- Introduction: The team welcomes listeners and gives a shout-out to sponsors, Tribooth and Austrian Audio.
- DAW Origins: Robbo shares his first experience with DSP at Triple M in Brisbane, sparking a discussion on early digital mixing consoles.
- Evolution of DAWs: The crew discusses how DAWs have changed from the 90s to now, mentioning early tools like Magix Samplitude, WaveLab, and Cakewalk.
- Modern Favorites: A look at the DAWs the hosts currently use, including Pro Tools, Twisted Wave, and Audition.
- Unexpected Tools: The team talks about some of the more obscure DAWs and editors, like Akon Digital's DAW and RØDE Connect.
- Challenges with New DAWs: The hosts share the challenges of learning new DAWs and the comfort of sticking with familiar tools.
- Final Thoughts: Reflecting on the importance of mastering your tools and the potential future of DAWs.
- Tribooth: The best vocal booth for home or on-the-road voice recording. Use code TRIPAP200 for $200 off your Tribooth.
- Austrian Audio: Making passion heard.
- Hosted by Robert Marshall, Darren "Robbo" Robertson, George "The Tech" Whittam, and Andrew Peters
- Recorded using Source Connect
- Edited by Andrew Peters
- Mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging
- Tech support by George "The Tech" Whittam
A big shout out to our sponsors, Austrian Audio and Tri Booth. Both these companies are providers of QUALITY Audio Gear (we wouldn't partner with them unless they were), so please, if you're in the market for some new kit, do us a solid and check out their products, and be sure to tell em "Robbo, George, Robert, and AP sent you"... As a part of their generous support of our show, Tri Booth is offering $200 off a brand-new booth when you use the code TRIPAP200. So get onto their website now and secure your new booth... https://tribooth.com/ And if you're in the market for a new Mic or killer pair of headphones, check out Austrian Audio. They've got a great range of top-shelf gear.. https://austrian.audio/ We have launched a Patreon page in the hopes of being able to pay someone to help us get the show to more people and in turn help them with the same info we're sharing with you. If you aren't familiar with Patreon, it’s an easy way for those interested in our show to get exclusive content and updates before anyone else, along with a whole bunch of other "perks" just by contributing as little as $1 per month. Find out more here.. https://www.patreon.com/proaudiosuite George has created a page strictly for Pro Audio Suite listeners, so check it out for the latest discounts and offers for TPAS listeners. https://georgethe.tech/tpas If you haven't filled out our survey on what you'd like to hear on the show, you can do it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZWT5BTD Join our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/proaudiopodcast And the FB Group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/357898255543203 For everything else (including joining our mailing list for exclusive previews and other goodies), check out our website https://www.theproaudiosuite.com/ “When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.” Hunter S Thompson
00:00:00
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Y'all ready to be history?
00:00:01
Get started.
00:00:01
Welcome.
00:00:02
Hi.
00:00:02
Hi.
00:00:03
Hi.
00:00:03
Hello, everyone.
00:00:05
To the Pro Audio Suite.
00:00:06
These guys are professional, they're motivated.
00:00:08
Thanks to Tribush, the best vocal booth for
00:00:11
home or on the road voice recording, and
00:00:13
Austrian Audio, making passion heard.
00:00:16
Introducing Robert Marshall, from Source Elements, and Someone
00:00:20
Audio Post, Chicago.
00:00:21
Darren Robert Robertson, from Voodoo Radio Imaging, Sydney.
00:00:24
Tech to the VO stars, George the Tech
00:00:27
Whittam, from LA, and me, Andrew Peters, voiceover
00:00:30
talent, and home studio guy.
00:00:32
Line up, man.
00:00:33
Here we go.
00:00:34
Sound on me.
00:00:35
And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.
00:00:38
Thanks to Austrian Audio, making passion heard, and
00:00:41
Tribush, don't forget the code, T-R-I
00:00:44
-P-A-P 200, to get 200 US
00:00:47
dollars off your Tribush.
00:00:50
Also, while we've got your ear, we know
00:00:52
we have a lot of listeners, and a
00:00:53
lot of you haven't subscribed.
00:00:55
And if you would like to subscribe, that
00:00:57
will help us a lot with numbers, and
00:00:59
also give us the ability to maybe get
00:01:02
some really funky new guests.
00:01:04
Who knows?
00:01:06
Anyway, I was listening to another podcast, which
00:01:09
I'll give a plug, Production Expert.
