The guys from PSP, all the way form sunny Poland, have released PSP 2Meters, a great little metering plug-in bundle of two plug-ins, one for VUs and the other a PPM meter. This will especially please broadcast users here in the UK and Europe that use the BBC PPM or a variant of it. PSP VU2 offers VU metering with overload indicators. PSP PPM2 provides professional European and BBC PPM metering with accurate overload indicators. All of their parameters, such as integration times and reference levels, are adjustable.

When we get to the price the news just gets better. The normal price will be $14.90 but until 1st June 2013 they are offering it at $9.90 which makes it a complete no brainer. The hardware PPM meters cost around £500 to £700 depending on what form factor you get so this is a stunning deal.

My only concern is now it will look on the screen. I am normally not a fan of moving needle metering on a screen but with recent developments on screen design might well resolve these concerns. There is a fully operational 14 days demo is now available on our download page so you can try it out.

It is available in AU, VST, RTAS and AAX formats for both Mac & PC, so they have covered all bases here too. This will be great for non HD users who currently aren’t getting all the metering profiles with Pro Tools 11.

One you might have missed from our FREE sample libraries. You just can’t get enough of these sample sets for use in Structure and Transfuser or your favourite sampler.

To ensure consistent bandwidth we only release them for a limited time. This is another dance classic, the Korg Electribe ESX. A few hundred more samples to add to your collection. Get them quick! 

Get them here

As the WWDC approaches all the Apple rumor sites have a number of things on their radar iWatch, Laptops, iRadio, Apple TV and iOS7. If this is true, then this would be another delay in a Mac Pro announcement. For many of us Mac loving Pros this is unthinkable, so it does leave us with a question, how will we replace our machines when we need to upgrade? So today’s poll asks that question, when you need to replace your Mac Pro what will you do if there is no new Mac Pro? As ever please comment.

The BBC has announced that it has scrapped an IT project to convert all its tape library to archive, after burning £100m of licence payers money. 

The Digital Media Initiative (DMI) was intended to enable staff to share video and audio material and was seen as an important part of a move of resources to Salford.

It could be argued that the whole project was utter madness, with several companies such as Avid, Quantel and Apple already offering tapeless workflows, so even the idea of creating a proprietary system was perhaps not wise.

John Linwood, the BBC’s chief technology officer, has been suspended. We also understand that the entire team is to be disbanded.

“Talar du svenska?”

If you understand that then we have some great news. The Pro Tools Expert Team has been joined by two new Swedish Editors or will be running our Swedish language site.

Adam Vasse and Björn Karlsson are from Stockholm in Sweden and will be offering a Swedish Pro Tools Expert site.

You can read more here, if of course you read Swedish. There is also a Swedish Facebook fan page here.

Welcome guys!

I went to the funeral of a friend today.

One day it will be mine… and yours.

I want to be sure there is good music at my funeral. And after it too.

Russ takes a look at the Ample Guitar T Acoustic Guitar virtual instrument in this extended video review. Check out what he thinks playing a guitar VI when he owns the real guitar!

The Crucial SSD drive fixed to the Akasa bracketAs part of me getting ready for Pro Tools 11, I needed to go up from Lion - 10.7.5 to Mountain Lion 10.8.3, as Pro Tools 11 isn’t officaly supported on Lion, and so I have finally decided to go for a SSD drive for my boot drive for my 2010 Mac Pro. 

Following Russ’s experience of the support from Crucial and doing further research I decided to go for a Crucial M4 512GB SSD from Crucial on Amazon UK or Amazon US. When Russ installed his SSD he rested it in the second optical drive slot. As I do take my Mac Pro out on the road so I didn’t feel comfortable will it resting or even using double sided sticky tape. 

Click to read more ...

Chris Roberts is part of the sound team based at Deluxe 142, a top London film and TV post house. In this video he talks about how Synchro Arts software has been part of his workflow for over 10 years and how the new Revoice Pro just made things a whole lot better.

Synchro Arts had the pleasure of sitting down with Chris and talking about his work, the challenges and how Synchro Arts products are helping make speed up the workflow.

Russ shows how to get more interesting acoustic guitars using the example from the track “Let Her Go” by Passenger.

