At the AES (Audio Engineering Society) convention in San Francisco, Avid, maker of Pro Tools recoding software, announced upcoming integration with Gobbler, the high-speed transfer and storage service designed for pro audio use.
When working on multi-track recording projects, the track count can get pretty high, especially now that we record on computers with unlimited track counts. Back in the day you were limited by the number of tracks available on the tape you were using – typically 24 tracks. Anyway, say you have a song project that has 24 tracks. Each track is made up of at least one audio file (another difference with digital recording is that ability to put multiple different audio clips or files on one track). So that’s 24 (minimum) individual audio files you’d need to somehow deliver to someone else if you are collaborating over some distance. Of course you want each audio file to be pristine and high-quality, so you would not want to use mp3s or some other data-compressed, lossy format. 24 high-quality wav files cannot be e-mailed. Yeah, you could probably use drop-box or a similar cloud service. But Gobbler offers a service specifically geared toward pro audio.
Check out the full article about the integration between Avid Pro Tools and Gobbler here: http://blog.gobbler.com/2012/10/avid-and-gobbler-announce-upcoming-integration/
Home Recording Equipment
7 Free Audio Recording Software Programs
I found an article that lists seven free audio recording and/or editing programs, which is pretty amazing. I knew about one or two but seven? Wow. Of course Audacity is at the top of the list. I definitely knew about that one. You can learn how to do all the basics of audio recording with Audacity in our beginners tutorial course The Newbies Guide To Audio Recording Awesomeness.
In addition to Audacity, the article lists six more programs you can use without paying a cent. Who says it’s expensive to set up a home recording studio?
See that list here: http://www.cometdocs.com/blog/7-great-free-options-for-audio-recording-and-editing
Have fun with your free recording studio!
Keep Up On The Latest Audio Recording Gear Arrivals At B&H
B&H Pro Audio sent over a new tool for publishers like Home Brew Audio to show our readers the newest pro audio gear arrivals in real time. This is a very cool tool that will update automatically whenever new gear arrives in the store, available for you to order.
Check it out here: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/pro-audio-gear-new-arrivals/
There is a link to this page in our site’s navigation bar on every page – says Pro Audio Gear – New Arrivals.
B&H have also told me that they plan to expand this capability to include other information that might be of value to you, such as audio gear with discounts, rebates and free shipping.
B&H usually has the lowest price on the internet for audio gear, so we hope this will help you keep up on the latest gear for the lowest price.
Sound Forge Pro Audio Editor Now Available For Mac
Sony Sound Forge Pro has long been a staple audio editing program – basically the industry standard. But since its inception these 15 or so years ago, it has not been available for Mac users. That has finally changed.
Sound Forge Pro Mac – designed for OS X, is now available. Can I get a halleluja?
A new license is $269 (compare this to Adobe Audition – my main editor – which costs $317.98).
If you already have Sound Forge Pro for PC, you can cross-grade to the new Mac version for $239.
Click the picture above for more details and/or to buy.
Microphone Barbra Streisand Used In Evergreen Scene AKG C-12A
We just saw a clip, on CBS Sunday Morning, of Barbra Streisand singing Evergreen in the 1976 movie A Star Is Born. She is singing into a vintage AKG C-12A (not to be confused with the C12 or C12 VR). These are not manufactured anymore, but I checked eBay and you can get one for the bargain price of $3,899 (my wife said “no”).
Anyway, the whole reason for this post is that the way this mic – a large diaphragm “nuvistor” (a kind of mini-tube that sort of bridged the gap between tube mics and transistor mics) mic – is used in the supposed recording scene between Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. First it shows Barbra singing straight into the mic, lips 3-4 inches away, with no sort of pop filter at all. I understand that it would have obscured her face and all, but for folks who record vocals every day this just causes us to scream – “Holy crap, do you realize how many plosives (p-pops) that would cause and how hard it would be to edit out, especially in 1976?” (see our article on p-pops and plosives here: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/how-to-fix-a-p-pop-in-your-audio-with-sound-editing-software/). Then she put her hand on the base of the mic where it attached to the mic stand. Gah! That would cause boom and rumble! And THEN, Kristofferson puts HIS mitts on the stand and plays “handsies” with her – in the middle of recording! I imagine that recording engineers the world over utters simultaneous and similar protestations when the movie opened.
In real life, a singer using any large diaphragm recording microphone would surely be using a pop-filter, a screen between the mouth and the mic to reduce or eliminate plosives. And if anything (like fondling fingers) touched or bumped the mic or mic stand, the recording would almost certainly have to be stopped because it would be nearly impossible (certainly impractical) to edit out that kind of rumble, boom and bumping.
But other than that…
There are some interesting facts about the AKG C-12A. It was the missing link mic between the tube-based C12 and the transistor-based AKG C 414. It used a new (at the time) miniature tube technology called “nuvistor” which, if the transistor had not become the way of the future for microphone circuitry. Read more about that here: http://www.preservationsound.com/?p=1120