00:01:11
I hadn't heard it before, but a friend
00:01:13
tipped me into it, and it was really
00:01:14
interesting.
00:01:15
And they covered quite a lot of topics.
00:01:18
One that they kind of dabbled with, and
00:01:20
then moved away, was DAWs.
00:01:23
And I know there's some pretty wacky stuff
00:01:25
out there that people use.
00:01:27
I've been a victim of that.
00:01:29
I think my first DAW was Magix Samplitude.
00:01:34
I remember that.
00:01:35
I never used it, but I do remember
00:01:37
it.
00:01:37
Yeah, that was, when I think about it
00:01:38
now, it's like, well, I don't know what
00:01:40
I was thinking.
00:01:40
And then the second one I got was
00:01:42
Wave Lab, which was part of Vin's build
00:01:45
into his PCs.
00:01:47
And now, of course, I've bitten the bullet,
00:01:50
jumped across, and I've just set up Twisted
00:01:52
Wave on everything, which I'm very happy with.
00:01:55
Thank you, Thomas.
00:01:56
Well, Robbo's flying an A380 every time we
00:01:58
do a show.
00:01:59
How's the plane flying today, Robbo?
00:02:01
It's on autopilot at the moment.
00:02:03
So yeah, it seems to be going OK.
00:02:05
OK, good.
00:02:08
So how long ago, let's go a little
00:02:11
bit of history then.
00:02:13
Do you remember when you first started recording
00:02:16
and editing on a computer?
00:02:18
And what you were using then?
00:02:21
For me, it would have been, oh wow,
00:02:25
that's a very good question.
00:02:26
It would have been early 2000s, maybe even
00:02:31
2000, maybe 1999.
00:02:33
I can't actually remember.
00:02:36
Yeah.
00:02:36
But it was very early.
00:02:37
Yeah.
00:02:38
How about you, Robbo?
00:02:39
Oh, jeez.
00:02:42
The very first DAW that I worked on
00:02:45
was DSP.
00:02:48
DSP?
00:02:49
Triple M in Brisbane.
00:02:51
So it would have been like 1992, 1993,
00:02:57
around there somewhere.
00:02:58
Yeah, that's early.
00:02:58
It was hooked up to one of the
00:03:00
very first Yamaha automated, little tiny automated consoles.
00:03:06
So DSP was an Australian company.
00:03:08
When it folded, Fairlight bought them.
00:03:10
I actually used to do, back in the
00:03:13
early 2000s, I actually used to do their
00:03:15
training for them.
00:03:15
When people bought new DSP units here in
00:03:19
Sydney, I used to be the dude that
00:03:20
went out and did all the training on
00:03:23
site for a couple of days with the
00:03:24
engineers.
00:03:26
So, yeah, it was a really good piece
00:03:28
of software.
00:03:29
We had it at George Pat's when I
00:03:30
was there as well.
00:03:32
And, yeah, unfortunately they went under.
00:03:34
But, yeah, that's how long, yeah.
00:03:36
So, Jesus, what's that?
00:03:38
30 odd years ago, I suppose.
00:03:39
Was that a true multi-track DAW environment?
00:03:42
It was.
00:03:42
It was an eight track.
00:03:43
Yeah, eight tracks.
00:03:44
Eight tracks of digital audio.
00:03:46
So, yeah.
00:03:47
And I remember sitting in the production studio
00:03:50
at Triple M in Brisbane when I was
00:03:52
up there.
00:03:52
We got it on a trial and watching
00:03:54
the flying faders and everybody.
00:03:55
I think the whole radio station sort of
00:03:57
circled in and out of the studio to
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come check out this fancy new piece of
00:04:01
equipment.
00:04:02
But, yeah, it was good.
00:04:03
I learned on a Yamaha DMC-1000 digital
00:04:06
mixing console.
00:04:08
Could have been the same model.
00:04:09
It probably was.
00:04:10
It was installed around that time.
00:04:12
They had it at Virginia Tech in the
00:04:13
music studio from 92, 93.
00:04:16
And I just remember I called it the
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Lean and Squint 1000.
00:04:21
Lean and Squint.
00:04:23
Because it had this little blue backlit LCD
00:04:27
screen at the top right.
00:04:29
And there was so many damn operations you
00:04:32
had to do through that little screen.
00:04:34
And you're always leaning over and squinting at
00:04:37
the screen.
00:04:39
But it had those flying faders.
