Aug 21, 2023
Waves have just announced some big changes to its licencing structure. What does it mean for you and how does it compare to other software that might be in your studio?
https://www.waves.com/support/using-waves-plugins-on-multiple-computers
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https://www.solidstatelogic.com/products/ssl-complete-bundle-subscription
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“When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.”
Hunter S Thompson
#rode #rodemicrophones
Summary
In this episode of the Pro Audio Suite, hosts George Wittam, Robert
Marshall, Darren Robbo Robertson, and Andrew Peters discuss the
latest events and updates in professional audio technology.
A significant highlight of the episode is Source Elements' win at the One Voice Service Provider award for the second time. This is followed by discussions on software licensing structures, especially about plugins by Waves and Twisted Wave. George Wittam offers insights into ethical business strategies and effective marketing. Further, Robbo shares his intriguing experience with the SSL bundle and emphasizes its unique features. Finally, the episode reflects on the importance of imperfections in audio production for an authentic sound output. The Pro Audio Suite also acknowledges its sponsors, Tri-Booth and Austrian audio, and tech support from George Wittam. Enjoy and engage in further discussions on their Facebook group. Don't forget to subscribe!
#ProAudioSuite #TechPodcast #OneVoiceAward
Timestamps
[00:00:00] Intro: Meet the Talent & Special Offers
[00:01:01] One Voice Service Provider Award: Personal
Insight
[00:03:04] Waves Announcement: New Subscription System
[00:05:25] Twisted Wave’s Policy: More Freedom for Users
[00:11:02] Excellent Marketing?: A Case Study on George
[00:13:22] Robbo’s Experience: Navigating the SSL Bundle
[00:20:11] SSL Plugins’ Uniqueness: The Beauty of Imperfection
[00:22:29] Ends Credits: Thanks & Reminders
Transcript
Speaker A: Y'all ready be history.,Speaker B: Get started., Speaker
C: Welcome., Speaker B: Hi. Hi. Hello, everyone, to the Pro Audio
Suite.,: These guys are professional and motivated. To the Vo stars
George Wittam, founder of Source Elements Robert Marshall,
international audio engineer Darren Robbo Robertson and global
voice Andrew Peters. Thanks to Tri-Booth Austrian audio making
passion heard. Source elements. George, the tech. Wittam and Robbo
and AP's International demo. To find out more about us, check the
pro audiosuite.com. Speaker B: Line Up Ladies. Here we go., Speaker
C: And welcome to another Pro Audio Suite. Don't forget, if you do
want to buy a Triboof, use the code trip a P 200 to get $200 off
your Triboof. Also Rombo and AP's international demos. We are
offering a 30% discount. Just go to thepro audiosuite.com, and have
a look at the link, which is up in the top, which says Robo and
AP's International Demos. Click on that and drop us a line if
you're interested. Also, while we're recording, you, George, are in
Dallas at One Voice, and somebody won an award that you saw. Who
would that have been?,: Well, not only did I see I was another
candidate for the award. Another nominee., Speaker A: Oh, were you
really? We're surrounded by brilliance.,: I'm sorry, man., Speaker
C: And the nominations are there's two One.,: Voice nominees right
here in the room. One of them won. Yeah. So there was a category
called they did it Last Year as well, called Service Provider. And
they make it very clear it's voted on by the public. And
nominations are, I think, nominated also by the public, or at least
the judges. So, yeah, I got nominated and my friend Uncle Roy did,
and a whole bunch of other people that I know were nominated and
Source Elements. So last year Source Elements took it, and this
year they did, too, because they do good service.,Speaker C: There
you go.,: They do good service and they do it all around the
world.,: Thank you.,: Which is a lot of people.,Speaker C: Indeed.
