Production Expert

Production Expert

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The leading website for audio professionals. As the digital landscape changes, Production Expert stands out as one of the last dedicated resources for audio professionals in music and post-production. ✅ News ✅ Tips ✅ Reviews ✅ Opinion

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Apple M6 MacBook Pro: What Audio Pros Need To Know Before Ordering

dlvr.itApple M6 MacBook Pro: What Audio Pros Need To Know Before OrderingApple has announced a new 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M6 chip, replacing the M5 model as the entry point to its pro laptop range. It starts at $1,999 with 16GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage. Pre-orders open on 28 October and the first deliveries arrive on 6 November. A faster laptop is always welcome in a busy session, but two questions matter more to audio readers than benchmarks: does the base spec suit audio work, and will your DAW and plugins be ready for the macOS version it ships with?
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AAF Everything Adds A Final Cut Pro Extension And Rendered Speed Changes

dlvr.itAAF Everything Adds A Final Cut Pro Extension And Rendered Speed ChangesFinal Cut Pro still lacks its own AAF export. AAF Everything, the $79 macOS converter Production Expert covered in July, now fills that gap from inside the editor. A new Final Cut Pro workflow extension exports AAF straight from the timeline, with no separate XML export, and a new option renders audio speed changes into the AAF so the mixer no longer has to rebuild them. The extension comes with every licence and installs automatically, so existing owners pay nothing. Everyone else will want to know whether these additions make it the tool to standardise on for Final Cut turnovers to Pro Tools.
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NUGEN VisLM 3 Adds Stem Monitoring, LDR Measurement And QC Reports

dlvr.itNUGEN VisLM 3 Adds Stem Monitoring, LDR Measurement And QC ReportsNUGEN Audio has released VisLM 3, the first major new version of its loudness meter in a while. It adds stem monitoring within a single instance, timestamped notes, Loudness to Dialog Ratio measurement, QC report export and channel support up to 9.1.6, along with presets for the latest EBU and ATSC guidance. So does the new version change how you deliver, and do VisLM 2 owners need to move now?
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Teufel STUDIO 5X Is A 3-Way Coaxial Monitor For €499.99 A Pair

dlvr.itTeufel STUDIO 5X Is A 3-Way Coaxial Monitor For €499.99 A PairTeufel, the Berlin company best known for hi-fi, home cinema and Bluetooth speakers, has launched its first active studio monitor. The STUDIO 5X is a compact 3-way design with a coaxial midrange and tweeter, priced at €499.99 per pair, or €549.99 for the STUDIO 5X BT, which adds Bluetooth. A coaxial 3-way monitor at that price is unusual. Can a consumer audio brand deliver the accuracy a mixing monitor needs, and what do you give up compared with the established alternatives?
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Kush Omega 2 Model TWK Models The Drive Stage Of The Tweaker Compressor

dlvr.itKush Omega 2 Model TWK Models The Drive Stage Of The Tweaker CompressorKush Audio has released Omega 2 Model TWK, an updated version of its single-knob saturator based on the Drive control of the Kush Tweaker hardware compressor. It costs $39, or $19 as an upgrade for owners of the original Omega TWK, and joins Model A, Model N and Model 458a in the Omega 2 range. Saturation plugins are plentiful, so the question is whether this dark, transistor-based grit offers something your existing tools don’t, and whether original owners have a reason to pay for the new version.
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Focusrite And Klevgrand Release Altitude Harmony For Instant Vocal Harmonies

dlvr.itFocusrite And Klevgrand Release Altitude Harmony For Instant Vocal HarmoniesFocusrite and Klevgrand have released Altitude Harmony, the first plugin from their new partnership, designed to add vocal harmonies with a couple of dials. It costs £39.99, $49.99 or €44.99, and owners of registered Scarlett 3rd and 4th Gen interfaces get half off through Focusrite’s customer portal. It runs on the engine behind Klevgrand’s full Altitude vocal plugin, so most readers will want to know what the cheaper, simpler version leaves out, and whether it does enough against harmony tools that offer far more control.
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BAT ADR Toolkit Links Pro Tools Clip Groups To A Live Cue Sheet

dlvr.itBAT ADR Toolkit Links Pro Tools Clip Groups To A Live Cue SheetBramley Pips has released BAT, an ADR editor’s toolkit for Pro Tools, built by a working ADR editor and beta-tested with ADR supervisors. At launch, it costs £150 for Basic or £300 for Pro, half the regular price until August 2027, and there’s a six-month trial. The central idea is that the cue sheet the director and actor read updates live as you cue in Pro Tools, and that edits to the sheet flow back into the session. That puts it up against established tools such as EdiCue and Non-Lethal Applications’ Cue Pro, along with the newer DX Assist. Is that live link worth adding another tool to an ADR workflow?
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Free DAR Bridge - Control The Dolby Atmos Renderer From Your Avid Control Surface

