Office Hours | Wednesday | May 13, 2026

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]We're doing another show. Hey, uh welcome to uh office hours uh the Wednesday audio edition. We've had a lively discussion pre-show.

[00:00:11]None of that is going to be uh on the air. Um I want to remind you cuz I always forget to say this later, but if you're just watching this on YouTube, you really should consider uh joining us behind the scenes. It's We'll talk about it more, but it's so much more fun. It's so much more fun. Uh, I'm not sure.

[00:00:32]Alexander, are you reading the questions?

[00:00:34]>> Yeah. First question coming up this morning is from TJ Asher in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Picked up AirPods Pro 3 and when enabling the noise cancellation, it seems to me that the bass is hugely boosted and the highs are cut. I don't hear this effect with other over-the-ear headphones with noise cancellation.

[00:00:52]Faulty pair or faulty design?

[00:00:56]>> That's a frightening question, TJ. Uh, Alexander, what do you think about this?

[00:01:00]>> Well, I don't have the latest model, which is the AirPods Pro 3, TJ, but I have the AirPods Pro 2, and I know what you're talking about. I don't think that's a faulty faulty uh uh product that you bought. I think it's just the design. Uh, the AirPods have never been known to be highfidelity uh noise cancelling headphones. Now, there that may be a byproduct of the noise cancellation as well. There's going to be some sacrifices with Fidelity, but there are other brands that have noise cancelling. You are absolutely right. And generally the larger over-the-ear headphones that have the bigger drivers, they've got more DSP.

[00:01:36]You know, they they may handle that a little bit better, but they don't you don't buy the AirPods Pro 3 for best sonic fidelity. You buy them because they're convenient. They have the seamless pairing and multiple, you know, the switching between multiple Apple devices and great noise cancellation, which it does have. But yes, I agree with you. The top end sound, the higher frequencies have always been a bit on the soft side for those. Wow. I couldn't disagree more. And now I don't have the threes either, but I'm I'm literally I'm I'm looking for an opportunity to accidentally leave these behind someplace and run to the store like, "Oh, I need to replace my AirPods." And I've heard I was having a conversation with somebody uh and they were I think it was Grant. Uh anyway, they it was on Zoom and they were using the AirPod 3.

[00:02:34]It was, you know, off not not during a show.

[00:02:38]And they sounded fantastic as a mic into Zoom. I got to say, I was like shocked as good as they sounded. And he said, "Oh yeah, the the threes are much better than the twos. You got to get the threes." So, and I it is my experience and I I have said that and again these are only the twos that this is the best consumer electronics device that I have purchased in the last quarter of a century.

[00:03:06]I think these are fantastic. Again, these are twos. So, uh but it's interesting. I think TJ it is I would take them back to the store and say I think these are faulty and explain it to them and see what and see what they have to say because um I I don't know what you described as you know like low fidelity. I think these are fantastic.

[00:03:33]>> Well, I think you and I have different standards cuz I've got like very expensive overthe-ear hi-fi headphones here in my collection that would just crush those headphones. But I think they're very expensive for what they are. And again, don't get me wrong, I think it's a good product, but I don't buy it for fidelity. Now, do they sound absolutely like junk? No, they don't.

[00:03:53]They're all right, but I wouldn't call them high fidelity.

[00:03:58]>> Yeah. Okay. It may be. I have I have old worn out ears. What do you think, Mickey? Do you think I have old worn out ears?

[00:04:06]>> I didn't raise my hand on this this question. Um I know what what your opinion I can say is uh um I I have uh read uh reviews that said that in terms of the the sound that the AirPods Pro 3 um deliver like the signature is quite different and certainly leans towards like you know more uh beats by Dre uh lowend heavy um uh what do you call this uh sound signature compared to the previous version? Well, now I'm nervous about going to get a pair. Anyway, let's uh Alexander, let's go to the next question.

[00:04:42]>> All right, this question is from me.

[00:04:44]Mickey, what are your top three choices for highquality lav mics? Assume no budgetary limit. If you have a number one favorite to please share that I'll just jump jump right in. Um >> Oh, I'm sorry.

[00:04:59]>> Uh I suck at this. I'm really >> having a host. Um yeah, so uh my top three um I actually only work with a limited number of models of of lavalers, but my top three would be number one would be uh sank and cost 11D. Um I like the cost 11D first of all because they are very robust in uh produ location sound world and I just want to preface of course that I mostly most of my usage of lavalers is uh recording for TV shows. um uh narrative films, documentaries, unscripted programming um and in that world we typically use in terms of lavalers omniirectional lavalers. Um but yeah going back to sank and cost 11 u I like them. First reason is uh they're very robust in in our uh world of production especially with unscripted programming uh reality shows documentaries levelers are often considered considered as expendables you know uh you're in uncontrolled environments people are running around you know in competitions or or um uh or or in say even like in being chased the by the police which I've been in some streets that have had that um you you can't control what goes on and some a lot of the lavalers a lot of times lavalers just break a couple on reality shows we get a couple of dead labs every week um cost 11s in terms of their construction and their their cabling very robust. Um, another reason why I like them is because they cut very well um, with uh, the Sennheiser MKH family of microphones, MKH416, MKH50, MKH6070.

