Yearly Archive for 2010

IRCAM Tools by Flux:: – New Release Today!

Published on July 23, 2010 in announcement. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Back in March 2010 Flux:: announced a partnership with IRCAM (Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music) in Paris, France.

Well at last its out. this is from their first press release….

IRCAM is one of the world’s leading public research institutes within the fields of musical expression, musical research, sound, and acoustics. The first result of this partnership collaboration is the software audio plug-in suite, IRCAM Tools and is released to the public today! Read more about the IRCAM Tools here.

This is the specs….

IRCAM Tools, as all Flux:: plug-ins, provide

  • Up to 8 channels Input/Output.
  • 64-bits internal floating point processing.
  • Sampling rate up to 384 kHz DXD (Pyramix DSP based).
  • Sampling rate up to 384 kHz for native (AU/RTAS/VST).

All major native formats are supported

  • Windows – XP, Vista, 7 all in both 32 and 64 bits.
    • VST (2.4)
    • RTAS*

  • Mac OS X – 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 in 32 bits.
    • VST (2.4)
    • AU
    • RTAS*

*The RTAS version requires ProTools 7 or later.

I cannot wait to get my hands on them and see how good they are.

Would you like to listen to my handiwork?

Published on July 23, 2010 in announcement. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Hitler’s Muslim Legions is a history documentary I worked on with Jenny Chryss about use of Muslim recruits to strengthen the German army in the second world war. This is from the BBC web site.

It was after Germany’s invasion of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in 1941 that Hitler’s attention was first drawn to the potential for Muslim recruits to swell his ranks. For the many thousands of captured Soviet Muslims, the opportunity to serve in the Wehrmacht offered an escape from the brutality and starvation of the prison camps. Elsewhere, a major recruitment drive amongst Bosnian Muslims led to tens of thousands signing up for the Waffen-SS. Formed into exclusive Muslim units, these men fought in some of the most brutal campaigns of the entire war. This programme investigates why Hitler and Himmler apparently cast aside their Nazi ideal of an Aryan master race, justifying the admission of Islam into their ranks. It asks what attracted these men to fight for the Third Reich, how they were treated by their German officers and how they conducted themselves in the bedlam of war. Were they hopeless soldiers who committed unspeakable atrocities; or did they fight bravely for the Fuhrer? We examine the fate of these Muslims at the end of the war. With Hitler dead and the Third Reich defeated there was nothing to protect them, and most were killed as traitors.
Presented by Julian O’Halloran.
Producer: Jennifer Chryss
A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4.

The story was a revelation to me and you will hear an eyewitness account from a German, now in his 80s, who lived and worked with Muslim soldiers when he was 19.

For more on the background to the programme go to the Radio 4 blog to read a post from Samir Shah who is the Executive Producer of Hitler’s Muslim Legions.

The programme goes out on Monday 26th July on BBC Radio 4. If you miss it then pick it up on the iPlayer.

Prosoniq announcements

Published on July 22, 2010 in announcement. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Prosoniq have announced the end of download support for Windows products, and the planned release of sonicWORX Pro for 2011.  This is from their press release….

Prosoniq Announces End of Download Support for Windows Products

Karlsruhe, Germany, July 16th, 2010 — Prosoniq announces today that its Windows products will no longer be available for download to registered users starting January 1st, 2011. Prosoniq has discontinued development of its few Windows products in June 2009 and has announced to focus development effort entirely on its Mac product line, as well as on upcoming platforms and products. Registered Windows users are advised to download a copy of their product at their earliest convenience and/or crossgrade to the corresponding Mac version (where available).

sonicWORX Pro Scheduled for 2011

Karlsruhe, Germany, July 16th, 2010 — Prosoniq announces that the release of its sonicWORX Pro software has been scheduled for 2011. sonicWORX Pro is an extended version of Prosoniq’s novel sonicWORX Isolate software. Isolate is designed to allow extraction and suppression of instruments and voice within a mix and has been shipping as of May 2010. It has received great attention since its introduction at Musikmesse 2010 and is currently one of Prosoniq’s top selling products – a limited demo version is available from the web site.

sonicWORX Pro will contain more specialized tools and algorithms intended to be used for mastering and restoration in addition to the extraction and suppression capabilities of Isolate. An upgrade path from Isolate to Pro will be made available so there will be the opportunity for Isolate users to upgrade at a reduced rate as soon as the Pro version is shipping. Purchasing Isolate now and upgrading to Pro will even be cheaper than purchasing Pro when it comes out, Prosoniq says.

