So I finally made a decision and melted the credit card.  I posted my initial thoughts ....   I have a Harpertown Mac Pro and it very much looks like if I want HDX I am going to have to replace the Mac Pro as well. We then have the rumours about the future of the Mac Pro and Apple’s continuing move to the consumer market and away from the pro market. So should I spend a load on money on a machine and cards for a computer forma factor that might not be around?  On the other hand you can delay making just about any equipment related decision because of a rumour of what might be round the corner.

    Existing owners of any license:    Get a $200 discount on any product of $395 or more*. E.g. got Source-Connect? Get Source-Live for just $195.     Got an active demo and waiting to buy?    If your demo is still active, we'll discount your demo license product by $125.   Offer expires on December 24th.  

Russ has set up a similar thread at the AIR Users blog and I thought it would be a good idea to see what the post community thought were the best product of 2011.   Mine is Nugen Audio's VisLM-H and VisLM-C loudness meter plug-ins. Loudness metering will become an essential piece of kit and the guys at Nugen Audio have produced, in my opinion, the best plug-in loudness meter especially in terms of value for money and consistency. Take a look at this video to tell you some more about this plug-in.....   So what has your product of 2011 been?  Please do tell.....

Just a couple of days ago Olympus announced the latest addition to the Olympus PCM handheld recorder range. I have been supplying their LS 5 to many of my broadcast clients for a while now and it has proved very reliable out in the field. This new LS-100 looks as if it will become my replacement handheld recorder of choice. Lets see what Olympus have to say about it...   Size it up The LS-100 is the first and currently only model in the Olympus LS range to boast dual XLR/Phone combo jacks (with 48/24V Phantom Power Supply). These enable instruments and professional external microphones to be plugged directly into the unit. The interface is equipped with an independent instrumentation amplifier, ensuring that low noise, high signal/noise (S/N) ratio recordings can confidently be made – even when using long leads. Levels for the left and right channels can be independently adjusted according to the requirements of the attached instruments thanks to the integrated recording level dial.

Shaun Farley has put these two video tutorials from a 'post' perspective on his web site.  He says...   I decided to put these two tutorials together to share some simple tricks that I use in Izotope RX2. They’re nothing overly complex, but they are kind of unique….and handy to boot. I just thought I’d share them and hope you find them useful.   Izotope RX2 - De-Essing Tutorial from Shaun Farley on Vimeo.A de-essing trick using RX2's Spectral Repair function. Can you spot the moment when my dog decided he needed to shake (jingling tags). lol   Izotope RX2 - Spectral Copy and Paste Tutorial from Shaun Farley on Vimeo.Special copy and paste functions in Izotope RX2  

Waves are offering 50% off most of their bundles. It isn't clear when this sale will expire but 'end of year' implies Dec 31st.   The offer covers both Native and TDM bundles.    

I have been wondering if it was possible to backup other content using Gobbler and yesterday on the Gobbler blog they have shown how to do it...   It is a bit of a work around as you need to trick Gobbler in to thinking it is a DAW session folder  but you can back up any file nested within a DAW session folder that Gobbler recognises.   In order to back up general files (video, docs, images) that aren’t session files, the solution is to simply place a “session file” and “audio files” folder in that project folder. So, for example, download & use this “dummy” session called photos. Gobbler will then recognise the project folder: Drop any files you want in the folder and you can then back it up normally from within the Gobbler app.     Download the project file templates below! Docs Videos Photos   This is great for now but lets hope that Gobbler do something to make it a little easier to backup other content.

Recently there has been some discussion with folk starting to mix using an R128 loudness meter. Some have experimented with recording an uncompressed voiceover at BBC PPM6 and finding it is a couple of dBs louder than the R128 spec of -23. In response I mixed two 30 minute speech based documentaries for Radio 4 yesterday and I put an R128 loudness meter across it and found I got a figures of -24 overall.  So maybe the latest TC Electronic newsletter where they released details of more videos from the Rome Calling loudness seminars held in the summer might help. Also some of the videos already released have been re-released as full length videos rather than in 10 minute sections.  If you have an interest in loudness then these will be very informative and educational.

Following on from my post about independent sound effects libraries here is some more news on some new collections recently published from Rabbit Ears Audio, HISandaROAR, Daniel Gooding and BOOM.

  Finally Avid have made the Pro Tools 10 demo available. They have made a 30 day trial like their Media Composer trial rather than the 14 day it was due to be.   It includes your choice of Pro Tools 10 or Pro Tools HD 10 software, plus all included virtual instruments, effects, and sound processing plug-ins but remember you will need an iLok.         You can download it here from the Avid Site.  