[00:06:49]Um, of course the 8060, 8050 uh, um, line as well. They cut very well with those with those mics. So, if you're using those on your those mics on your boom, you your post-production uh team, your post sound team will have a much easier time cutting between them and mixing between them. Uh they will flow a lot smoother. In terms of like actual uh sound signature, fidelity, like the the the quality of the sound capture, my very favorite is the DPA 46D. Um they are a lot um more expensive than the cost 11D. Cost 11D is about I believe 400 US uh per per mic. DPAs are in the 67800 range. But the 4060 sounds very natural. They cut very well with of course the DPA boom mics as well as um the Sheps uh uh CET and the um the uh MK-41 capsule. They cut very well with those. Um, so again, makes it easier to go between boom lav boom lav whenever you have to push a little lav in the mix. Um, but they're certainly pricier.

[00:08:02]Um, and then lastly, I really like the Countryman B6. They are extremely tiny capsules. If uh take a look at this photo here, extremely tiny capsules, so they they end up being um problem solvers for us. Like just going back to this photo here, you can like hide them like right underneath a button just in hidden in plain sight. And a lot of times like no one will even notice even your your DP or your cam up won't like I see the lab now. That it that happens very rarely with B6s. Um so those are good problem solvers for for us. Um, but in terms of my favorite, um, I'd say I I think like the the the cost 11 would be my favorite cuz, you know, good value. They last a long time and they they sound really good.

[00:08:57]So Mickey, there's a whole bunch of stuff coming up in the chat about the DPAs, the MK2 guy Cochran saying that you can get 850 bucks for the DPA, a whole bunch of stuff.

[00:09:13]Uh I can't I can't get through all these words. There's a whole lot of words. The 4060 is a great wig mic.

[00:09:21]Anyway, there's a great video on the YouTube about uh where Adam Savage, we've talked about this before, he went backstage at the I think it was a Hamilton show when it was in San Francisco and he spent a whole bunch of time with the audio team. Uh but you know, there's a million ways to use a loft. Sometimes it's just a somebody sitting on a set and sometimes you got to hide it and all that. Let's go to the next question from JJ McKenna in Scabo, California. Is your Foley library all custom collected or are there free libraries available?

[00:09:56]The Da Vinci library is pretty small.

[00:10:00]>> Mr. Cohen.

[00:10:02]>> Yeah, it it's it was surprisingly limited actually, but there's some decent things in there. Uh, one of the things I do every now and then is uh let me make sure you guys can see this. Yes.

[00:10:15]is a lot of these companies that have uh you know the stock media companies um will will do these uh blog posts and you know they're they're teasers, it's advertising, it's promo, but they genuinely give away um big libraries of free stuff including Foley. So uh here's an example of um and by the way these are all licensed for personal and commercial.

[00:10:44]This one is just uh sound effects for trailers. Uh this is from uh Premium Beat and it's a Shuttertock company. Um here's another one just of explosions and they're downloadable uh MP3s if I'm not mistaken. Uh Shuttertock also has these. Here's 50 cooking kitchen sound effects. And don't let these YouTube videos deceive you. It's not YouTube. It is a downloadable set of files. Um here is pawn five has uh 30 horror sound effects and um let me see if I can give you just a little tease here is uh this is one of these premium beats. Uh let's see if you'll be able to hear this >> haunted house LP.

[00:11:36]>> No haunted house. Let's see. Did you guys ever have that >> sounds like fake in the morning?

[00:11:50]>> So that's how sound effects work. So there's lots of these and I'm happy to share links if anyone wants some to start off with, but just I would say keep an eye on some of these sites and they always have these downloadable packs.

[00:12:02]>> Mickey sound effects, what do I do? Um yeah, just going specifically to how uh to JJ's question, how how it's written out. Foley by definition um cannot be uh stored in the library. Foley is meant to be performed live to picture. Um once it's in the library, then you could call that sound effects. That that's that's my actually nerd um uh um definition. Well, actually uh but but but yeah, Foley um when you speak to someone working post-production sound, Foley has to be performed live. You do not pre-record it. You do not uh um you know pick a sound from a library and cut it in. You have it has to be performed live. Now in terms of sound effects libraries, um majority of u my library is certainly uh purchased libraries. Uh there are a couple of like uh free sample packs from the um the companies that sell sound effects libraries, but they're the the the the options the choices are very very limited. Um so it's just like a hey, here's a free taste. Come back and give me give us money if you want an actual a real library. Um but but yeah like uh you you you would want to start by building up a library from actual purchase um libraries that you have the license to use and then uh whenever you get a chance try to allocate budget per project uh coming again coming from a post-production sound point of view um I I try to allocate some budget for us to go out and gather effects uh fresh there's nothing like fresh like and uh uh unused uh material to put in your project. That really like it it it ends up being very uh hearing that mixed in.

[00:13:57]You you get uh um it just like imagine cutting cutting a film just with stock footage. That's that's not how how you build a film. I think of it that way. Um, it it's nice to be able to build things with with fresh material and and uh be able to really like cater what you're gathering for what you're trying to uh design, what what you're trying to cut. Um, so every every project, a narrative project, we do go out and gather a little bit of something something that's key to the story line, you know. Um, we had a a project of over 10 years ago that involved a lot of church bells and we were able to travel a little bit around the um the Philippines and gather church bell sounds.

[00:14:48]>> That's cool.

[00:14:49]>> I wish I I wish we had like we only had I think 3 days to do it. Um but I wish we had you know two weeks, three weeks some whole month to do it, but just having like fresh material that's like unique. Um it's it's really fun to be able to work with that.

