In this edition Ashea and Julian are joined by James Richmond (former SSL) & Production Experts Luke Goddard where they walk through Julians checklist from his blog article: Is Your Studio Resilient ?
About Our Guests:
James Richmons is a producer/engineer based in Oxfordshire, UK.
Production Expert’s very own Luke Goddard. Yes that one!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_04 (00:00):
And it killed both the drives.
SPEAKER_06 (00:03):
Oh
SPEAKER_04 (00:04):
my goodness.
Yeah.
What did you do?
How did you react?
What can you do?
Did you say a sexual swear wordor anything like that?
SPEAKER_03 (00:16):
This podcast is sponsored by Genelec.
If you've ever been disappointedwith the way your mixes sound on
other playback systems, thencheck out Genelec's Unio
monitoring ecosystem.
By providing a seamless bridgebetween loudspeaker and
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mixes that translateconsistently wherever you choose
to work.
(00:38):
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accurate audio monitoring fromstereo to immersive.
To find out more, visitGenelec.com forward slash Unio,
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SPEAKER_05 (00:57):
Welcome to the Production Expert Podcast.
I'm Ashaya and in this editionJulian and I are joined by James
Richmond.
James is a producer and engineerbased in Oxfordshire, UK and
production expert Luke Goddardand I urge you to check out
Luke's articles and videos ifyou haven't already and if you
haven't already, shame on you.
(01:18):
Anyway, we're going to betalking about an article that
Julian has recently put togetherwhich I found particularly
interesting and the article inquestion is called is your
studio resilient and that's aquestion I think we all need to
ask ourselves in case of anydisasters that may strike so I'd
like to go around particularlyas we have James and Luke with
(01:42):
us as well to to see howresilient to potential failures
each of our studios are for ourindividual needs if you don't
have the article to hand I'llquickly read through the
checklist before we get intoeach question further okay so
the working checklist list.
One, so what hardware failurescould shut you down?
The next question is, could youmove your work elsewhere if
(02:04):
needed?
What parts of your setup couldbe substituted or borrowed?
The next question is, do youhave an internet fallback?
That's a good question.
Do you have a backup power plan?
Can your workflow adapt toheadphones?
And the last question is, areyour software authorizations
resilient?
(02:24):
Okay, so why don't we go througha and have a think about our own
studios and people listening canthink about their own studios.
SPEAKER_01 (02:32):
I was talking to Jules about this the other day,
actually, and, you know, interms of system drive, I've just
got a whole second machine,basically.
SPEAKER_05 (02:42):
Handy.
SPEAKER_01 (02:42):
Yeah, so it's obviously not a mirrored backup
as such, but it does mean that Ican work in the very same way
and switch machines if I needto.
But obviously, as far as myworking drive is concerned, then
that is an experience externalworking drive with the backup
and I tend to backup either tothe system drive that I'm
(03:03):
working on or I will take a takea cloud copy as well that's you
know just the third way
SPEAKER_05 (03:10):
that's good so do you work on PC or Mac
SPEAKER_01 (03:13):
both so I've got so that's my second system is
Windows and Primary is Mac.
And, you know, sometimes I'llswitch between the two.
Sometimes it depends where I'mworking.
Sometimes it's as simple aswhether or not I want to, you
know, take the Mac out of thestudio or whether it suits me to
set up an alternative rigsomewhere else using the Windows
(03:38):
machine.
It just depends.
SPEAKER_05 (03:40):
Yeah, I mean, I use Logic, so I have to have Mac.
So I've got my old MacBook and anew recent MacBook that I keep.
And I, like you, Lou, can I do acloud backup of everything to
Dropbox?
I'm told Dropbox is not terriblyreliable, but I do that.
And a time machine backup aswell.
Is that any good, James?
Is that a decent backup system?
SPEAKER_04 (04:01):
Yeah, data doesn't exist to exist in three places
is the maxim.
That's not dissimilar to what Ido.
I have multiple machines, andthey all get backed up to a NAS,
and then that NAS gets backed upto the cloud.
And what I do is have a one-waysyncing.
So there's no way that ifsomething gets deleted off the
cloud that it will thenreplicate down.
SPEAKER_01 (04:22):
That's a good idea.
SPEAKER_04 (04:25):
Yeah.
There are arguments for andagainst.
That means if someone in thestudio does something dumb, then
that can get replicated up.
So these are just the dailybackups.
I also do a drag copy on a dailybasis.
SPEAKER_05 (04:38):
A daily basis.
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (04:40):
Mostly.
Mostly.
When I remember.
Okay.
Probably once a week.
Of important data.
So session files audio files andit's literally just a folder
drag everything in that foldergets copied across and by date
order so If I'm working on analbum and it takes three weeks,
(05:00):
if I was to do it every day, I'dhave 21 folders.
What I want to be able to do isgo back to an earlier version.
Right.
And if I've saved oversomething, I kind of want to be
able to find it.
But it's probably overkill, butit's just how I do it.
SPEAKER_05 (05:16):
So how do you label your files then?
Because you must label themreally sort of specifically in
order to...
SPEAKER_04 (05:22):
So this is an interesting question.
So if someone's working on asong, and say you're working on
a song over a two-week period,how many session files would you
end up with?
Wow.
SPEAKER_05 (05:33):
I mean, I save compulsively.
I save as compulsively.
Are
SPEAKER_04 (05:37):
you saving as?
Are you going, okay.
Saving
SPEAKER_05 (05:39):
as, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (05:40):
Song one underscore one.
Exactly.
Song one underscore two.
Yeah.
Okay, so I might end up with 150saves.
Yeah.
Plus all of the auto-saves inPro Tools.
And so, yeah, I just use thatnaming convention and use the
date.
Yeah.
And I'll sometimes save, likesay I do a bunch of drum edits
(06:02):
and the drum edits are screwy,I'll say, you know, drums are
screwed in the file name.
SPEAKER_06 (06:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (06:09):
So I know, okay, well that was when I made a
mistake, but I'll still keep it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (06:15):
I just basically title the save as thing.
So if I haven't mixed it yet,I'll just say premix and then
mix version one, mix versiontwo, sort of vocals up or
whatever.
And then I'll just Dropbox that,keep it in Dropbox.
So that does auto updates andthen do a time machine backup
sort of weekly when I remember,basically.
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (06:36):
Okay.
So I've got time machine runningat all times.
It just...
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (06:41):
It's just there the whole time, yeah.
(07:09):
then that's a great way ofreferring back and, yeah, just
jumping back and forwards if youneed to.
Yeah.
Good
SPEAKER_05 (07:17):
labelling.
Yeah.
Good points, everyone.
So could you move your workelsewhere if needed?
Luke, do you think you could dothat?
SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, because my working drive
is portable and backed up and mysystem drives are replicated,
albeit across two differentoperating systems.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Short answer is yes.