All you ever wanted to know about metadata but were afraid to ask

Published on July 21, 2010 in tip. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Tim Prebble on his blog  has posted a series about metadata. A while back he asked various software developers how their products supported metadata and he has just published the answers as well as showing some experiments with Sound Devices free application Wave Agent.

Removing Reverb in Pro Tools update

Published on July 21, 2010 in tip. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Following on from my experiences with finding a plug-in that helped to remove reverb from recorded material posted here. The thread was picked up on the Pro Tools User Group in Linked In. For those who are Linked in members you can view the thread here. For those you aren’t here are some of the comments. ‘Andy remembered seeing a De-reverb plug-in at NAB near the Neyrinck stand. ‘Carl posted…

I remember seeing that plugin at Nab or IBC. The guys were Japanese and were only sharing a stand with Paul I think!

Which of course takes us full circle as it was the NML RevCon–RR plug-in from tacsystem.com which I referred to in my post as being the expensive option. ‘Beto M’ posted…

I’ve tried SPL last night and it’s working fine to me.  I’m still running on demo mode but i’m thinking to buy it.  But the japanese….i don’t know….there weren’t much informations about the plugin and about them….

and later posted having tried the demo….

yes it really works fine

Jeff H posted…

I’ve used the SPL plugin. Doesn’t work perfectly on everything but you can’t beat it for the price.

and then ‘Ryan H’ posted this advice for achieving similar results using different techniques…

The new Waves WNS Noise Suppressor (which is a lot like the Cedar DNS) is great for getting rid of some reverb as is the Cedar. put all the frequency faders down all the way. then lift up the threshold til it sounds good. turn up the smoothing a bit as well. Another way but tedious is drawing the volume automation down in the spaces between words and syllables.

Update on jerky video problem

Published on July 21, 2010 in problem and update. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Following my posts on the problems with Canopus boxes and Pro Tools 8.0.3 here, here, here and here as well as the jerky video problems I have posted on and the video compendium I posted about here and here, there has been another interesting post on the Pro Tools 8.0.3 jerky video thread on the Digidesign User Conference. ‘DigiTech Supt’ has posted….

There are several fixes in 8.0.4 and 10.6.4, but at least one outstanding issue when playing video on a 2nd monitor that appears to be OS related, which we’re working with Apple to implement a fix.
Can anyone on 8.0.4 and 10.6.4 who is seeing jerky/stuttering playback when using a Mojo or Canopus device let us know the specifics of your configuration and the size/codec being used for the video?

Also ‘Anibal’ has posted….

using Canopus, DV and different sizes, very smooth playback but eventually crashing when opening sessions with video in firewire

Audio region labelling techniques for large speech recording projects

Published on July 18, 2010 in tips. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

More and more of our work can revolve around games audio where there is a need to reliably and accurately label audio files with the correct file name. This thread came up on the Digidesign User Conference recently. ‘JamesSosound’ asked…

The company I work for are embarking on a project recording Speech for a AAA computer game for the first time. We will need to be able to label audio regions in between takes during recording as efficiently as possible. Pausing recording, then double clicking a region, copying from a script then pasting the text back in to Pro Tools would be quite time consuming for thousands of files. Is there a more straightforward solution using a plugiin or feature of Pro Tools I am currently unaware of that will ease this process. Would anybody be happy to shed light on standard industry practice for this type of process.

‘nucelar’ came back with this suggestion….

Take a look at voXover. It is not Pro Tools-based but it fits these kind of jobs perfectly. Once the recording session is done, you can of course import the files to PT for further tweaking.

‘clusterer’ suggested a workflow that uses Excel, Pro Tools and Quickeys…..