Yes, indeed. Indeed. Well, congratulations, Robert.,: In a way, I'd
like to fuse the discomfort of me or Uncle Roy winning it's because
we're buddies.,: You guys would have to sit at the same table.,:
It's awkward. We're buddies and we do the same business. It just
feels weird. It just feels weird. So anyway, congrats Source
Elements, and maybe we'll see you next year.,Speaker B: Cool.,:
Well, awesome.,Speaker C: I think the key actually, George the key
is just don't turn up and you'll win an award.,: Yeah, well, it
didn't work last year.,: Let me see. Do I have it here?,: The best
speech, actually, was a woman who said, I thank myself.,Speaker A:
Oh, really?,: Because it was a self submitted it was a self book on
the gig. It was not through an agent. So she said, I thank
myself.,Speaker A: There you go.,Speaker C: Well, that was a good
nice.,Speaker B: Absolutely.,Speaker A: Yeah.,Speaker C: Now, we
should be thanking Waves, actually, because Waves have just
announced that you can use their plugins if you pay your
subscription, I guess it is, on.,: Two computers without having to
beg them for it because you could do it before by begging them and
they would let you use it on two computers. But now it's
official.,: Yeah, they would always let you do it on two computers
if you maintained your whoop. Actually, that was one of the
benefits of maintaining the whoop. But it is interesting. In the
email, it very explicitly says this is for the same
operator.,Speaker C: Here comes your takeaway.,: They're using the
same exact business model as Adobe does, where the activation is
good on two machines. If you log into a third machine on Adobe, it
will tell you you're on a third machine and you must disable
another machine and or it disables all of them and then you just
start reactivating again. I can't remember which one it is.,Speaker
A: But it tells you. Yeah, it tells me anyway.,: Yeah.,Speaker C:
Which is really handy because as I've said many times before, I
don't know anybody that actually works on one computer. We all have
at least two devices that we work on. So it makes perfect sense to
be able to do that. And it's funny because I don't know whether
Twisted Wave you can use at one license on two computers. I'm
pretty sure. Steinberg you can't.,: So, Twisted Wave, before the
new subscription plan, it was unlimited. And I know that because
I've used it on unlimited computers, technically. I mean, every
computer I've ever owned has had a license.,: Just drop your
license.,: I don't remember or recall reading any stipulation on
the site about numbers of computers per user. So they may still be
holding on to that same policy. I don't know. I would have to look
that up.,Speaker C: Yeah, because it is very handy.,: I mean, it's
interesting because it is like a potential leak of licenses for
them. But at the same time, to police it, you have to make that
into the licensing structure. Especially for Twisted Wave. They are
doing their own. We're basically licensing through Ilock so we
don't have to build it and we just live within the structure that
they provide.,Speaker C: Which leads me to the next bit, because
when you jumped online, George, we were having quite a deep
discussion about the pros and cons of the eye lock.,: I was
literally saying I was looking forward to the day where I could
open my house, start my car, like you name it, with my eye lock.,:
Well, once you're in an ecosystem, you want everything to be in
that ecosystem.,: Whatever that yeah, my keychain would be so
simplified.,Speaker C: It would be just one it would.,: Be nice if
it was also a pass key as well. So it had the password manager for
all of your stuff.,Speaker A: That would be nice.,: Yeah, it's
really interesting. If I lock was supposed to get into that and
then you could have a hardware dongle for your pass parents. My
parents would actually relate to that. That's funny.,: Yeah. It's
so much easier than saying, okay, use this authenticator app on
your phone that you installed just to use this one thing and open
that app up and then authenticate off of that. It's a lot for the
user.,: The two factor authentication sometimes is annoying, and
I'm trying to get all my two factor over to Google Off, but I have
some that's through my text, some that's through the email, some
that's through Google Off.,: I mean, it's difficult for us. I mean,
imagine what it's like for know the know the regular user. Or
Andrew.,: Or Andrew.,: It's very challenging. Well, I just checked
on Twisted Wave FAQ. Can I install Twisted Wave on more than one
Mac? Yes. According to Twistwave's license, you're allowed to
install Twist Wave Mac on as many computers as you want, as long as
you are the main user. It says the main user of the license. So
that would mean to me that you could have an assistant or an editor
or an engineer working with you sharing that license. That's what I
interpret that as to say.,Speaker A: But anyway, okay, so Voodoo
Sound bought Twisted Wave, and Mrs. Voodoo Sound was using Twisted
Wave upstairs in the voice booth for her own voiceover company.
Even though you could technically say that Voodoo Sound is at this
premises, is that this is where it gets interesting, doesn't it?
