My friends at Sound on Sound have just released a video from NAB 2011 covering a new product from Rycote. They have taken their excellent shockmount design technology and designed a shockmount for handheld flash card recorders. Not only that but they have a bundle which includes the handle, shockmount and mini wind jammer. This is an excellent solution to the handling noise problems that comes with most integral handheld flashcard recorders.   Rycote Dealer Another piece of good news is that we are now a Rycote dealer and so we can supply these or indeed any Rycote products. The price as mentioned in the video for the portable audio recorder kit is £99 including vat

Just a quick reminder that the McDSP Storewide sale will be ending in 3 days! And if these super low prices aren't good enough already, if you make a minimum $100 purchase from now through April 30th we'll give you an additional $25 off! Just use coupon code NL25OFF.

If the previous post wetted your appetite for iZotope's RX2 restoration bundle then they are released some videos and a pdf help guide to steer you through how to get the best out of RX 2 Restoration Guide If you have RX and want to learn the basics of audio restoration, you're in luck. RX gives you the tools you need, and this guide will show you how to do it. Download the Restoration Guide Adobe Acrobat PDF format (8.5MB) Download the RX Guide Audio Examples wav files in a zip file (18MB)   Videos Optimised Workflow Visual Editing Complete Set of tools Advanced Explained   Update available iZotope have also released a new version of RX 2. which include VST 3 support, improved compatibility for certain hosts, workflow enhancements, and many other minor bug fixes and performance enhancements. Updates are always incorporated into the latest installer, so to update to the latest version, just download and re-install. It is not necessary to uninstall before installing, and it will not be necessary to reauthorize.  

iZotope have published an article from Emmy Award-winning Recording Engineer and Sound Mixer Bill Jackson earning an Emmy Award for outstanding Sound Mixing on HBO's Entourage.   Bill Jackson has been hard at work using RX to clean up Season 1 and 2 of HBO's Entourage. Jackson let us know how he cleaned and transformed the show's audio into a 5.1 mix, and we thought, “Why not share that with all of you?” Jackson explains using RX on dialogue and noise, and provides some useful tricks as well. I am very excited about what I can do with RX 2. I had previously heard about iZotope's products, but the first time I saw someone open the Spectral Repair window in RX, I was blown away. Now it is one of my favorite plug-ins. Recently, I worked on the first two seasons of HBO's Entourage. It was originally mixed in Dolby Stereo for those episodes, but needed to be transformed into a 5.1 mix for future releases.

In any Pro Tools system before 8.1, I/O settings are recalled from the Pro Tools Session document. When you opened a Session, any studio settings for your system would be overwritten by the settings stored with that Session file. This meant that studio settings corresponding to your hardware could change when a new Session was opened, especially if that Session originated in a different studio. Likewise, when creating a new Session, if you allowed the I/O Settings to default to Last Used, you could inherit an completely unknown and unsuitable set of I/O settings, depending on what kind of system created the ‘last used’ Session. With HD 8.1 and now Pro Tools 9, Avid have changed things so that I/O settings can be stored with your system. This means that your studio settings can be maintained when opening Sessions created on other Pro Tools systems. These changes help make it easier to move Sessions between different Pro Tools systems. I go on to cover how to use the new I/O Setups in Pro Tools 9. You can read my Pro Tools column every month by buying Sound on Sound or go to the SOS web site. If you aren't a subscriber you can buy individual pdf of any recent article. If you want to see more of the articles I have written for OSound on Sound see a list here on our site.

Regular readers may remember that I have a habit of championing small plug‑in developers, especially when they develop a unique product. So back in May 2009, when I heard about Wave Rider, from a small company based in New Zealand called Quiet Arts Ltd, I followed the progress of this plug‑in with interest on this blog in May 2009, Oct 2009, November 2009, December 2009 and lastly in January 2011. So when Vedat released v2 I reviewed it for Sound on Sound and also compared it with Waves Vocal Rider plug-in. To read my review either buy the magazine or go to the Sound on Sound web site. If you aren't a subscriber you can buy a pdf of the article.

