Summary
In this episode of The Pro Audio Suite, hosts George Wittam, Robert Marshall, Darren Robbo Robertson, and Andrew Peters unbox the English Channel, an audio studio in a box. This piece of technology is described as having three sections: a preamp, a filter, and an inbuilt compressor, which work together to produce a unique mix. Additionally, discussions highlight the Portcaster Vo Vo, a tool favored by content creators for its ability to switch from mono to stereo. The final product, Passport VO, an item with an inbuilt card recorder that can record and playback without clipping, is introduced and admired for its sturdy metal casing and ease of use for those with a basic understanding of audio. The hosts conclude with news of limited availability for the first batch of the technology and the upcoming guest appearance from Michael at Sentrance. #ProAudioUnboxing #EnglishChannelAudioStudio #PodcastTechTalks
Timestamps
(00:00:00) Show Introduction
(00:00:46) Audio Studio in a Box
(00:05:27) Unit Power and USB Input
(00:10:12) Portcaster XLM 103 Analysis
(00:16:00) Passport VO Microphone Switch
(00:23:47) Michael's Experience with Sentrance
(00:28:47) Difficulty Quoting Dates
(00:31:35) Conclusion & Final Thoughts
Transcript
Speaker A: And here we are again with another show. And we have another unboxing, something very special. And Robo's a very lucky boy.,Speaker B: Welcome.,Speaker C: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone to the pro audio suite.,Speaker B: These guys are professional and motivated with tech. To the VO stars, George Wittam, founder of Source Element Robert Marshall, international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Triboo, Austrian audio making passion heard source elements George the Tech Wittam and Robbo and AP's international demo. To find out more about us, check ThePro Audiosuite.com.,: What you got, Robo?,Speaker C: I've got a little black box of magic.,: What did you get that I didn't get way down under before you'd ship it across the country. What the heck?,Speaker C: Very early Christmas present. And it's very cool. Can you see the black box? It's like a flight recorder. That was my first impression. It was like, whoa, what's this?,: It's very cool. Nice little kit. So what's this thing called?,Speaker C: And it's rock solid. It's called the English Channel. It's an audio studio in a box, effectively. So if we crack it open, there's this piece of magic inside. And I'm guessing that we can all.,: See that there's three separate units, is what I'm seeing.,Speaker C: Yeah. So there's three of Sentrance's units. All. Well, they're not linked together at the moment because you need to do that with these XLRs and USB connectors at the bottom. But it's very simple. Gotcha. Which we'll talk through in a minute. Effectively, you've got your pre and effects. So in the soapbox is your gain and your high pass, low pass filter, all that sort of stuff. There's a gate.,: So the soapbox is the preamp.,Speaker C: The soapbox is your preamp. So your mic goes into here and then it joins it. Daisy chains across the top to the others. But in the soapbox. Yeah, there's your high and your lowest pass filters, your 48 and your pad. And then you've got your gain, obviously, and a dry, wet mix for your effects, which we'll get to in a sec, including the gate, which is here, and a Deesser. And also the option to check to select the frequency the DS is working on, which I think is the bit of magic. You've also got an inbuilt compressor, which obviously is using a preset knee and ratio and all that sort of stuff. But from testing it out with AP the other week when it turned up, it's actually, not too bad. Used in moderation, and also when used in conjunction with the mix knob. So wet is full on wet. For those who are not sure what a mix knob is, full on wet is everything working at its capacity. But then when you use the mix knob and you start bringing it back towards dry, that processed effect is being mixed with the original signal coming in from the microphone.,: Interesting, because that is not a knob that most people are going to have in their signal chain. Like you have a single rack piece of gear. Let's say it's a channel strip. I'm thinking of a DBX 286. I know he's thinking of that piece of gear a lot when he developed a soapbox. The signal goes left to right, it goes preamp, then it goes through each thing in that sequence, and then it comes out the other end and it's all wet. You can't blend it. Here you have a blend, which gives you an interesting level of creativity in terms of controlling all that.,Speaker C: That's right. So even if you find that you've got to wind up the compression a bit more to get whatever the desired effect is you're looking for, you can still manage that, micromanage that by sort of then playing with your mix to get it just right, which is kind of clever. So I'm really impressed with that. I thought that.,: So that first box of soapbox has a preamp.,Speaker C: Yeah, has your preamp.,: It has a high pass filter.,Speaker C: High pass and low pass.,: Actually, no, just high pass.,Speaker C: Just a high pass. And then something called High Z. Oh.,: High Z would be for a guitar. Yeah, because it's got a high Z combo.,Speaker C: That's right. Well, that's the other thing, actually. Yeah. You can use this as a DI, but we'll get to that, I guess.,: And then it's got 2 meters. Is one an input meter and one an output meter? Yeah.,Speaker C: So one's an input meter and one's an out. But it's also showing you. Well. Yeah, so you can see your compression working, basically. You can sort of see what's coming in and what's going out when you're dialing in your compressor, which is kind of nice.,: Got it. And what are the three little lights across the top? Looks like? There's three LEDs.,Speaker C: So that's just showing you when your gate's working, when your gates kicking in and out. Then your compressor. Your compressor and your DS are working.,: XLR mail output. Is that right? Is there a dial on the back?,Speaker C: There's a swit