[00:15:04]>> That's really an interesting project.

[00:15:06]Uh, so a couple of things I use, um, I'll I'll use like, and thank you for the nerd description of Foley versus sound effects. Uh, there have been times where I've literally just put a mic on my desk. One time I was doing something with a bunch of like sliding elements like and I put I took like you know just something and I just you I was just sliding something across the desk and I did a few of them and it and it really helped. I also want to point a little bit of a uh uh Marquez Brownley has a second YouTube channel that I just discovered yesterday and it's called the studio and it's a place where he lets his production team go off the rails and it's fantastic. Um it's really really good. They did a they I watched a video yesterday. It was about 45 minutes long and it was how they make a a Marquez Brownley video and the team is the team is very good, very talented, very capable. Um, I got absolutely fascinated with his lead editor. Her name is Mariah Zen. I want to make her a star trying to get her to be on my Final Cut show. She also edits in Final Cut, but um they did a whole thing about sound effects and the the sound design guy was talking about um and I found this interesting. There was a thing where there was like a lightning like a like a an effect and he said, "Listen, millions of us," and he's probably I don't know what generation he'd be, but he's probably in his like early 30s. He goes, "Millions of us grew up watching the Disney Channel." He didn't say the Disney Channel, but he referred to it as something. and he showed a clip from the Disney Channel and he says that is a road flare and something else combined together. So when we had to do something like that, I went with you know what people of my generation would recognize and and identify with. Um, I also wanted to point out and I I don't know why people want to use um uh the the thing you talked about, the software you talked about, but in a Final Cut, and this is a feature I want to show that I just discovered not that long ago. When you go under the uh photos and sound effects section, there's this little hidden menu up here, and you click on this, and it sorts your sound effects. And I recently bought a sound effect library from uh one of the YouTube kids and it and it showed up down here. And when I click on that, it just it limits my my descript my uh um selection to his sound effect library.

[00:18:00]So just don't forget there's this whole other, you know, little thing up here.

[00:18:05]Uh learn your software. Let's go to the next question.

[00:18:09]All right, this next question is coming in from TJ Asher in Min Minneapolis, Minnesota.

[00:18:16]Speaking of noiseancelling headphones, how does that really work? Is it just beaming the opposite of the waveform into my ears? Does it help with hearing protection if worn in loud environments, or is it damaging my hearing by also being loud?

[00:18:31]Marty, without going into all the science, give us a brief description of how noise cancelling works.

[00:18:39]>> Well, sure. So, noise cancelling headphones and and even earbuds, there are two mechanisms involved. The first one is um physical or mechanical isolation with the cups around your headphones just like Chris is wearing.

[00:18:54]Blocks out a certain amount of sound.

[00:18:57]And then um using microphones that are built in, they flip the polarity and uh uh pump that same noise back into the headphones. So it it cancels out in terms of uh uh polarity phase phase cancellation is what it's using. Um however, depending on the device you're using, they can only get so loud.

[00:19:25]uh the little amplifiers in there are not terribly loud. So depending on the environment that you're in, you know, if you're in a in a an airplane with noisy engines, you know, that's not terribly loud. It's just annoying and they can handle that. But if you're at a concert or or a ball game or something like that or in a construction zone, um the noise cancelling isn't really capable of getting loud enough to completely cancel that out because it has to be at the same volume. Um and so no, but uh in terms of the hearing damage question, the whole point of it is to reduce the amount of noise getting into your ears. Um, and so I don't think that uh it could cause damage uh hearing loss damage because it the purpose of it is to reduce the amount of noise you're hearing.

[00:20:22]>> That is an interesting angle though.

[00:20:24]I've thought about that too because that noise cancelling is listening to the ambience, inverting it, and blasting it into your ears. The perception is that it's quieter, but is it just loud quiet?

[00:20:36]That's an interesting question. Um, uh, Jeff, what's your thoughts?

[00:20:42]>> The one other thing that, uh, years ago made me choose actually the Beats, uh, over the ears with active noise cancelling is at the time, and if I'm remembering this correctly, so what they do, actually, I'll show this uh, little video real quick, just I'm I'm a visual person to see exactly that that kind of inverse wave thing going on. But one of the other things they do is another round, this is all happening real time, is they'll take whatever you're listening to, they'll they'll do the um or sorry, the inverse of what's going on outside, but then they also resample what you're listening to and filter that out and make sure you're getting more of that. So that's all happening however many times a second. So it was that little extra edge that worked. And one thing with uh iPhone at least is now built into um the OS you have and I'm forgetting what it's called. I didn't get a chance to look up the name, but you can turn on just this uh there's a couple built-in sounds like just white noise, I I think rain, some other things that is not even playing music. It's uh it may even be under the accessibility. And you can just turn that on if in the background while you're listening to something or just play that. So sometimes if I'm just sitting here and I don't want to listen to something, but if cuz I have construction going on outside, if I just want to filter that out, as long as you're playing something and it doesn't even have to be that loud, that is enough to trigger all that stuff to happen to really filter it out the outside noise really, really well.

[00:22:24]All right. So, I I mentioned this earlier, and if you uh if you're just watching this on YouTube, it's really like watching half the show. So, I want to recommend that everybody should go to office hours.global/join.

