Russ, Dan and James chat through issues and highlights from the week's news as well as the usual Pro Tools tips, tricks and community questions answered.
Podcast Sponsor - Synchro Arts
This month’s sponsor is Synchro Arts and Mike shares some of the things you can do with Revoice Pro in audio post-production.
Deals
- Save 25% on Zplane ElastiqueAAX Pitch And Time Plug-in - Sale Price £232.50. We are offering 25% off on the groundbreaking zplane élastiqueAAX Pitch and Time plug-in, making it an absolute bargain especially now that Pro Tools 12.8.1 includes the integration of zplane élastiqueAAX into the TCE tool, and can now be selected as the default time stretch algorithm in Pro Tools when using the MultiTool for those who own this superior time stretch plug-in.
- Chromaphone 2 + 8 Sound Bank Bundle - Get over 40% Off - Buy For £221 Chromaphone is a software instrument based on the modelling of acoustic resonators to create drums, percussion, string and hybrid synth-like instruments. Eli, from our sister site Logic Pro Expert, has been using Chromaphone for over a year now and he loves it. Firstly, it’s really intuitive to edit the presets and come up with really interesting creative variations. Secondly and more importantly for him, it stretches his imagination by making it so easy to come up with unusual combinations of resonators and impact generators. This month we are offering a unique bundle adding 8 sound banks and offering 40% off the combined price.
- Get 25% Off The DiGiGrid D Desktop Audio Interface - Limited Stock We don’t often offer hardware deals but DiGiGrid has got some stock of their Desktop SoundGrid Network interface at 25% off for the Pro Tools Expert community. In his review, Julian said, “It is the first part of an expandable system which will grow with your needs and it is of high enough quality to remain useful irrespective of how your system and your expectations grow". So if you are looking to get into the SoundGrid platform check this deal out as Julian recommends the D as a great entry point.
- Also don’t forget to check out the deals from our Partners, in the Partner Deals section on our Deals page.
Talking Points Kindly Sponsored By Universal Audio
This month our friends at Universal Audio are offering at least 30% off their range of Unison Enabled plug-ins that capture the essential “sweet spots,” and circuit behaviours of iconic hardware from the likes of Ampeg, API, Fender, Manley, Marshall, Neve and SSL.
Warning Exploring New Technologies Is Dumb
Grammy Nominated Mix Engineer Was A Room Correction Software Skeptic - Now A Believer
Competitions
- Win Exponential Audio's Industry Standard Surround Reverbs - PhoenixVerb and R2 Surround. Here is a great set of prizes for those working in surround - the industry standard PhoenixVerb Surround and R2 Surround reverbs from Exponential Audio. Exponential Audio punch above their weight, with their reverbs featured on some of the biggest movies from Star Wars to The Hobbit and on countless TV shows, all from a company that has one employee, Michael Carnes. The winner will get the surround versions of both of Michael’s reverb plug-ins the Phoenixverb and R4, and two runners-up will each get a choice of one of these reverb plug-ins.
- Don’t forget to check out our win page, to discover more opportunities to win pro audio software and gear from our Partners, in the Partner Win section, on our Win page.
Community Feedback Kindly Sponsored by RSPE Audio Solutions
Community Feedback Kindly Sponsored by RSPE Audio Solutions. If you are looking to give your studio the power to Create, Edit, Mix, Master and Deliver Dolby Atmos content, then check out our friends at RSPE, as for over 15 years, they have been a proud Dolby Professional dealer and installer, and they are one of a handful of dealers who can supply the Dolby Atmos Mastering Suite.
Chris Coulter Hey Guys. Love the blog! Quick Idea for a blog post that I feel would help the community and that is the importance of raising cases / issues / bugs with software developers, especially avid and pro tools. Most people just sit back and wait for a bug to be fixed but the developers will have a huge list to get through and if only one person has logged a bug its most likely that will wait at the bottom of the pile / never get a fix. I remember seeing a post about paying for upgrades and bug fixes but I don't think it went into this sort of topic. Would be good to get the word out into the community, as they all love to moan but don't actually do anything about it
Jeff Berlin Where should I go to voice a peeve I have with PT12.8? I want them them make this a user option: Pro Tools 12.8 has a “feature” where the selection snaps to your grid when you hit the command key with "trim" or "select" while in "slip" mode. On earlier versions you could hold down the command key and “trim” while keeping the regions attached, they’ve moved that so you now hit “command” and “option” to get that function. The problem is if I’m copying, pasting, deleting, undoing.. it’s “COMMAND” “z”, “x”, “c”, or “v”.. in about every piece of software we use. But do that in Pro Tools, your selection automatically snaps to the grid right before you copy or delete - so you end up with upcuts or extra space - NOT what I selected, sometimes I don’t even realize it happened. So for me it means “undo” go back, do over. Time = wasted. The reasoning is you don’t need to hit the “command” button in PT keyboard focus mode - you just hit the “x” or “c” - no modifier key needed. But muscle memory is strong - I have to be really conscious of NOT hitting “command”. Before there was no consequence if you did, now there is. I’m mostly editing voiceover for radio promos and have no use for this new feature, when I want things to snap to the grid I hit “F4” and work in Grid mode. Thanks for reading, would love to find out if I’m the one one who has an issue with this, or if maybe Avid would consider enabling us to turn off this feature.
Scott Vanderbilt Just discovered an interesting fact. As if there wasn't enough reason to hate Avid Application Manager already, one of the services it installs (the Avid Application Manager Helper) runs a web server on your machine. It operates on standard well known web server ports (80 and 443). This means if your machine is exposed to the internet or even behind a firewall that has not been properly configured, outside hackers could target your Pro Tools machine for attack. These web servers run regardless of whether you use the Cloud Client Services or not. When I contacted Avid Customer Care to inquire about why these services were running, I was told the following: "AppMan receives purchase notifications when a customer buys a product/plugin via the Avid web store and also when they update/renew their license/contract with Avid. This is why Application Manager listen on port 80/443 for those notifications." As anyone familiar with web security understands, web servers are one of the most common attack vectors used by hackers to gain access to machines. And many embedded web servers are very poorly written and easily exploited. Presumably, if your Pro Tools machine were properly firewalled, the risk could be lessened. But not everyone has the luxury of having full-time IT staff to look after the firewalls and make sure they are patched and properly configured on an ongoing basis. I consider this a major security risk, and am surprised it is not more widely known. (Perhaps it is, but I've must missed it.) Avid's User Manual for Application Manager says nothing about the web servers. There is an article in Avid's Knowledge Base (http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/en436075), but in my view it does a pretty poor job of alerting people to the security risks involved. Just thought others would like to know
Questions From The Community
- Lance McVickar is looking for advice on a new interface with AoIP for remote recording with his Pro Tools rig.
Frank Farr wants to know how to best to use a Dangerous 2 Bus between his X-Mon and his HD IO.
Source Connect Now
As you may know, we are spread out around the UK & Europe when we record the podcast. In the past, we have used a variety of internet-based solutions so we could hear each other. We have settled on Source Connect Now which gives us ISDN equivalent quality audio using a Chrome browser, no software to install. You can get a free account from Source Elements.
Find Of The Week
- Russ - A day filming with Jacob Collier
- James - The Telefunken C12
- Dan - Sonarworks Reference 4