx8zbT4cr4">https://t.co/tx8zbT4cr4</a>
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</p>
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— Noice (@trynoice)
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<a href="https://twitter.com/trynoice/status/1440772734187819010?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 22, 2021</a>
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</blockquote>
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<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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</div>
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---
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#### Footnotes
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[^1]: Essentially, for each sound, we took two small but different samples of
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varying lengths from longer clips, e.g. 40 secs and 45 secs. When played
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in parallel, the listener perceived that the sound was longer (around 5-6
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minutes). Read more about it on the [GitHub
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issue](https://github.com/ashutoshgngwr/noice/issues/62)!
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[^2]: Sources like
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[F-Droid](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.ashutoshgngwr.noice/)
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and [GitHub releases](https://github.com/ashutoshgngwr/noice/releases)
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that don't track user metrics.
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