And you can get yourself in trouble.,: It's two simultaneous uses
for it's, like being, very strictly speaking, even though it's one
household, it is two uses on two jobs. And I think the intention is
that you as a person cannot be duplicated, and so you should be
using your license once, regardless of where you are. Here's the
way Waves phrase it. Starting November 1, we will add a second
license to all active creative Access subscriptions, allowing
subscribers to use their plugins on separate computers without
having to move licenses between devices. The second license is for
use by the owner of the main product license only.,: Yeah, I think
that's what Thomas's and.,: They do state it. And it's an honor
system is what it is.,: He's just not getting as quite as a fine
tooth. He didn't have an attorney rewrite it for him. It's just him
trying and I'll speak for Thomas when I say this, so you have to
verify with him is really he's going again by a bit of an honor
system, which he's known for that anyway, like for many, many
years. He didn't enforce really anything with the license.,: Did he
do anything else or did he only do Twisted Wave?,: I only know him
as doing Twisted Wave, period. And then he branched out to the iOS
version and then the online version, and then the Windows
version.,: His whole living. He feeds all twelve of his kids
through Twisted Wave?,Speaker A: Yes.,: Well, he's got four
platforms he's supporting now. So it's a lot to support and keep
running and debugging.,: I mean, it's impressive because he had a
pretty permissive licensing thing and he's a one man show. It's
amazing actually, assuming he does not have some other second gig
and that this isn't just like a side hustle, it's actually
impressive.,: My understanding is he doesn't have a side
hustle.,Speaker C: No, it's definitely not taking up enough.,: Time
that he just can't do other things. Maybe he got the Mac version to
a point where it was running so well that he thought, well, it's
time, let's get the Windows version built. So the Windows version
is fully released and it supports stacks just like the Mac version.
You got to bring BYO plugins because there's not a single free
plugin on a Windows machine. So you start right out of the gate by
having to get plugins. Right? That's a big difference right there.
But I have a few plugins of my own that I prefer to use that are
totally free for those who really need to set it all up. And one of
them is because of Robo himself, said have you ever used Melda
Productions plugins? And I was like, Nope. And I have installed and
used them and for the free bundle that they have is pretty darn
feature rich.,Speaker A: There's some kick ass stuff in there,
isn't there?,: Pretty darn good. Yeah, exactly. So I have used the
melba. EQ. I haven't used much else from them, but it did a fine
job for some folks. But I've really been enjoying being able to
support that cross platform at last without having to run an actual
Windows PC to make a stack. As long as I build that stack using VST
plugins on my Mac, it will load those plugins and everything on the
PC, which is nice.,Speaker A: Yeah, that's cool.,: Yeah.,Speaker C:
Back to Thomas though. If you meet the guy, which I'm sure one day
he will jump on a silver bird and head to North America at some
point depending how much money he makes out of Twisted Wave. But
you can tell like you meet the guy, you know, when you meet
someone, you know they're just a really honest character and
incredibly intelligent, obviously. And that's thomas. That's the
guy.,: If he starts showing up at conferences and sponsoring, we'll
know.,Speaker C: Exactly.,: As far as I can tell, he has spent
absolutely $0 on marketing.,Speaker A: But it's a good product and
good products market themselves sometimes, don't they? Let's be
honest.,: That's what I'm saying. Can you please tell that to our
department of marketing?,: Well, I mean, honestly, I never had a
marketing budget until the last year or so. And now that George the
tech is a team of people, marketing is becoming much more of a real
thing. Like I really need to get the marketing machine running. So
when you start hearing George LATEC on different places and
different platforms and you start getting tired of hearing that
name then it means I'm doing the right thing. So that means my
marketing is working.,Speaker C: There was a thing that we used to
talk about in radio and when you're at the point of hearing a song,
if you work in a radio station that is driving you insane because
you're just overloading on that song, you usually find that it's
just starting to get some traction with the listener.,: The regular
listener. Yeah, the listener in the real world.,: So as soon as
we're sick of George, that's when George really hit it. That's when
George changes his name to Uncle George.,Speaker C: No.,: Can't
be.,Speaker A: Uncle George.,: My dad's Uncle George, Uncle
George.,Speaker C: But the whole uncle thing. Yeah. All I can think
of when you say uncle anyone is some old bloke in a pair of shorts
that are too tight with one knacker hanging out the side. That's
what it sounds.,: You got to work on that for your Uncle Roy.,: I'm
just not letting my daughter call.,Speaker A: Yeah.,Speaker C: Now
speaking plugins robbo, you've been mucking around with the SSL
bundle?,Speaker A: Yeah, I downloaded it because I'd had the Slate
Digital bundle and I sort of got to the point where there was only
a couple of things that I really sort of liked and continued using
being a couple of compressors, the gray compressor, fresh air,
which is free anyway, and a couple of other things. So I actually
let that go. And talking of budgets, I sort of realized, hey, I've
got X amount of dollars a month free. What other bundles are out
there to sort of rent and have a play with? And so I downloaded the
SSL one which I've been playing with for a couple of months now.
