- How AI EQ works and its real-world applications
- Robbo’s first impressions using Waves Curves Equator
- Automating EQ for radio imaging and other applications
- Will AI-driven plugins take over more of the audio workflow?
- Tribooth Discount Code: Use TRIPAP200 for $200 off
- Austrian Audio: Proud sponsor of the show
- Source Elements: Making remote production seamless
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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite.
00:00:02
Don't forget, if you want to get a
00:00:03
discount on your Tribooth, use the code TRIPAP200
00:00:08
and that will get you 200 US dollars
00:00:10
off your Tribooth.
00:00:12
And they're used by the stars in the
00:00:13
voiceover industry.
00:00:15
Trust me, they're good.
00:00:16
And also Austrian Audio, making passion heard.
00:00:20
Robbo has been playing with some new gear.
00:00:22
What have you got Robbo?
00:00:28
Let's go.
00:00:29
Welcome.
00:00:30
Hi.
00:00:30
Hi.
00:00:31
Hi.
00:00:31
Hello everyone.
00:00:33
To the Pro Audio Suite.
00:00:34
These guys are professional, they're motivated.
00:00:36
With Tech the VO stars, George Witton, founder
00:00:39
of Source Elements, Robert Marshall, international audio engineer,
00:00:42
Darren Robbo Robertson, and global voice, Andrew Peters.
00:00:45
Thanks to Tribooth, Austrian Audio, making passion heard,
00:00:48
Source Elements, George the Tech Witton, and Robbo
00:00:51
and AP's international demos.
00:00:53
To find out more about us, check the
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ProAudioSuite.com.
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Yeah, and I've only been playing with it.
00:01:02
I haven't used it in anything.
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So I'm by no means an expert with
00:01:05
this.
00:01:06
But Gomez said to me that I should
00:01:08
load up the curves, the new waves curves.
00:01:13
I think I thought it was just curves,
00:01:14
but it could be curves equator, could be
00:01:16
wrong.
00:01:17
By the way, thank you.
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Thank you, George.
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For those who don't, and he is also
00:01:25
the head of training and development at waves.
00:01:28
So he's an old mate of Andrew's and
00:01:33
mine.
00:01:33
We worked together back a long time ago
00:01:36
in radio days.
00:01:37
So he's an old friend of mine.
00:01:38
And he said, anyway, he wrote me an
00:01:40
email, said, you should check this out.
00:01:42
So I, out of respect for Gomez, I've
00:01:44
loaded it up a couple of times and
00:01:45
had to play with it.
00:01:46
I'm yet to get my head around it.
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Effectively, what it is, though, is an AI
00:01:50
EQ.
00:01:52
So effectively, what you can do is show
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the plugin, your audio, which is the same
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as you would do if you were sort
00:02:00
of showing silence in a noise reduction plugin
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or whatever, and it will have a look
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at it.
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And then you can create all sorts of
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curves around what it's seeing.
00:02:09
Yeah, throw it up on screen.
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I've got it open here in my Pro
00:02:11
Tools session.
00:02:12
So I've just dragged in, this is an
00:02:14
old opener that AP voiced for the show,
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just because I don't want to piss anybody
00:02:18
off by using their voiceover for things it
00:02:20
wasn't authorized for.
00:02:21
Good idea.
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Good idea.
00:02:23
So AP, I guess you'll have to send
00:02:24
the show the bill for this one.
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I'll charge myself.
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Charge yourself.
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That's why.
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So you can see it looks like any
00:02:31
other sort of EQ there.
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So from what I gather, without having played
00:02:36
with it too much, that you give it
00:02:38
this learn command, right?
00:02:40
And so now it's listening to my audio.
00:02:42
Welcome to the Pro Audio Suite with Tech
00:02:45
to the VO Stars, George Whittam.
00:02:47
Right.
00:02:48
And then from it's so now it's basically
00:02:51
calibrated itself to Andrew's voice is what I
00:02:55
sort of, and then when I click apply,
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I now get this.
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So, and then I kind of, what I
00:03:02
kind of figured from here is you can
00:03:03
sort of draw, you can sort of change
00:03:06
your curve.