I would have to think about it.
I wouldn't be up and runningwithin seconds like James would
be.
SPEAKER_04 (07:47):
Might it take a little longer?
Like it really would because itdepends on what goes down.
If it's studio monitors, there'sa couple of sets of monitors
here, there's headphones.
If it's an audio interface, thenthe way in which I've got
everything configured is I'vekind of got a degree of
redundancy there.
SPEAKER_06 (08:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (08:07):
If it's a computer, as much as I would like to say
that my backup computer isreplicating exactly the Mac
Studio, it's kind of not.
I'm changing configuration,installing plugins all the time.
So that would take a little bitof time, I think.
(08:28):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_05 (08:28):
I mean, all I need when I go to sort of other
studios and stuff to mix or torecord with clients, all I need,
all I take is my laptop, myiLock, that's important, and
potential headphones but theymost studios have monitors they
have you know audio interfaceall that stuff so it's pretty
easy to set up somewhere elsefor me
SPEAKER_04 (08:47):
yeah my issue is the amount of analog outboard I'm
using and the specific items I'munlikely to find them elsewhere
so what I tend to do is I have Iduplicate the the group buses
and I've got a set of groupbuses that have the analog
outboard and then a set of aduplicate set of grip buses that
(09:11):
have the plug-in equivalents.
And so if I'm working, if I needto take a project onto a laptop
or move it around, then I'vegot...
So I have a hardware massivepassive here.
I will replicate the settings inthe plug-in version of it.
SPEAKER_05 (09:24):
Good idea.
SPEAKER_04 (09:25):
And that allows me to fairly quickly...
I don't have everything becausesome things don't exist in
software.
There's no Cranesong STC8.
There's no BAE 10DCF.
They don't exist in software atall.
So you have that
SPEAKER_05 (09:43):
all organised beforehand?
SPEAKER_04 (09:48):
Yeah, I think I'm pretty organised, just because I
don't want to get caught out.
I've been caught out before andit's really embarrassing.
UNKNOWN (09:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (09:56):
yeah I can imagine and traumatic depending on who
the client is in the room withyou yeah
SPEAKER_04 (10:04):
even if it's yourself you know I agree
completely if it's you know youdon't want to be the thing that
kills the buzz but also formyself if I'm trying to put a
project you know move a projectforward I don't want to be
messing about with somethingthat if I just at the start of
the session spend 10 minutes 15minutes setting it up then I
just sail through it and it justtakes experience you're never
(10:25):
going to know you know Icouldn't teach someone else how
to do this because their processis going to be different it has
to be personal I think
SPEAKER_05 (10:32):
yeah absolutely yeah and so what parts of your setup
could be substituted or borrowedfor example audio interfaces I
have two spare ones um Whatelse?
Yeah, cables.
Really important to have sparecables.
SPEAKER_01 (10:49):
Yeah.
Well, I mean, for me, I am luckyI've got a number of audio
interfaces.
I do, actually.
My daily driver is just forstuff like this is my little 2i2
4Gen.
That's a great little box.
(11:11):
But for everything else, I'vegot...
various rack mount things anddesktop interfaces as well you
know so I've got the SSL 12 I'vegot the ID 44 from audience I've
got yeah a number of differentoptions so if my interface died
I'd be alright good I'm glad tosay
SPEAKER_02 (11:33):
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SPEAKER_05 (12:03):
Julian.
SPEAKER_03 (12:03):
Yes.
SPEAKER_05 (12:04):
You're very quiet.
SPEAKER_03 (12:08):
What's the question?
SPEAKER_05 (12:10):
What parts of your studio setup could be
substituted or borrowed?
Oh,
SPEAKER_03 (12:13):
honestly, most of it.
I mean, there's not many thingsthat are real sticking points.
There really aren't.
I mean, certainlyinterface-wise, it's fine.
I can get by without monitorsand I've got some alternative
pairs here.
All that kind of stuff's fine.
In terms of the computer stuff,I live halfway between like a
desktop and my laptop as it is.
(12:34):
Is there anything that...
I'll tell you what would really,really make my life difficult is
if my CalDigit dock went downand I just wouldn't be able to
connect everything together.
I've got a TS3, this sort oflike the previous generation.
And these things are so useful.
(12:54):
And just by changing oneThunderbolt cable...
I can swap between using myMacBook Pro, which I use loads,
to be honest.
I mean, a lot of the time I justwork in the house.
I've got a bit like Russ,really.
I sort of like find myselfworking in the kitchen just
because I don't bother to moveafter I've had breakfast.
Yeah, or the sofa.
Yeah, that kind of thing.
(13:14):
But when I'm in the studio, Ican just swap over and all the
drives come along.
Something that I've only justfound out about because the
thing that, well, one of thethings that always bothered me
about this was having tomanually unmount your drives.
And I haven't got a lot ofconnected drives, but I have,
you know, a few I've got likefour and yeah that's boring and
there is a piece of softwarethat I don't know if it supports
(13:38):
the TS3 it says it's for the TS4but that doesn't mean it doesn't
work in the TS3 and I'dforgotten I installed it the
other day and I haven't testedit yet and it's a thing that's
got like a one button dismountall the drives button on it and
I thought oh now that you knowthat's worth having so yeah
little detail things you knowbut something I mean the
conversations about data make mesort of shuffle slightly
(14:00):
uncomfortably because I've got afairly slapdash attitude to back
up.
I do have, I run Carbon CopyCloner, running every night,
backing up my work drives, allof that stuff.
But like cloud stuff, I'm veryselective about.
But something that I'm kind ofquite honest with myself about
is just the fact that themajority of my data is
(14:23):
worthless.
It's like if I lose it, itdoesn't matter.
You don't mind?
It just doesn't matter.
No, no, it doesn't matterbecause most of it either
mattered once and doesn't matteranymore or never mattered in the
first place.
But if I have a live project,something I'm working on, I
treat it so carefully.
Oh, goodness, yeah.
And particularly if it's mywork, then absolutely I'm
(14:45):
careful with it.
If it's someone else's work, I'mkind of like paranoid about it,
appropriately paranoid.
You have to be.
Which is fine apart from whenit's a big video project or
something it becomes a completepain just because it's you know
but this kind of stuff and alsoI've got this attitude I mean
you were talking about kind ofyou know 150 backups of a Pro
Tools session or something and Imean I don't think I've ever
(15:06):
gone above 20 really wow butwhat I am quite clear about is
how much am I prepared to losejust because I do save over the
top for little tweaks and thenif something actually
significant has happenedsomething new has come into the
session or I've done more workthan I'm prepared to lose then
I'll do a save copy but I don'tgo and keep going through just
(15:28):
because it becomes a little bitoverwhelming
SPEAKER_05 (15:30):
yeah I mean my fingers just go to the save
button just like as a habit
SPEAKER_03 (15:35):
you know there are I save but this whole thing about
saving a new copy I meaneveryone must have made that
mistake of saving over the samesession over and over and over
and over and over and theneventually it becomes huge and
the wave cache file becomesgigantic as well but then
something breaks in it andyou've lost everything yeah sure
you know yeah I did that areally long time ago but I did
do that And there's loads oflittle things that I'll do.