00:04:41
It was super high quality sound.
00:04:44
Do you know what I remember the most,
00:04:46
though?
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Coming from analog into digital is just that
00:04:49
wow moment when you just realized what a
00:04:53
game changer digital audio was actually going to
00:04:56
be.
00:04:57
After all those years of multitrack and splicing
00:04:59
and drop editing and overdubs and all the
00:05:02
rest of it, to look at it and
00:05:04
just go, holy crap, what can't I do
00:05:07
now?
00:05:07
That was the thing that always got me.
00:05:10
I had the interim step where I skipped
00:05:14
over analog.
00:05:15
I played with it and hobbied with it,
00:05:16
but I never used it professionally.
00:05:18
So I wasn't splicing on splicing blocks and
00:05:21
stuff.
00:05:22
But when I went to Virginia Tech, we
00:05:23
had the digital tape machines, the DA88 from
00:05:26
Tascam.
00:05:27
And so I went straight to digital tape.
00:05:30
But the time where we finally went to
00:05:32
a DAW, we were using Sonic Solutions.
00:05:35
And that was only for mastering for CD.
00:05:38
That's all we used it for.
00:05:40
So everything else was done on tape.
00:05:42
And we would mix down to a DAT.
00:05:43
And then typically we would take the DAT,
00:05:45
load that into Sonic Solutions, and use that
00:05:49
to author the disc, the CD-R.
00:05:51
I'd go down to the library, to the
00:05:54
bookstore, buy one blank CD-R, $15.
00:05:59
And your professor would say, burn this at
00:06:01
1x speed.
00:06:02
Don't do 2x, because sometimes it screws up.
00:06:07
So I remember that.
00:06:08
But yeah, Sonic Solutions was the first one
00:06:10
I used in school.
00:06:11
And then on my own, I remember using
00:06:14
for multitrack.
00:06:15
I learned on, I don't know why I
00:06:17
stumbled on it, but probably because I was
00:06:19
on PC.
00:06:19
I stumbled onto Cakewalk.
00:06:22
And then Cakewalk became Sonar.
00:06:25
Sonar, it changed names or something.
00:06:28
And I believe to this day, Sonar is
00:06:30
still out there.
00:06:30
Sonar X1, X2, whatever the 13 or 14
00:06:34
version it is.
00:06:35
And that was what I did.
00:06:37
I did a fair amount of multitrack production
00:06:39
on Sonar.
00:06:41
And then for single or two-track editing
00:06:43
and recording, I was using WaveLab.
00:06:45
So I went back to WaveLab on my
00:06:48
laptop, and I would use my laptop to
00:06:50
record and burn CDs, and I would use
00:06:52
it to do live records.
00:06:54
I would bring my laptop out to a
00:06:57
venue with my, at the time I had
00:07:00
a Grace Designs Lunatec V2 stereo mic preamp.
00:07:05
Really hi-fi stuff.
00:07:07
And I would run that straight into a
00:07:09
Digigram sound card that was PCMCIA, and it
00:07:14
slid into the side of the laptop.
00:07:16
And that's how I could, I did really
00:07:18
high-quality stereo records that way in the
00:07:21
field.
00:07:22
So those were my earliest dogs that I
00:07:25
worked on.
00:07:26
And I don't remember when I transitioned out
00:07:28
of using Cakewalk.
00:07:29
Probably when I went to get, when I
00:07:31
first got my Mac, and I was realizing
00:07:34
I had to teach a lot of people
00:07:35
how to record, and I had to use
00:07:36
what was common in our business.
00:07:39
So that's when I started learning Pro Tools
00:07:41
slowly, and then I started using Adobe Audition
00:07:44
and Keep Cool Edit and all the others.
00:07:46
What was your first version of Pro Tools
00:07:48
then?
00:07:50
Well, I think I first really had hands
00:07:52
-on Pro Tools.
00:07:53
It wasn't until probably six.
00:07:55
Yeah, that's about the time I started, I
00:07:57
think.
00:07:58
Yeah.
00:07:59
That's where it really became like common, more
00:08:02
commonplace.
00:08:03
That is probably the version of Pro Tools
00:08:05
that shipped with an M-Box.
00:08:09
Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:08:11
This is an OG original M-Box.
00:08:14
I believe this would have shipped with Pro
00:08:15
Tools 6.0 or 6.4. Something like
00:08:18
that.
00:08:19
I remember Yatesy, a guy I used to
00:08:22
work with at Triple M came in.