And can I just say, there's not a dog in there. It's so good.
There's so much stuff that's sort of really nice to play with. I
mean, compressors and EQS go without saying. There's some other
stuff like they've they've done some instrument specific stuff.
They've done, like a drum strip and a guitar strip. The vocal strip
I kind of like, I guess. I mean, it's not a dog, but I don't really
use it a lot. The drum strip I use all the time. The guitar strip,
I don't really do a lot with guitars, so I don't have much to do
with that. But the other stuff that's really good is they call it
the flex verb, which is their reverb and the X delay, which is also
really cool. So, yeah, there's a bunch of stuff in there that's
really worth playing around with. And I guess when the time comes
and I sort of get sick of it, what will I keep? I would definitely
keep the reverb. The DSR is very nice. Their limiter, which they
call X limit, has been the final plugin on my mastering chain now
since I downloaded it because it's particularly sweet is it like a
brick wall? Yeah, it's a brick wall.,: Brick wall limiter?,Speaker
A: Brick wall limiter, yes. And it's just seamless, though. You get
it set up right, you just don't hear it working at all. And it
gives everything that sort of nice punch, obviously, that you look
for from a limiter I'm really enjoying based.,: On some other model
or something from their own.,Speaker A: There's a whole bunch of
models of stuff. There's two bus compressors, a couple of channel
strips, bus Compressor Six, I think they call it, and the Bus
Compressor.,Speaker B: Two.,Speaker A: Channel Strip Two. But look,
they've got a 30 day free trial, so you can have your first month
on them. So definitely worth downloading and having a play with.,:
You have to give them the credit card.,Speaker A: Give them the
credit card. So you got to put a date in your diary if you want to
cancel it. I think I'll probably have it for another couple of
months. Well, until something else pops up, probably, I'll just
hang on to it because, as I say, I do set aside some money to play
around with new plugins each month, and that's what I've landed on
at the moment. So until something else crops up that I want to try,
that's where it will stay.,Speaker C: It's funny with the SSL
plugins, though, because when I bought the SSL Two, it came with
these plugins. I thought it was in perpetuity, but of course it was
not. So there was a whole bunch of stuff like a channel strip and a
flex verb and vocal strip xCOMP, there was an EQ, XEQ, X phase, et
cetera, and X valve comp.,Speaker A: Sounds like you've got the
same bundle.,Speaker C: Yeah, but the thing is, I can't use any of
them.,: Why not?,Speaker A: You can't physically use them or they
won't work on your machine.,Speaker C: I don't think I can use them
because I think from memory, it was like it was just a
trial.,Speaker A: Yeah, well, you would have got the 30 day free
trial of this.,Speaker C: Possibly, yeah. In fact, I just clicked
on it, it says all visible licenses expired.,Speaker A: There you
go. Yeah.,: I've been also using the Plugin Alliance stuff, and the
main reason why I got Plugin Alliance was because having a HDX card
and Waves stopped doing HDX plugins, which are the DSP chip on the
Pro Tools cards. So the only ones that you could really get the low
latency on was Plugin Alliance. And I have to say, they have a lot
of really good stuff, especially their channel strip emulations of
various consoles. They have like an API and a Neve and an SSL, and
like every generation of SSL and every generation of or a few
generations of Neves and the Focus, right, and the AMIC 90, 98,
they have a pretty broad range of plugins and they're all easily
the same similar quality as the Wave stuff. I have to say, some
people I think actually think better, but it's really hard to know
when, like, oh, this emulation is better than that emulation. And
you're sitting there going like, I've never touched the real
thing.,Speaker C: Yes, exactly.,: I have no idea. Really? They
sound good.,Speaker C: Well, that's true, though, because everyone
that's got these buying plugins guarantee that 95%, if not more,
have never actually used the real thing.,Speaker A: Oh, sure, yeah,
totally.,Speaker C: So it's like you could basically sell them
anything.,: You just use the same EQ algorithm in all of them.