(15:57):
If I'm about to try something, Ithink, what happens if, then,
you know, I'll duplicate theplaylist, all of that stuff.
You know, absolutely, there'sother things that I do along the
way.
But I do take a sort of arealistic approach to kind of
like, you know, what I've donesince the last incremental save,
am I prepared to do that againif something happened to it?
Yeah, because to be honest, I'velost stuff.
(16:20):
But I can only think of onething I've ever...
significant thing that i've lostthat i actually i regret what's
that i mean it was it was it wasan album project i did kind of
like 25 years ago um that clientdidn't need it they they had it
it was finished and they andcertainly they weren't the kind
of people you'd be givingprotools files to but i kind of
(16:42):
wish i still had it and they'rejust kind of like through
carelessness it's gone and youknow that's a shame
SPEAKER_05 (16:47):
do you ever get clients that come back after i
don't know a year or two and sayno never happened
SPEAKER_04 (16:52):
i get that all the time
SPEAKER_05 (16:52):
really what's your policy with that?
Because I know some people thatthey have a policy, I'll keep it
on my drive for a year, twoyears, and then it's gone.
SPEAKER_04 (17:00):
So hopefully no one I work with is actually
listening to this.
So the policy is a year, but inreality, I have everything that
I've ever done.
I've had one critical data loss,and it was an electronic song
that I thought had realcommercial potential.
And I had it on a Firewiredrive, and I was connecting
(17:21):
another drive too, and it killedboth the drives.
SPEAKER_05 (17:24):
Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_04 (17:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (17:26):
What did you do?
How did you react?
SPEAKER_04 (17:30):
What can you do?
Did you say a sexual swear wordor anything like that?
Yeah.
This was 2002, but I rememberit.
It wasn't a great thing.
I was very annoyed, but it wasalso a very good lesson to
myself.
SPEAKER_05 (17:47):
Yes, exactly.
We live and learn from thesethings.
SPEAKER_03 (17:51):
This podcast is sponsored by Genelec.
If you've ever been anddisappointed with the way your
mixes sound on other playbacksystems, then check out
Genelec's Unio monitoringecosystem.
By providing a seamless bridgebetween loudspeaker and
headphone monitoring, Unioallows you to quickly create
great sounding mixes thattranslate consistently wherever
you choose to work.
(18:12):
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SPEAKER_05 (18:31):
So what about internet fallbacks?
I don't have an internetfallback other than my phone
tethering to my 4G connection,which probably doesn't work very
well, depending on what you'redoing.
SPEAKER_03 (18:41):
I mean, who doesn't have that, though, you know?
It depends on where the...
I mean, I've got it, but I sayin the article, I've got line of
sight to the phone mast.
I've got a really goodconnection.
SPEAKER_05 (18:49):
Oh, well, that's
SPEAKER_03 (18:50):
good.
And it's gone down, and it'sbeen fine.
But, I mean, you can buy these,you know, automatic backup 4G
router things and everything,and I'm sure that's fine, you
know, but that's geographic.
Depends where you are.
SPEAKER_05 (19:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (19:03):
So what we've
SPEAKER_04 (19:03):
got here, because we're also running, you know, a
non-music related business fromhere.
We have two internetconnections.
One's for the residents and oneis for the business.
And they're set for failover.
So it's one switch and, well,one router, sorry, and with two
connections out.
So one is fiber and the other islike, you know, is it like Zen
(19:26):
internet, like regular overcopper connection.
And so if the fiber goes down,then I can still get, you know,
60 megabits per second off thehouse.
SPEAKER_05 (19:35):
And is that significantly more expensive
than just having one internetconnection, or is it...
SPEAKER_04 (19:41):
Well, no, one's through the business, and that's
the fibre, that's, what, 40 quida month, and then I think it's
20 quid a month for theresidents.
SPEAKER_05 (19:50):
Oh,
SPEAKER_04 (19:50):
right, yeah.
So it's just...
Yeah, it's just having twoconnections, really.
SPEAKER_05 (19:55):
That's handy and important.
So what's the other one we'vegot?
Do you have a backup power plan?
SPEAKER_04 (20:02):
Yeah, two UPSs, and then I'll get 15 minutes if I
have total power outage for theentire studio.
SPEAKER_01 (20:10):
Fantastic.
Yeah, if my power goes down, Ican't work.
So that's the one thing that Idon't have ready should anything
like that happen.
which is, you know, apresumption on my part.
But yeah, I guess if there wereno electricity, then I might
(20:32):
have bigger fish to fry otherthan, you know, that bounce or
whatever.
I mean, if you're in record andthe power goes down, that's...
SPEAKER_03 (20:39):
You'd be furiously cooking everything in your
freezer.
That's what you'd be doing.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_06 (20:43):
yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:44):
On gas, obviously.
SPEAKER_04 (20:45):
Yeah, like, I think even with the UPS, unless you're
going to be, you know, puttinggenerators in, we get 15
minutes.
That's enough time time to shutthe service down
SPEAKER_03 (20:55):
it's a studio it's not it's not you know an
operating theatre it's not anairport exactly it's not a
hospital
SPEAKER_05 (21:02):
and if you really do need another studio there's
always pirate studios orsomewhere else that you could
sort of quickly hire out
SPEAKER_04 (21:08):
I guess I could work on my laptop with a bus powered
interface I've got a littlearrow here but as Julian said
I've got other things to worryabout if the power's going out
for that long you know find somecandles
SPEAKER_05 (21:21):
exactly old school so can your workflow adapt to
headphones I can imagine most ofours can
SPEAKER_04 (21:26):
absolutely
SPEAKER_05 (21:27):
James can yours
SPEAKER_04 (21:29):
I don't like headphones so I you know I'm one
of these people I probablylisten to headphones for about
three minutes for an entire youknow album mix I just don't like
them so I can yeah definitelythere are headphones here I'm
wearing headphones now but yeahI would always rather go to to
main monitors and new fields
SPEAKER_05 (21:49):
yeah so the last question are your software
authorization resilient, thingslike iLock, cloud licensing.
Lost iLock, that's a realproblem, unless you have zero
downtime.
SPEAKER_03 (22:03):
ZDT and a bit of a wait, that's all you can do.
SPEAKER_05 (22:05):
Yep,
SPEAKER_04 (22:06):
that's pretty much it.
And I guess there are someplug-in manufacturers, so if
you're relying a lot on the UADSSL 4K plug-in, and you happen
to have the plug-in allianceequivalent well, swap them over.