00:08:24
Mark Yates, good day, mate, if you're listening.
00:08:26
No, I don't want to buy a house
00:08:28
in Bondi, Yatesy.
00:08:29
Thank you.
00:08:32
He came in to work one day on
00:08:34
a Monday, and we were just chatting and
00:08:37
stuff, and he went, oh, how was your
00:08:38
weekend, blah, blah, blah.
00:08:39
And the convoy station basically went, oh, mate,
00:08:41
I spent the weekend on Pro Tools.
00:08:43
And I went, what?
00:08:44
You're coming to work?
00:08:45
Are you mad?
00:08:46
No, no, no.
00:08:47
I bought Pro Tools.
00:08:48
I've got it at home.
00:08:48
And that was sort of my discovery of
00:08:50
the M-Box and all the rest of
00:08:53
it.
00:08:53
And he was like, yeah, no, I sat
00:08:54
at home, and I had some headphones on,
00:08:56
and I finished this promo, and I did
00:08:58
this, and I did that.
00:08:59
I was like, I've got to go get
00:09:00
that.
00:09:01
So yeah.
00:09:02
I remember they had an M-Box.
00:09:06
I can't remember what it was called, but
00:09:07
it was literally just a USB dongle that
00:09:10
plugged into the computer with a headphone jack,
00:09:13
just so you could mix on the road.
00:09:15
Since with those versions of Pro Tools, Pro
00:09:18
Tools LE, the license was the hardware.
00:09:21
You remember that?
00:09:21
That's right.
00:09:22
They didn't use an iLock.
00:09:23
The M-Box was the iLock.
00:09:25
You plugged the M-Box in, and away
00:09:26
you went.
00:09:27
And that all went away with version, I
00:09:29
don't remember, 10 maybe.
00:09:31
Whenever iLock came out, I remember that.
00:09:33
But I've heard of some people using weird
00:09:35
DAWs, because it's just what comes free with
00:09:38
their interface.
00:09:40
Well, everybody's got a DAW these days, right?
00:09:42
I mean, let's be honest.
00:09:44
If it's got anything to do with the
00:09:46
audio, there's a DAW attached somewhere.
00:09:48
Yeah, I guess they want to have control.
00:09:50
I mean, to me, developing new software is
00:09:52
not a cheap endeavor.
00:09:54
So that's what kind of blows me away,
00:09:55
is that is it that accessible to find
00:09:59
the developers and to fund and develop a
00:10:02
DAW that all these companies are making it?
00:10:05
Mackie even had one.
00:10:07
I think it was called Traction or something
00:10:08
like that.
00:10:09
Wow.
00:10:10
Everybody's got one.
00:10:11
I use Pro Tools Studio, and there was
00:10:13
a bunch of free software that came with
00:10:15
that, and I finally got around to downloading
00:10:16
it the other day.
00:10:18
And I was putting stuff on it.
00:10:20
And you've got to go to the supplier's
00:10:23
website to download the software, obviously.
00:10:26
And that's what struck me.
00:10:28
There were these plug-in makers that I'd
00:10:31
never heard of, some of them, but even
00:10:33
they've got a DAW.
00:10:34
Download such and such.
00:10:37
No, thank you.
00:10:38
I'm right.
00:10:39
Thank you.
00:10:39
I've got Audacity, I've got Audition, and I've
00:10:42
got Pro Tools.
00:10:43
I think that's probably got me covered.
00:10:44
Thank you, though.
00:10:45
Yeah, Akon Digital is one of those, too.
00:10:47
Akon makes noise reduction stuff like RX, and
00:10:51
they have a DAW, too.
00:10:52
And it's actually pretty good.
00:10:54
I mean, it's an editor.
00:10:55
It's really a Twisted Wave or a Wave
00:10:57
Lab competitor.
00:10:59
But I've got to say it's pretty good,
00:11:01
but it's ugly.
00:11:03
It's all, like, yellow and black.
00:11:05
Oh, yeah, that's got to be anything unless
00:11:07
you're a bee.
00:11:09
Exactly.
00:11:11
But RØDE have actually got an editor as
00:11:14
well, haven't they?
00:11:15
Doesn't that come with the DSP on their
00:11:18
USB mics?
00:11:21
Oh, I don't know if they have an
00:11:23
editor.
00:11:23
I haven't looked at that.
00:11:24
I haven't seen an editor.
00:11:25
They've got a console.
