VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Guest]

Lisa, nothing wrong with the way you descibed things. Lots of RAM is definitely the way to go mobile with an Mbox.

[Edo]

[lisaloo]

So here's the first day report:

If you could smell something burning from the general vicinity of NYC, it wasn't just the pavement in the 100 degree heat -- it was my BRAIN.

Actually, it hasn't been too bad so far . . . famous last words.

For those keeping score, my system at the outset is:

Neumann TLM-103 mic
Compaq Presario desktop running Windows XP
Telos Zephyr (not sure how that's going to figure back into the setup just yet, but . . .)

Today I took delivery of:

mBox ProTools LE factory bundle from Sweetwater
"Enter ProTools" tutorial CD and
whatever else was in the box

*****************

Day One:

I received the mBox bundle from Sweetwater and cracked it open about 2:00 this afternoon. I followed the basic instructions in the User Guide (disabling certain stuff in WindowsXP prior to installing ProTools LE, etc.) and only came close to tears once -- when I realized that I had spent an hour trying to disable Hyper-threading in the BIOS where it doesn't exist. Sheesh.

I was THRILLED to note how moronically simple the basics of recording are. Ya plug the mBox into the 'puter, plug the mic into the mBox, install the PTLE software and away ya go. Kinda.

I opened a New Session and started recording an audition from the agents. It was all pretty straightforward. I diddled around a little bit (with the help of the manual to try and eliminate latency in the headphones) and wound up with a bunch of tracks.

Neato.

I listened back to it a couple of times and . . . that's where the fun ended.

I knew at this point that - before I could even BEGIN to get into editing or messing with plug-ins or "getting filters from people" (???) -- I was going to need to learn how to save ONLY the part of the session that I want to send to someone. Best I could manage on my own in terms of editing was using the Trim tool to lop off the front and back and adding the Meekqualizer after the fact. I also notice that the plug-ins I got for free or on a trial basis don't seem to be pop filters or things that really "improve" the record quality. Most of these seem to be special effects things. But I don't know which ones to apply anyhow, so . . . argh.

In any case, I popped in the tutorial CD and spent some time with it. Not bad, except that (like so many other things) it explains stuff that is kind of obvious while leaving out things you really need to know but aren't so evident. Like how do you save just the stuff you want?!



EVENTUALLY, I learned that if I "solo" a track by clicking on the little "s", and that I can bounce just that part of the session on its own to my desktop and then email it to somebody.

At least I think so, because I sent the file to myself but it won't open in WMP for some unexplainable reason. (I have just spent the last half-hour downloading WMP10 in the hopes that this resolves the problem. It might be that the .wav from PT is too big or WMP9 didn't have the best codecs for this stuff or whatever. I'll find out as soon as I post this and go install WMP10.)

ANYHOW . . . that's how far I got today and where I am as of 6:50 PM Friday. All in all, I've spent about 4 hours on it so far. Not much.

Now . . .

I have several questions, of course, but I won't post them here unless folks are willing to take a stab at answering them.

However, I will say this: if anyone among you is willing to do some phone time with me this weekend (at my expense, of course) I would be more than happy -- honestly -- to compensate you for your time.

I get free Tech Support from Sweetwater and will use it if need be, but in the end, I think it's better to have another VO walk me through how the basics work and maybe guide me toward some needed plug-ins and filters, etc.

If you're interested, PM me.

Thanks much!

Lisa Loo

[brianforrester]

Hey Lisa,

It sounds like you're making your way through pretty smoothly (knock on wood).

I'd be more than happy to spend some time on the phone with you. I'm by no means a pro, but I can manage my way through PT. Is it safe to assume that you're using 6.9?

Anyway, if you want to chat just pm me or send me an e-mail.

Hope to talk with you soon.

Cheers,
_________________
Brian Forrester Voice Overs
www.brianforrester.com
brian@brianforrester.com
778.668.5715

[lisaloo]

Day Two/Three . . .

First of all, thanks again to Brian for the generous offer of assistance. As I told him in private email, I had a great tutorial on the phone yesterday with Ms. DB, but appreciate his offer just the same and reserve the option to pester him later!

And a huge shout-out to our DB. She should check her mailbox soon for a little gratitude goodie. Thanks to her patience and assitance, I am making some decent progress. The challenge from here will be to get my head back into the performance and out of the toys!



Now . . . here's a related subject and question for all, regarding power management and protection.

(This whole conversation should probably have started in the GEAR forum, but we're here now - so what the heck. My apologies. If the topic needs to move, I am sure DB will shove it over there.)

Question of the Day:

What are folks doing these days to protect/manage power for their gear and to keep the place from looking like a snake pit with cables running everywhere?

General suggestions as well as referrals to specific products or solutions are welcome.

Just FYI . . . all in one room (no choice), I have my desktop PC and all components (printer, computer tower, etc) a landline telephone, plus the following audio gear: Mbox, mic setup, preamp, Zephyr, small powered speakers and a small mixer.

All in all, I think there are about 15 items currently plugged into AC power (with surge protectors all over the place) and it's really starting to look bad - not to mention that it might be courting disaster.

What are the cool kids doing to straighten up the studio and prevent an implosion? Are there better power strips out there for pro gear, or some awesome overall solution, etc.?

The operative words: safe and tidy. That's what I'm striving for.

Thanks again!

Lisa Loo

[nick reed]

Hey Lisa,

This is a great topic, lets start another thread, this one is four pages deep already...and power management deserves a thread of its own.

Nick

[lisaloo]

Good call. I'm taking this over to GEAR.

See you there!

Lisa

[donrandall]

Bailey -

In GoldWave, to use the Noise Reduction filters - just look at the lower level tool bar. Near the center find the pictogram of the firecracker. The button just to the left of that is the Noise Reduction toolset.

I have used the clipboard, as has been suggested and also the find much benefit to another of the presets labeled "Initial Noise".

If the noise you are trying to filter is present throughout the track, simply choose "Initial Noise" from the list in the preset box and it will work amazingly well. If you do not have enough of a sample of the initial noise preceding any audio signal, you may be able to find enough noise elsewhere in the track - mark the start and stop points, then simply copy that sample. Then select "Clipboard Noiseprint" from the list of filters in the preset box. Click on it, and let it process your track. If you are unhappy with the results, which is highly unlikely, you can always use the "undo" feature.

(If you still don't have sufficient sample length, copy what you can and then open a new record window and paste your sample there, and then paste it again and again. Edit out any spaces and now you will have enough sample to save and enter into your clipboard. Yes - it works - I have done it.)

I recently had some audio that had a nasty hum that I wanted to remove. I was able to do so quite effectively, even though I was originally quite skeptical that the results would be acceptable.