Welcome to the Pro Audio sweek. These guys are professional and motivated thanks to try Booth, the best vocal booths for home or on the road voice recording and Austrian Audio Making Passion Herd. Introducing Robert Marshall from Source Elements and Someone Audio Post Chicago, Robert Robertson from Voodoo Radio Imaging Sydney to the vo Stars, George the Tech Wittam from La Andrew Peter's Voice Ober Talents and Home Studio Go and welcome to another pro audio suite thanks to Austrian Audio Making, Passion Heard and try Booth don't forget the code t PAP two hundred to get two hundred dollars off your try booth, and of course from Sentrance and the Pro Audio Suite that he passport vo. But anyway, you've been busy over the weekend. Yeah, I had it busy three days because I finally got around to building a studio in this new place. We talked about it a few weeks ago and I finally got around to doing it on the weekend, So I've been If you could see what I'd been working in, you'd be shaking your head because it was just you know, computer monitors leaned up against the wall and baffles leaned up against the wall, and mixing in headphones and all sorts of fun stuff. So if I finally got around to getting it all done, but lions were no more worse for the world, well do you know what that's That's one thing that I've actually patted myself on the back for is that I actually haven't had any comments from anybody, so it's kind of been nice. So I'm guessing the headphones you used were the Austrian audio headphones. They would indeed be, which I'm glad I took the time to get to know when I had the old studio and I could sort of ab and see what I was hearing, so that probably kind of helped. It helps a lot of it. But one thing that I did want to talk about today, and something that struck me as I was putting my room together and looking back at some old photos, is comparing the first studio or serious studio that I ever built to this one. And it's kind of been a bit of an eye opener and probably a bit of a pointer in terms of where technology's gone and all that sort of stuff. But the big one for me is patch Bay, because I've always had a patch Bay. The first time studio I built, to put this in context, would have been the first serious one would have been in about two thousand and seven or so, and I had You're going to laugh at this, George, I had an O two R. I had a patch Bay, I had passive speakers, so I had a power amp and a Mac and all that sort of stuff. So so it's compared to today. I now have a Digibo two in the rap, my old faithful Diggible two. I have the Drama, and I have my Adam a seven xes and a big knob and a Midi keyboard, and that's about it. So it's kind of which computer are you running now? I'm still running my old two thousand and twelve Mac Pro the Cheese Greater. But that's going to change very soon. So it was going to change a while ago. It wasn't going to be going. Man, when you change that, say bye bye to the O two, Yes, bye bye to the old Faithful. Yeah I know the double A two, Yeah, that will be That would be a sad day. I do like it. It's just I don't know, Maybe it's just the simplicity of it. I don't know what it is I like about it, but maybe I'm just used to it too. So anyway, well, you know, every piece of gear that we look all I least look at is really all an obsolete. There still seems to be a market for it, because I've been getting rid of boxes of gear that have been accumulating for a couple of years. On eBay. I just sold an apergy, not even Apergy, an Avid duet. This was this weird apperg Duet two that was branded Avid. You know, their name was on it and it only works with pro tools, you know. Yeah, and one guy bought it by mistakes said no, it turns out it's obsolete. I can't use it anyway because they stopped to Porty in twenty eighteen, I relisted it and somebody else bought it for sixty dollars. Ye. So you know, this is stuff that was just barely above e waste, and yet there's people buying it. Absolutely told and old appog one, the original apperg one, eleven twelve year old audio interface at least, and I got forty bucks. So yeah, people still want this stuff. Yeah. Absolutely. The other thing I've got because I had a bit like Andrew. I have a road rig because I occasionally get called out to go and do remote recordings and stuff. So I have my old again two thousand and twelve thirty eight inch MacBook Pro, and I have an mbox Pro which is in a road case so I could sort of carry it on a plane with me or whatever, um and throw a few mic leads in and a couple of microphones in a backpack. And I've been down to Melbourne a few times to record stuff and bits and pieces. So which generation Embox Pro is that? See? Look, I'm no good with numbers, but it's the old black one with like curves that it's got four mic inputs and and all the bells and three yeah Gen three that would probably be right. So um so yeah, so you know, I was looking because obviously that will probably have to go to I was looking around. They're still getting like three hundred bucks here