In this week’s podcast Julian Rodgers is joined by James Ivey, a Pro Tools user, and professional Brent March who doesn’t use Pro Tools. Is Pro Tools a “must have” for professionals?

The Guests

James Ivey

James Ivey is an Audio Professional..... so his car insurance tells him. James has been playing the drums since the tender age of 7. James’ first job in the audio industry was with a pop video production company where he learned what the term deadline really means. Since then he has worked for studio equipment suppliers and installers as well as companies like Sibelius and later Avid. James or Jivey is officially the team’s gear junkie. If it makes a noise and you can play it or record it, he’s interested.

Brent March

Brent March is a North East based producer, composer and sound designer. Brent has built a reputation with Warner Chappell, BMG and APM publishing specialising in artist driven songs for Television and Film. He is also co-founder of sample label ‘Samplicity’’ (distributed by Splice) offering samples, topline and instrumentals for the world of producers, songwriters and artists.

Talking Point

We recently saw a post on social media which asked whether the cost of Pro Tools was a barrier to entry to the audio industry. Irrespective of the price of Pro Tools this raised the question of why that person thought Pro Tools was mandatory, a necessary skill, and whether that was or ever has been justified?

• Why is Pro Tools viewed by some as a must-have?

• Steve Genewick said (might be mis-quoting here) that it’s who you know which gets you the job and what you know which keeps you in the job.

• Are we qualified to have opinions on other DAWs, have we used them enough to understand how they compare?

• Which other Software do you wish you knew as well as your daw of choice?

• Do you think we’ll see a fundamental shift as a new generation of “post record industry” engineers emerge? Will Pro Tools move from being Facebook to being MySpace? Which DAW is TikTok.

Find Of The Week

• James - New iPad Pro 12.9 Inch

• Brent - Your Honor

• Julian - Kurzgesagt