[00:22:43]You go there, you you can download the Mukana app that we use. It's I guess it's technically a web page, but anyway, the Mukana link that we use and that's how we ask questions. There is a behind the-scenes chat where people are talking about, oh, Fenwick doesn't know what he's doing. He should be should be saying this and it's just it makes the show so much more deep and you can you can join us live. Also, um we got this little QR code and if you want to ask a question like really quick, use this QR code. I guess I could use this hand.

[00:23:19]That works better. Use the QR code and it's a quick way from your phone that you can, you know, ask a question if you don't want to go through the whole Mukana thing. So, think about doing that. Anyway, let's go to the next question.

[00:23:35]This question is coming in from Douglas Carmichael. The Noman MT48 has a USBC interface and the merging Anubis doesn't. For a mobile setup built to run a MacBook Pro, would the MT48 still be best?

[00:23:50]>> Well, Alexander, what do you think?

[00:23:52]>> Well, my question to you, Douglas, is would it be best in comparison to what?

[00:23:56]So, uh, you know, what are you actually using this for? If you just need an audio interface with DSP, certainly the MT48 is going to be a great option because, like you said, it has that USB audio interface. It also has digital IO as well, so you can feed other stuff into that other than just say a couple of mic input on uh on that thing. You've got uh you've got ADA uh digital IO on there as well. Uh, of course, there are other competitive products uh in that price range. You can look at the Universal Audio Apollo line. And I would say that the Apollo line's probably more flexible because they have a much better rep deposit or repository of plugins uh that you can buy. They come with a ton of free plugins, but they have a great uh solution for that kind of thing. You can run emulations for all sorts of famous mic preamps from Manley to Neve uh to others as well as emulations for very famous uh studio classics such as an LA2A compressor, Ptech EQ, all that sort of stuff. But they also have specialized processing plugins, too.

[00:25:00]They have a a sea suite of plugins that are built around the uh the Cedar noise reduction uh platform as well. So they have a whole bunch of stuff on there.

[00:25:10]The Apollo Solo is the cheapest in that product lineup, but I don't recommend the Solo just because of the limited processing power, single core processor.

[00:25:18]So I would start at something like the Twin X if you are looking at that or maybe even the quad core if you need a little bit more headroom for processing power. But if you have any comments in the chat, if you are in Makana chat, I would recommend letting us know exactly what you need this for.

[00:25:33]>> Mickey, >> yeah, I I'd say that if all you're interfacing with is uh is the laptop, then go with the one with USBC um which is the the Noman version. Um but if you are going to integrate with uh uh a Ravena network as ASU67 2110 Dante network then either of them will will work because they they both have uh network interfaces.

[00:26:02]Before we go on I want to make a another announcement for everybody here and anybody listening live in a half hour when when this show is over and back in team I'm going to try and be done on time. Uh um when this show is over, I want to highly encourage all of us to go over to after hours because our own Vienna TR will who is traveling right now with um Aaron Hustlage, they are arriving in Hurricane, Utah at um Kenan and Jen's house where Kenan has pulled the John PTO rocket out of storage because Vienna really wanted to see John's rocket first f first hand and they are going to be sharing all of that in after hours. Uh, is that what we call that? Yeah, after hours. After the show.

[00:26:52]So, please join us. It'll be fun. It'll be lowkey. So, if you're if you don't feel like you have, you know, enough camera to be on the real show, come hang out with us in after hours. It's going to be fun to chat with Vienna. Uh, let's go to the next question. This question comes in from Josh Kaufman in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For reliable NDI audio between PCs on the same LAN, what are the must check physical requirements and access manager settings, including nick choice, discovery, multiccast, and groups, etc. >> I can just see the thumbnail right now.

[00:27:25]Top five NDI things you can't miss, Marty.

[00:27:30]>> Absolutely. Yeah. And and there have been several blog posts about this. I think Elias has done a bunch. Um and there's a lot of um documentation on the NDI website as well about um not physical requirements but network configuration requirements and you did hit on uh quite a few of the most important ones. Um, you want to depending on the size of your network, how many devices uh you have going um you know there's uh um the discovery server and multiccast, you want to make sure that uh multiccast uh is enabled and you've got a query on one switch or router. um groupings. Uh if you have a lot of devices and they're in various different places in a facility, you might want to use groupings. Um, mostly you want to make sure that you have your uh address uh if you're using DHCP, you want to make sure that you have uh your range set that so that it won't interfere with any uh static address devices that you have. I had that at one facility with a mix of static addresses and dedicated uh and DHCP automatic addresses.

[00:29:03]If a device with a static address isn't turned on and a device with an automatic address goes to grab one, it could grab the same address and then you've got conflicts. So, make sure that your addressing is uh properly categor categored. And um um let's see um Mickey may have some additional guidance.

[00:29:26]>> Yeah, Mickey, what's up?