• Members watch it here
• Watch it here for $1 using on demand

Native Instruments has today turned back the clock again with ABBEY ROAD 50s DRUMMER.

A KONTAKT instrument Abbey Road 50s Drummer features the sound of two classic drum kits from the 1950s. The kits provide the distinctive drum sound of the era, which was necessary to compete with the electrified instruments gaining popularity at the time. Recorded with both state-of-the-art and period equipment at Abbey Road Studios in London, 50s DRUMMER also includes a groove library, mixer presets, and a new set of brush articulations, delivering the authentic feel of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country, and jazz from the 1950s.

Click to read more ...

I have just come across a new player on the cloud storage and file sharing ‘block’ simply called Copy. Two things caught my attention. They give you 15GB to start with and then if you find a successful referral then you both get an extra 5GB, not just the person offering the invitation.

Copy comes from Barracuda Networks and is a new online file syncing, sharing and storage service built on the secure Barracuda Cloud. Since its public debut less than 90 days ago, Copy apparently is already approaching half a million users worldwide.

Another feature clearly aimed at Dropbox is Copy’s “Fair Storage for All” Initiative — Instead of counting data in shared folders against all members’ individual storage quotas so everyone pays for the same data over and over, Copy allows users to “split the bill” and control which files count against their storage capacity. You can watch the 40-second video on the Copy “Fair Storage for All” initiative. 

Copy works across Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux computers and offers mobile device support for Apple iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) and Android, with Windows Mobile coming soon.

Copy say that they provide a secure alternative to other cloud storage services. Included data verification inspects data before Copy accepts it into the user’s cloud storage. File-level ownership is verified prior to transferring anything to other devices. Copy also allows users to share files privately using Copy’s built-in identify verification. It also has the same “share public link’ feature that Dropbox has with the same idea of a folder you drop stuff in to share and backup across all your computers just like Dropbox.

Individual Copy accounts provide 15GB of cloud storage free of charge, and paid plans start at $9.99USD/month or $99USD/year for up to 250GBs.

This is obviously a new outfit so we don’t have a track record to judge them by but it wouldn’t take much for them to outplay some of their obvious competitors, so if this range of features appeals then sign up, install the app and we both get an extra 5GB of space.

When we discussed the issue of “Should Pro Tools Users Get Same Software Features As Pro Tools HD Users?” in Podcast 65 Neil came up with the idea of “In App” purchases following our conversation about Apple’s App business model. Surely this wouldn’t be that difficult as Avid have added the Marketplace menu into Pro Tools 10. This got me thinking, what the feature options might be…

• Instrument tracks 64 up to 128
• Surround to to 7.1
• Extended RAM/disk cache
• TrackPunch / DestructivePunch
• Input monitoring
• VCA mixing
• Solo bus AFL/PFL
• Advanced audio editing
• Advanced automation
• Advanced video editing 

What do you think? Are there any other features? What prices would you put on each of these features?

I think it is safe to say this won’t happen for the Pro Tools 11 launch unless Avid decide to do a ‘hackathon’ session, but I suspect they are flat out getting Pro Tools 11 ready to launch so it is more likely to happen in a future upgrade if they decide it is a good idea.

Whilst at NAB 2013, between breaks demoing RX2, Mike chatted with iZotope’s Matt Hines and found out how the company started from a dorm room at MIT. Listen to the interview to find out the rest.

Listen on iTunes

If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file here

Russ, Mike, Neil & James are here with a packed Pro Tools Expert podcast that includes; 

• Competitions
• Pro Tools PC - more details announced
• Is there a new Macbook Air on the way… 
• Cedar Show & Tell Review
• Avid changes CPTK upgrade prices
• Should Pro Tools Users Get Same Software Features As Pro Tools HD Users?
• Community tip 1 - Chris Bryne - UAD Forum post - Lev Perry response on PTE
• Community tip 2 - Matt Blue
• Community tip 3 - Marco Niccolai - Eleven Rack Help Guide
• Community tip 4 - Christopher Shaw
• Problems with Pro Tools 7 with Mountain Lion 10.8.x 
• Problems with PT7 & Windows 8
• Unable to install PT10 on Windows 8
• Pro Tools session compatibility with PT 6.4 sessions
• Sharing Pro Tools sessions from PT Express to PT9 - Mike’s video tutorial
• Pro Tools 10 & Structure LE Structure 1.0.5
• Track bounce and freeze in PT10
• Playlist on MIDI tracks in Pro Tools 10
• Audio from Pro Tools HDX to Allen & Heath GRS24M Pro Tools Resources Pack

You can listen here;

• Listen on iTunes here
• Download the MP3 here

Our recent discussion about Pro Tools HD features without buying the hardware had a great response.