00:03:06
Welcome to the Pro Audio Suite with Tech
00:03:08
to the VO Stars, George Whittam.
00:03:10
Welcome to the Pro Audio Suite.
00:03:12
And this tilt thing's interesting because you can
00:03:14
sort of, you know, if you want a
00:03:15
sort of general sort of broad sort of
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butter knife sort of thing, you can sort
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of just do that.
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And then you've got your shape, which is
00:03:23
your cue and all that sort of stuff.
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And then the sensitivity.
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So outside of that, I've not figured out
00:03:29
a lot more.
00:03:30
There's, there are these advanced controls down here,
00:03:31
attack and release times and, and all that
00:03:34
sort of gear.
00:03:35
Interestingly, before we started recording, we were mucking
00:03:37
around with the, with the presets and the
00:03:41
one that I loaded up, this one, this
00:03:43
airy backing vocals thing, which I kind of
00:03:45
found really interesting.
00:03:46
So if you.
00:03:48
Welcome to the Pro Audio Suite with Tech
00:03:50
to the VO Stars, George Whittam.
00:03:52
So that's with it in.
00:03:53
And then if I take it off.
00:03:54
Welcome to the Pro Audio Suite with Tech
00:03:57
to the VO Stars.
00:03:58
Well, what's interesting is the image of the
00:04:00
curve.
00:04:01
It didn't change that much.
00:04:02
It still has that same low cut on
00:04:05
the bottom.
00:04:06
And then it just sort of the mid
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range kind of.
00:04:09
Yeah.
00:04:09
Popped up a little bit or it pulled
00:04:12
down.
00:04:13
The thing about these tools is, you know,
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they are such new paradigms of ways of
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doing things that all of us grizzled engineers.
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Yeah.
00:04:21
Yeah.
00:04:21
Yeah.
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What do I do with this?
00:04:23
Whereas like, I think a lot of like
00:04:25
younger producers, engineers, people learning, you know, are
00:04:28
way less afraid and just kind of grab
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and yank and just start pulling and twisting
00:04:33
knobs, you know, the world we're looking at
00:04:35
and going, I don't really what's.
00:04:38
Yeah.
00:04:38
Well, the interesting thing that I understand and
00:04:41
I'm pretty sure I'm reading Gomez right that
00:04:43
if you if you if you sidechain something
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to hear.
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And get it to learn that it will
00:04:49
actually adjust your.
00:04:51
So say this say this was your vocal.
00:04:54
What we're looking at here or AP was
00:04:56
it was your vocal.
00:04:57
It will actually adjust AP's vocal to sit
00:05:00
it, sit it in the mix sort of
00:05:02
thing.
00:05:02
So what it's listening to, it's going to
00:05:03
listen to that and go, OK, well, I'm
00:05:04
now going to EQ this in relation to
00:05:07
what I'm hearing there.
00:05:08
That's where things get a lot more interesting
00:05:10
because when it can listen.
00:05:12
Yeah.
00:05:12
It listens to the context that it's in.
00:05:14
And make some judgment calls.
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And being AI, it will adjust as it
00:05:18
goes to, you know, sort of thing.
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So rather than sitting there and drawing a
00:05:21
million bits of automation, because for me, in
00:05:24
radio imaging, say, for example, I've used a
00:05:26
music bed at the start of this different
00:05:27
one in the middle and a different one
00:05:28
at the end.
00:05:29
And so I'm drawing EQ, automating EQ curves
00:05:32
in Pro Tools from what I understand.
00:05:35
And Gomez, please correct me if I'm wrong.
00:05:37
From what I understand, though, that will be
00:05:39
a thing of the past.
00:05:39
I will just set how I want Andrew
00:05:42
to sound and then go, OK, you adjust
00:05:44
that to keep it there as it goes
00:05:48
through or to keep it sound interesting.
00:05:49
Whoa, that's cool.
00:05:52
So, yeah, it's pretty clever.
00:05:54
It's kind of small on my screen, but
00:05:56
can you tell us what the bottom five
00:05:57
knobs do?
00:05:57
Yeah, so down there, this is attack, release,
00:06:00
precision, tilt frequency.