[00:29:29]>> Yeah. Um in general, NDI is uh quite um uh accepting in terms of all sorts of uh networking uh uh configurations uh primarily because it's not um uh it it's there it's a lot more loose in terms of timing. So it can operate within all sorts of networks. Um of course there are prerequisites for it. Um and the uh the NDI white papers document it quite uh uh quite intensively in terms of uh what you need especially if you go in and uh utilize multiccast most standard NDI connections are just uniccast connections or uniccast transmissions but if you dive into the multiccast world that's where you want more management of the network traffic um snooping and what Marty you said you need to have an IGMP quer in your network. Um, in terms specifically with the access manager, all those settings really vary from from network to network and use case to use case. Are you trying to limit access uh between different uh um uh say machines in the in the in the network? Are you trying to go from uh say if you have one transmitter that needs to go to a 100 different uh endpoints, that's where um you would want to like enable multiccast. Um do you want to divide up um a a uh some sources between multiple essentially like virtual uh distribution amplifiers, multiple DAS so that you're not overloading a single system. Um, that's where you you want to dive into access manager and build this the system the act the your NDI access manager depending on what the specific use case is.

[00:31:26]All right, let's go to the next question.

[00:31:29]>> This one's coming in from Fun Dory in Dar Mashallah. Uh, greetings. Which graphic software is used for swimming competition? And there's a link to a YouTube video there.

[00:31:41]Yeah. So, the YouTube video he is showing is this thing. And I got to say, looks totally cool. I could see uh what team they're on, who they are, their time, the position, and I love the fact that it's all lined up in the thing. I think what you're going to find out is that this is, you know, highly specialized stuff. I think that our friends at Ross does stuff like this where they do a lot of virtual overlays where it matches the uh the field and the in this case the pool. Uh what's your thought Mickey? What what do you think it is?

[00:32:15]>> Yeah, I would say like in terms of like at the broadcast uh quality level um I would certainly take a look at uh Ross Expression. This is their uh graphics uh engine uh that allows you to do all sorts of different types of of live graphics uh rendering. Um the thing though with the with the sample that uh the example that fun sent us uh the camera that that actually has the graphics appear in it, it's just a static camera. um with uh wi with if you want to be able to do this with moving cameras, then you would need a system that has camera tracking. That's where Ross Voyager uh system comes in. Uh it it enables you to put to place graphics in in a uh 3D space that is tied in with camera tracking. So, you know, you'd see this in like a NFL broadcast where they have cameras that are moving and the graphics that seem to be placed uh in a uh stationary place within the the venue. Um, but since this is like just um if you're only aiming to do a uh to do this type of graphic graphics with a static camera, there are a lot of uh um I guess uh other more cost effective ways to do this with things like uh say even uh V-Mix if you transform the the graphics layer or even OBS transform it and place them specifically. Of course, you'd have to build the positioning um uh every time you re reframe the camera, but if during the broadcast, the camera doesn't move and that's fine with you. Like playing around with the transformer of your graphics engine will allow you to get that done. Complication only comes when you have to track.

[00:34:08]>> That is absolutely correct. Um lost my Oh, Alexander, what's your thought?

[00:34:12]There was so phon posted this in our discord office hours community uh under the channel here to record which is H2R graphics and Mark Brighton responded saying Chris Sabado is doing that in V-Mix I guess with H2R graphics. So >> yeah, there we go. Good idea. All right, let's go to the next question.

[00:34:34]>> Next question coming up is from David Brady in New York City, New York. I'm still using loud lab sound for my virtual incomputer mixer and it works well. It has the ability to create buses, but I'm uncertain what the use case would be. Any insight or enlightenment is appreciated.

[00:34:51]Mr. Brady, that's a weird question to be asking. You're asking about the use case and you're actually using it. So, uh, Marty, what's your thought? Why do you think this software was created? Well, it's a Loud Labs is a u a virtual mixer that we use on our desktop computers that's really handy when we're doing um teleconference work like working on Zoom meetings and other sorts. Um because there are signals that we want to route to different places. Um I have uh one bus that's being fed to my in-ear monitors. Um, I have a a different bus, a different mix that's going to my uh loudspeakers and a different mix that you're hearing. Um, and that allows me the flexibility to be able to adjust, you know, things differently for different uh destinations, very similar to what we would do for standard, you know, in a standard audio mixer uh for uh floor monitors and for broadcast and for for front of house and such. Um just thinking about the you different uh things that you want different places to to hear or uh either a selection of sources or perhaps different levels. Um, I have uh in my in my ears I'm listening to a different mix of levels for uh my microphone for side tone and for what I'm hearing uh from the teleconference and anything that I might be playing back as a source that I would want you to hear. So uh these are these are different uses for buses.

[00:36:34]>> Um Mr. Cohen.

[00:36:37]>> Yeah, precisely uh how I use it. One thing I'll add though is, you know, there's there's two different ways you can you can use it. Now, started in he he introduced this a as Mac OS did um last year uh as of Mac OS 14.5, which changed the way it worked and let audio applications um grab audio from specific audio applications. So, if you're using the the traditional or or older setup, which is you're using their all-in-one device, you're using this matrix that I'm showing on screen where you determine which apps go to which channels or which channel strips in the mixer. That's how it was. And then he introduced this this new way of grabbing the audio where you can add individual applications to the all-in-one mix. And then each channel is a separate app. I I will say I tried that when it was first introduced and while it was supposed to be actually more system efficient, it was uh producing way more overhead. So I reverted back and frankly I haven't gone back to try it again. But with that in mind, that that really can change how you're mixing and and when you go per app, per channel, then that does make it a little bit more complex, but more granular control. But then ultimately, and he he does talk about some of the documentation is is kind of hard to find and and um still not well documented, but he does go through the setup of these buses. And then ultimately depending on how you have the channel strips or the channels set up determines but ultimately I do exactly as Marty described which is for Zoom and other things I have mixes of what I'm getting what I'm sending and then a separate one for what I want to record which I set up as that bus.