dlvr.itFree DAR Bridge - Control The Dolby Atmos Renderer From Your Avid Control SurfaceDAR Bridge is Sreejesh Nair’s personal project that lets you control the Dolby Atmos Renderer from your Avid surface. You can control the monitoring level, Dim, Cut, speaker layouts, transport, and loudness from the control surface instead of opening the Renderer window every time, and it's free. We have the details.
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Akai MPK Mini Plus II Released: Price, Features And Rivals

dlvr.itAkai MPK Mini Plus II Released: Price, Features And RivalsAkai Professional has released the MPK Mini Plus II, a second-generation version of its 37-key compact controller that adds a 160 × 80 colour display, pressure-sensitive MPC pads, a set of generative performance tools and direct control of MPC Standalone and MPC Desktop. It costs £134.99, $169, or €159.99, the same US price the original MPK Mini Plus launched at in 2022. That raises two obvious questions: whether existing owners have a reason to switch, and whether new buyers should choose it over the Novation and Arturia controllers at almost the same price.
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ADAM Audio Launches H715 Reference Headphones With Sonnox Calibration

dlvr.itADAM Audio Launches H715 Reference Headphones With Sonnox CalibrationADAM Audio has announced the H715 Reference, a pair of £569.99 open-back headphones that become the company’s new flagship. They sit well above the closed-back H200 and come with calibration software developed with Sonnox, a standalone macOS host called ListenHub and a switchable hi-fi mode. They ship in December, so you have a few weeks to work out the obvious question: at this price, are you paying for better headphones or better software, and does the difference matter to how you mix?
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Vanguard Audio Labs Brings Back The V34C Lolli Large-Diaphragm Head For Pencil Mics

dlvr.itVanguard Audio Labs Brings Back The V34C Lolli Large-Diaphragm Head For Pencil MicsVanguard Audio Labs has brought back the V34C Lolli after almost four years away. The Lolli is a removable large-diaphragm capsule head that screws onto a small-diaphragm pencil condenser, turning it into a large-diaphragm mic with switchable cardioid and omni patterns. The gen2 head sells for $499 by itself. You can also get it bundled with the V1 gen2 pencil mic for $999, or as a stereo kit for $1,999. If you already have a collection of mics, you might wonder if a $499 head on a pencil mic offers anything different from just buying another large-diaphragm mic.
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Sparks Audio Releases ClipMap: Should You Pay For A Pro Tools Session Browser?

dlvr.itSparks Audio Releases ClipMap: Should You Pay For A Pro Tools Session Browser?Sparks Audio has taken its Pro Tools session browser out of open beta. ClipMap is now on sale for macOS and Windows at an introductory $129, with ClipMap Pro costing $259, adding tabs, synced video and dialogue search. Both are perpetual licences with no subscription and no iLok. Pro Tools can already pull material from another session for free, so the question is whether ClipMap saves enough time to justify the cost, and which version you need.
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Platinum Samples Boudoir Puts A Measured Wah In Front Of NAM

dlvr.itPlatinum Samples Boudoir Puts A Measured Wah In Front Of NAMPlatinum Samples, better known for drum samples and MIDI libraries, has released its first guitar plugin. Boudoir is a wah plugin built from measurements of a vintage Bud-Wah and a Dunlop Cry Baby, followed by one or two Neural Amp Modeller slots, cabinet IRs, a delay and an EQ. It costs $49.99, or $29.99 until November 2nd. TONE3000 already includes a free plugin that loads the same NAM captures, so what does the $30 add on top of that?
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zplane TONIC 2 Adds MIDI In, MIDI Out, Chord Drag-And-Drop And Chord Export

dlvr.itzplane TONIC 2 Adds MIDI In, MIDI Out, Chord Drag-And-Drop And Chord ExportFor €10, owners of zplane’s TONIC get a key detector they can write and analyse with. TONIC 2 is released with MIDI input and output, chords you can drag into your DAW as MIDI clips and a resizable interface. It costs €39, or €26.13 until the end of October. The question is whether it now rivals cheaper chord detectors.
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IK Multimedia ARC Studio+ Adds Sub Management And Digital I/O