These arethe details as supplied by Gobbler on v0.9.7.2   Today we released our v 0.9.7.2 point release which addresses a number of bugs, added validation to the login window and a known Geolocation services issue that some users were experiencing.   New Features Added additional validation to login window

Gobbler have announced the pricing plans for people you have signed up and are using their free space but for whom it isn't enough space, and so would like to buy more....   +100GB for $100/year (normally $200) +250 GB for $225/year (normally $400) +500 GB for $400/year (normally $600) These are all annual plans that will only be available from now until February 2012.  All plans purchased as part of the early-bird promotion will be valid from the date of purchase until February 2013, at which point you'll be able to renew your plan at same rate you originally purchased it for.  We'll be offering pay-as-you-go monthly plans in February.

As long as you sign up before 7th December then you will get 25GB free space on the Gobbler servers to store backups of your Pro Tools and other DAW projects safely in the cloud. But some of you have asked what will happen after today. The simple answer is if you sign up after today then you will only get 5GB of free space, but there is also the mater of what happens to your free space once Gobbler start charging for space. This is what Chris from Gobbler has to say....

Despite promises to the contrary, Avid still haven't released the free Pro Tools 10 trail despite this being an offer to help convince users that the upgrade is worth while.  The latest is that this has been pushed back to Mid December.   Then there is the DV Tool Kit and Complete Production Toolkit upgrade saga. Again despite DTS mark 2 promising back on Oct 21st.....   The DVTK to CPTK upgrade will be available again in the next week or two on the Avid Store. I think Max didn't get the late breaking info about it still being offered - it was pulled temporarily for technical reasons mostly related to setting up the process for surrendering the old license and to remove 3rd party content from the 'package'.   It still hasn't appeared and there has been no formal response from Avid since then on the issue. This is real bad news for Pro Tools For Media users with these products.   Come on Avid, you are not helping reclaim your reputation amongst users with delays and silence about issues like this

Pitch-correction Plug-ins - Pitch-correction plug-ins are the key to the current trend for weird vocal effects. Here’s how to achieve them in Pro Tools.   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.

Broadcast & Production bundle - $799 from $1600 Sound Design Suite - $699 from $1400 360 Sound Tools - $599 from $1200 Video Sound Suite - $249 from $500 Go to the Waves Special Offer page for more details. WNS noise suppressor - $399 from $800 W43 noise suppressor - $99 from $200 UM225/226 stereo to surround upmix - $99 from $200 LoAir bass enhancement - $19 from $75 Again for more details go to the Waves Special Offers page. There are some stunning deals here. If you work in surround and have stereo legacy content (and who won't) then the UM225 and 226 are great value for money. The LoAir plug-in is a steal at $19 as is the W43 noise suppressor at $99

TC Electronic say in their newsletter....   At the recent AES Convention in New York City, Avid presented a new plug-in format for Pro Tools 10: AAX (Avid Audio eXtension). One of the most frequently asked questions we were asked during the show was how soon we would be able to support this new format.   We are proud to announce that our LM6 Radar Loudness Meter, which was also revealed at AES, will support the new AAX format right from the start.   LM6 Radar Loudness Meter will be available in VST, AU, RTAS and AAX Native versions Dec 2011.   So this will play nicely with either the new HDX hardware of an HD Native system.  However no news as to whether existing LM5D owners will get this version free or not.

I have been talking about Gobbler alot over the last 12 months, but haven't said too much about my experiences with it.   I have also been using Gobbler for ages and I respect that they have chosen the 'slow' route' to market, to test it for real with real users, yes OK they have used us to help their beta testing, but they have been very open about it, and we have had a free service in return.   Well in case you hadn't worked it out yet, I love Gobbler and use it a lot. For me it gives me that reliable off site backup that I hadn't got to date.  It is better than any of the other 'cloud based' backup options because it scans for sessions and then backs up everything inside the session folder. I really hope they can come to agreement with Avid and get proper acces to the session file so that Gobbler can read the session file and back up everything in the session file irrespective of where it is on the system. We used to have this feature with Mezzo Archiver in the days of tape based archiving but unfortunately that little company has gone to the wall. So it can be done, it has been done, so come on Avid and Gobbler please work it out soon.

Even though they have moved on to Pro Tools 10, Avid have released an update for Pro Tools 9, taking it up to v9.0.6.   Do read the pdf which lists out all the fixes, which are too many to list here, but also what I found even more interesting was the information listed under Compatibility in the pdf, the things that still break Pro Tools.  For example did you know that if you format your Mac drives using the 'Case Sensitive 'option Pro Tools won't record to them.   You can go to the appropriate pages on the Avid site to read more and download the update.

  Through Dec 31, you can get 25% off all Wave Arts products...  simply use this coupon code in our Online Store:   CPN22889572416   Please note this offer cannot be combined with other coupons, such as the educational discount.   MAC 64-BIT BETAS - VST AND AUWe are pleased to make public new Mac 64-bit beta versions of our Audio Unit and VST plug-ins.