[00:38:41]So help me out here because you said something that kind of blew my mind.

[00:38:44]You're saying that they have loud labs has chain has a new feature that is bu building on something that the Mac OS did that allows LoudLabs to say I want this fader to just be my QuickTime output. I want this one to just be my Safari output that they're doing that internally now.

[00:39:04]Correct. Based on the functionality provided by Mac OS and it does not require the app to have any awareness of where it's sending audio. Wow, that's really cool because I did I I think I've described it enough. Uh I had, you know, I'm just realizing I'm stepping through a slide deck here on another screen, so that's why my face is flashing. But I built um massive uh aggregate audio devices in loop back that had that were super complicated. So that might simplify things uh quite a bit. Um, let's go to the next question.

[00:39:46]>> All right, this one is from Ros McNelte in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

[00:39:49]My 5-year-old mini pod speaker for my kitchen has died. Should I buy another one or have it fixed?

[00:39:56]>> Buy a new one. Alexander, what's your thoughts?

[00:39:58]>> Absolutely not worth fixing because first of all, to pay a technician $100 an hour to fix something that was not expensive to begin with, those are throwaway devices. Usually manufacturers don't don't uh don't bother repairing those. Um, but I'm I'm assuming you're talking about the Apple HomePod, if that's what you're talking about. They never sounded that fantastic in the first place. And I'm on a lifelong mission to try to convince people to >> better speakers. Stop playing music through you realize the music if you're using this for for music and I hope you aren't Roz you are playing back music in mono and producers and mixers and all the talented people that make that music are >> spending hours hours crafting beautiful stereo imaged music and you're playing it back folded down into mono where it is utterly lifeless. So listen, please buy a pair of bookshelf stereo speakers and a decent amplifier and please reach out to me. I can tell you where in Vancouver to go. That's some I can I can I can suggest something that is going to be affordable but is going to be a thousand times better than this thing.

[00:41:15]>> I have so much to say. Go ahead, Mickey.

[00:41:20]>> Yeah, I wasn't going to answer, but I I just have to support what uh Alex said there. like um it's they they really really don't sound good. Like I don't know why people like suffer with listening to HomePods. Like I would uh I wish I could pull out my like I if you guys are familiar with the Fostex, let me Google that. Fostex uh 631 like here like like get one of these like if you're on a budget get one first and then you know couple weeks later couple months later get another one so you have a stereo system. Um like even these like what in the production world we just use as utility speakers sound lightyear is better than some like those those Apple HomePods. Um and if you want something that's a bit more like oh stylish doesn't look too utilitarian like even audio engine sounds better than that those and audio engine is considered like um a snake oil like a consumer snake oil speakers but even those sound better than HomePods.

[00:42:27]So don't stop suffering with HomePods.

[00:42:29]Um, you can buy if you want to have AirPlay capability, uh, I believe like companies like UG Green have like little really really affordable receivers that have mini uh, mini jack outputs and you can AirPlay to them so you can turn any speaker into an AirPlay speaker. Um, but yeah, like I ditch the HomePods, get better sounding speakers.

[00:42:52]Ros, these guys are snobs. their audio sound.

[00:42:57]No, listen, I agree. Music sounds better on better speakers. It absolutely does.

[00:43:02]But I think that we in this room, we suffer from being the what I would call the lunatic fringe of the bell curve of consumerism. Like literally the the just the insanity at the very end. And I don't disagree with what you're saying, but let me tell you how I disagree with what you're saying. uh my family who I love and adore. I cannot tell you how many times I have come home and they are dancing around the living room in the kitchen and they're listening to iHeart Radio 80s rock and roll mix whatever and they're listening on this thing at full volume and they are the happiest people on the planet. Not everything has to be high fidelity. I disagree and I I got them one of the Apple and they're like, "Oh, I can't be bothered with all that. I can't." They They just can't be bothered. They are perfectly happy with this thing. And I didn't even buy this thing. This was a gift from somebody who I think wants to spy on me, but they just love that thing. They just say, "Play iHeart Radio, whatever." And it's we are the lunatic fringe. Let's go to the before Alexander has a heart attack.

[00:44:21]Let's go to the next question.

[00:44:22]>> You know, I I I gotta I gotta leave. I can't I can't do the show anymore.

[00:44:26]>> We're leaving.

[00:44:27]>> Um yeah, see you. Someone take over. Uh this next next question is uh >> I'm sorry we're skipping over people.

[00:44:34]We're running out of time. Next question.

[00:44:36]>> Jack Cannon in Phoenix, Arizona. I don't hear much about Wirecast on office hours. How does it compare to Memo Live for folks who want to s who want to software switch on the Mac?

[00:44:46]Alexander.

[00:44:48]>> So, I don't have personal firsthand experience with Wirecast, but I hear it's really good. In fact, Jack, I would recommend if you are part of our office hours discord community, you should really reach out to James Haldane in Vancouver, Canada. He's probably here in the chat uh because he is a Wirecast user and I know he loves it and he does a lot of production with it. And I believe the newest version of Wirecast now has integration with the Zoom SDK so you can pull ISO feeds from it. So it's come a long way. I know some certain individuals who had who who will remain nameless who had bad experiences with Wirecast, you know, a decade ago. A lot has come, you know, 10 years is a long time for software to evolve. So I'm I'm sure it's it's pretty good by now, but I would talk to people who actually use it. And uh James Haldane's the guy to talk to. And I'll tell you, Jack, depending on what you're doing, I am on a mission to convert all of these ATM users into OBS users. It is my It is my mission in life. Get rid of the hardware. Go software. Yay. Software.