In the May issue, Sound on Sound have published my review of the Avid HD Native card. I was diliberately tough on it. For example I simply removed the HD2 card from my Mac Pro and dropped the HD Native card up and booted up. No trashing of Preferences, nothing and it just worked. I tried all the big sessions I had on my system and they just played even with just 32 samples of HW buffer. To read the rest of the review either buy the magazine, go to the SOS web site. If you aren't a subscriber then you can buy a pdf of the review.

After a long persevering winter the sun finally is here to spread warmth and joy over France. To celebrate this and to share our joy, we now offer You the great occasion to fill up your toolbox at very beneficial prices!  Visit our online store, our take the occasion to see your local dealer again, to benefit from this great 45% offer Now! Flux:: Online Store (Direct download purchase) Flux:: Distributors (To find your local dealer)   Get the latest installer version of your Flux:: Plug-ins If you want to download the latest version of the installer for your plug-ins, please just go to the download page and login with your ilok account id, or your Flux:: dongle serial number using the text field to the left side on the download page.  Flux:: Download Page   Warmest Spring Greetings, The Flux:: Crew.

Very low pices for some TDM plug-ins for a limited period... AudioTrack $27 MetaFlanger $42 SuperTap $42 Renaissance Axx $42 Renaissance EQ $57 Renaissance Comp $57 Renaissance Vox $57 Doubler $57 

Avid has identified an incompatibility with the early 2011 17" MacBook Pro (model MC725LL/A with Thunderbolt port) when used with a Magma ExpressBox1 expansion chassis and a Pro Tools HD Native Card. The following error message, "Unable to find an Audio Interface attached to the first HD card", is seen when launching Pro Tools HD 9 with an Apple MacBook Pro (early 2011 model) and Pro Tools HD Native hardware. For additional details, see Knowledge Base article 396031 Please Note This is only with HD Native core cards in the specific configuration listed above. Other qualified MacBook Pro models do not have this incompatibility: Pro Tools HD 9.0 Qualified Apple Computers

SoundCode Exchange MXF Features High Definition MXF Audio/Video For Pro Tools and Quicktime Player MXF OP1a Audio Import to WAV MXF OP1a Video Import to Pro Tools WAV Layback to MXF OP1a Codec Support - D10, IMX, DV 25/50/100, AVC-Intra, XDCAM HD 422, DnXHD Quicktime Import Component Pro Tools Plug-In MXF To Pro Tools Utility Windows XP/Vista/7 and Mac OS X Support Example Workflows Pro Tools Import HD OP1a Pro Tools Import SD OP1a For Avid Mojo Pro Tools Layback To MXF OP1a MXF To Pro Tools Import Utility System Requirements Pro Tools 7,8,9 - Mac OS X Pro Tools 8,9 - Windows Mac OS X 10.5,10.6 Windows Vista/XP/7 Download trial demo soon