(22:27):
It just takes a bit of time todo that.
But honestly, I've only ever hadone broken iLock in 25 years of
having iLock.
SPEAKER_05 (22:36):
Wow.
And you've never lost an iLock.
SPEAKER_04 (22:38):
So when you said before, when you go to a studio,
you take your laptop and youriLock.
Yeah.
Even that, I felt the cold, youknow, hit in my stomach.
I hate, hate taking my iLocksout.
SPEAKER_05 (22:51):
Even if you wear them on a lanyard around your
neck?
SPEAKER_04 (22:55):
Even still, like, it's like 40 grand's worth of
software or something like that.
Like, it's a ridiculous amountof money that I've spent on
software over the years.
SPEAKER_05 (23:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (23:02):
Yeah, I don't like doing it.
So actually what I do I thinkwe've I mentioned this on a
podcast that I was on a whileback with you I think what I do
is I take I will take an iLockbut I take all of the licenses
off the iLock put them back upinto the cloud and then when I
get to my destination put thelicenses back on it
SPEAKER_05 (23:23):
see these are the kind of tips that we're after no
SPEAKER_04 (23:26):
that's an old one that is put them back up to the
cloud and I never travel with aniLock that's loaded up with
licenses it just fills me fullof dread the thought of if I
lose this
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SPEAKER_03 (24:06):
When the new iLocks came out, and one of the things
that Pace was saying about themis that they're faster than the
old ones.
And I remember seeing some quitesnarky comments online of people
going, oh, I'm not worried abouthow fast my iLock is.
And they're going, well, you'reclearly not doing what James is
doing because it makes adifference if you're doing that.
Good
SPEAKER_04 (24:22):
point.
It used to take like an hour tomove all your licenses.
And, you know, I had maybe 10%of the licenses that I have now.
Like there are like thousands ofplugins, which, you know,
probably...
probably points to a biggerproblem that I have.
But yeah, no, it used to be soslow that you'd have to sort of
(24:44):
set aside part of your day justfor the sinking of licenses.
SPEAKER_03 (24:48):
And I mean, if we're taking the long view on this,
the old blue iLoks, theSnapmaster 3000s, they were
nasty.
They really were.
But the metal ones areabsolutely fine.
And if you've got them on alittle adapter, a little short
lead, I've got a...
like a full-size USB, whateverthat one is.
Is it an A, the slot one?
(25:11):
A, yeah.
To USB-C, just because, youknow, that's what's happened.
I thought about changing over toa USB-C one.
I went, no, because I want it onthis little floppy bit of...
And then what
SPEAKER_04 (25:21):
do you do if you go to a, you know, go somewhere
where you need to plug it intoan A port?
SPEAKER_03 (25:25):
Well, I mean, you can get adapters the other way
as well.
But the point is, I want it onan adapter anyway.
I used to have one that was A toA, and that was brilliant, just
because it just meant that, youknow, you didn't have that,
especially when you had thoseblue plastic ones.
They were a nightmare.
SPEAKER_05 (25:39):
I've had those, yeah.
They're always breaking.
SPEAKER_04 (25:43):
So there is one thing to this, which is most
companies are now doing it wherethey, you know, if you think
about how many authorisationsyou get, you generally get more
than one.
There are a couple ofexceptions.
David Slate Trigger is one,iZotope is another.
That's a potential pinch pointhere, in that if you've got a
(26:05):
critical plug But you only getone authorization.
Annoying, because your iLockbreaks.
Well, you can't get the licenseoff it to then put it somewhere
else.
Having multiple licenses, havingmultiple authorizations for a
license gives you the freedom tobe able to say, okay, well, that
iLock's dead.
(26:25):
I've got a spare iLock.
I've got a spare license.
Exactly.
Because otherwise you're dead inthe
SPEAKER_03 (26:30):
water.
Well, I mean, so interestingquestion here.
I know some licenses don'tsupport clans.
But who here uses iLok Cloud?
SPEAKER_05 (26:40):
Not me.
SPEAKER_03 (26:41):
No.
I do.
Okay.
And I don't.
Okay, so that's like one out offour use it.
SPEAKER_01 (26:48):
Yeah.
I use it mainly because I'm justuneasy about moving licenses
between...
I don't like offloading my iLokand then reloading it, etc.
So if I'm using Pro Toolsoff-site or on location, I do
(27:08):
tend to move onto an iLock forthat, but at home it's in the
cloud, my Pro Tools license.
SPEAKER_04 (27:15):
What I do is I have my iLock in my studio and hard
drive authorization wherepossible on the laptop.
Okay.
And that effectively deals withthe same problem.
Again, there are a couple ofexamples where that doesn't
work.
Steven Slate Trigger doesn'tsupport machine authorization.
It actually only supports aphysical iLock and I don't like
(27:36):
taking iLocks out.
So, you know, to the point whereif they supported machine
authorization, even though theyonly support one license, I'd
probably buy a second license ofthat plug-in because I use it so
much.
But I would also then have tohave it on a physical iLock.
So I just go, you know what,I'll do all the sample
replacement bollocks andtriggering from a different
(27:57):
location, from the studio.
Or now use Waves Intrigger,which is great.
SPEAKER_05 (28:03):
Didn't you try that, Waves Intrigger?
SPEAKER_01 (28:06):
I did, yeah.
And it is very good.
It works really well.
And I like the way it generatesthe triggers because it
definitely has some intelligenceto it.
It's definitely not justlevel-based.
And the way it visualises thetrigger nodes is also really
clever.
(28:26):
I think you have to be a bitselective with the sample
content itself.
I think some of it maps to thedifferent velocity layers better
than others I
SPEAKER_06 (28:36):
agree.
SPEAKER_01 (28:38):
But apart from that, I think as implementations go,
it's as good as it can be.
And I wouldn't...
Yeah, there's not a lot that Iwould change.
SPEAKER_05 (28:47):
Nice.
I need to try that, but it looksgood.
SPEAKER_04 (28:49):
Has anyone seen the video that Stephen Slate has
done about Intriga?
No.
Why has he done that?
That doesn't sound like a goodidea.
Well, it's actually quite funny.
I think he's taking...
making fun of the fact thatthey've called their product
Intrigger and his product'scalled Trigger.
(29:13):
But yeah, I urge people to goand...
It is quite funny.
It's
SPEAKER_05 (29:18):
funny to see how triggered people become.
Yeah, exactly.
Brilliant.
Well, that's all we have timefor.
Thank you so much to James andLuke for a fantastic chat.
And we'll be back next time withanother edition of the
Production Expert podcast.
And it killed both the drives.
SPEAKER_06 (00:03):
Oh
SPEAKER_04 (00:04):
my goodness.
Yeah.
What did you do?
How did you react?
What can you do?
Did you say a sexual swear wordor anything like that?
