Acme Voiceworx » Pro Tools

Ten Myths About Pro Tools for Voiceover: Why They’re Myths.

Steve — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:39:26 +0000

It’s my belief that a lot of voice actors actually fear Digidesign’s Pro Tools for recording and editing voiceovers. Often, VO artists have taken one look over some engineer’s shoulder and muttered “Nope, that’s not for me, it’s too (fill in the blank).”

No wonder — the engineer is probably focused on how many whizzy-cool features s/he can invoke per second, and this can be give the talent a false impression. So here are the top ten objections to Pro Tools and my response to each. Read the rest of this entry »

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Mac OS X 10.5.3 released [updated]

Steve — Fri, 30 May 2008 07:57:58 +0000

Yesterday Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.3, the latest revision of their newest “Leopard” operating system. This release contains what appears to be a boatload of security fixes, as well as a tidy list of improvements to various Apple applications.

I do have one Mac running Leopard for evaluation purposes, but the “money” machines are still on 10.4.11, at least until Digidesign qualifies Pro Tools LE and M-Powered for Leopard. Pro Tools HD is currently qualified on OS X 10.5.1, but not 10.5.2; LE and M-Powered are not yet qualified, period.

[Update 05/30/08] So-called pre-release versions of all three, ready for Leopard 10.5.3, are now available from Digidesign’s website. See this.

The money machines in my shop won’t be upgraded until the software is ready. But with the third update release for Leopard out now, it may be getting close. You may recall that Tiger (aka 10.4) wasn’t fully stable for all-day digital audio work until version 10.4.5, so patience becomes a virtue. We’ll keep an eye open and see which way the wind blows.

Meanwhile, 10.5.3′s laundry list of improvements includes a fix for stuttering video and audio played from USB devices, and nudges attached hard drives to make certain they appear in the Finder. Airport gets some attention, as does reliability in Time Capsule. For those of us whose lives are on multiple computers in iCal, that program gets its sync abilities fixed. There’s a great deal more on the list, which you can find here:

About the Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update.

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Pro Tools in Yer Pocket

Steve — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:54:37 +0000

Pro Tools users almost got what they’ve begged and pleaded for o these many years — Digidesign just introduced the Mbox Micro, a USB stick audio interface with stereo outputs (but no inputs) for $279. It’s clever enough… on the end there’s a 1/8th-inch stereo output jack and a little thumbwheel volume control. Otherwise it looks like a USB memory stick, with no cables to connect and no controls save the thumbwheel. Digi says it’ll be available in mid-November.

Now before we all go bonkers, let’s remember that there are no inputs on this little dingus. So while it’s great for mixing and editing on an airplane flight, it won’t really do for cutting voiceovers in a hotel room, right? ‘Cause there’s no inputs, right? ‘Cause Pro Tools won’t recognize any inputs other than the one that’s on the Digidesign interface, right? And this interface ain’t got none, right?

Right.

I can imagine some workarounds that might make this little dingus useful for voiceover work, but they’re definitely workarounds. For the moment, I’ll be keeping my Mbox 2 Mini in my briefcase. It has inputs.

More on the dingus at www.audiotechsupport.com or on the Digidesign website.

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Game Time Again

Steve — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 07:18:01 +0000

Summer’s here again, and that means it’s time to indulge in my other career… recording and editing dialog for video games. Got one booked, too, and it’s a biggie.

It’s great fun, really, although it involves a great deal of concentration and focus over a long series of 12-to-14 hour days. It keeps me sharp, and I get to work with great actors, directors, and staff. I’m most grateful to my friends at Cup of Tea Productions for the opportunity to do it yet again.

I’m under NDA so I can’t tell you the title of this summer’s project. But I can tell you that it’s version 5 of a popular FPS (first-person shooter) franchise, and it should be released before the end of the year.

So if I’m in and out for awhile you’ll excuse me… at the end of a day of ADR, about the only thing I’m good for is an hour of “Hitman” on the Xbox. After that I’m horizontal.

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