00:06:03
So I presume that's where the tilt starts
00:06:05
from.
00:06:06
So if you do this tilt function, so
00:06:08
I can tell it, well, I actually want
00:06:10
to tilt it further back that way.
00:06:12
Yeah, yeah.
00:06:13
Or whatever.
00:06:14
Way down there.
00:06:14
Yeah.
00:06:15
Oh, now it's tilting it around that way.
00:06:16
And it seems you're right, George.
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It seems to be just around the mid
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range too.
00:06:20
So.
00:06:21
So, yeah.
00:06:22
And then you've got a curve smooth, which
00:06:25
is obviously smoothing out those rather than being
00:06:27
so harsh.
00:06:28
It's just smoothing our curve out.
00:06:32
So if you turn all the way to
00:06:34
the left, you have a lot more little
00:06:35
bumps.
00:06:36
So all the way to the right, it's
00:06:37
getting closer to a straight line all the
00:06:39
way to the left.
00:06:39
And it's a bumpy mountain.
00:06:41
And the other cool one here is auto
00:06:43
makeup.
00:06:44
So that's sort of almost like you're also
00:06:46
automated volume control.
00:06:49
So it's sort of, you know, making sure
00:06:50
that it stays.
00:06:52
So that sounds to me like.
00:06:53
Well, it does have a limiter.
00:06:54
That's here.
00:06:54
That's the limiter.
00:06:55
There's a limiter here.
00:06:56
Limiter on off.
00:06:58
Audio, audio makeup, I'm presuming is like a
00:07:00
threshold on your, on your, on a compressor.
00:07:05
Yeah.
00:07:06
Here I was thinking it was just an
00:07:08
EQ.
00:07:08
It's got a little dynamics thing here as
00:07:09
well.
00:07:11
So these I'm yet to work out.
00:07:12
Pink, warm, flat, George, you might have a
00:07:16
little more of an idea what they might
00:07:17
do.
00:07:17
Say again.
00:07:18
And flat.
00:07:19
Pink, warm, flat.
00:07:20
There's nothing visual.
00:07:22
That's a shape thing.
00:07:22
So yeah, there's something happening in the background
00:07:24
there that I'm yet to figure out what
00:07:26
that's doing.
00:07:28
Well, for that, I'm going to have to
00:07:29
RTFM.
00:07:31
Read the fracking manual.
00:07:32
Yes, exactly.
00:07:33
Who would do that?
00:07:35
Yeah.
00:07:36
I'm that sort of person that doesn't learn
00:07:38
from reading.
00:07:39
I'm better off just sitting down and playing
00:07:40
with it and figuring it out.
00:07:44
But I have to say Waves, yet again,
00:07:48
even though Gomez is a mate, very cool.
00:07:51
I mean, clarity and de-reverb more and
00:07:54
more finding their way into my workflow.
00:07:57
Not so much de-reverb, but certainly clarity
00:07:59
because it's just so easy.
00:08:00
Just throw it on a track, dial it
00:08:02
in and move on.
00:08:04
Yeah.
00:08:04
Yeah.
00:08:05
I mean, how often would you need to
00:08:06
de-reverb if you're working with most professionals?
00:08:08
But it's there and it is good.
00:08:11
I mean, actually, there is one place that
00:08:13
I use de-reverb is like on listener
00:08:16
punter grabs and all that sort of stuff.
00:08:18
If someone's been running around the office to
00:08:19
record punter grabs or whatever, and they sort
00:08:24
of send me to go in a promo,
00:08:25
it's easy to throw that on there and
00:08:27
clean it up a bit better.
00:08:28
But yeah, on a day-to-day basis,
00:08:30
I'm really not using de-reverb at all,
00:08:32
but it's frigging good as you know.
00:08:34
It's funny actually, whoever did the design, the
00:08:37
color of the new waves app, it looks
00:08:42
like they've been looking at an old Vox
00:08:43
amp from the 60s.
00:08:47
Yeah, it kind of does a bit, doesn't
00:08:48
it?
00:08:48
Vox amps, yeah, that's what it looks like.
