There's so much going on in the world of tech that it's sometimes too easy to miss genuinely useful technologies that appear – such as this Snapdragon X Elite-supported enhancement to make music, movies and more even better.
It's called Moises, an AI app for Windows, which I was introduced to when spending the afternoon with Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound team at Dean Street Studios in London to learn about its Snapdragon X Elite laptops (if you're wondering 'what are those?' then here's my explainer feature).
Qualcomm's latest chips entering the laptops market has shaken up the meaning of what the best laptops can do – there's plenty of competition, though, such as Intel's Series 2 chip (read a versus comparison here) – thanks to top-tier power both on and off the plug, plus a powerful neural processing engine (NPU) to do some heavy lifting.
It's this NPU that works to enhance the Moises Live offering, meaning it can work in real-time to make audio adjustments. This isn't just a multi-band equaliser (EQ), though, it's an app predominantly aimed at musicians to run instrument and vocal isolation – using artificial intelligence to impressively remove sound layers as you wish.
I can see that benefit for bedroom DJs and remixers in particular – you can listen to any audio and in real-time isolate the vocal track from everything else, for example – and I did experience a music-making session using a Microsoft Surface Laptop running Cubase without being plugged in at the mains, per the studio picture below.
But it's actually Moises' use for wider applications that I think is particularly handy – and will be a game-changer for most. If, like me, you travel a lot and are often stuck with a laptop as your sole companion when it comes to big(ish) screen viewing of the best streaming services, then you'll likely know all too well how many laptops' audio output isn't all that.
Moises also has a Movies mode (see the gallery above), where you can adjust the mix of dialogue, music, sound effects and other audio. So if you're struggling to get enough speech clarity cutting through during, say, rowdy fight scenes, or the music rings too loud, then you can simply adjust the sliders within the app and immediately hear the difference.
I think that's a potential game-changer for Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV+, Disney+, et al, or even YouTube and other streaming sources. There's no limit to what Moises can adjust in real-time, as it can be set to run in the background and isolate audio types as you please – there's even a Conference mode to quell background noise should you not be using a pair of the best headphones during your calls.
Having reviewed the Surface Laptop 7 with Snapdragon X Elite, it's clear to see how Qualcomm's new processors are helping to move the fundamentals forward, such as better battery life on Windows. But this Dean Street Studios showcase was enlightening to see how AI applications are gathering momentum – and, I suspect, the future will only bring yet more capabilities from myriad developers.
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