Krotos Audio, the makers of Dehumaniser, Reformer and Weaponiser, as used in numerous feature films and games like "The Jungle Book", has released a social media tease for their new sound design plug-in, which features some kind of Maori Koru symbol or flame.
BAM! Wireless Microphone Adapter - Is This Kickstarter A Great Idea Which Needs Doing Better Or Is Bluetooth Just Not the Right Way To Do This?
This new Kickstarter campaign caught our attention because it looks useful but looking more closely, we wouldn’t use it. Is it the idea or the execution which isn’t right?
Dolby, Creators Of Atmos, Rumoured To Be Have An App That Measures And Then Removes Background Noise From A Recording
Dolby has been quietly building and trialing a new iOS mobile music production app that appears to be pitched at the SoundCloud market although the technology could well have much broader applications for anyone acquiring audio on a smartphone. The program is codenamed “234” measures background noise before you record and then removes it from the recording.
Mac OS Mojave Now Supported With The Release Of Universal Audio 9.8 Software
With the recent release of UAD software version 9.8 the team at Universal Audio are now very pleased to announce full support for Mac OS 10.14 also known at Mojave.
Universal Audio Release New UAD Software Version 9.8 With 3 New Plug-Ins - Diezel Herbert Amplifier, V76 Preamplifier & Antares Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced
The team at Universal Audio are very pleased to announce the latest version of the UAD Software, version 9.8. This includes 3 new plug-ins for us to lust over. The V76 mic preamp is an accurate emulation of a true classic. The Diezel Herbert guitar amp plug-in by Brainworx is a heavy rock powerhouse of an amp emulation and Antares Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced takes real time pitch tracking and correction to a new level.
We Need Women To Break Through The Glass Ceiling In Music Production To EQ The Gender Imbalance
Last week Emma talked about developments to EQ the gender imbalance in the film industry. It’s no secret that there is a gender gap in the tech side of the music industry as well. Women make up just 5% to 7% of audio engineers and producers, according to reports by the Audio Engineering Society. Some organizations report numbers as low as 3%. That is a lot of ground to make up, however, I’m feeling inspired and optimistic. Here’s why…
Freelancer? Want To Work For Netflix? Take Advantage Of The Netflix Freelancer Directory
Are you a freelancer? Would you like to undertake freelance work for Netflix? Richard Hobbs, Post Manager - Documentaries at Netflix invites freelancers to enter your details into the Netflix freelance database as they have a lot of exciting documentary projects coming up.
Boom Library Announce Re-Center Plug-in Designed To Fix Off Centre Recordings
ReCenter is a new plug-in from Booom that is designed to automatically repair off-centre stereo recordings while keeping the original stereo width. Fix off-centered stereo field recordings, dynamically center vocal artists or musicians that moved around the stage or centre hard directional effects like drive-bys and stereo whooshes.
Sound Particles 2.0 Announced With Binaural Monitoring, Windows Support, Ambisonics Support And More
Sound Particles is an immersive 3D CGI-like application for film, TV, VR, music and game audio production. Having been used on many feature film releases (including Aquaman, Ready Player One, Batman vs Superman, among many others) since its release just over three years ago, Sound Particles 2.0 adds binaural monitoring, Windows support, Ambisonics file import, CGI file integration and real-time rendering, along with many more significant feature updates.
Telos Alliance Release The AudioTools Voice Plug-in To Improve Dialog Intelligibility. UPDATE - Product Now Withdrawn
The Telos Alliance TV Solutions Group has introduced AudioTools Voice, which they describe as “a brand-new enhancement tool that addresses television viewers long-standing and ongoing struggle to clearly hear and understand program dialogue”.
Roundup - The Latest Audio Software & Plug-in Deals You Can Buy This Weekend - 8th February 2019
Here are a selection of some amazing deals that our partners are currently offering this week. Don’t miss out!
RTW Announces Updates To Their Metering Plug-in Suites and Introduce Stereo-Only Versions
The team at RTW focus on helping users to visualise audio to help audio engineers take more informed decisions in broadcast, production, post production and quality control. As well as their hardware audio meters and monitoring devices, RTW also offer a range of native plug-in suites, comprising Loudness Tools, Mastering Tools and Continuous Loudness Control.
Glass Elevator Created By Level Forward And Film Powered To Help Women Working In Film Break Through The Glass Ceiling
January is always a busy time of the year for the Film and TV industry with awards season kicking off with the BAFTAS and Oscars and film festival season beginning with Berlinale and Sundance. As everyone gets excited to see who has been nominated for “Best Sound” in the various awards, the piece of news that has most excited me has come from Sundance Film Festival. Level Forward, a female led studio, has taken a 50% stake in Film Powered.
Is Apple About To Make Using A DAW On A Laptop Much Easier? Patent Suggest They Might.
An Apple patent, first picked up by news website Inverse and other Apple websites, suggest that Apple may be working in a laptop with a Retina display and a second ‘massive’ touchscreen that would work as both a keyboard and a second display.
Genelec Launch New High SPL S360 Monitors And 7382 Subwoofer - Exclusive Interview
Masters of quality monitoring solutions Genelec have launched a new set of monitors, specifically aimed at high sound pressure level immersive installations - the S360 two-way monitors and the 7382 subwoofer.
Why The New Design?