Introducing RedNet 5 - Pro Tools HD Bridge RedNet 5 allows Pro Tools HD users direct access to the full benefits of Focusrite's flagship RedNet digital audio networking system, including its uniquely flexible network topology and premium quality audio interfaces. RedNet 5 connects direct to Pro Tools HD cards, supporting up to 32 channels of simultaneous I/O per card. To achieve even higher channel counts, multiple RedNet 5's can be connected to additional Pro Tools HD cards. RedNet inputs and outputs appear in your Pro Tools system as any other compatible Pro Tools interface. Retain access to all your TDM plugins and saved mixes while at the same time enjoying the superb quality of RedNet's audio interfaces and the ability to build the most sophisticated of audio production systems around a single, standard Gigabit Ethernet network. RedNet 5 is expected to be available in early 2012. RedNet Pricing We are pleased to have confirmed pricing for the RedNet 1, RedNet 2, RedNet 3, and RedNet 4 audio interfaces as well as the RedNet PCIe Card last week. For information about RedNet pricing, please see your local Focusrite dealer. RedNet 1, RedNet 2, RedNet 3, RedNet 4 and the RedNet PCIe Card will be available worldwide from Q4 2011. RedNet Tour We will soon be travelling to several cities around the world to show RedNet in action. Head to our events page to find out more.   The Focusrite Control 2802 is a small-format analogue recording console and a DAW control surface in one. It forms both the digital control nerve centre and the analogue heart of the modern professional project studio. Dual Layer Technology lets today's studio owner jump between analogue mixing and DAW control. In a single surface, the Focusrite Control 2802 integrates state of the art summing, comprehensive monitoring and a pristine front end, with sophisticated control over every major DAW including Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase and Nuendo using the HUI protocol. Eight transparent class-A microphone preamplifiers, parallel VCA bus compression and ultra low-noise circuitry throughout form a solid analogue foundation for your sound. Ethernet-based DAW control places your favourite music software at your fingertips. The Focusrite Control 2802 brings you the flexibility and elegance of a fully specified studio console, in a single desktop package.   Scarlett 8i6 and 18i6 USB 2.0 Audio Interfaces The new Scarlett range of precision audio interfaces deliver the Focusrite sound into your DAW via USB 2.0. At the heart of these solutions are class-leading digital conversion and 25 years of excellent mic preamp design. Combined, they ensure you capture every subtle nuance of your sound. Each Scarlett interface comes with the Scarlett Plug-in Suite which includes reverb, EQ, compressor and gate in VST/AU/RTAS formats. Find out more: Scarlett 8i6 8 IN / 6 OUT USB 2.0 AUDIO INTERFACE FEATURING TWO FOCUSRITE MIC PREAMPS Scarlett 18i6 18 IN / 6 OUT USB 2.0 AUDIO INTERFACE FEATURING TWO FOCUSRITE MIC PREAMPS

New Product announcement at Musik Messe in Frankfurt 2011 Pure Analyzer System - The Next Generation Real Time Analyzer (RTA) The Flux:: Pure Analyzer System is a network-driven and modular RTA-system providing a wide range of analyzer modules for any imaginable audio analysis and measurement applications. The graphic rendering in the Flux:: Pure Analyzer System is performed using a GPU-efficient 2D/3D graphic engine based on OpenGL optimizing the audio to visual experience. The Flux:: Pure Analyzer System will be available during Q2 2011, and will be released as standalone applications with the ability to receive audio data from a plug-in environment over a standard IP network. The Pure Analyzer System will initially be available in three different versions, namely: Pure Analyzer Studio Spectrum Analyzer, Vector Scope, Phase Meter, True Peak, RMS, ITU-1770, EBU-R128 (PLOUD), Metering History and a new and unique innovation from Flux:: providing full control of Spectrum over Space (Spatial Spectrogram). Pure Analyzer Surround Spectrum Analyzer, Vector Scope, Phase Meter, True Peak, RMS, ITU-1770, EBU-R128 (PLOUD), Metering History and a new and unique innovation from Flux:: providing full control of Spectrum over Space (Spatial Spectrogram) for any kind of multi-channel environment. Pure Analyzer Live Metering, Transfer Function (Magnitude, Phase, Coherence), Impulse Response and Real Time Delay Finder. Screenshots of the different versions Live demonstrations at Musik Messe Where? The Berlin Conference Room, Hotel Maritim Frankfurt When? The 8th April 2011, Demonstrations start every hour from 10.00 to 17.00  

Waves have announced a limited number of classic Native plug-ins at some very low prices. For example the IR-L convolution reverb plug-in would normally be $250 rather than $25. There is no indication how long the offer will last for so make hay folks.... AudioTrack $18 Buy Now » Tune LT $38 Buy Now » SuperTap $28 Buy Now » MetaFlanger $28 Buy Now » Ren Axx $28 Buy Now » Ren Vox $38 Buy Now » Doubler $38 Buy Now » Ren EQ $38 Buy Now » Ren Comp $38 Buy Now » IR-L $25 Buy Now » DeBreath $18 Buy Now » GTR Solo $18 Buy Now » Read more: http://www.waves.com/#ixzz1IkO5dPAZ