00:08:51
So the obvious question from here is if
00:08:53
we're automating EQs, does that mean that we're
00:08:55
automating compression next?
00:08:57
Do you reckon with AI?
00:08:59
We'll be automating everything.
00:09:01
Yeah.
00:09:02
Probably.
00:09:02
It's like, I think we're going to build
00:09:06
a whole rack of automated tools eventually and
00:09:09
just say, learn, sidechain.
00:09:11
Yeah, I agree.
00:09:12
Yeah, scary.
00:09:13
So let's say maybe we need to form
00:09:16
an audio engineers union, like the voiceover union,
00:09:19
and start fighting this AI curse.
00:09:21
I mean, hey, you're doing this out of
00:09:23
a job.
00:09:23
But before you do actually jump to automation,
00:09:26
we should mention our competition where you can
00:09:28
do a mix not using AI.
00:09:31
Or you could use AI.
00:09:34
Yeah, well, I suppose, but who do we
00:09:35
give the headphones to if they win?
00:09:37
I guess we do.
00:09:38
Well, the robot.
00:09:39
Yeah, the robot gets a free pair of
00:09:41
headphones.
00:09:42
But if you'd like a pair of Hi
00:09:43
-X20s, go to our website, theprobabilityofsweet.com slash
00:09:47
win, and we'd love to hear your mix.
00:09:50
It's not a quality based thing either.
00:09:52
What we want to hear is just, you
00:09:53
know, you're having some fun.
00:09:55
I mean, if you don't like Andrew's voice,
00:09:57
take it out, put your own in.
00:09:58
Or if you think the sound effects that
00:09:59
I put in there are crap, take it
00:10:01
out and put your own in.
00:10:01
Or if you think, you know, the music's
00:10:03
not right, put your own in there.
00:10:05
Have some fun with it, seriously.
00:10:06
I don't think people knew this was part
00:10:08
of the rules now.
00:10:09
I think that clearly takes it in a
00:10:11
whole other direction.
00:10:12
So yeah, I mean, we're just sort of
00:10:13
glossing over it here.
00:10:14
But if you look at the website, all
00:10:15
the rules are there.
00:10:16
But yeah, we don't want to, we want
00:10:17
this to be open for everybody.
00:10:19
So if you're a voiceover artist or a
00:10:20
podcaster sitting at home going, well, that's not
00:10:22
for me.
00:10:23
It's absolutely for you.
00:10:24
We're not looking for the most pristine, precise
00:10:27
mix.
00:10:28
We're looking for, you know, just something that
00:10:29
sounds good.
00:10:30
And you've had some fun.
00:10:32
Yeah.
00:10:32
Represents you, your creativity or just where you
00:10:36
are in your journey, whether you're a beginner,
00:10:38
pro or whatever, you know.
00:10:40
I'm hanging out to hear some of the
00:10:42
results.
00:10:43
And will we get, will we hear the
00:10:44
final results or are we going to hear
00:10:46
like the top three?
00:10:47
Three maybe, because, you know, if we get,
00:10:49
you know, a hundred, I don't think we,
00:10:51
I'll cut it down to maybe 30, 20
00:10:54
or 30 and then share them between us.
00:10:55
And then leave the sort of top 10
00:10:59
for the top.
00:11:01
Yeah.
00:11:01
Let them do the top.
00:11:02
Because I don't think anyone will.
00:11:03
Got it.
00:11:03
Okay.
00:11:04
And then we can maybe feature the top
00:11:05
three or something.
00:11:05
Yeah, and maybe pick out a couple of
00:11:06
randoms or, you know, those that are those
00:11:08
special mentions or something too, I suppose.
00:11:10
Yeah.
00:11:11
Yeah.
00:11:11
Like, wow, this person replaced Andrew's voice with
00:11:13
a donkey.
00:11:14
Exactly.
00:11:15
Well, I mean, what's the difference?
00:11:18
I'm not trying to give you guys any
00:11:20
ideas or anything.
00:11:21
I suppose.
00:11:22
But you know.
00:11:22
Ha ha ha ha ha.
00:11:23
At least I'm not on YouTube.
00:11:24
Ah.
00:11:24
Yeah.
00:11:51
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