Genelec are responding to a new sector of the market - immersive audio. Whereas for stereo it is common to mount speakers on stands in a near to midfield configuration, in immersive audio, speakers are incorporated into the structure of the listening area - sofit or bracket mounted. Rear-ported speaker designs can be tricky to place in such environments, especially if they’re active, or being incorporated into existing installations.
The Need For Space
With immersive audio also comes a proliferation in the sheer number of speakers you need. The bare minimum for even a “home” Dolby Atmos rig is nine speakers, three behind a screen, plus a subwoofer. This can increase to 44 and beyond. That amount of speakers requires a larger room simply to accommodate them all.
Why High SPL?
When you increase the size and capacity of the listening area to accommodate more speakers, the chances of any of those speakers being near or mid-field becomes far less likely. So your speakers are going to need to be able to deliver higher SPLs, without losing too much dynamic range or slipping into high distortion figures.
You also face the issue that rear-ported speakers rely on the space behind their rear ports to deliver a large part of their frequency response. The usual way to achieve higher SPLs is to increase the physical size of the speaker. However, in immersive audio installations, where there could be double figures of drivers even behind the screen at the front, let alone in the room around you, there simply isn’t the physical space, unless you’re doing a large IMAX installation, for that number of speakers.
You can see where the new S360 range sits among the Genelec range. It forms an important bridge between the smaller near to mid-field speakers and the larger “custom install” speakers.
Exclusive Interview
I was lucky enough to meet up with Genelec Head of R&D - Aki Makivirta at Metropolis Studios in London, to chat about the design features and challenges of the new S360 monitors and the new 7382 subwoofer.
What Do They Sound Like?
In a heavily treated control room, in a 2.1 configuration with bass management through the 7382 subwoofer, I was quite impressed at how the two way non-concentric design managed to retain the razor sharp imaging from the “The Ones” series (8331, 8341, 8351). The amount of headroom and dynamic range is immediately apparent, giving a serious “depth” to the sound stage and helping with the 3D placement, both in the left/right plane and in the front/rear plane. I was able to perceive the “depth” of individual sounds, as well as their stereo placement.
Bass was incredibly tight, almost to the point of partially fooling you that these speakers are “bass light”. Don’t be fooled - these speakers are devastatingly accurate when it comes to bass, as well as imaging. The new down firing port design really helps avoid the “soggy bottom” often associated with rear ported designs. Genelec avoided front ports as this adds to the real estate taken up by the speaker, but can also disrupt the careful “seamless” design of the waveguide around the tweeter, which contributes to the excellent imaging.
The 7382 Subwoofer
This was the heavyweight of the show - three huge drivers in an enclosure that it took three people to lift. Genelec have been careful with this and the S360, to make the designs as compatible with existing installations as possible. To this extent, the subwoofer is a regular shape, with front and side firing drivers and ports and has external amplification.
Genelec also recognise that you may want to use bass management with a higher speaker count than stereo, so provide the 9301 adapter, which enables the 7382 to be fed by a 7.1 digital input.
Always with an eye for compatibilty, Genelec also enable you to detach the active electronics from the back of the S360 monitors, to rack mount it, thus ensuring maximum compatibility with existing installations and providing huge versatility and convenience when it comes to set-up.
And of course, the S360 and the 7382 are both “SAM” - Smart Active Monitors, so you can use Genelec’s GLM alignment system to get the system working in whichever mode you wish, to the best accuracy.
Conclusion
I would love to hear these speakers in an immersive installation. To me that is always the true test of imaging and dynamic range. I’m hoping to attend an event with a full immersive install in the spring so will report back. With the S360 in particular, Genelec have now come up with a modern solution to a modern problem - how to get the SPL required for immersive audio, but also retain high quality.
Roundup - The Latest Audio Software & Plug-in Deals You Can Buy This Weekend - 2nd February 2019
Here are a selection of some amazing deals that our partners are currently offering this week. Don’t miss out!
NAMM 2019 TEC Awards Winners - Congratulations To Our Partner Brands - Learn More About The Winning Products
In looking through the full list of NAMM TEC Awards, we couldn’t help noticing that a significant number are partner brands that support us here at Production Expert to enable us to deliver so much of what we do here free for you to use. So we wanted to say thank you to Audio Technica, Avid, EastWest, Eventide, iZotope, JBL, Neumann, PreSonus and Universal Audio for all they do to help us help you.
The Pro Tools Expert Podcast Is Now The Production Expert Podcast
After over 350 podcasts the Pro Tools Expert podcast, the weekly podcast for both music and post professionals, is to become the Production Expert Podcast with immediate effect.
Roundup - The Latest Audio Software & Plug-in Deals You Can Buy This Weekend - 27th January 2019
As NAMM 2019 draws to close, here are a selection of some amazing deals that our partners are currently offering this week. Be quick, as it is the end of the month many of these amazing offers are only around for a couple more days, Check them out - Don't miss out… offers from Waves, Toontrack, iZotope, Avid, JZ Microphones and more
Toontrack Announce EZBass - New Revolutionary Bass Software Instrument That Will Help You Producer Killer Bass Guitar Tracks In Seconds
For Toontrack, 2019 marks a very import milestone in their journey. To celebrate their 20th anniversary Toontrack have just announced four new products including Orchestral Percussion SDX, Decades SDX, Pop Punk EZX and a totally new instrument called EZBass.