In the Pro Tools Expert 2017 Christmas Competition, we offered the chance of winning a Quiet Art Defaulter, WaveRider And Recorditor Bundle Worth $427, as one of 31 great prizes on offer worth over $16,000 in total. We can announce that Mark Chernausek is the lucky winner. You can learn more about Mark further down the article.

Defaulter

In this review, Mike takes the latest version of Quiet Art’s Defaulter v1.5 for a spin to see if the new RMS feature lives up to his hopes. 

What Is Defaulter?

Defaulter is a normalizing plug-in that using the non-destructive Clip Gain feature in Pro Tools 10 and above. 

Clip gain is arguably one of the best things Pro Tools adopted in recent years. Now, Quiet Art Ltd has produced a tool to help you get even more out of it.

Defaulter analyzes the clip and applies Pro Tools’ built-in Clip Gain adjustments to bring it up or down to meet your specified peak level but with v1.5 you can now do the same with a specified RMS level instead. It can be set to ignore clips with levels below a threshold. Because it uses Clip Gain rather than rendering files it is totally non-destructive.

Since Mike made this review Quiet Art has revised and replaced the Macro Set that comes with Defaulter so that it will work with every system.  We recommend existing users download the latest installer from the Quiet Art web site.

Defaulter System Requirements

• MAC OSX Yosemite and above - Windows Not supported.

• ProTools 10.3.6+, 11, 12

WaveRider

Wave Rider is an RTAS & AAX plugin. It is a virtual fader controller utility that applies intelligent volume adjustments to the Pro Tools faders to maintain consistent levels, and perform ducking, gating, and automatic mixing duties. It has a vast use in audio post production as well as music recordings. Now available for both Mac and Windows. Pro Tools 7 to 11

Wave Rider first became publicly available for Pro Tools users back in March 2009. It’s a unique and innovative RTAS/AAX plugin that detects audio signal levels on the inserted channel and applies Pro Tools fader movements as needed. Since its release, it evolved into a much-improved tool thanks to user feedback.

Here’s an overview of its functions:

Ride mode - In this default mode, Wave Rider’s level detecting algorithm automatically raises or lowers the fader to maintain a user selectable output level by writing volume automation on the timeline. User can then alter the volume automation as needed. Be it your vocal, bass, voice over, or dialog, WaveRider makes it a breeze to maintain a smooth and consistent level so you don’t end up over-compressing. Check out the TIPS page for example scenarios.

Duck mode - This function will lower the signal of a target track by a user selectable amount if there’s signal present on the inserted track. Narration and announcements over music as heard on radio channels rely on keyed compressors with poor results, now cooler with Wave Rider.

Park on silence - This is a function you’ll find in Automatic Mixer boxes. The faders are parked at a user defined low level when there’s little signal, and they come up to full output when there’s strong signal present, maintaining a steady output level. Particularly useful in situations where there are a lot of mics open and you want to have the cleanest signal without much background noise. Park mode can also be used in situations to replace a noise gate.

Trace mode - Trace function is practically the opposite of what the Ride function is. It actually makes volume graphs of the envelope of the signal. This helps you to copy the dynamics of a signal to another track. Pretty useful when trying to combine 2 sounds together seamlessly.

WaveRider System Requirements

• Requires Mac OS X or Windows.

• Pro Tools 7 to 12

Recorditor

What Does Recorditor Do?

Recorditor has been designed to allow you to mark good and bad takes during a recording in sync with your timeline, and then it performs your edit decisions automatically.

Recorditor is intended to banish the need to scribble notes on scripts and then having to go through tedious edit sessions sifting through takes.

Recorditor is designed to assist users in scripted narration and dialog recording sessions such as animation dialog, audio books, IVR prompts, text to speech applications, or any other recording session that needs tidying up.

As you can see from the video one of the tricks is before the first words are spoken to hit the back arrow to clean the front and create a marker for what you are about to read. With each successfully read sentence I would then drop a right arrow marker. and for stumbles etc. I would drop the left arrow and so on.

There are a few things to be aware of when setting up Recorditor with Pro Tools because it is a separate application that is communicating with Pro tools using ReWire. Quiet Art has produced this video to help with the setup process.

Recorditor System Requirements

• Mac OS X 10.9+

• Pro Tools 11 & 12+

• Pro Tools First is not supported at this time

Mark Chernausek Wins Quiet Art Defaulter, WaveRider And Recorditor Bundle

In the Pro Tools Expert 2017 Christmas Competition, we offered the chance to win one of 31 great prizes worth over $16,000 in total. Csongor Mrena is the winner of the Audified Unique Bundle. 

I'm the post-production engineer at BigBreakfast, a television, film, digital production company, and studio borne out of CollegeHumor Originals, a comedy channel on YouTube. On the editorial side, I deal with footage from set, visual effects, voice-over, sound design, and music composition. I double-majored in music in college, but mostly worked as a visual effects technical director after school on large-budget, VFX-heavy films.

In my free time, I perform with a musical improv comedy group in Los Angeles as well as a few bands. At work, I run a ton of voice-over sessions for BigBreakfast and Electus productions, such as Adam Ruins Everything, Hot Date, and Darkness. I've worked with Pro Tools since the Digi 001!

This bundle is phenomenal for my workflow. WaveRider saves so much time in leveling out dialogue from voice-over sessions. Ducking is not just an iPhone autocorrect term; it's essential for mixing spoken word over certain music beds.

Recorditor is the newest and most exciting addition to Quiet Art's software collection. Generally, during a session, the director will circle 'good' takes on their script while tracking. This paper-and-pencil approach is OK, but Recorditor allows you to track each take with markers while recording. It's a huge time-saver, especially when there are many pages of dialogue to record.

I use the Clip Gain line in Pro Tools extensively prior to mixing and Defaulter makes that task even easier. If a voice-over artist shifts slightly in the booth, it can have dramatic effects on the recording depending on the microphone. Defaulter provides an easy way to maintain consistency. This is an excellent plug-in pack for anyone working in post-production audio.

If you would like to win a prize like the Quiet Art Defaulter, WaveRider And Recorditor Bundle then go over to our Win Page and see what prizes we have on offer.