Yeah, exactly.,Speaker A: But you would have had to work in a lot
of rooms for anyone to have done that. Or be a Chris Lord Algie or
someone like that who mixes in different rooms. The average schlopp
like you and me, who works in a studio for a few years and then
moves to a different job. You certainly wouldn't have played with
all of them.,Speaker C: And then half the gear that you were
probably using, that was actually the original piece of equipment
that they were emulating was probably broken anyway or just getting
tired.,Speaker A: Well, that was part of the charm, though.,:
That's my good friend Jim Reeves, who mixed a lot of stuff I mean,
like, free ride and all kinds of stuff back in the day. And he was
joking, but I don't think so much. He was basically saying, like,
all these kids, they love the sound of analog. They're in love with
the sound of a tape deck that hasn't been aligned in three weeks
and its heads are worn out. That's what they think of analog,
because that's what we were working on in the studios. There were
cranking sessions out left and right. The decks were not
necessarily aligned every single time. There was a lot of yeah.,:
What people miss is the imperfections of analog. Yeah. They don't
miss improperly recorded audio. They just miss the imperfections
and the distortion. I mean, the thing that makes a neve preamp
sound like a neve or whatever is not that's right. It's accurate.
It's that it's not accurate.,: You can say the same thing for a
416.,Speaker C: Yeah, sorry.,: 41 six. That's the distortion that
makes it that edge.,: It's the color, it's the EQ curve, it's the
way it sounds compressed. All those things is what makes the mic
work.,Speaker C: It's funny. I'm sure that we've all been down this
track before, but when it's your turn to clean the heads on the
reel to reel and you realize that no one has cleaned them for so
long, you got the cotton bud, and it's like it's black. You go like
what?,: You go through, like, ten swabs. You're like,
really?,Speaker A: What do you mean, your turn? It was my job every
friggin morning.,: That's exactly what Jim was saying.,Speaker C:
Yeah, well, I tell you what. In the studios, the on air studios, no
one did it.,Speaker A: I can imagine. Too busy smoking a joint to
clean the heads.,Speaker C: Yeah, that's right.,: Blowing the smoke
right onto the head.,Speaker A: Yeah, that's right.,Speaker C: And
through the mic capsules and everything.,Speaker A: Sitting there
smoking a siggy while you got the razor blade and the splicing
block out. Yeah, totally.,Speaker C: Exactly. But that's true,
though. It's the imperfection that everyone tries to emulate. But
the thing is, the imperfection was different on every single
unit.,: Well, that's where it's funny, because literally one of the
patented things, or whatever that plugin alliance has is this thing
called I can't remember it, but basically, when you throw down the
plugins, if you throw down 20 SSL plugins on your daw, all 20 will
be different.,Speaker C: Oh, really?,: Because no channel in real
life, no channel on that board is identical.,Speaker C: Yeah,
exactly.,: You all knew that there's like some channels that had
the red tape on it and some had the they have the same thing where
they vary the performance of the plugins themselves so that you get
that same chaotic variation across your daw.,Speaker C: Yeah,
because I mean, if you're looking at a huge console, there's all
sorts of things coming to play. One of the main things probably is
heat.,: Well, like, the channel is closer to the power supply on.
Correct. Like, I have a four channel mic preamp and the channel
closest to the power supply is a little bit noisier than the other
two.,Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Well, there you go. Plugins.,Speaker
A: Hey, plug in, baby.,: Yeah, plugins.,: Plug me in, baby.,Speaker
B: Well, that was fun. Is it over?,: The Pro audio suite with
thanks to Tribut and Austrian audio recorded using Source Connect,
edited by Andrew Peters and mixed by Robo Got your own audio
issues? Just askrobo.com tech support from George thetech Wittam.
Don't forget to subscribe to the show and join in the conversation
on our Facebook group. To leave a comment, suggest a topic or just
say g'day. Drop us a note at our website.,Speaker B: The Pro audio
suite.com.