Foster Hagey

Today at BigMuch.com, I wrote up a piece on the new Pro-tools 10, HDX, and the new AAX plug-in format. You can read my thoughts there.

I got an email yesterday from Avid about a webcast announcing new products on Oct 20th, at 7:30pm. I wonder what it could be?

Here’s what I think.

About a week ago, I ran into a friend of mine who used to work for Euphonix and now works for Avid. When I told him one of the producers I work with was thinking about getting rid of his HD cards and going straight Pro-Tools 9 not Pro-Tools 9 HD because of issues with naming conventions between TDM and RTAS plugins in pro-tools, he hinted about something to fix all those RTAS-to-TDM issues. My guess is a new set HD Core and Process cards considering I can almost run more RTAS plugs on an i7 MacBook Pro than I can run TDM plugs on an HD3 rig.

Last year’s release of Pro-Tools 9 was mainly aimed at the low end of the product chain. It brought Delay-Compensation to the LE user-base (which actually isn’t called LE anymore. It is just regular Pro-Tools I guess) and killed the need for an audio interface. Serious Pro-Tools production was now available on a laptop for only $600, but high-end users were left without much to play with; No 64-bit to allow the use of more RAM, no freeze-track or turn VI to Audio function, no new HD cards. Avid didn’t even have a booth at the AES Convention last year. When the maker of the #1 DAW on the market doesn’t even have a booth at the AES Convention the year they release a new version of the software, you can bet it is a pretty weak update or at least not aimed at the high-end of the market that attends AES.

I doubt that there will be a 64-bit upgrade announced this week. I hope I’m wrong, and if I am, I’m guessing a 64-bit Pro-Tool would be only available for new HD card owners. If you want to have RTAS instruments addressing 12GB of RAM, my guess is Avid needs you to drop $10,000+ on new HD cards.

Pro-Tools HD 10
Now in 64-bit

It’s got a ring to it, but again, I doubt we will see it this week.

If you want to see the new stuff in person, you can go to AES in New York with a free VIP Exhibits Only badge courtesy of Avid. Just scroll down to where it says Avid“Get Your Free AES Pass.”

Since the recording studio I used to work for closed its doors last year, I’ve spent 2012 making the transition to being a freelance audio engineer and social media technician. It was a big help to be able to use Freshbooks.com for time tracking, invoicing, and billing.

Their freemium service allows 3 active clients, so you can test the viability of being a freelancer without the financial risk associated with buying Quickbooks or another book-keeping/invoicing software. I was able to use the free service for almost 8 months to build a list of prospective clients into actively paying clients. If it wasn’t for Freshbooks this year would have been much harder. Their late-payment reminder add-on is like having your own Accounts Receivable department. You send out the invoice, and it reminds your client at intervals of your choosing if the invoice isn’t paid.

When you use the Freshbook API to connect to a PayPal Business account, you can accept credit card payments online for only $0.50 per transaction. That is so much better than having to deal with a merchant account taking a certain percent of your billings. There are also other add-ons available for the Freshbooks API

It is partnerships like the one with PayPal and videos like the one below by Freshbooks CEO, Mike McDerment, on hiring the first employee for your business that make Freshbooks such an awesome service.

Thanks Freshbooks.

Here is a video of Steve Jobs taking questions from the crowd in 1997 at the WWDC. You can hear from his answers that he had a vision of what was possible with technology. Next week is the launch of iCloud, iOS5, and the latest reversion of iPhone the iPhone4S. It is sad to think that Steve didn’t get to live long enough to see us enjoy it all.

Thank you Steve Jobs. You will be missed.

My Apple History:

Apple IIGS
Performa 6220
iMac
iMac G4
iBook G4
iPod
G5
iMac G5
15″ PowerBook G4
iPhone
15″ MacBook Pro
Mac Pro
iPhone4

Recently, I’ve been doing more live sound. Mostly stage tech stuff, but this weekend I trained on a VENUE SC48 for monitors and VENUE Profile system for FOH at Brooklyn Bowl. It is pretty amazing what you can do with these systems. They are so versatile it is scary. You can get really serious with your mix. There’s EQ, gate/expansion, compression/limiting, and 16 aux sends on every channel. Then you have a whole virtual rack where you can put plug-ins.

My previous live experience is working on a Mackie 1608 doing backyard band gigs, so this setup is a real treat to work on. I was hoping to get more time at the console to learn the software, but there just wasn’t enough time. But before I left, the FOH engineer, Justin, who was showing me the ropes told me I could download a standalone version of the software and run it without the console. This way you can learn, practice, or setup a Show Files without having to be at a physical console.

Here’s a link to the stand-alone version of the VENUE software available Avid’s website. It is only available for Windows 7 and XP, so you’ll need Parallels or VWware Fusion to make it work on a mac, but it runs with no trouble. There is also an archive of live sound webinars available from Avid that is a great resource to get you started.