SPEAKER_03 (00:16):
This podcast is sponsored by Genelec.
If you've ever been disappointedwith the way your mixes sound on
other playback systems, thencheck out Genelec's Unio
monitoring ecosystem.
By providing a seamless bridgebetween loudspeaker and
headphone Unio allows you toquickly create great sounding
mixes that translateconsistently wherever you choose
to work.
(00:38):
No more guesswork, no moresurprises, just truthful,
accurate audio monitoring fromstereo to immersive.
To find out more, visitGenelec.com forward slash Unio,
spelt U-N-I-O.
Your mixers will thank you forit.
SPEAKER_05 (00:57):
Welcome to the Production Expert Podcast.
I'm Ashaya and in this editionJulian and I are joined by James
Richmond.
James is a producer and engineerbased in Oxfordshire, UK and
production expert Luke Goddardand I urge you to check out
Luke's articles and videos ifyou haven't already and if you
haven't already, shame on you.
(01:18):
Anyway, we're going to betalking about an article that
Julian has recently put togetherwhich I found particularly
interesting and the article inquestion is called is your
studio resilient and that's aquestion I think we all need to
ask ourselves in case of anydisasters that may strike so I'd
like to go around particularlyas we have James and Luke with
(01:42):
us as well to to see howresilient to potential failures
each of our studios are for ourindividual needs if you don't
have the article to hand I'llquickly read through the
checklist before we get intoeach question further okay so
the working checklist list.
One, so what hardware failurescould shut you down?
The next question is, could youmove your work elsewhere if
(02:04):
needed?
What parts of your setup couldbe substituted or borrowed?
The next question is, do youhave an internet fallback?
That's a good question.
Do you have a backup power plan?
Can your workflow adapt toheadphones?
And the last question is, areyour software authorizations
resilient?
(02:24):
Okay, so why don't we go througha and have a think about our own
studios and people listening canthink about their own studios.
SPEAKER_01 (02:32):
I was talking to Jules about this the other day,
actually, and, you know, interms of system drive, I've just
got a whole second machine,basically.
SPEAKER_05 (02:42):
Handy.
SPEAKER_01 (02:42):
Yeah, so it's obviously not a mirrored backup
as such, but it does mean that Ican work in the very same way
and switch machines if I needto.
But obviously, as far as myworking drive is concerned, then
that is an experience externalworking drive with the backup
and I tend to backup either tothe system drive that I'm
(03:03):
working on or I will take a takea cloud copy as well that's you
know just the third way
SPEAKER_05 (03:10):
that's good so do you work on PC or Mac
SPEAKER_01 (03:13):
both so I've got so that's my second system is
Windows and Primary is Mac.
And, you know, sometimes I'llswitch between the two.
Sometimes it depends where I'mworking.
Sometimes it's as simple aswhether or not I want to, you
know, take the Mac out of thestudio or whether it suits me to
set up an alternative rigsomewhere else using the Windows
(03:38):
machine.
It just depends.
SPEAKER_05 (03:40):
Yeah, I mean, I use Logic, so I have to have Mac.
So I've got my old MacBook and anew recent MacBook that I keep.
And I, like you, Lou, can I do acloud backup of everything to
Dropbox?
I'm told Dropbox is not terriblyreliable, but I do that.
And a time machine backup aswell.
Is that any good, James?
Is that a decent backup system?
SPEAKER_04 (04:01):
Yeah, data doesn't exist to exist in three places
is the maxim.
That's not dissimilar to what Ido.
I have multiple machines, andthey all get backed up to a NAS,
and then that NAS gets backed upto the cloud.
And what I do is have a one-waysyncing.
So there's no way that ifsomething gets deleted off the
cloud that it will thenreplicate down.
SPEAKER_01 (04:22):
That's a good idea.
SPEAKER_04 (04:25):
Yeah.
There are arguments for andagainst.
That means if someone in thestudio does something dumb, then
that can get replicated up.
So these are just the dailybackups.
I also do a drag copy on a dailybasis.
SPEAKER_05 (04:38):
A daily basis.
Okay.
SPEAKER_04 (04:40):
Mostly.
Mostly.
When I remember.
Okay.
Probably once a week.
Of important data.
So session files audio files andit's literally just a folder
drag everything in that foldergets copied across and by date
order so If I'm working on analbum and it takes three weeks,
(05:00):
if I was to do it every day, I'dhave 21 folders.
What I want to be able to do isgo back to an earlier version.
Right.
And if I've saved oversomething, I kind of want to be
able to find it.
But it's probably overkill, butit's just how I do it.
SPEAKER_05 (05:16):
So how do you label your files then?
Because you must label themreally sort of specifically in
order to...
SPEAKER_04 (05:22):
So this is an interesting question.
So if someone's working on asong, and say you're working on
a song over a two-week period,how many session files would you
end up with?
Wow.
SPEAKER_05 (05:33):
I mean, I save compulsively.
I save as compulsively.
Are
SPEAKER_04 (05:37):
you saving as?
Are you going, okay.
Saving
SPEAKER_05 (05:39):
as, yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (05:40):
Song one underscore one.
Exactly.
Song one underscore two.
Yeah.
Okay, so I might end up with 150saves.
Yeah.
Plus all of the auto-saves inPro Tools.
And so, yeah, I just use thatnaming convention and use the
date.
Yeah.
And I'll sometimes save, likesay I do a bunch of drum edits
(06:02):
and the drum edits are screwy,I'll say, you know, drums are
screwed in the file name.
SPEAKER_06 (06:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (06:09):
So I know, okay, well that was when I made a
mistake, but I'll still keep it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (06:15):
I just basically title the save as thing.
So if I haven't mixed it yet,I'll just say premix and then
mix version one, mix versiontwo, sort of vocals up or
whatever.
And then I'll just Dropbox that,keep it in Dropbox.
So that does auto updates andthen do a time machine backup
sort of weekly when I remember,basically.
Right.
SPEAKER_04 (06:36):
Okay.
So I've got time machine runningat all times.
It just...
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (06:41):
It's just there the whole time, yeah.
(07:09):
then that's a great way ofreferring back and, yeah, just
jumping back and forwards if youneed to.
Yeah.
Good
SPEAKER_05 (07:17):
labelling.
Yeah.
Good points, everyone.
So could you move your workelsewhere if needed?
Luke, do you think you could dothat?
SPEAKER_01 (07:26):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, because my working drive
is portable and backed up and mysystem drives are replicated,
albeit across two differentoperating systems.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Short answer is yes.
I would have to think about it.
I wouldn't be up and runningwithin seconds like James would
be.
SPEAKER_04 (07:47):
Might it take a little longer?
Like it really would because itdepends on what goes down.
If it's studio monitors, there'sa couple of sets of monitors
here, there's headphones.