[00:45:53]Next question, please. All right. JJ McKenna in Scabo, California. Whatever happened to that company that appeared on office hours a few years ago, audio design desk with CEO Gabriel Cowan? Are they still around and or is there a replacement interface?

[00:46:08]>> So, our geniuses in the back end have left us a note that says the company seems to have disappeared. So much for the >> I did. Yeah, I I can't find any trace of it. I I tried to find the original domain name and it goes nowhere. And I checked to see if there was a press release saying what happened to that company and I just can't find any trace that it exists anymore.

[00:46:28]>> Uh uh let's go to the next question.

[00:46:31]What is this? Uh, this one coming up next is from Josh Kaufman in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What software solutions to bridge control of loop back audio on a Mac to a stream deck or MIDI controller?

[00:46:45]Uh, I mean, it's pretty simple. Uh, loop Oh, no. Loop back audio. No, I don't know that there's much you can do uh to to be honest. Jeeoff, do you do you have any ideas? Yeah, depending on what you're trying to do. I mean, you can configure custom hotkeys in loop back which you can assign to buttons in Stream Deck. So, you can configure buttons to do the hotkey. Now, uh you may need to try and throw in depending on what you're doing uh an additional step to make that active. So, I think that may be one issue is is then you have to make that a you know loop back active to respond to the hotkey.

[00:47:24]I'm not sure if if loop back grabs global hotkeys. Um if you can um and I didn't have a chance to check. I don't know if Chris knows if you can assign MIDI, but you can map and that's how I was actually telling Chris is he has a video for uh loop back actually that that talks about some of the hidden MIDI functionality which is very cool for you for ultimately assigning mapping and you can map there's plugins for stream deck to map MIDI. Hm. I know that I use MIDI with the uh the the audio mixer, the loud labs that we were talking about earlier. I don't think you're going to use I don't I don't know that you can MIDI. It's an interesting question. And ultimate Josh, we don't know anything.

[00:48:08]Uh let's go to the next one. Maybe we'll do better at that one.

[00:48:11]>> JJ McKenna and Skibo, California asks, "What are your top three favorite oral experience films?"

[00:48:18]>> Well, Mickey raised his hand, so we're going to do much better on this one.

[00:48:20]Mickey, answer. I don't know um if this is my my top three, but it's certainly what um came to my mind first uh when I read the question 20 seconds ago. Um number one for me would be uh the conversation uh Francis Ford Copala 1970 something um film. Yeah, that's definitely like um there's a lot of like uh working with uh um uh psycho acoustics like your your >> I love the scene where he is editing between the the the multiple realtore machines and he and like every key press that he does makes sense. every click click it as an editor. It's like I totally understand what he's doing. It's so such a fun movie.

[00:49:12]>> It's like the the folks that that made the film knew knew how to how films are made.

[00:49:17]>> Zoe, I think, right?

[00:49:19]>> The um uh what do you call this? Another one. Um because you asked earlier about Foley uh JJ uh No Country for Old Men.

[00:49:28]um westerns in in general like uh sound design, foley backgrounds. Um uh but specifically Foley wise like No Country for Old Men like it really it's like that's uh that's my inspiration like when I'm doing Foley I just think through how good they exe executed Foley in that on that film. Um uh other oral experienced films, animated films, uh Brave, Pixar uh stuff always good, How to Train a Dragon um in terms of the the DreamWork side of things. But Brave, I believe, was the first uh or one of the first Atmos films uh released and they they didn't hold back when they when they mix the Brave and Atmos. So, that's something to to watch.

[00:50:16]Uh, Alexander, quickly, we're running out of time.

[00:50:19]>> Yeah, too many to list, but I will say one thing I'm looking forward to because I hear great things. Master and Commander has had a great track record for a movie that has a great uh great sound and the new 4K, which I've I've just ordered the 4K Blu-ray, has a revised uh a revised multi- channelannel soundtrack. And I just last week finished wiring up my downfiring speaker. So, now I have a working Atmos multi- channelannel system. So, I am looking forward to testing that thing.

[00:50:47]>> You're the guy. You're the guy who's still buying Blu-ray. Awesome. So, actually, I think probably a lot of people do. Um, if you are enjoying Office Hours, if you've enjoyed it for uh uh years now, and you'd like to volunteer or donate, I want you to remember that office hours. Global is a 501c3. And if you want to volunteer to help produce the show, you can go to office hours. Volunteer. And if you want to support the show, maybe throw a few extra bucks. It does cost money to buy buy all these Zoom accounts and whatnot and you know, etc., you can go to office hours.global slashdonate. Alexander, what's the next question?

[00:51:29]All right, next one's coming up from Paul Vus in Austin, Texas. Roadcaster Studio is pitching edit like a word dock with automatic um and uh removal. Has anyone tried the beta on a real episode?

[00:51:41]>> Mr. only because no one else jumped in. I will say while I haven't tried that, I saw that you know what they're trying to recreate is functionality that's been around for a while now in platforms like Dcript and Riverside and even Da Vinci Resolve uh has had that for a little while now and none of them work perfectly.

