Q It Up: What’s new in your tech rack?

Q It Up: What’s new in your tech rack? What new technology have you acquired recently to enhance your work output? Maybe it’s a new piece of studio gear, a plugin, a new software application, or a new service of some kind. Tell us what you think of the product/service and how it’s helped you. And provide a link if handy!

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Comments (8)

  1. Jerry Vigil

For me, my latest purchase was REAPER. After many years on Vegas, I wanted more. I looked at several DAWs and Reaper won. More customizable than anything I’ve worked with. Installs in seconds. Launches in seconds. Half what you’d pay for a competing software. Included plugins are so good, I’ve stopped using others, with the exception of 2 or 3 Vegas plugs I keep on board. What made the transition from Vegas super easy was the fact that the developer of Reaper was a Vegas user himself, but he wanted more. So he built Reaper and kept a lot of the keyboard shortcuts and workflow similar to Vegas. And if I get tired of the look, there are tons of 3rd party, free skins to load up. https://www.reaper.fm/

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  1. Alan Peterson

Well, this won't be at all impressive to anyone, but we just replaced our old monitor speakers with new KRK active nearfields.

The old cabs were 20-year-old JBL farfields that hung from the ceilings ... foam rubber rings crumbling into dust and falling in our coffee, woofer cones that sounded more kazoo-like every day, peeling veneer ... it was getting ugly.

The farfields gave us a good idea of the overall mix, but the nearfields are like microscopes that let us hear lip pops, the clicking of ballpoint pens and the drone of HVAC air movement in the background. If we can hear up close what's going on, we can fix it before it goes to air. Response is flatter than the JBLs, which had a very pronounced boom at the bottom. And the Sweet Spot is now more of a spot, than a big diffuse ball of sound that's fuzzier than a Wookie.

I like the change, and KRKs are going in all of our studios now; swapping out another pair of JBLs and an old set of Alesis passive speakers.

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  1. Andrew Frame    Alan Peterson

My JBL 4311's are now in my living room hooked into an amplifier off the television.

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  1. Andrew Frame

A wee little box called a Class-T amplifier from Dayton Audio. The power supply is as big as the actual unit. I had been using a big box amp for years, then in mid-2017 tried some powered monitors. Probably more due my imperfect operation position than the quality of the monitors, I didn't like the sound and took them back. I went back with my old speakers, and got the little Dayton amplifier. Sounds just fine, and I have swapped a big box on my desk for a small one. That and a replacement video monitor is all I've had to do for some time. Coming up this year - solid state drives for the PC.

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  1. Adam Garey

Nothing from me on NEW GEAR. Just fight against arrogance by default- If you have Sales working like crazy and your BREAKS are CHUNKED UP-AWESOME! If you are tender of those spots as Copywriter and Producer -AWESOME! Just work through to SOUND sincere; avoid making your Listener Overthink knowing the spot is one of 15-Don't make suffering -for your favorite Listener has to hear too much "IMPORTANT information" as it is. 1-800-BLITZ, 1-800-BLITZ, THAT'S 1-800-BLITZ! Sorry Jerry.

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  1. Kevin Fouzie

My favourite new tools is iZotope RX. Increasingly, I live in a world where I have little or no control
over some of the Voice-Over content I must employ... a wide range of talent, techniques and gear is used.
In an effort to have a more consistent product, at least from a technical aspect, I am using RX to speed up
a good portion of the more forensic editing... plosives, mouth noises, ambient sound etc. The inbox does
not hold back, so I am using RX and several other bits of tech to expedite more and more tasks.

Kevin

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  1. David M. Boothe, CAS

Newest acquisition is iZotope RX6. This package can solve, or at least ameliorate, some pretty intractable problems.

Not brand new, but fairly recent (late 2015) is our 48 channel Harrison Trion console with a 1024 x 1024 audio router. Now THAT was major upgrade. It has a positive affect on everything we do.

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  1. Dean James

Newest stuff.

Sony Dynamic Stereo PRO Headphones. MDR -7506. What you hear is what you did. Clean sound. Not too much bass! What I do is what I hear. Awesome for the voice business.

Zoom.com - Best and easy way connect with clients for sessions. Right now everything qualifies for free. I have a separate booth (former closet now with soundproofing). I can see copy and Audition levels on an iPad. Keeps the room quite and cool without having to use a computer or monitor in the booth.

Proximity Marketing - Using devices to send messages to mobile phone! Huge success and results. Folks see the message, my info, contact me and even go to my website. In one corporate event 133 hits saw my business information (out of 250 attendees). Amazing results. One of the hottest things I have seen. Folks are checking out their phones (text, emails, Facebook, Twitter and so on) over 80 times a day.

Bitly.com - Get numbers of how your website(s) is being monitored. Free baby!

I guess its...

Newest stuff.

Sony Dynamic Stereo PRO Headphones. MDR -7506. What you hear is what you did. Clean sound. Not too much bass! What I do is what I hear. Awesome for the voice business.

Zoom.com - Best and easy way connect with clients for sessions. Right now everything qualifies for free. I have a separate booth (former closet now with soundproofing). I can see copy and Audition levels on an iPad. Keeps the room quite and cool without having to use a computer or monitor in the booth.

Proximity Marketing - Using devices to send messages to mobile phone! Huge success and results. Folks see the message, my info, contact me and even go to my website. In one corporate event 133 hits saw my business information (out of 250 attendees). Amazing results. One of the hottest things I have seen. Folks are checking out their phones (text, emails, Facebook, Twitter and so on) over 80 times a day.

Bitly.com - Get numbers of how your website(s) is being monitored. Free baby!

I guess its more about growing the business than buying more stuff all the time (which is a not bad thing).

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