for those things, so um oh really yeah, So it's like this, you know, and I don't know, I'm sure Google is wide into my brain sometimes because you know, I'll jump onto to Facebook or TikTok or one of those and be zooming around and stuff that I'm sure I've never set out loud, so it's not like anything could have heard me. But I've been thinking to myself, pops up. And I was scouting around last night on TikTok and there was a video came up about pimping up your two thousand and twelve MacPro and getting it to run big sir and all this sort of stuff. Is like, I've never said it out loud, but you know, sure enough the video turns up. So yeah, So while technically it's obsolete, there's people out there who are figuring out workarounds for all this stuff as well. There's probably people out there using two thousand and nine Mac pros, you would think, so you know, maybe if Robert was here, he would be he would probably see me, definitely. He's not afraid to keep old machines running and ten and our buddy Jeff Berlyn, I always see him posting on various chats and saying how I keep old Max running. And then that became a discussion of security concerns because once the once a Mac becomes obsolete, which is about ten years, they do not push up security up all right, So now you're on your own. Yeah, yeah, to be careful. Yeah exactly. I mean, I think the reason that Robert doesn't actually sell his gig because no one wants to buy it, because they're always looking for equipment that comes out of a smoked free environment. Yeah. Well there's always that, isn't it. That could be it. Yeah, yeah, that could be yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean I love to see what the outcome is of your new Mac. Well, I'm sure we will give us a report what it's like. Transitioning to that you asked about audio interfaces to replace the O two. Did you just set along what you're going to give it? I haven't really know. I thought I had when I was going to buy it the first time around, but now I'm sort of scratching my head, going, m the thing I do have lying around and figured I might give a fly as the roadcaster. I was going to say that, Yeah, so I might throw that. We don't need il right, you don't need like a whole bunch of analog ends. No, not anymore. That's the thing. I mean. If you look at the back of the big knob, I've got two track A is just the audio out of my laptop. Obviously, Door Mixes Pro tools and then the only other thing going in there comes off seven and eight on the double two rack, which is a headphone mix for when I record this show, because you guys listen to each other on Source Connect now and now I'm actually I'm actually monitoring off of pro Tools, which is receiving you guys from from Source Connect. So I've got a headphone mix that comes back to there. And that's it, really, I mean, and the outputs is the Adams speakers, and um, the only thing I'm not sure about is you can only I'm pretty sure you can only run one set of speakers on the the roadcaster and I have two my crappy old sets, so I'm not quite sure how I figure that out. But could you use how many headphone outs are there? I think there's there's four, right, so, um, could you not use? So? Probably could speakers? I probably could. That's not a bad idea. Might be a good thing about the headphone outs is about the Broadcaster Pro one or two too. Yeah. The good thing about the two is every headphone out is assignable and you can create a mix unique to that headphone out, so it's really flexible. While it's really lacking in line outputs, which it certainly is. You lease can use these. You can repurpose the headphone outs and and use them instead. You know, you just have to rede the right cabling you need, like a TRS stereo too, pair of quarter inch mono cables, like an insert cable. To be fair, my might be monitoring is a crappy old pair of computer speakers. Yeah, well that'll only need is an eighth inch to quarter inches phone jack and bobs your uncle. Yeah, you'll probably be fine. Then. I keep forgetting how those headphone jacks are actually the output that were missing Because the original Roadcaster it had the same fourheadphone outs, but they were not assignable. They were all the same and it was not nearly as flexible. Now now, with that ability to create mixes, you probably will. I think you really can do everything you need to do with the Roadcaster Pro too. I think you're set. I'll be interested to have a play with it, absolutely because I haven't been able to, unfortunately due to technology constraints with the old the old Mac Pro. But I'm really looking forward to being able to plug it in and have a bit of a muck around. You can't plug the Roadcaster Pro two and of the year. It won't run, won't run the software. It won't run what's their road, road Central or whatever it wants. It wants some software. Are you sure you need to install it? Isn't it driver less? I thought so, I thought I did when I read the instructions. I didn't actually try. I'll be honest. I read the instructions. It would