The Pro Audio Suite

What actually makes a microphone directional?

In Part One of this seriously nerdy microphone discussion, the team dives into interference tubes, polar patterns, room reflections and the physics behind shotgun microphones.

Prompted by a tour of Neumann's anechoic chamber, George, Robert,...

If somebody deleted your entire plugin folder and told you that you could only put five back, what would you choose?

That's the challenge this week on The Pro Audio Suite.

Robbo, George and AP start stripping their setups back to the tools they genuinely rely on, from stock Pro Tools and Apple plugins through to Waves F6, H Reverb, SSL X Limit, TDR Nova, iZotope RX Mouth De Click and plenty more.

But the conversation quickly gets b...

AP records the same voice through four very different microphones and sends the files around without revealing what they are. George, Robert, Robbo and a bunch of trusted audio ears rank them purely on what they hear.

Then the mics are revealed.

The result is a pretty good reminder t...

Is there actually such a thing as the best voice-over microphone for women?

It sounds like a simple question, but once the Pro Audio Suite starts pulling it apart, things get much more interesting.

This week, George, Robert, and AP look at why choosing a microphone based on whether t...

How do you build a voiceover audition setup when the room is tiny, space is precious, and you really don't want to pull the whole thing apart every time you're finished?

AP's daughter has moved into a share house in Melbourne and needs something permanent enough to give her consistent audition audio without taking over the room.

The gear is already pretty capable: a RØDE NTG3, CEntrance MicPort Pro, Porta Booth, TwistedWave, Source...

Do voice actors really need in ear monitors?

They offer excellent isolation and can sound fantastic, but they can also feel uncomfortable, create an unnatural sense of pressure, and make it harder to hear your own voice unless your direct monitoring is set up properly.

In this episode, George, Robert, Robbo and AP look at when headphone isolation genuinely m...

What is the cleanest way to connect several microphones, preamps and audio interfaces without constantly crawling behind the rack?

AP starts with what sounds like a simple question about expanding the line-level inputs on his Audient iD44. That sends the team down a glorious rabbit hole involving passive switchers, mic splitters, USB converters, matrix routers, the Heritage Audio Synth Buddy, ESI interfaces, Broadcast Tools, Source...

The Neumann U87 may be one of the most recognisable microphones in the world, but does that make it the right microphone for voiceover and animation?

This week, the team digs into the reputation, sound and real world value of the U87. Andrew is considering one for Somerset's animation work, which sparks a much bigger discussion about why certain microphones become industry standards...

This week on The Pro Audio Suite, the crew dives into the weirdly perfect world of AI fixing AI.

Robert shares a corporate video job about AI adoption that was, rather beautifully, rescued by AI audio cleanup. Robbo jumps in with his own tale of a big corporate shoot where the lapel mics were fitted, but somehow the camera mic was what got recorded. Enter Source Elements ReGen.

The team talks through where tools like ReGen sit in t...

This week on The Pro Audio Suite, George brings out a little show and tell with the SSL One, SSL's compact single mic preamp interface aimed squarely at the same world as the Scarlett Solo and other simple home studio boxes.

The team gets into what actually matters for voice actors and home studio users, including physical gain knobs, direct monitoring, high pass filters, 4K mode, USB-C connections, headphone control, auto gain, cl...

This week on The Pro Audio Suite, the crew dives into one of the biggest traps in audio production: trusting what you think you're hearing.

Robbo talks about working in an unfamiliar studio and being reminded how much your room, routing, monitoring chain, headphones, templates and ha...

The team breaks down what "acceptable audio" really means for voice actors recording from home, from reflections and noise to mic placement, editing, clothing rustle and using reference recordings.

What actually counts as acceptable audio when you're recording voiceover from home?

That question came up after Robbo spoke with a group of aspiring voice ac...

Apple has not always been known as the bargain option, but the latest Apple Silicon Macs might be changing that conversation.

In this episode, the team gets into the surprising value of the M4 Mac Mini, why even a base model can be serious overkill for many voice actors, and how smaller machines like the MacBook Air and MacBook "Neo" style systems compare for re...

This week on The Pro Audio Suite, things go gloriously off the rails.

AP has been rebuilding his studio, and is talking reclaimed timber and custom desks, George is showing off weird vintage Apple gear, and somewhere in the middle, the boys fall down a rabbit hole involving Korg M1s, old ISDN boxes, retro synths, ancient Macs,...

What happens when audio is so bad… even the best plugins can't save it?

In this episode of The Pro Audio Suite, we're joined by Michael "Gomez" Pearce-Adams from Waves Audio to talk about Voice Regenerat...

TwistedWave has dropped updates that feel like they were built for anyone smashing through a pile of auditions or VO edits every day.

George walks through what's new in 32.3 and 32.4, including the ability to apply a Batch directly to your currently open file and map that Batch to a single keystroke. That means you can normalise to a target level, then apply ...

Loopback is one of the most common and misunderstood problems in home studios.

In this episode of The Pro Audio Suite, the team breaks down how the new Nexus Suite, specifically Nexus Review, makes it dramatically easier to capture system audio, create proper mix-minus setups, and send playback to clients without complicated routing.

In this episode of The Pro Audio Suite, the team dives into some major shifts in the audio industry.

Audio Tonics has acquired DPA, Austrian Audio, SSL, Harrison and more. What does this wave of consolidation mean for boutique brands and the future of innovation?

Then we unpack the developing Native Instruments insolvency pro...

In this episode of The Pro Audio Suite, the team digs into a large-scale remote recording with Robert Marshall, capturing a full orchestra and 100-plus voice choir performing Handel's Messiah inside a church.