This came up on the Avid Audio Forum (formerly known as the Digidesign User Conference) and in the light of one of the solutions being Force Linking which I have covered here and is one of the most popular posts on this blog, I thought it would be good to add these Find & Replace ideas here too. 'quadraphonics' asked.... Is this possible - Find/Replace?  I frequently receive OMFs that have the same 'FX-Awesome-Impact.AIF' file for specific transitions (example). In the OMF these are all numbered FX-Awesome-Impact.AIF-##(where ##= a sequential number). My problem is that these tracks are distorted/clipped/not cross-faded, etc. So I took it upon myself to create one master impact sound that is improved. I would like to select all of the FX-Awesome-Impact.AIF regions and replace them AT ONE TIME with my newly created file. Using the Replace Region command only wants to replace on region at a time. For example I could replace FX-Awesome-Impact.AIF-01 with Improved_Impact.AIF, but it wouldn't replace FX-Awesome-Impact.AIF-02 through 50. I know that I could do it by hand, but if there was an automated way to do something like this it could be kind of cool. 'C' was the first to respond... Wouldn't recommend this as a general course of action but if you were to force relink the session to your new file via the project browser then restart the session it should take the new file as the source material for the regions. I think that I experimented with this process in the past and found it to work but it was good while ago and certainly not on PT8. For the 4 minutes it would take to try it out might be worth a shot. edit: note if it does work then I'd highly recommend then doing a Save Copy In to remove any reference to the old version from the session file. Oh and always work from a safety copy when performing these experiments. Ceri, very sound advice especially about working on copies of a session in case you mess up. 'quadraphonics' replied.... That is an interesting idea. The files I am dealing with are coming from OMF (From Final Cut). And while I convert all of the media upon opening it, the source file names do not remotely line up to the region names, even though the regions have .AIF in the name, there is no FX-Awesome-Impact.AIF in the audio files folder. To which 'C' replied.... open the project browser window and navigate to the Audio files 'folder',  select one of the regions on the timeline,  switch back to project browser and the selected file should be highlighted. then go to the toolbox icon, select relink selected and point to your new file. Hopefully should do what you want it to do. 'TVPostSound' asked... Doesn't the Sound Replacer option do that already???   'rafukyo' suggested.... you can use the "replace region" feature. From the manual: Replacing Audio Regions: Use the Replace Region function to replace multiple instances of an audio region in a playlist with another region. This is useful in post production if you use a sound effect, room noise, or atmosphere region many times in a session, and later decide to replace one or all of the original regions with a different region.  This is also useful in music production if you want to replace a certain loop or sample (for example, a drum beat) with a new one. You can use this compositionally, if you know the tempo of a section or session, to create a scratch piece with “rough” regions of the correct length, and later replace them with “final” regions of the same length. To replace regions by dragging and dropping: Select a region in a track’s playlist that you want to replace. The selection can extend beyond the region’s end point, to include material from the replacement region that is longer than the original region. Control-Shift-drag (Windows) or Command-Shift-drag (Mac) the replacement region from the Region List to the selected region. The Replace Region dialog opens. Configure the Replace Region dialog (see “Replace Region Dialog” on page 25). Click OK. Replace Region Dialog The following options are available in the Replace Region dialog: Replace Original Region: Only Replaces only the selected region with the replacement region dragged from the Region List. Replace All Instances of the Original Region: Replaces all instances of the selected region that fit the On criteria with the replacement region from the Region List. On This Track: replaces regions that fit the Match criteria and are on the same track as the original region. On All Tracks: replaces regions that fit the Match criteria for all tracks in the session. On Within the Selection: replaces regions that fit the Match criteria within the current selection.   'rafukyo', I not sure this will help as 'quadraphonics' problem is that each instance has a different number so Pro Tools will considere them not unique. However it may hang oon the Mach criteria,, if you can set it so that Pro Tools considers all the versions as matchable to the new region then it may be possible

Our Mike Thornton writes the Pro Tools Notes, Techniques and Workshop articles for Sound on Sound as well as reviewing many of the new Pro Tools related products. Note that you will need to be a subscriber to view the recent articles or you can choose to Click & Buy individual ones.   Structured Music Last month we looked at the basics of sampling sounds using Structure, prompted by the challenge I faced to produce a rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ using only the sounds of a Morris Minor car for a BBC Radio 4 documentary

