James, Dan and Julian chat through issues and highlights from the week's news as well as the usual Pro Tools tips, tricks and community questions answered.

Podcast Sponsor - Townsend Labs

This month’s sponsor is Townsend Labs, creator of the Sphere L22 3D microphone system. James talks about the modelling in the Sphere microphone system.

Deals

• Pro Sound Effects Urban Ambisonics Bundle - Get 45% Off - Buy For $199 Reduced From $360 - Ambisonics sound effects are so versatile in multi-channel production as they can be converted into formats like binaural, 5.1, and 7.1. This is a great opportunity to kick-start your multi-channel sound effects library.
• Save 40% on an Annual licence or 15% on a monthly licence for Audiomovers LISTENTO plug-in - LISTENTO enables users to Stream Audio from Pro Tools to web browsers. LISTENTO are free plug-ins, however, a weekly, monthly or annual license is required to stream mixes to anyone with an internet connection. We have deals on both monthly and annual licences. £46 for an Annual licence, £6.50 for monthly. Don’t worry, the person receiving the stream doesn’t require a subscription, just a web browser and an internet connection.
• Also, don’t forget to check out the deals from our Partners, in the Partner Deals section on our Deals page.

Talking Points Kindly Sponsored By Universal Audio

Thinking about getting on board with UAD Plug-Ins? Well, now is the time! For a limited time, you can get a UAD OCTO Ultimate 5 Bundle from an authorised UA retailer.  The bundle includes your choice of PCIe, Satellite Thunderbolt, or Satellite USB DSP Accelerator and the Universal Audio, flagship collection, featuring 89 award-winning UAD Powered Plug-Ins including best-sellers from API, Neve, Manley, Fender, and many more. Also, the UA Dream Studio offer is still on. It has been extended until 30th September 2017.    

• Replacing A Mac Pro 5.1 'Cheese-grater' For Pro Tools Production - What Are The Options?
• Poll - What Control Surface Do You Use With Pro Tools?

Competitions

• Win 1 Of 5 Copies Of MasteringTheMix LEVELS & REFERENCE Bundle - We have teamed up with our friends at MasteringTheMix to offer the Pro Tools Expert Community a unique opportunity to win a bundle of two very powerful mixing and mastering plug-ins. This bundle does not exist, so cannot be purchased from the MasteringTheMix web store.
• Don’t forget to check out our win page, to discover more opportunities to win pro audio software and gear from our Partners, in the Partner Win section, on our Win page.

Community Feedback Kindly Sponsored by RSPE Audio Solutions

“Let’s Talk Avid”, from our friends at RSPE, is an opportunity for customers old and new to call them on the phone as RSPE have some great prices that they cannot publish online. So if you are looking for a deal on pro audio gear and you live in the US, especially the west coast, then call RSPE on their toll-free number 855.632.1032 and see what they can offer you. You can also check out a special page to see some of the product ranges they have on offer, but to get the discount you will need to talk to the RSPE team on the phone.    

George Majerus is back with some feedback on the shootout between Apogee and Presonus. I recently ran into troubles with my Apogee Rosetta, I was convinced it had failed since it's of course fairly old. I was looking for an Apogee Support Address to find out if they would still support or fix this discontinued legacy piece of gear and I actually found a chat option and was very quickly transferred to a highly knowledgeable tech who seems to know the Rosetta by heart. 15 Minutes later my problems were solved, and no, the Rosetta had not failed. This is the best, quickest and most professional support I have ever encountered. Great support when you need it is something people may not consider when shopping for gear. Also Kudos to Russ for his find of the week. I bought the wireless chime he mentioned since I cannot hear the doorbell when I am mixing. It took me less time to set it up than to order it! You guys rock, your show is great and I am looking forward to each episode like others probably for Game of Thrones :)

Justin Arey has made a video testing and comparing 18 cheap large diaphragm condenser microphones. He says "I decided to do a vocal test of all the mics in my studio, 18 in all. Actually, most were had for peanuts on eBay, kinda crazy I know, buying cheap mics, but I was curious if there were noticeable differences between them and hey, who doesn't like a bargain?"

John M Caldwell says that the outcome of the Pro Tools Track Hack is very similar to creating custom track views in Cubase. This is something I've been wanting for a long time in Pro Tools and once I found out how easy it was in Cubase I was even more upset that Pro Tools doesn't have this feature. I stumbled onto this the other day when I messed up a marker in Pro Tools and went to edit its details. I found out that you can create custom track views by using Markers and editing the Memory Locator. It's very simple to execute and to continuously update when you want to add or subtract a track from your view. 

Al Andrew asks about our thoughts regarding Avid's development with AI....or lack thereof. My reference comes from one of the latest features in Adobe Audition with the "auto ducking".... it works very well....not perfect. Being a post guy with disciplined arrivals and departures which take time to do, the idea of AI stepping into our workflow in post-production is rather scary. In the video sector, AI is starting to replace people in certain areas (metadata etc). 

Questions From The Community

• Neal Hoover has a question about what sample rate to use for recording vocals etc, 24 bit/ 48k or 24 Bit /192k.

Source Connect Now

As you may know, we are spread out around the UK & Europe when we record the podcast. In the past, we have used a variety of internet-based solutions so we could hear each other.  We have settled on Source Connect Now which gives us ISDN equivalent quality audio using a Chrome browser, no software to install. You can get a free account from Source Elements.

Find Of The Week

• James - Livemix by Digital Audio Labs. Personal mix system for studios and live use over Cat5.
• Julian - Genelec GLM 3.0, particularly this video
• Dan - Handheld sound pressure level meter

Listen on to the Pro Tools Expert Podcast on iTunes