Reviews, tutorials and news on photo & video technology
As UK-based Rycote is the industry-standard specialist in shock & wind protection for field production sound, I took their Softie Duo-Lyre Mount with pistol grip handle to the test with the Deity S-Mic 2. The microphone came with only a basic plastic mount that I suspected to transmit all the vibrations and bumps it could possibly suffer from common, daily usage.
Revoice Pro is used worldwide by audio professionals for adjustment and alignment of vocals, instruments and ADR as well as double track generation. I tested the app using several recordings from audio as well as video sources.
IK Multimedia announced that it has expanded its campus in Modena, Italy with the unveiling of a modern manufacturing and recording facility. The new complex greatly expands the company’s in-house R&D, manufacturing and logistics capabilities. It also adds a state-of-the-art audio recording studio for in-house sound design and sampling.
Youtubers, wedding video shooters, broadcast sound men/women and filmmakers: they all want to record sound with the best possible results. But practicalities such as pricing often stand in the way of reaching this lofty goal. Yet, equipment that exceeds the basic technical requirements – essential to even think about reaching it – is what you’ll need. A microphone is the first and one of the most important links in the chain from the sound you capture to the audio the viewer/listener gets out of their speakers. The results depend on the whole chain, but if you start with a tin can sound because of a low-end mic, you’ll never get to the full and rich sound you’re after.
Magix Audio has a plug-in to Sound Forge Pro for the Mac and iZotope’s RX 6 and 7 Advanced audio editors include a module called “Leveler”. Both allow you to correct audio levels, and now Accusonus has such a module too.
LANDR, a new, cloud-based service is to provide video editors and vloggers who work with Adobe Premiere Pro CC and care about how their content sounds with the means to master audio using an AI-based mastering system.
RX Advanced is iZotope’s flagship audio editor that started out as a sound correction/fixing application. A couple of versions ago, the app became a true editor with the ability to record and edit audio, and to fix, correct and adjust using a sophisticated machine learning algorithm. As with all technology, the app continuously evolves and improves, and the latest version, RX 7 Advanced, is now capable of intelligently identifying vocals, bass, percussion and other instruments in a mix. In addition, RX 7 Advanced now also supports surround sound in addition to mono and stereo.
iZotope’s VocalSynth is a plug-in that helps you improve vocal productions, but you can just as well use it to get Dr. Who’s Daleks sound a bit more human. Of course, you can also use it to create a signature sound like Cher’s and in tandem with the Neutron plug-in’s Visual Mixer, you can create sounds that are truly unique.
OWC’s portable drive, the Envoy Pro, originally came in a USB 3 version, but with the push for ever higher throughput speeds required for 4K, HDR and 8K video shooting and streaming, the company has introduced another, new 300g lightweight Envoy Pro EX that’s been equipped with a captive Thunderbolt 3 cable. The Thunderbolt 3 Envoy Pro EX actually is a series of devices, all equipped with Thunderbolt 3, but split up in the Envoy Pro EX series and the Envoy Pro EX (VE) series, which is even faster and has bigger capacities.
In the past, we have tested and reviewed an sE Electronics V7 dynamic vocal microphone, an sE2200a large-diaphragm condenser and a RØDE NT1 condenser mic. We found the clarity and flat tone response of the V7 and the NT1 great, but they lack the warmth of the sE2200a. So, after reviewing the Universal Audio DSP-capable Arrow interface, which allows you to use a near-zero-latency Unison plug-in as a preamp that can dramatically change the sound characteristics of the mic you’re using, we wondered if it would be possible to change the sound recorded with the V7 and NT1 in such ways that they would sound more like the sE2200a without losing their own unique qualities. In other words, we wanted to know if you can make your audio sound as if it were recorded with a Universal Audio Unison tube preamp UA 610-B.