If it's an audio interface, thenthe way in which I've got
everything configured is I'vekind of got a degree of
redundancy there.
SPEAKER_06 (08:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (08:07):
If it's a computer, as much as I would like to say
that my backup computer isreplicating exactly the Mac
Studio, it's kind of not.
I'm changing configuration,installing plugins all the time.
So that would take a little bitof time, I think.
(08:28):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_05 (08:28):
I mean, all I need when I go to sort of other
studios and stuff to mix or torecord with clients, all I need,
all I take is my laptop, myiLock, that's important, and
potential headphones but theymost studios have monitors they
have you know audio interfaceall that stuff so it's pretty
easy to set up somewhere elsefor me
SPEAKER_04 (08:47):
yeah my issue is the amount of analog outboard I'm
using and the specific items I'munlikely to find them elsewhere
so what I tend to do is I have Iduplicate the the group buses
and I've got a set of groupbuses that have the analog
outboard and then a set of aduplicate set of grip buses that
(09:11):
have the plug-in equivalents.
And so if I'm working, if I needto take a project onto a laptop
or move it around, then I'vegot...
So I have a hardware massivepassive here.
I will replicate the settings inthe plug-in version of it.
SPEAKER_05 (09:24):
Good idea.
SPEAKER_04 (09:25):
And that allows me to fairly quickly...
I don't have everything becausesome things don't exist in
software.
There's no Cranesong STC8.
There's no BAE 10DCF.
They don't exist in software atall.
So you have that
SPEAKER_05 (09:43):
all organised beforehand?
SPEAKER_04 (09:48):
Yeah, I think I'm pretty organised, just because I
don't want to get caught out.
I've been caught out before andit's really embarrassing.
UNKNOWN (09:56):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (09:56):
yeah I can imagine and traumatic depending on who
the client is in the room withyou yeah
SPEAKER_04 (10:04):
even if it's yourself you know I agree
completely if it's you know youdon't want to be the thing that
kills the buzz but also formyself if I'm trying to put a
project you know move a projectforward I don't want to be
messing about with somethingthat if I just at the start of
the session spend 10 minutes 15minutes setting it up then I
just sail through it and it justtakes experience you're never
(10:25):
going to know you know Icouldn't teach someone else how
to do this because their processis going to be different it has
to be personal I think
SPEAKER_05 (10:32):
yeah absolutely yeah and so what parts of your setup
could be substituted or borrowedfor example audio interfaces I
have two spare ones um Whatelse?
Yeah, cables.
Really important to have sparecables.
SPEAKER_01 (10:49):
Yeah.
Well, I mean, for me, I am luckyI've got a number of audio
interfaces.
I do, actually.
My daily driver is just forstuff like this is my little 2i2
4Gen.
That's a great little box.
(11:11):
But for everything else, I'vegot...
various rack mount things anddesktop interfaces as well you
know so I've got the SSL 12 I'vegot the ID 44 from audience I've
got yeah a number of differentoptions so if my interface died
I'd be alright good I'm glad tosay
SPEAKER_02 (11:33):
the production expert podcast is made possible
using the new source nexus suitefrom source elements the
professional way to collaborateover the internet along with
high definition low latencyaudio and video literally Get
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SPEAKER_05 (12:03):
Julian.
SPEAKER_03 (12:03):
Yes.
SPEAKER_05 (12:04):
You're very quiet.
SPEAKER_03 (12:08):
What's the question?
SPEAKER_05 (12:10):
What parts of your studio setup could be
substituted or borrowed?
Oh,
SPEAKER_03 (12:13):
honestly, most of it.
I mean, there's not many thingsthat are real sticking points.
There really aren't.
I mean, certainlyinterface-wise, it's fine.
I can get by without monitorsand I've got some alternative
pairs here.
All that kind of stuff's fine.
In terms of the computer stuff,I live halfway between like a
desktop and my laptop as it is.
(12:34):
Is there anything that...
I'll tell you what would really,really make my life difficult is
if my CalDigit dock went downand I just wouldn't be able to
connect everything together.
I've got a TS3, this sort oflike the previous generation.
And these things are so useful.
(12:54):
And just by changing oneThunderbolt cable...
I can swap between using myMacBook Pro, which I use loads,
to be honest.
I mean, a lot of the time I justwork in the house.
I've got a bit like Russ,really.
I sort of like find myselfworking in the kitchen just
because I don't bother to moveafter I've had breakfast.
Yeah, or the sofa.
Yeah, that kind of thing.
(13:14):
But when I'm in the studio, Ican just swap over and all the
drives come along.
Something that I've only justfound out about because the
thing that, well, one of thethings that always bothered me
about this was having tomanually unmount your drives.
And I haven't got a lot ofconnected drives, but I have,
you know, a few I've got likefour and yeah that's boring and
there is a piece of softwarethat I don't know if it supports
(13:38):
the TS3 it says it's for the TS4but that doesn't mean it doesn't
work in the TS3 and I'dforgotten I installed it the
other day and I haven't testedit yet and it's a thing that's
got like a one button dismountall the drives button on it and
I thought oh now that you knowthat's worth having so yeah
little detail things you knowbut something I mean the
conversations about data make mesort of shuffle slightly
(14:00):
uncomfortably because I've got afairly slapdash attitude to back
up.
I do have, I run Carbon CopyCloner, running every night,
backing up my work drives, allof that stuff.
But like cloud stuff, I'm veryselective about.
But something that I'm kind ofquite honest with myself about
is just the fact that themajority of my data is
(14:23):
worthless.
It's like if I lose it, itdoesn't matter.
You don't mind?
It just doesn't matter.
No, no, it doesn't matterbecause most of it either
mattered once and doesn't matteranymore or never mattered in the
first place.
But if I have a live project,something I'm working on, I
treat it so carefully.
Oh, goodness, yeah.
And particularly if it's mywork, then absolutely I'm
(14:45):
careful with it.
If it's someone else's work, I'mkind of like paranoid about it,
appropriately paranoid.
You have to be.
Which is fine apart from whenit's a big video project or
something it becomes a completepain just because it's you know
but this kind of stuff and alsoI've got this attitude I mean
you were talking about kind ofyou know 150 backups of a Pro
Tools session or something and Imean I don't think I've ever
(15:06):
gone above 20 really wow butwhat I am quite clear about is
how much am I prepared to losejust because I do save over the
top for little tweaks and thenif something actually
significant has happenedsomething new has come into the
session or I've done more workthan I'm prepared to lose then
I'll do a save copy but I don'tgo and keep going through just
(15:28):
because it becomes a little bitoverwhelming
SPEAKER_05 (15:30):
yeah I mean my fingers just go to the save
button just like as a habit
SPEAKER_03 (15:35):
you know there are I save but this whole thing about
saving a new copy I meaneveryone must have made that
mistake of saving over the samesession over and over and over
and over and over and theneventually it becomes huge and
the wave cache file becomesgigantic as well but then
something breaks in it andyou've lost everything yeah sure
you know yeah I did that areally long time ago but I did
do that And there's loads oflittle things that I'll do.