The excel-sheet had titles for each cue/take BELOW each other. so I recorded a few work steps with quickeys..:

  1. In the excel-sheet – I recorded the double click of the first title/cue, then command+c,
  2. Record the “down arrow key” to select the next title (the titles of course have to be below each other).
  3. The next recording was command+tab (to change to Pro Tools). there I hit “enter” (set marker); then command+v (to paste the name of the first title/cue); then enter again; then I recorded the PT-short-cut to move the curser forward/NUDGE for 30 seconds (nudge must be changed to 10 seconds or anything you prefer) .
  4. next step was change over to excel (command+tab)again. the next/following title in the sheet should be selected now.


so with that – you have got a “loop”. Save this as a Quickey and a shortcut.. and let it work for you. When you’ve finished the recordings you have to record a quickey that allows you to copy the marker-names into the regions regarding to the markers..

‘mjryder1′ suggested another workflow using Strip Silence….

I’ve done a bit of this before using the strip silence function on Pro Tools in the edit drop down menu.
This allows you to duplicate and name lots of regions in 1 go but is only useful if they need sequential names. (eg: VO1, VO2, VO3, etc)
Don’t know if that’s any use? if you got them named like this though you could give a folder of them to someone to rename somewhere else therefore not clogging up you studio.

‘JamesSosound’ rounded up with a thank you….

Thank you all for your excellent suggestions. The voXover software fits the bill perfectly and is a very worthwhile investment for only £250. I have been using the trial version this morning, very straightforward and versatile. Problem solved. Thanks again.


Finished working on this year’s series of The Choice for BBC Radio 4

Published on July 16, 2010 in announcement. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I have just finished editing and uploading the series of 4 “The Choice” produced by Dawn Bryan. Still can’t tell you who the interviewees are yet as Radio 4 have yet to announce them but they are another excellent set of stories all very different from each other. They are due to start going out on 12th August.

Michael Buerk interviews people who have made life-altering decisions and talks them through the whole process, from the original dilemma to living with the consequences.

BIAS Launches Sizzling Summer Specials

Published on July 16, 2010 in announcement. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Bias have some interesting offers on through the summer until August 31st. Some of these are of interest to Pro Tools users like…

Buy SoundSoap Pro 2, Get Master Perfection Suite Free, or vice-versa ($599 US value):

Customers purchasing SoundSoap Pro 2 or Master Perfection Suite – both powerful audio plug-in suites for AU, RTAS/AS, and VST hosts on Mac and Windows – may receive the complementing product at no additional charge.

SoundSoap Pro 2 ($599 US SRP) is the critically acclaimed high-end edition of the company’s popular SoundSoap audio restoration software and features additional parameter controls while integrating four comprehensive restoration tools in a single plug-in – including adaptive noise reduction (ANR), a powerful broadband dynamic noise reduction technology added in version 2 and lacking in most competing solutions.

Master Perfection Suite ($599 US SRP) is a powerful collection of six plug-ins designed for mixing, mastering, and sound design including; Reveal (7-tool analysis suite), Sqweez-3 & -5 (linear-phase multi-band dynamics), Repli-Q (linear-phase spectral matching), PitchCraft (pitch correction/transposition), SuperFreq (4,6,8 & 10-band paragraphic EQ), and GateEx (gate with downward expander).

The combination of SoundSoap Pro and Master Perfection Suite at effectively 50% off represents an astonishing value for anyone interested in enhancing their audio production workflow.

Buy Any Single MPS Plug-in, Get One Free (up to $149 US value):

All six plug-ins from Master Perfection Suite are also available separately (prices from $59 to $149 SRP) – customers purchasing any one of them may receive an additional single Master Perfection Suite plug-in of equal or lesser value at no additional charge through this special promo for a limited time.

Availability and promo terms:

Qualifying customers must purchase, register, and activate new editions of select BIAS products (excluding academic editions, upgrades, and cross-grades) from July 10 through August 31, 2010 from authorized BIAS resellers or directly from BIAS. To receive the free complementing product (delivered via download only), a rebate request form (available from the BIAS web site) must be completed and returned to BIAS (via fax, email, or physical mail) along with a copy of the original purchase receipt.