 Our Mike Thornton writes the Pro Tools Notes, Techniques and Workshop articles for Sound on Sound as well as reviewing many of the new Pro Tools related products. Note that you will need to be a subscriber to view the recent articles or you can choose to Click & Buy individual ones.   Quiet Arts Wave Rider 2 Fine tuning level automation on key parts can make a huge difference to your mix, but it's a tedious process unless a plug-in does it for you

2 months ago I posted about the Waves Sound Design Competion and today they have announced the results.... Thanks to everyone who entered the Waves Sound Design competition. We received some amazing entries, and the top 10 finalists’ scores were very close to one another. Waves would also like to thank our esteemed panel of judges who took the time to personally review all 289 submissions: Scott Martin Gershin (Star Trek, Hellboy 2, Chronicles of Riddick, American Beauty), Charles Deenen (Need for Speed, Fast & Furious 1 and 2), David Farmer (Lord of the Rings Trilogy, King Kong, The Incredible Hulk, The Arrival), and Tom Ozanich (Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Incredible Hulk, Speed Racer, 2 Fast 2 Furious). Results were determined by averaging the scores of all four judges. The winner was Toby Hulse   Waves Sound Design Competition Entry from Toby Hulse on Vimeo. Plug-ins used for this sound design piece... Morphoder – I created a low drone layer using the fire crackling sfx run through morphoder with RBass and a C4 to fatten it up and smooth it out. I also used this same plug-in chain for the stinger sound during the NFS Shift end title screen. I changed the pitch of the sound to add tension and ran a reverse bell chime through it. Ultrapitch (6 voice) - The crowd and announcer dialogue was run through this plug-in giving a slowed down garbled effect to match the slow mo / still frame nature of the video. It was also great for making some of the car bys sound more unique. I also used it on the female breath sfx to produce some interesting overtones and then added metaflanger which together produced a more unique sounding whoosh. Enigma – Was used to make some of the sfx sound more unique and edgy. I used it on the dry ice sfx using a preset based on “mushroom therapy” that added real time descending pitch and added some nice tonal feedback. I added some Raxx to edge it up a bit more. I also used enigma on the camera flash and gas hiss sound along with the RComp to give it some movement and phasing. RBass - was used a lot to thicken sounds and make them sound larger than life. I used it on the heartbeat, the engine revs, some of the whooshes and the cannon blast to add more beef to the impact. Metaflanger – I reversed the church bell and applied this plug-in to produce very quick modulation as the sfx swells in. I also used variations of this plug-in on the ice cracking and crushed metal sounds along with the supertap 6-tap delay to give the sense of the car breaking into particles in the air. As mentioned above it was also used on the female breath sfx. MondoMod – was applied to the windmill and thunder crash sfx to smooth out the sound and give more movement. C4 – was used on the announcer dialogue to tighten it up and add more presence so it cut through the mix. (also used ultrapitch, delay and limiting on the chain). I also used this on the race engine sfx (socaRacingInt). I cut up pieces from this file to use as engine revs for the intro sequence. Some where pitched slightly using stock pitch in PT. I used the C4 to pull out certain frequencies to cut thru the mix more. I then added RBass for more growl and some supertap in some cases to give perspective. SuperTap (6 Taps) – was used mainly as an aux send which (as mentioned) was used to add dimension, width and perspective on various sfx… announcer dia, engine, revs, metal impacts etc. L1 Ultramaximizer - was used on various individual tracks as a peak limiter. L2 Ultramaximizer - was applying on the entire mix as the master limiter. I like the transparent nature of this plug-in and it seems to carry the low end better than the L1. Renaissance EQ – was used on the gas stove ignite sfx to kill unnecessary hi end. Renaissance Compressor – also used on the gas stove sfx to bring out more of the subtleties of the sound. Doppler – I made a whoosh session using Charles Deenan’s article as a reference and used all of the sfx supplied for this contest in the whoosh session. I used the Doppler (along with RBass, MetaFlanger, Enigma and MondoMod) to get some great sounding whooshes of various speeds. I hand picked about 5-6 whooshes that were used in the final submission. They can be heard in various parts of the piece including the particle whiz bys in the car crash scene and layered in with the various high impact sfx stingers.   To read more and see the rest of top ten submissions go to the Waves web site