00:11:26
Oh, well, I have two apps from RØDE
00:11:29
on my dock here.
00:11:30
I've got RØDE Central and I have RØDE
00:11:33
Connect.
00:11:34
And RØDE Connect, I think, is the recorder
00:11:38
app that they make for producing, like, a
00:11:41
podcast.
00:11:42
Yeah, that's it, RØDE Connect.
00:11:44
And saying, hey, there's a new version.
00:11:46
Like, I'll do that later.
00:11:48
Yeah, RØDE Connect, it's kind of intended to
00:11:50
be like a software replacement for a RØDECaster
00:11:53
that works with their mics.
00:11:56
Yeah, yeah.
00:11:56
So it's got the little sound effect buttons.
00:11:59
I don't think you're going to hear that,
00:12:01
but it's got sound effect buttons.
00:12:03
I thought that was me for a second.
00:12:05
It can connect with wireless RØDE mics.
00:12:09
It's pretty slick, right?
00:12:12
And it has a record function.
00:12:13
But in terms of a DAW, I don't
00:12:15
think I would call it a DAW.
00:12:16
It seems much too simplistic to be a
00:12:19
DAW.
00:12:19
But that seems like an inevitability based on
00:12:23
what we're seeing, is that RØDE will have
00:12:25
a DAW at some point.
00:12:26
Oh, for sure.
00:12:27
For sure they will.
00:12:28
Okay, here's a question for you, George.
00:12:30
What's the weirdest recorder or DAW, editor, whatever
00:12:33
you want to call it, you've ever come
00:12:35
across?
00:12:37
Well, there's two categories.
00:12:39
One of them is using software that's not
00:12:41
for audio production as an audio tool.
00:12:44
So for that, I would say Final Cut.
00:12:48
I've had a few folks say they use
00:12:50
Final Cut for audio.
00:12:52
To do audio.
00:12:53
Yeah.
00:12:53
And those that do usually have a good
00:12:57
reason for it.
00:12:58
It's that they came from video editing, and
00:13:02
so they already knew how to use it.
00:13:05
I had somebody recently say that there's a
00:13:07
module in Final Cut for voiceover record that's
00:13:12
actually a really good voiceover editing or a
00:13:15
voice editing tool that comes bundled in Final
00:13:18
Cut.
00:13:19
I'm like, that's obscure.
00:13:20
But they said, well, it breaks down.
00:13:22
It makes it really easy to keep track
00:13:24
of clips and organize your clips and it
00:13:28
makes it easier to record an audio book.
00:13:31
And I'm like, that is obscure.
00:13:33
That's weird.
00:13:34
But using an audio book in Final Cut,
00:13:36
that's different.
00:13:37
To be fair, back in the day when
00:13:39
you could edit video on Pro Tools, my
00:13:42
wife used to do her video editing in
00:13:45
Pro Tools because she knew Pro Tools.
00:13:47
So I suppose, you know.
00:13:48
So could you just simply do cut, like
00:13:51
trim head and tail?
00:13:52
No, you could edit and paste and all
00:13:55
the rest of it.
00:13:55
Was that called media something?
00:13:59
I'm thinking like maybe version 9 or version
00:14:01
10, they ended it.
00:14:02
Then they realized.
00:14:03
We could put it in another bundle and
00:14:05
stick that up.
00:14:06
So now you can only have one video
00:14:08
per session and all that sort of stuff
00:14:11
in studio.
00:14:11
You've got to go to the next level
00:14:13
to be able to have multiple videos.
00:14:16
Which is a pain in the ass, seriously.
00:14:18
I mean, for me, when you're doing update
00:14:20
versions and shit like that, you've now got
00:14:22
to save your session as and import a
00:14:24
new video into there.
00:14:26
And so there's your session spread across 10
00:14:28
sub-sessions.
00:14:30
Well, this whole conversation kind of got triggered
00:14:32
because somebody just emailed me saying, Hey, you
00:14:35
set me all up using Adobe Audition.
00:14:37
And I've got all the templates and everything
00:14:39
and the processing chains, whatnot.
00:14:42
But now I'm using Luna.
00:14:44
And so can you do all those chains
00:14:47
that you made for me over in Adobe
00:14:49
Audition?
00:14:50
Are they going to work in Luna?
00:14:51
And if not, can you make me processing
00:14:53
for Luna?
00:14:55
And that's kind of triggered this conversation because
00:14:57
I was like, Luna?