(15:57):
If I'm about to try something, Ithink, what happens if, then,
you know, I'll duplicate theplaylist, all of that stuff.
You know, absolutely, there'sother things that I do along the
way.
But I do take a sort of arealistic approach to kind of
like, you know, what I've donesince the last incremental save,
am I prepared to do that againif something happened to it?
Yeah, because to be honest, I'velost stuff.
(16:20):
But I can only think of onething I've ever...
significant thing that i've lostthat i actually i regret what's
that i mean it was it was it wasan album project i did kind of
like 25 years ago um that clientdidn't need it they they had it
it was finished and they andcertainly they weren't the kind
of people you'd be givingprotools files to but i kind of
(16:42):
wish i still had it and they'rejust kind of like through
carelessness it's gone and youknow that's a shame
SPEAKER_05 (16:47):
do you ever get clients that come back after i
don't know a year or two and sayno never happened
SPEAKER_04 (16:52):
i get that all the time
SPEAKER_05 (16:52):
really what's your policy with that?
Because I know some people thatthey have a policy, I'll keep it
on my drive for a year, twoyears, and then it's gone.
SPEAKER_04 (17:00):
So hopefully no one I work with is actually
listening to this.
So the policy is a year, but inreality, I have everything that
I've ever done.
I've had one critical data loss,and it was an electronic song
that I thought had realcommercial potential.
And I had it on a Firewiredrive, and I was connecting
(17:21):
another drive too, and it killedboth the drives.
SPEAKER_05 (17:24):
Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_04 (17:25):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (17:26):
What did you do?
How did you react?
SPEAKER_04 (17:30):
What can you do?
Did you say a sexual swear wordor anything like that?
Yeah.
This was 2002, but I rememberit.
It wasn't a great thing.
I was very annoyed, but it wasalso a very good lesson to
myself.
SPEAKER_05 (17:47):
Yes, exactly.
We live and learn from thesethings.
SPEAKER_03 (17:51):
This podcast is sponsored by Genelec.
If you've ever been anddisappointed with the way your
mixes sound on other playbacksystems, then check out
Genelec's Unio monitoringecosystem.
By providing a seamless bridgebetween loudspeaker and
headphone monitoring, Unioallows you to quickly create
great sounding mixes thattranslate consistently wherever
you choose to work.
(18:12):
No more guesswork, no moresurprises, just truthful,
accurate audio monitoring fromstereo to immersive.
To find out more, visitgenelec.com forward slash Unio
spelt Your mixers will thank youfor it.
SPEAKER_05 (18:31):
So what about internet fallbacks?
I don't have an internetfallback other than my phone
tethering to my 4G connection,which probably doesn't work very
well, depending on what you'redoing.
SPEAKER_03 (18:41):
I mean, who doesn't have that, though, you know?
It depends on where the...
I mean, I've got it, but I sayin the article, I've got line of
sight to the phone mast.
I've got a really goodconnection.
SPEAKER_05 (18:49):
Oh, well, that's
SPEAKER_03 (18:50):
good.
And it's gone down, and it'sbeen fine.
But, I mean, you can buy these,you know, automatic backup 4G
router things and everything,and I'm sure that's fine, you
know, but that's geographic.
Depends where you are.
SPEAKER_05 (19:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (19:03):
So what we've
SPEAKER_04 (19:03):
got here, because we're also running, you know, a
non-music related business fromhere.
We have two internetconnections.
One's for the residents and oneis for the business.
And they're set for failover.
So it's one switch and, well,one router, sorry, and with two
connections out.
So one is fiber and the other islike, you know, is it like Zen
(19:26):
internet, like regular overcopper connection.
And so if the fiber goes down,then I can still get, you know,
60 megabits per second off thehouse.
SPEAKER_05 (19:35):
And is that significantly more expensive
than just having one internetconnection, or is it...
SPEAKER_04 (19:41):
Well, no, one's through the business, and that's
the fibre, that's, what, 40 quida month, and then I think it's
20 quid a month for theresidents.
SPEAKER_05 (19:50):
Oh,
SPEAKER_04 (19:50):
right, yeah.
So it's just...
Yeah, it's just having twoconnections, really.
SPEAKER_05 (19:55):
That's handy and important.
So what's the other one we'vegot?
Do you have a backup power plan?
SPEAKER_04 (20:02):
Yeah, two UPSs, and then I'll get 15 minutes if I
have total power outage for theentire studio.
SPEAKER_01 (20:10):
Fantastic.
Yeah, if my power goes down, Ican't work.
So that's the one thing that Idon't have ready should anything
like that happen.
which is, you know, apresumption on my part.
But yeah, I guess if there wereno electricity, then I might
(20:32):
have bigger fish to fry otherthan, you know, that bounce or
whatever.
I mean, if you're in record andthe power goes down, that's...
SPEAKER_03 (20:39):
You'd be furiously cooking everything in your
freezer.
That's what you'd be doing.
Yeah,
SPEAKER_06 (20:43):
yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (20:44):
On gas, obviously.
SPEAKER_04 (20:45):
Yeah, like, I think even with the UPS, unless you're
going to be, you know, puttinggenerators in, we get 15
minutes.
That's enough time time to shutthe service down
SPEAKER_03 (20:55):
it's a studio it's not it's not you know an
operating theatre it's not anairport exactly it's not a
hospital
SPEAKER_05 (21:02):
and if you really do need another studio there's
always pirate studios orsomewhere else that you could
sort of quickly hire out
SPEAKER_04 (21:08):
I guess I could work on my laptop with a bus powered
interface I've got a littlearrow here but as Julian said
I've got other things to worryabout if the power's going out
for that long you know find somecandles
SPEAKER_05 (21:21):
exactly old school so can your workflow adapt to
headphones I can imagine most ofours can
SPEAKER_04 (21:26):
absolutely
SPEAKER_05 (21:27):
James can yours
SPEAKER_04 (21:29):
I don't like headphones so I you know I'm one
of these people I probablylisten to headphones for about
three minutes for an entire youknow album mix I just don't like
them so I can yeah definitelythere are headphones here I'm
wearing headphones now but yeahI would always rather go to to
main monitors and new fields
SPEAKER_05 (21:49):
yeah so the last question are your software
authorization resilient, thingslike iLock, cloud licensing.
Lost iLock, that's a realproblem, unless you have zero
downtime.
SPEAKER_03 (22:03):
ZDT and a bit of a wait, that's all you can do.
SPEAKER_05 (22:05):
Yep,
SPEAKER_04 (22:06):
that's pretty much it.