This should be of interest to anyone who followed by posts here and here on EQ Matching as it is possible to buy Repli-Q on its own very cost effectively.

Digidesign announce Pro Tools LE and M Powered v8.0.4 updates

Published on July 7, 2010 in announcement and update. 0 Comments Tags: , .
Here is the full details of all the v8.0.4 updates…
Pro Tools 8.0.4 Downloads & Details

June/July, 2010 — Avid is pleased to announce the availability of Pro Tools® 8.0.4, a free, downloadable update for Pro Tools 8.0-8.0.3 owners. This latest update offers many performance enhancements and fixes, including:

  • Automation
  • Editing
  • Avid Unity and Interplay Workflows
  • Recording
  • MIDI
  • Relinking and importing
  • Stability

For a select list of fixes in Pro Tools 8.0.4, please download the following PDF document:

Pro Tools 8.0.4 also adds Windows 7 support for Pro Tools LE® and Pro Tools M-Powered™ systems. We’ve also included new PC drivers for Pro Tools LE 8.0.4, greatly expanding the number of compatible laptop and desktop computers. On the Mac side, Pro Tools LE and M-Powered 8.0.4 adds support for the latest i5 and i7 iMac and MacBook Pro models.

For more information about Pro Tools 8.0.4, please see the following page in the Products / Pro Tools / What’s New section:

Summary of Updates

Pro Tools|HD® 8.0.4

  • Includes many performance enhancements and fixes

Pro Tools LE 8.0.4

  • Includes many performance enhancements and fixes
  • Full support for Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Full support for i5 and i7 iMac and MacBook Pro models
  • Adds new Windows drivers—broadening compatibility on PC desktops and laptops

Pro Tools M-Powered 8.0.4

  • Includes many performance enhancements and fixes
  • Full support for Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
  • Full support for i5 and i7 iMac and MacBook Pro models

Compatibility Summary

Pro Tools 8.0.4 supports the same Pro Tools core systems as version 8.0.3, with the following operating systems:

  • Mac OS X 10.6.1 – 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard)
    • While 10.6.4 is not yet fully qualified with Pro Tools, our preliminary compatibility and performance testing has found no issues
  • Mac OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard)
  • Windows XP Service Pack 3 (Home or Professional, 32-bit)
  • Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (32-bit)
  • Windows 7 (32 and 64-bit)
    • Windows 7 is officially supported with Pro Tools LE and M-Powered version 8.0.4; and Pro Tools M-Powered Essential version 8.0.3
    • Pro Tools HD 8.0.4 can be used on Windows 7 as a public beta

Please Note:
Pro Tools 8.0.4 will be the last version of Pro Tools to support Macintosh Leopard (10.5.x), and Windows Vista operating systems. It will also be the last version of Pro Tools LE and M-Powered to support Windows XP.

Please read the EOSS (End of Software Support) Announcements for more information.

Not Compatible
Pro Tools 8.0.3 software and higher does not support some retired products:

  • Original Mbox
  • Expansion|HD Chassis
  • Macintosh PowerPC Computers

Please read the EOSS (End of Software Support) Announcements for more information.

Download Pages with Additional Details

Pro Tools HD 8.0.4 Updates — June 8, 2010

Pro Tools LE 8.0.4 Updates — July 7, 2010

Pro Tools M-Powered 8.0.4 Updates — July 7, 2010

Note: These updates are for the full version of Pro Tools M-Powered; Pro Tools M-Powered Essential remains at version 8.0.3.

Please Note: The Pro Tools 8.0.4 Updates are only available by download. You will need to use a broadband connection to download the update for your system. If you are not able to download on your Pro Tools system, you can download the update from any broadband connection, then transfer the update to your Pro Tools system.

Additional Downloads

Pro Tools 8.0.4 Optional software Downloads
Links to downloads and installation instructions for owners of optional software, plug-ins, toolkits, MP3 Option, DigiTranslator, MachineControl, and more:

iZotope Updates Required
For AudioSuite compatibility with Pro Tools 8.0.4, users of iZotope plug-ins should download the latest versions from the iZotope website:

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