00:14:58
Well, I could.
00:15:00
But sometimes when somebody asks me that, I
00:15:03
always ask you why exactly.
00:15:05
I'm like, just because you can doesn't mean
00:15:07
you should.
00:15:08
Are you doing it?
00:15:09
I mean, some people, frankly, will do it
00:15:11
because it literally is free.
00:15:13
There is definitely a contingent out there who
00:15:15
will not use Adobe Audition simply on principle.
00:15:19
They refuse to pay the subscription.
00:15:22
They don't want to do it, and they're
00:15:24
going to use anything else they can find
00:15:26
so they don't have to use Adobe Audition
00:15:29
or pay a subscription.
00:15:30
And that is what drives people to use
00:15:33
Reaper because it's a one-time buy, and
00:15:37
it's very cheap.
00:15:39
That drives people to use Luna, and it
00:15:41
drives people to use alternatives that are free
00:15:43
or that come free with their hardware.
00:15:47
Guys, I mean, if you really are making
00:15:49
a living, first of all, use the tool
00:15:52
you really know and have trained on and
00:15:54
have gotten really good at.
00:15:55
Don't keep trying new stuff all the time.
00:15:59
And second of all, Luna is a music
00:16:01
production tool.
00:16:02
So I'm sure someone's going to show me
00:16:05
one of these days why it's so amazing
00:16:07
for voiceover recording and editing.
00:16:09
I'm sure it's going to happen.
00:16:11
It's funny you should bring this up because
00:16:12
I did a video the other day for
00:16:14
the Just Ask Robbo YouTube page, and I
00:16:18
challenged myself to make a podcast opener in
00:16:20
Audacity because I kind of figured, well, you
00:16:22
know, podcasters want to know how to make
00:16:25
their own or anything, and the door of
00:16:26
choice is mostly Audacity.
00:16:28
Now, I'll be honest.
00:16:29
I know my way around Audacity, but I've
00:16:31
never used it to make something.
00:16:33
Sure.
00:16:34
It was an interesting process.
00:16:36
It went really well.
00:16:37
It came together really nicely.
00:16:39
It works.
00:16:41
But the interesting thing was, you know, every
00:16:43
sort of four or five key things, there's
00:16:45
a thunk, because I'm trying to give it
00:16:47
Pro Tools commands, and it's like, hang on,
00:16:49
what do you mean?
00:16:50
It's like, oh, yeah, sorry, yeah, right, that
00:16:52
one.
00:16:53
And zooming out when you should be zooming
00:16:54
in and all the usual stuff with learning
00:16:56
a new door.
00:16:57
I mean, I can understand why people might
00:16:59
take up a new door because they just
00:17:01
want to experiment.
00:17:02
But I think you're right.
00:17:03
I think if you're making your living off
00:17:05
a piece of software and there's no clear
00:17:09
reason why, I mean, because some of these
00:17:12
things, you know, you can come across all
00:17:14
sorts of weird little sort of intricacies within
00:17:19
the software that happen that you sort of
00:17:20
you've got to learn along the way, and,
00:17:22
you know, you make all those rookie mistakes,
00:17:24
make all those rookie mistakes all over again.
00:17:26
Yeah.
00:17:27
It's funny, I just had an interview with
00:17:29
Keith Urban, and he was talking about playing
00:17:30
a guitar, and he's a friend of John
00:17:33
Mayer, and John Mayer, he quoted John Mayer,
00:17:35
because John Mayer said, you know, it's really
00:17:38
interesting when you listen to a guitar solo,
00:17:40
you can tell which guy knows that guitar
00:17:43
inside out, you can just hear it, because
00:17:46
they've lived with each other for so long.
00:17:48
And it's the same with any of the
00:17:50
tools you use.
00:17:51
The longer you, you know, you're married to
00:17:53
that tool, the better you're going to be
00:17:54
with that tool.
00:17:56
I'm married to a tool.
00:18:02
Sorry, tonight, I love you.
00:18:05
It starts with a T anyway.
00:18:07
Yeah, that's right.
00:18:09
I mean, in my opinion, you would have
00:18:10
to be a John Mayer to maybe hear
00:18:12
that.
00:18:13
I don't know, like, who really hears that,
00:18:15
you know, a true guitar player, artist will
00:18:17
pick up on that stuff.