We continued the discussion on the podcast and decided to run this poll. We’ve based it on the price of Steinberg Nuendo (around £1500) although you have to pay £300 extra to get the NEK (Nuendo Expansion Kit) for the more composer friendly Cubase features. 

However we want to know how many Pro Tools users would pay £1500 to get all the HD features without the hardware. Please feel free to comment.

Sonnox have just announced on their Facebook page the release of the AAX version of their Oxford Limiter plug-in, much loved by post and music guys alike. Anyone like to spot the difference? This is what they say…

Unique processing in the form of the Enhance function provides the sample value limiting needed to reliably avoid overloads in digital workstation environments and allows unprecedented volume and punch to be applied to programme beyond that available from conventional limiting functions. 

Comprehensive metering is provided which displays not only conventional peak sample value, but additionally allows the user to monitor the true validity of the programme in order to avoid the generation of damaging reconstruction overloads in the target equipment which are often invisible during production (sometimes termed ‘inter sample peaks’).

A further function allows the user to dynamically correct for reconstruction overloads in real time, thereby achieving maximum possible modulation levels without the risks of producing illegal signals often associated with compression and limiting.

Comprehensive dithering functionality with selectable and variable depth noise shaping ensures first class mastering output quality in either 24 bit or 16 bit modes.

Features

• Enhance section to increase perceived loudness
• Reconstruction meter shows ‘actual’ signal rather than sampled signal
• Auto compensate feature corrects recon errors without losing overall programme loudness
• Attack, release and variable soft knee controls
• Comprehensive dither and noise shaping
• Complete with many factory presets

Formats

HD-HDX: Pro Tools AAX DSP, TDM, Native

Native: Pro Tools AAX Native, RTAS, Audio Units and VST

Russ takes a look at some of the drum sample libraries from Drums on Demand. The libraries work with Structure, Kontakt, EXS, Reason and Garageband.

Waves are to turn TDM v9 licenses into Soundgrid licenses, this is what they have said….

Very soon, the TDM licenses in your Waves account will be replaced by a new SoundGrid license. Your TDM compatibility will remain unchanged; but now, you’ll be able to take advantage of the awesome new possibilities offered by the SoundGrid platform. SoundGrid will breathe new life into your system, and extend its functionality for years to come. If you use Waves TDM V8 or below, and are covered by Waves Update Plan, move up to V9 and receive the SoundGrid licenses at no additional charge.

Also they have reitterated their support of AAX NAtive…

Waves is currently working closely with Avid on AAX Native support in time for the Pro Tools 11 release. This means you can breathe easy, knowing that the plugins you purchase now will be fully supported today, tomorrow and into the future. In fact, whether you bought your plug-ins 5 years, 10 years, even 20 years ago – as long as your Waves Update Plan coverage is current, you’ll receive the AAX Native update at no additional charge. And with SoundGrid in the mix, you’ll get more from your AAX plugins, for less than you’ve ever imagined.

This confirms their plans to compete with AAX DSP using their DigiGrid platform, so another hardware platform to run dsp type plug-ins.

Community member Marco Niccolai wrote to us with a brilliant email containing an in-depth exploration of Eleven Rack - even if you don’t own it then you should check this out. It is very thorough and Marco deserves our thanks!

“Hello Pro Tool Expert, I really appreciate your daily support, this time a wish to give, if can help, a little tribute to the community. I start to appreciate Avid Eleven Rack, it recreates a lot of nice gear, but it’s not easy to understand what you are using whatching only a small graphic interface. So I took the detailed descriptions on Avid site, some pics of the gear and the corresponding ER interface. Put all together and did a recap on a PDF. If you think this can be useful for the community, you can download from here and  let it be available for who want it.”

Thanks Marco, this is excellent.

Download your copy here