And I guess there are someplug-in manufacturers, so if
you're relying a lot on the UADSSL 4K plug-in, and you happen
to have the plug-in allianceequivalent well, swap them over.
(22:27):
It just takes a bit of time todo that.
But honestly, I've only ever hadone broken iLock in 25 years of
having iLock.
SPEAKER_05 (22:36):
Wow.
And you've never lost an iLock.
SPEAKER_04 (22:38):
So when you said before, when you go to a studio,
you take your laptop and youriLock.
Yeah.
Even that, I felt the cold, youknow, hit in my stomach.
I hate, hate taking my iLocksout.
SPEAKER_05 (22:51):
Even if you wear them on a lanyard around your
neck?
SPEAKER_04 (22:55):
Even still, like, it's like 40 grand's worth of
software or something like that.
Like, it's a ridiculous amountof money that I've spent on
software over the years.
SPEAKER_05 (23:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_04 (23:02):
Yeah, I don't like doing it.
So actually what I do I thinkwe've I mentioned this on a
podcast that I was on a whileback with you I think what I do
is I take I will take an iLockbut I take all of the licenses
off the iLock put them back upinto the cloud and then when I
get to my destination put thelicenses back on it
SPEAKER_05 (23:23):
see these are the kind of tips that we're after no
SPEAKER_04 (23:26):
that's an old one that is put them back up to the
cloud and I never travel with aniLock that's loaded up with
licenses it just fills me fullof dread the thought of if I
lose this
SPEAKER_00 (23:36):
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(23:56):
If there is anything they can doto help, reach out or shop
online at rspeaudio.com.
SPEAKER_03 (24:06):
When the new iLocks came out, and one of the things
that Pace was saying about themis that they're faster than the
old ones.
And I remember seeing some quitesnarky comments online of people
going, oh, I'm not worried abouthow fast my iLock is.
And they're going, well, you'reclearly not doing what James is
doing because it makes adifference if you're doing that.
Good
SPEAKER_04 (24:22):
point.
It used to take like an hour tomove all your licenses.
And, you know, I had maybe 10%of the licenses that I have now.
Like there are like thousands ofplugins, which, you know,
probably...
probably points to a biggerproblem that I have.
But yeah, no, it used to be soslow that you'd have to sort of
(24:44):
set aside part of your day justfor the sinking of licenses.
SPEAKER_03 (24:48):
And I mean, if we're taking the long view on this,
the old blue iLoks, theSnapmaster 3000s, they were
nasty.
They really were.
But the metal ones areabsolutely fine.
And if you've got them on alittle adapter, a little short
lead, I've got a...
like a full-size USB, whateverthat one is.
Is it an A, the slot one?
(25:11):
A, yeah.
To USB-C, just because, youknow, that's what's happened.
I thought about changing over toa USB-C one.
I went, no, because I want it onthis little floppy bit of...
And then what
SPEAKER_04 (25:21):
do you do if you go to a, you know, go somewhere
where you need to plug it intoan A port?
SPEAKER_03 (25:25):
Well, I mean, you can get adapters the other way
as well.
But the point is, I want it onan adapter anyway.
I used to have one that was A toA, and that was brilliant, just
because it just meant that, youknow, you didn't have that,
especially when you had thoseblue plastic ones.
They were a nightmare.
SPEAKER_05 (25:39):
I've had those, yeah.
They're always breaking.
SPEAKER_04 (25:43):
So there is one thing to this, which is most
companies are now doing it wherethey, you know, if you think
about how many authorisationsyou get, you generally get more
than one.
There are a couple ofexceptions.
David Slate Trigger is one,iZotope is another.
That's a potential pinch pointhere, in that if you've got a
(26:05):
critical plug But you only getone authorization.
Annoying, because your iLockbreaks.
Well, you can't get the licenseoff it to then put it somewhere
else.
Having multiple licenses, havingmultiple authorizations for a
license gives you the freedom tobe able to say, okay, well, that
iLock's dead.
(26:25):
I've got a spare iLock.
I've got a spare license.
Exactly.
Because otherwise you're dead inthe
SPEAKER_03 (26:30):
water.
Well, I mean, so interestingquestion here.
I know some licenses don'tsupport clans.
But who here uses iLok Cloud?
SPEAKER_05 (26:40):
Not me.
SPEAKER_03 (26:41):
No.
I do.
Okay.
And I don't.
Okay, so that's like one out offour use it.
SPEAKER_01 (26:48):
Yeah.
I use it mainly because I'm justuneasy about moving licenses
between...
I don't like offloading my iLokand then reloading it, etc.
So if I'm using Pro Toolsoff-site or on location, I do
(27:08):
tend to move onto an iLock forthat, but at home it's in the
cloud, my Pro Tools license.
SPEAKER_04 (27:15):
What I do is I have my iLock in my studio and hard
drive authorization wherepossible on the laptop.
Okay.
And that effectively deals withthe same problem.
Again, there are a couple ofexamples where that doesn't
work.
Steven Slate Trigger doesn'tsupport machine authorization.
It actually only supports aphysical iLock and I don't like
(27:36):
taking iLocks out.
So, you know, to the point whereif they supported machine
authorization, even though theyonly support one license, I'd
probably buy a second license ofthat plug-in because I use it so
much.
But I would also then have tohave it on a physical iLock.
So I just go, you know what,I'll do all the sample
replacement bollocks andtriggering from a different
(27:57):
location, from the studio.
Or now use Waves Intrigger,which is great.
SPEAKER_05 (28:03):
Didn't you try that, Waves Intrigger?
SPEAKER_01 (28:06):
I did, yeah.
And it is very good.
It works really well.
And I like the way it generatesthe triggers because it
definitely has some intelligenceto it.
It's definitely not justlevel-based.
And the way it visualises thetrigger nodes is also really
clever.
(28:26):
I think you have to be a bitselective with the sample
content itself.
I think some of it maps to thedifferent velocity layers better
than others I
SPEAKER_06 (28:36):
agree.
SPEAKER_01 (28:38):
But apart from that, I think as implementations go,
it's as good as it can be.
And I wouldn't...
Yeah, there's not a lot that Iwould change.
SPEAKER_05 (28:47):
Nice.
I need to try that, but it looksgood.
SPEAKER_04 (28:49):
Has anyone seen the video that Stephen Slate has
done about Intriga?
No.
Why has he done that?
That doesn't sound like a goodidea.
Well, it's actually quite funny.
I think he's taking...
making fun of the fact thatthey've called their product
Intrigger and his product'scalled Trigger.
(29:13):
But yeah, I urge people to goand...
It is quite funny.
It's
SPEAKER_05 (29:18):
funny to see how triggered people become.
Yeah, exactly.
Brilliant.
Well, that's all we have timefor.
Thank you so much to James andLuke for a fantastic chat.
And we'll be back next time withanother edition of the
Production Expert podcast.
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