[00:52:05]you would like to think you can just set that off and either delete it like you would and you can use it like a text document. You can select one or more words, hit delete and it uh because it does a transcription and then it will delete that audio. Now, if there are nice gaps like this between words, um I think it'll get those just fine, but most people don't speak like that.

[00:52:33]what they do is they say um I think that there's going to be um I don't know and it never gets those. So invariably anytime I I periodically try and I run the auto get rid of all the filler words and I spend more time correcting the horrible auto edits than I would if I just do it manually. So and by the way the worst of all of them is Da Vinci Resolve. If you use their transcription and the only option you have is to just delete what it defines as filler words, it is unusable. I mean, it cuts out full phrases, sentences. I am shocked. That's a little rant that they even released this thing. But um so none of in my opinion, none of them are worth the time to correct it unless you're okay with just horrible choppy, you know, jump cut edits to audio. Alexander I agree with all of that and the only thing I will add is that there's a tendency to overedit and remove all this stuff including I've seen people remove every single breath and it just sounds completely unnatural and if your client complains about that all the ums and a's you can tell them well maybe you should work on your technique and stop saying those superfluous words.

[00:53:50]>> Yeah, that doesn't work too well. But I I will say as an editor who edits and listens to people talk all day every day, there is an there is certainly a style of the super tight jump cut blah blah blah. It's got to say sometimes it grows on me. But there is I really appreciate somebody like you know Steven Bartlett who will let a conversation run out or Joe Rogan who will let the diary of a CEO Steven Bartlett if you don't know or Joe Rogan who will let a conversation just be the way it was. It's there is something very um cleansing to sit down and just listen to people actually talk. Uh Jeff, one last thing and then we got to move on.

[00:54:44]>> Yeah, I just want to add to that because we've kind of touched on this a few times before. I I think that's true in a natural conversation, but most of the time you're talking about if not the podcast or the guest is typically a well seasoned professional speaker who's done many many interviews.

[00:55:03]But when you're talking about just kind of the typical podcast for example, I mean I have edited guests where perhaps this is the first time they've ever given an interview. And I mean, every time I think I can let go of the mouse or keyboard for a moment because I just clipped out an um or an uh there is another one the second I try and even lift my glass. I mean, every fourth word is um I think well um it is unlistenable.

[00:55:31]So there is the other edge of that where you and and I agree with Alexander in the sense that I don't I don't sterilize it. I keep in the the more natural ones, but the every fifth word is just unlistenable audio.

[00:55:46]>> Let's go to the next question.

[00:55:47]Alexander, >> next up is from Andre Delay in Berlin.

[00:55:51]Recommendations for a more or less inexpensive camera to document setup and tear down of events as time lapse.

[00:55:59]Mickey, quickly. Yeah, what I would say here is an old GoPro that throw up on a on a clamp. uh or apart from that uh an old iPhone uh load up a Blackmagic camera on it and let it rip.

[00:56:15]And I would say the same thing. And it it also mean Andre, you say document. So like if I'm watching like a wide time lapse of somebody setting up and tearing down, I'm not going to learn anything really. So I would just I I tell you when I look at my camera roll on my iPhone, most of it is just Like I see people who are like actually are photographers and they're like, "Oh, look at all those night photo nice photos." Mine is just crap. It's just it's screenshots. It's it's prices of lumber at Home Depot. It's just it's just crap. So uh depends on what you mean by by uh document. Let's go to the last question.

[00:56:55]>> And last question is from Douglas Carmichael. Alexander, you mentioned some improvements to Sound Desk. Has a lot changed recently? Alexander, do you want to talk about that?

[00:57:05]>> I don't think I said that. I I'm not a Sound user. I was talking about W. Now, Wirecast, I did mention that Wirecast a lot has improved over the last the last 10 years, but no, I think there's a confusion there about what I was talking about. Okay, so that brings us to the end of our little party here. Uh, thank you for joining us. We're going to get done on time. I want to highly highly recommend that people run over to after hours and see Vienna and get a get a look at John's old rocket. It's it's really kind of precious to me that Kenan went through all the work and it was a lot of work to get and salvage and and save John's rocket because uh after John passed away, it uh knowing his wife, it was going to get thrown in the trash. So that's a fun little bit of office hours history that has been preserved. If we had done all of this traveling for episode 2241, it would have taken us 40,000 miles, 65,000 of those other units, and 320 million 758s for scale, which are kind of like a banana. Anyway, that's it.

[00:58:11]We'll see you next time. See you in after hours.

[00:58:16]So, Chris, uh, ironically, I think that Alexa that you're using is one of the ones that actually has, uh, a output jack where you actually could plug speakers in. So, it it's it's funny. The girl I just come in I'll come in from the garage. I'm like, how do you listen to that speaker? It is so bad. It is so bad. And they are just happy as can be.

[00:58:42]Like I had a soundbar on the TV for a while. Nobody used it.

[00:58:46]>> Just give them my phone number and I'll set them straight.

[00:58:50]>> Right. When you can just say, "Hey, speaker, play that song." And >> play that music, white boy. All right. Uh, I'm going to go over to after hours. I'll see you guys later.

[00:59:01]>> Bye.

[00:59:06]>> Where is my notes? Here we go.

[00:59:09]After hours direct leave and join.