be interesting task just to plug it in your MacPro and see if it shows up as a Yeah. Well, because what you see is a multi track and a chat. You see two sets of drivers, right, Okay, And I feel pretty confident that it's a class compliant USB device, meaning you don't have to install anything to get it to work. You have to install things to use those cool road extras, you know, the road connects in Central and all that. But I think it's worth a shot just to log it in and it shows up as an IO and your Mac Pro without any software at all, gets a win. Otherwise, Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Wait, sitting on the shelf right behind me, I'm looking at it right now. Maybe I must the road cost to Probably, I mean, it's just so flexible and it has you know, basically everything you would possibly could possibly need. I would have thought, oh, totally, it really does. Yeah, absolutely, and that's that's what I'm interested in playing with. It only has one limit, and the limit is that it only has four mic ramps, which is plenty for most For me, I just set it up in a four microphone studio. We needed a fifth for the producer, so I literally ragged up an xy splitter for the fourth mic preamp. I have a mic mute button, you know, so the producer can just cut on their mic when they want to say something and it just mixes it in on track four. That was the only way I could our channel four. But it was a workable workaround, so I know that if I when I've got the M one the Mac and I got rid of total mix and the RME from the PC, and I was looking for some kind of interface to run the mic external preamps upboard gear into the MAC and I ended up buying the Audience ID forty four, which we've discussed in depth on many occasions. But had I had the road Cast Pro two, I probably wouldn't have gone down that audience route. I don't think I would have just stuck with the road because I had the four inputs, which is perfect. I'm guessing it would do the same thing as the audience does, as in you know, I don't think it's a complete bypass of the internal preamps, but neither is the audience. So you just have to be mindful that you don't hit the preamps and the audience or whatever the interface is too hard and get distortion even though your levels are low, right, I mean, you can run the preamps all the way down to zero dB of gain. So I don't know how much input level that will handle, but it's likely that it'll take a pretty high input before clipping. Yeah. I mean, if it can take at least ten plus dB of input, you're probably gonna be just fine. Yeah, you know that's in the spec sheet. I don't know what it is, but actually the one I'm on it has an actual line in mode. All right, you quick line in and it still has a trim control, but I don't know if that's doing other things electronically or just reducing the gain whatever the case is. Though does have a line and mode. Does the roadcast have a talkback? It does not have a talk back because I was just looking at the big knob, and that's one thing that I do use. I used to use and I'll probably go back to with a roadcaster or I guess, but I used to use this mic my desk mics as my talkback. But then I figured out one day, to my surprise, that rather than having to keep remembering to mute myself in pro Tools, there was the talkback on the big knob. So I've been using that. I send that to pro Tools and just add that into my mix that I'm sending to everybody. So it's nice. It's convenient to be able to just sort of push the button and let go rather than having to remember to mute. Well, I group my mutes. I mute the client feed and I mute my feed, so just mute one, you mute both, but you've still got to remember to do it, whereas when you take your finger off the talkback bang, it's pretty much done. Yeah yeah, And it's easier to forget if you're not actually hearing yourself that's right, you're only using speakers. For example, it is easier to forget that the talk back is on unless you have a fancy talkback grid that dims the speakers. When you're talking back, which I don't know if the maci's big nab does or not. No, it doesn't. It just it just turns him off. Yeah, it was funny because the ID forty four has got to talk back and it will do a dim but if I'm actually doing a session, I will have it on cut. It's the fourth one of the four channels. I have one going to another external preamp which is a sebtron, which I use as my talkback and that works really much. It's perfect. Yeah. Someone did suggest to me that I map from my MIDI keyboard, that I map one of the function buttons to the mute in pro tools. I've never actually tried to do. That sounds unnecessarily failure prompt. It does, and that's why, to be honest with you, that's why I've never really done it, because I kind of thought, okay, that's fucking with things that don't need to be fucked with. But you know, it's sort of like it's like telling someone if they ride a bike, look, you can save money on ties by buying a motorcycle. That's going to end disaster. So yeah, I've I've