Could You Be A Little More Specific?

Happy New Year MASTER VO,

I sure hope you can lead me in the right direction w/a couple of issues re: ProTools LE, an MBox Mini, and my intel iMac. Seems like a combo made in heaven but it has been a real migraine. I was so sure I had an iMac issue, I took my month old iMac to a nearby Apple store for a diagnosis..."no hardware issues" said the doctor. Recommended I re-install Leopard, Pro Tools 7.4.2 which I did. Still had conflicts in the form of spinning beachballs, but never, read that never, when using Pro Tools.?? So I figure it's Apples problem. Wrote a letter to Steve Jobs. Got a call from customer service about 12 days later. Really great people! Worked w/ a Tech by phone several times and incrementally discovered that when the MBox Mini was unplugged I no longer got the problem which occurred always when I was at the iTunes Store listening to audiobooks, but not at other audiobook sites.??

OK, I don't need to listen to the iTunes Store...I'm flexible. So this has all been happening recently, and I decide I have to get this resolved for the new year. I archive-n-reinstall Leopard, remove ProTools and do a clean, careful(I'm the wiser person now) re-install of both. Check all connections. Follow Digidesigns advice for closing down certain Leopard features. Update software and voila! There is still something going on but not the beachballs. So now you've got the set-up, here are my questions and concerns. Every now and again, the sound from the iMac "freezes" or so it seems. No sound from any application including music cd's I have on the hard drive. The only way to clear it or free it, is to power off the computer, not a re-start. When I do this I hear a fairly loud electronic 'pop' in the m-audio monitors, and a lighter electronic noise upon startup. Then all is well with the sound. Ideas??

Yesterday, I was using the AKG 200 on-n-off throughout the day. I come back to the exact same setup, no changes in recording settings and in record mode. Open a file I've been working on and I see constant clipping in the mix window...and I haven't said a word yet. So I go to record some material and the wave is HUGE! I reduce the gain on the MBox to "0". Still HUGE. I position the Slider in the Mix to the very bottom position...still Huge. I'm confused. So I unplug the mic, and believe it, I'm still showing a signal, about a third up the signal strength window.?? So I close everything and re-start which upon re-opening has changed nothing. I then Poweroff/on and all is well once again. Ideas??

Finally, (if you're still with me you're a Prince of a man,) in your comments re: recording software, you don't mention Pro Tools LE and I was wondering why. You know, last night, after yesterdays nonsense, I took a look at Garageband. I have never really considered it. But I was thinking...maybe ProTools is not all it's cracked up to be. And yet I am learning LE with some CD's and a Berklee book and frankly I'm beginning to like it. That said, I don't know if I can get this system to the point where I can build a business on it. Ideas?? Thank you for reading this novella, and if you can offer any guidance I will offer you my cats first born. In any event, thank you for sharing your experience and insights with our community. I've learned a lot from your practical comments and solutions.

Tom D.

A happy and less frustrating year to you as well Tom,

As time continues to tick away and technology rolls on, the more I am convinced that the idea of a home studio should be a simple joy. Technology now makes that possible. Pro-Tools LE does not. Pro-Tools is not designed for what we do. It records! Darn tootin it records great! Great sound. But what on earth is all that other stuff?

I can't say this enough, and some gear heads are taking great exception to this; Why would you use a nuclear reactor control system to control a hamster in a wheel? Pro-Tools is a high-end, multi-track, music production software. Pro-Tools uses memory resources, which on an i-Mac are more readily available than on a PC. However, Pro-Tools still uses far too much. Its a pig and it overwhelms even an i-Mac. hence, the "beach balls." Bottom line, "If you don't understand it, you don't need it!"

I keep saying again and again...KEEP IT SIMPLE! Tom, what are you using this software for? Are you creating full blown productions with music and sound effects? Do you have experience with radio commercial production? If not, Pro-Tools is a huge waste of money. All that stuff you see in there, compression, reverb, flanging, all that stuff and all those control parameters have nothing to do with laying down a single track, flat response, mono signal, that is not over-modulated. That , as a voice artist with a home studio, is all you need to create. Pro-Tools is like hiring Monet to paint your house. OK enough metaphors...

As our little voice industry has evolved over the past five years, so has the technology. It is now so simple, my 11 year old is doing it and editing and creating amazing things! Problem is, people getting started in voice over want a competitive edge. They want the best "thing" to make themselves sound great. Pro-tools doesn't make you sound great. ProTools records you as you are and allows you to manipulate it to sound "different." So will Garage Band and so will Audacity and Twisted Wave and a bunch of other inexpensive recording software programs. However, you're not producing the soundtrack to Russell Crowes' next blockbuster, or the latest Pixar feature. The engineers who make those use Pro-Tools. They also know how, and more importantly, they know WHY they use it!

Honestly, learning the basics of basics of digital recording is more important than what you use to do it. The codecs and processors these high-end programs use are for mixing complex sounds. While the human voice is complex on its own, it only requires one mono track to sound the way it should on a radio spot, TV spot, Web spot, or voice mail system. Pro-Tools et al. are OVERKILL to the max!

Simple programs like Garage Band, which came free with your i-Mac are all you need, for now. Garage Band has its limitations, but I made a lot of money using it. Do other things sound better? Yes, and I keep mentioning it. Adobe makes great stuff and I've been very happy with Adobe "SOUNDBOOTH" for Mac. They just upgraded it to CS4 which now has multi-track capability, if you have to use effects and music. Most of the time I don't. My clients just want my clean, unadulterated voice. No compression, no reverb, no EQ. If you don't know what those things are, Pro-Tools can be like Quantum Physics.

I know why you are using Pro-Tools. You bought an M-Box. an M-box only works with Pro-Tools and Garage Band. For other programs you need a NASA engineer to configure it. I see this over and over again. Your musician buddies said, "Hey man, Pro-Tools rocks!" Only problem is you want to sound like you, not Axel Rose.

(Sensing a theme here?) You want a competitive edge? Get training for your acting technique. That's what will get you jobs. Its all technique, not technology. How you use your wonderful AKG 200 is far more important than having it. It doesn't make you sound better. Like Pro-Tools, It just records you as you are, cleanly, with as little coloration as possible.

You can have a great home studio with the simplest of gear. To have a joyful studio, unless you are very experienced, don't use an M-Box and Pro-Tools.

So much for any endorsement deals with Digidesign..

Check out my latest MASTER VO blogs here, and listen to some of the podcasts I've done on this subject. And go to HOMESTUDIOMASTER.COM if you want more information or a personal consultation.

Hope that Helps Tom.

Happy New Year to all my "Grasshoppers."

MASTER VO out (((((GONG)))))