Audio Geek Zine

This is a repost of a forum post from veteran PT user Shane J who has just lost an NS-10 tweeter due to a dangerous bug in Pro Tools 8. This bug has affected users of LE, HD, M-Powered on both PC and Macs mostly with 8.0.3 but goes back further. Fortunately for me I haven’t yet seen this issue on my system or others I’ve worked on, though I have encountered several other bugs, nothing that would be considered a health risk like this one.

Please read the post below and have a look at the thread on the DUC.

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Attention Avid, this is 8.0.3 in XP downloaded off of your website. Pick up your damn phone!! You owe me an NS-10 tweeter and I’m pretty pissed right now!

Not only does this junk release blow monitors, it’s extremely dangerous to people’s ears and hearing! YOU are responsible and liable for this. I suggest you pull it from the website with a warning to current users ASAP.

…and don’t even dare ask me for a Sandra report or if I’m running an “approved” system.

This extremely dangerous issue has been going on for literally years. It has been reported on HD, LE and M-powered on both PC and Mac:

• Random Blasts of White Noisec – HD Mac
• Just blew out my guitarist ears!!!! – LE Mac
• white noise bursts - HD Mac
• Burst of White Noise – HD PC
• That aggravating white noise!!!!! – LE PC
• Warning:go back to 8.01 – LE PC
• a choir & gospel music…it was nuthin but loud!!!- LE PC
• Sudden Static White Noise – LE Mac
• Random (intermitent) bursts of static during playback – M-Powered Mac
• Weird white noise problem ..help !!! – HD Mac
• Loud white noise when i try and record! - LE Mac
• Random Bursts of LOUD White Noise - LE PC
• Serious problems with freakishly loud white noise! – LE Mac
• Sick of the White Noise Shock!!!! - LE Mac
• White noise and the 9073 - LE PC
• LOUD Audio white noise? – LE Mac
• White noise blast from MBox2 - LE Mac
• White noise “bursts” during playback - HD PC
• Crazy White Noise When Record Enabled PT8 00R - LE PC
• White noise problem.. 8.0.3! Urgent.. - LE PC
• Blasts of white noise – LE PC
• White Noise on the MBOX 2 mini - LE Mac
• Getting a random nasty sound during recording and playback? – LE PC
• White noise – LE PC
• Mbox White noise (((( – LE Mac
• Random Blasts of White Noise – LE PC
• Attention Avid Audio – LE PC
• PT 8 White Noise Bursts during playback!- LE PC

I’ll end the tabulated list here as it’s very far from complete and it goes back many many years.

Avid Audio, what is it going to take for this to be top priority? Hearing damage on your customers and their clientele?

This warning has been published to 40,000+ subscribers. I’d advise everyone using XP and 8.0.3 not to gamble with their ears and roll back to 8.0.1cs1 or 7.4.

Shane

I see this topic come up a lot, “what are the best free rtas plugins?” I’ve answered the question so many times but I’ve never addressed it on the site.
Below is my list of 10 (in no particular order) free 3rd party RTAS plugins I think everyone should have on their system. There are many more out there but these are the ones I use on a regular basis, they are useful and are stable.

1. Flux Bittersweet 2 – http://www.fluxhome.com/products/Freewares/bittersweet2
2. Flux Stereo Tool – http://www.fluxhome.com/products/Freewares/stereotool
3. Brainworx BX_Solo – http://www.brainworx-music.de/en/plugins/bx_solo
4. Brainworx BX_Cleansweep V2 – http://www.brainworx-music.de/en/plugins/bx_cleansweep_v2
5. TT Dynamic Range Meter – http://www.brainworx-music.de/en/downloadrequest
6. Massey Plugins demos – http://www.masseyplugins.com/ (download the demos) CT4, L2007, Tapehead & TD5 are excellent
7. Massey Tools (Mac only) – http://www.smassey.com/plugin.html
8. Studio Devil BVC guitar amp – http://www.studiodevil.com/download/downloadBVC.htm
9. Kontakt 4 player – http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/kontakt-player/
10. KORE 2 player – http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/kore-player

All plugins are RTAS compatible with Mac or PC except Massey Tools which is Mac only.
I hope you find the list useful.
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Yesterday Chuck Russom posted a recording of his 2006 lecture on Field Recording at the Game Developers Conference. He covers equipment, finding unique sounds, recording guns and exotic animals. It’s 45 minutes long but seemed to go by quickly and was entertaining. It was very cool to hear the same gun shots from different mics and placements. Plenty to learn from this lecture if you’re somewhat interested in field recording or sound recording for games, TV and film.

Listen to the lecture here: http://chuck-russom.blogspot.com/2010/03/gdc-2006-field-recording-lecture.html
There are some pictures near the bottom of the post that go along with his presentation.

Who is Chuck Russom?

Badass mofo Freelance Sound Designer and SFX Recordist.
Credits include a number of top game franchises including: God of War, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, James Bond, and others.

Chuck’s website is definitely worth following for anyone interested field recording, game audio, sound design. He often posts some of his interesting sound captures and goes into details of how it was recorded.

I’m starting to get interested in sound design & field recording and all the things that go along with it so expect more posts on those subjects (unless you don’t want me to post about those things, speak up!)

Tweetdump time again. A week worth of Twitter activity from @theaudiogeek.

theaudiogeek

• Quoting a chat with @sydneygalbraith – “projects without producers go nowhere, Schrodinger projects”
• @AbletonTutor http://gamingbolt.com/2010/03/05/amazing-god-of-war-3-footage/ Wilhelm @ 0:42
• @Obiwonder you have schizoptweetia. Who are you replying too!!???
• Just finished interviewing & chatting with @AbletonTutor for the next Home Recording Show podcast.
• I’m still on the fence about this idea, though I didn’t live with my parents before college. RT @gmgranka: http://trunc.it/63pra
• Looks like the best/only way I’ll get my Structure patch folder organized is to start from scratch and download them all again.
• Maybe I’ll go to the mall to buy fat pants
• My Saturday went from hectic to boring real quick. I might even get some chores done.
• Listening to Sonic Talk 167 http://www.sonicstate.com/sonictalk
• @chuck_russom I hope you’re not giving away some trade secrets with that one. [in response to:

  What do I do when I have a hard time making a sound? I scream the Fword and other obscenities over and over again until it is magically done]
• RT @chrisprotools: Pro Tools File Management Basics ~ A video series for new Pro Tools users: http://www.showmeprotools.com/
• RT @musformation: Gary Numan In Conversation With Music Machine http://bit.ly/aCujd2
• There’s not enough me to go around this week. Everyone wants a piece of this.
• Too true, I’ve given up trying to fight it. RT @sonicfedora: The myspace music player seemingly UNMIXES your mixes.
• @monkeypusher69 TBH if the artist cared enough they’d just use a better player with files hosted elsewhere.
• New episode of The Home Recording Show is up. Jesse records a resonator guitar and Ryan talks Vox Booths. http://bit.ly/9kdOvr
• New AGZ post: MoReVox new drum sample library bundles http://cli.gs/9rbJG
• New AGZ post: Getting “Further” with Outasight http://cli.gs/YZPAy
• RT @theDSPproject: Cool video on sample layout for drumming on a pad controller http://vimeo.com/9102030
• RT @AbletonTutor: RT @nordmach: A Minimalist approach to songwriting | MusicSoftwareTraining.com: http://bit.ly/aHxvt6
• New AGZ post: Weekly Tweetdump 20 http://cli.gs/n7ynQ

Our friends at MoReVox have recently announced some new product bundles.

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