00:18:19
But it's the same way that, like, us
00:18:20
audio engineers pick up on really subtle things
00:18:24
that we key off on or get hung
00:18:26
up on or, you know, Yeah, it's that
00:18:30
intricate knowledge of something that, you know, and
00:18:33
I guess for a guitarist, you know how
00:18:35
the guitar you like feels in your hand
00:18:38
and you know, you know, what the fretboard
00:18:40
feels like and you know, you know, the
00:18:43
balance of it and all that stuff.
00:18:44
And when you pick up a different one,
00:18:46
you sort of go, oh, hang on, this
00:18:48
feels weird.
00:18:49
You know, or you, as a voiceover artist,
00:18:51
you buy a new microphone.
00:18:52
And for those first couple of sessions, you're
00:18:54
going, what's that that I'm hearing?
00:18:56
Yeah, so what's the thing about, like, does
00:19:00
this sound okay?
00:19:00
Or is it, what am I actually hearing
00:19:02
now?
00:19:03
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:19:04
Should I be trusting my headphones?
00:19:05
Yeah, do I trust myself that this is
00:19:07
sounding okay?
00:19:08
Yeah, exactly.
00:19:09
And I think that's the thing.
00:19:10
I mean, when you're doing it day in
00:19:11
and day out, you just get that sort
00:19:13
of deep-seated knowledge.
00:19:15
I mean, it's like the classic line in
00:19:19
Taken, that movie, where Liam Neeson's sitting in
00:19:23
his French mate's apartment and he's, you know,
00:19:28
he stands up and he's about to shoot
00:19:30
Liam Neeson and Liam Neeson, you know, basically
00:19:32
says, you know, shoot me.
00:19:33
And it's like he pulls the trigger and
00:19:35
there's no bullets in his gun because, you
00:19:37
know, he's been sitting behind a desk for
00:19:39
so long now, he doesn't remember the weight
00:19:41
of a loaded gun compared to the weight
00:19:43
of an unloaded gun.
00:19:44
Liam Neeson, all that sort of stuff.
00:19:46
And it's the same sort of thing, you
00:19:48
know, I suppose.
00:19:48
Well, it's interesting because, you know, because I
00:19:51
do a lot of promo stuff as well,
00:19:54
the majority of the work, because it is
00:19:56
promo, is on the 416.
00:19:58
Or I should say 416, now that's become
00:20:00
part of the vernacular of this industry.
00:20:02
And the 818.
00:20:04
The 818, yes.
00:20:06
So anyway, I used the OC 818 yesterday
00:20:10
for a session.
00:20:11
And it's funny because when I use it
00:20:13
for, like, if I'm doing something like an
00:20:15
ad or whatever, or something long form, you've
00:20:18
always got that little bit of doubt.
00:20:20
It's like, oh, I've set the levels properly
00:20:21
because I haven't used this for a while,
00:20:23
you know.
00:20:24
Yeah, that can slow you really down.
00:20:26
If you're always seeking, I don't know, some
00:20:32
of us do spend a lot of time
00:20:34
seeking ways to save a lot of time.
00:20:37
Yeah.
00:20:40
So it's like, yeah, I've been there and
00:20:42
done that with CRM, customer retention management, whatever
00:20:46
the hell it's called, relationship management softwares, and
00:20:49
just you name it, on and on.
00:20:53
And I'm like, my God, how much time
00:20:55
did I spend trying to figure out ways
00:20:57
to be more productive?
00:21:00
It doesn't will out.
00:21:04
That's why Twisted Wave sticks around year after
00:21:06
year after year, is he's never trying to
00:21:09
reinvent the wheel.
00:21:10
He's not trying to make anything revolutionary.
00:21:13
He just adds in useful things little by
00:21:16
little, drop by drop.
00:21:17
And I think it's the way these new
00:21:19
features are dripped in, like a drip feed,
00:21:22
you know.
00:21:23
It's like you get time to learn what
00:21:25
they do, and you get time to internalize
00:21:27
them, or you get time to decide whether
00:21:29
you need them or not, right?
00:21:31
But when there's like, everything's new, we did
00:21:34
a whole new user interface, and we can
00:21:36
do these 70 new features, it's like, who
00:21:38
the heck is going to internalize and learn
00:21:40
all those new things in one shot?
00:21:43
It's overwhelming.
00:21:44
Yeah, something over the years that you learn
00:21:46
over time and get nuanced.
00:21:50
And then there's also the idea, I've heard
00:21:52
people say, well, I want to try something
00:21:53
different because I can't do this.