sort of stayed away from that. I even have a box here called a stream deck made by Algado, and I have a dedicated button from muting zoom and it literally lights up on there saying that it's muted or not muted. Yeah, it's not as reliable. It just isn't as reliable. Yeah, I don't. Sometimes it just doesn't work. Sometimes it has a delay after I press it. A physical switch on the microphone. Hard to beat it. Yeah, it's very reliable. There's something comforting about clicking the mouse button directly onto whatever it is you're trying to do and knowing that it's just going to happen, rather than hoping that half a dozen processes in the middle do what they're supposed to do. Really, isn't there exactly? Yes, I mean as long as you see a big meters that shows you're not sending an audio signal on screen, then then you can feel really confident. But otherwise everything, everything else is just Yeah. I hope, I hope it actually did cut my mind. Yeah, yeah, well, while you're sitting there swearing at the producer. Yeah yeah, I suppose, I suppose thinking, you know, talking about things that have become redundant. You know, probably a talkback button has but it's and maybe I'm at school, but there is still something about physically, you know, using your finger and pushing that button and seeing the red light come on, and knowing that they can hear me, and then taking it off, seeing the red light go off and go Okay, I can swear my fucking head off now. Yeah, you know there's something comforting about that. I do not disagree with that. Yes, I was always told right in the beginning of my early days of radio career, whenever there's a microphone in the room, just be careful what you say. No, And I did it. I actually did do it once and it was Yeah, it was a been embarrassing. I think everybody has put their foot in their mouth. Yeah, with the airport and making a room. Have I ever told you my David Day operasing a faux pa? Have I told you that? I told it on the show. If I have, I'll cut it out. There was. I was at a radio station called Triple M in Adelaide here in Australia in my career, a long time ago in my career, and there was an old rock and roller of a morning present, a guy called David Day Daisy who was sort of yeah, Daisy who was who was sadly passed but was sort of like the Rick D's of Adelaide Radio, but he not in terms of pop he was. He was your classic rocker. So one day the opera came to town, and someone decided that it would be cool if we got one of the opera singers to come in and rather than have the promotional vehicles out on the street and the drivers calling in going yeah, come down to such and such a park and find us. We're giving away icy cold cans a coke, and blah blah blah, that we get the opera singer to sing the locations and the products with this opera music. So the day arrives and and this opera singer turns up and she's your classically overweight middle age lady m and I put her in the booth and I got her all miked up, and she'd brought some music with her that she'd figured out what she was going to sing to, and she brought that in on CD and I was loading that into the computer at the time. I can't remember what I was working on. Whatever it was, it wasn't protols. And I had the microphone open, like you could you could was one of those ones where you could double tap it and it would stay open on the on the analog console. And we were just talking backwards and forwards, and I was doing something and it was it was silent, and in walks Daisy, and you know, sort of it doesn't say anything, but it should have clicked at the time. He didn't say anything, but he sort of waved at this lady through the glass and she waved back. And Daisy turns around and leaves leaves his bum against the console and says, um, why our opera singers always fucking fat? And from the booth you hear excuse me? Ye? Daisy turns bright red. I swear to God, he didn't turn around. He kept his back to the glass. He slid his ass along the console, reached over, opened the door and walked out and just left me to deal with it. On your Daisy, I'll never forget it. And I was left to profusely apologize and say, look, I'm sorry that's to Daisy. He's so uncouth. Yeah, I agree, how dare he say that? Blah blah blah, And we finally got it done, but Jesus Christ, he came close to never happening, the good old talkback button. So yeah, anyway, well, you know, if we place all of us with AI, we won't have to worry about that anymore. But here's a quote from Joe Walsh who says, if we don't have AI, who's going to destroy hotel rooms? There you go, absolutely on that note. Find it over the pro Audio Suite thanks to Trimea and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connects, edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Voodoo Radio Imaging which takes the part from George the check which I'm don't forget to subscribe to the show and joining the conversation on our Facebook to leave a comment, suggest a topic, or just say gooday, stop us a most at our website pro audio Suite dot com.