00:21:55
Like, I interviewed somebody today, and she said,
00:21:58
well, I record everything in Twisted Wave, and
00:22:00
da-da-da-da-da.
00:22:01
And then I go into Adobe Audition, and
00:22:03
I use the compressor.
00:22:05
It's called Simple or Single Channel Compressor.
00:22:07
And I just use a little bit of
00:22:09
compression, and I'm like, why do you?
00:22:11
I didn't get into it because it wasn't
00:22:13
germane to the interview, but I wanted to
00:22:16
say why.
00:22:17
And I knew why.
00:22:18
And it's because in Twisted Wave, when you
00:22:22
look at the plug-ins, there is not
00:22:24
a plug-in in there called compressor.
00:22:27
And so if you've been watching a lot
00:22:29
of YouTube, and she was a younger person
00:22:31
who's learning through YouTube University, and she knew
00:22:35
that a compressor is a good thing, and
00:22:37
she looks in Twisted Wave and looks at
00:22:39
the effects, and there's nothing in there called
00:22:42
compressor.
00:22:43
But then she hears there's a thing called
00:22:45
a compressor in Adobe Audition, right?
00:22:47
So it's like, it's what you don't know.
00:22:50
You know, it's like you might think, oh,
00:22:52
Twisted Wave is too simple.
00:22:53
It's too basic.
00:22:55
It can't possibly do everything I need it
00:22:57
to do.
00:22:57
And then you go seeking elsewhere for other
00:23:00
tools and other systems.
00:23:02
Now you've added more steps, more cost, because
00:23:05
now she's paying for an audition license.
00:23:08
And it's not if, I mean, I just,
00:23:11
I wanted to be like, I wanted to
00:23:12
reach the screen.
00:23:15
Listen, there's a compressor in your Mac.
00:23:20
It's already built in.
00:23:21
You just don't know it's there.
00:23:23
And it almost makes me harken back to
00:23:25
the Audacity conversation we had where the compressor
00:23:27
just, you know, replaced the old version and
00:23:31
created a whole thing.
00:23:33
Like, Thomas could seek out another compressor and
00:23:37
make that, not replace, but supplement what's in
00:23:40
there.
00:23:41
But because he's just using what Apple includes
00:23:43
for free, and Apple, for whatever reason, doesn't
00:23:46
have a compressor in their default audio units,
00:23:50
then there's no compressor.
00:23:52
But there's the Dynamics processor in that.
00:23:54
That's a compressor.
00:23:55
Which is a compressor.
00:23:57
Yeah, it's just not that intuitive.
00:23:59
So, yeah, it's quirky things.
00:24:01
And because I've spent so much time learning
00:24:05
the quirks and features of what Twisted Wave
00:24:07
does and what the audio unit's plug-ins
00:24:09
do, et cetera, I'm getting every last bit
00:24:12
of juice out of these things.
00:24:14
And where a lot of people wouldn't do
00:24:15
that, their first thing would be to go
00:24:18
get another plug-in.
00:24:19
Go buy another package, another bundle.
00:24:23
You know, and just constantly seek out.
00:24:25
So, I find that kind of interesting.
00:24:28
I find Twisted Wave does way more than
00:24:31
I ever need.
00:24:32
It's a recorder.
00:24:33
It's a recorder and edit, and that's it.
00:24:35
Yeah.
00:24:35
I mean, Audacity is almost...
00:24:38
Yeah, I don't need anything else.
00:24:40
Audacity is overkill compared to Twisted Wave.
00:24:42
Yeah.
00:24:43
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24:44
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
00:24:46
Well, there you go, another free door.
00:24:47
Audacity.
00:24:48
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:49
The F word.
00:24:51
Yes.
00:24:53
You know what that leads to.
00:24:54
Yeah.
00:24:55
Out the door.
00:24:57
Well, that was fun.
00:24:58
Is it over?
00:25:00
The Pro Audio Suite.
00:25:01
With thanks to Tribus.
00:25:03
And Austrian Audio.
00:25:04
Recorded using Source Connect.
00:25:06
Edited by Andrew Peters.
00:25:08
And mixed by Vudu Radio Imaging.
00:25:10
With tech support from George the Tech Whittam.
00:25:12
Don't forget to subscribe to the show and
00:25:14
join in the conversation on our Facebook group.
00:25:16
To leave a comment, suggest a topic, or
00:25:19
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00:25:20
our website.