dlvr.itIK Multimedia ARC Studio+ Adds Sub Management And Digital I/ORoom correction you can calibrate without a computer is the main pitch behind ARC Studio+, IK Multimedia’s second hardware correction processor. It costs £399, or $/€399.99 at an introductory price. Compared to the original ARC Studio, which stays on sale at $/€299.99, it adds automatic subwoofer integration, USB-C and optical digital inputs, three recallable scenes and a relay bypass. Owners of the first box get an upgrade path, so they’ll want to know whether the additions fix what frustrated them. Everyone else will want to know whether this beats software correction or monitors with their own DSP.
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SSL Bus Comp Classic Brings The Stereo Bus Compressor Back To 1U

dlvr.itSSL Bus Comp Classic Brings The Stereo Bus Compressor Back To 1USolid State Logic has put its stereo bus compressor back in a dedicated 1U box. Bus Comp Classic sells for around £1,299 or $1,799.99. It adds Variable VCA Drive, extra ratio and release settings, a stepped side-chain filter and a true stereo external side-chain input. SSL already sells the more elaborate THE BUS+, so who needs this one? And do the new features justify the price over a much cheaper clone or the plugin already on your mix bus?
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The Cargo Cult Releases Relativity - Speed And Pitch Processor For Pro Tools And REAPER

dlvr.itThe Cargo Cult Releases Relativity - Speed And Pitch Processor For Pro Tools And REAPERThe Cargo Cult has announced Relativity, a speed and pitch manipulation tool that runs as an AudioSuite plugin in Pro Tools and as a custom extension in REAPER. It is aimed at both corrective and creative work, from dialogue fixes through to sound design, and ships with a simplified real-time companion plugin. We have the details.
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Inside McDSP Compressors: How BITE and Variable Knee Work

dlvr.itInside McDSP Compressors: How BITE and Variable Knee WorkMcDSP’s lineup of virtual processors for the studio will be known to many. But when it comes to compression, the company has a few tricks hiding in plain sight that might not be known to everyone. Here we explore BITE and the exclusive knee functionality in three of McDSP’s well-regarded super-squeezers, and what they mean for your mix.
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Ravine DSP Updates Inter::State, An AU/VST3 Plugin Host To Support AAX For Pro Tools

dlvr.itRavine DSP Updates Inter::State, An AU/VST3 Plugin Host To Support AAX For Pro ToolsRavine DSP updated Inter::State, an AU and VST3 plugin host that runs an entire effects chain in a single insert, and added AAX support for Pro Tools on macOS and Windows. Aimed at engineers who want serial, parallel and multiband routing without aux tracks or a wall of open plugin windows, it adds level matching on every hosted plugin, macro control and slot-based scene recall. We have the details.
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Luxora Audio Releases Orvion OC-1 Optical Compressor Plugin

dlvr.itLuxora Audio Releases Orvion OC-1 Optical Compressor PluginLuxora Audio has released the Orvion OC-1, a software model of an optical compressor built with separately modelled input transformer, optical gain cell, tube and output transformer stages. Aimed at engineers wanting optical compression character without the hardware, it ships with presets across vocal, drums, bass, synth and master categories. We have the details.
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Does Solar And Battery Power Affect Your Studio's Sound?

dlvr.itDoes Solar And Battery Power Affect Your Studio's Sound?Following on from our recent article Can You Power A Home Studio From Solar?, a reader got in touch to make us aware of a possible issue regarding solar inverters and their potential to generate high frequency harmonics which can affect the performance of audio equipment. In this follow-up we explain what the concern actually is and hear from a producer who has run a fully solar-powered mobile studio every day since 2019.
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Acoustica 8 Audio Fill: How to Repair Audio Dropouts, Gaps And Damage

dlvr.itAcoustica 8 Audio Fill: How to Repair Audio Dropouts, Gaps And DamageAcon Digital’s recent release of Acoustica 8 saw the introduction of a number of new features and tools. Among these is Audio Fill, an overhauled and improved version of the older Interpolate Tool, designed to fill gaps, dropouts or damaged sections in recordings. In this article, Paul Maunder goes into detail about how Audio Fill works and why it’s such a powerful tool for audio restoration.
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Intrect Brings De-Artifact To Pro Tools With New AAX Format

dlvr.itIntrect Brings De-Artifact To Pro Tools With New AAX FormatIntrect has added Pro Tools support to de-artifact, its plugin built to reduce artifacts in AI-generated music, separated stems and lossy-codec audio, with a new AAX format joining the existing VST3, AU and CLAP versions. The update brings de-artifact's artifact reduction to Pro Tools sessions for the first time. We have the details.
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Max1mus Audio Launches Mult1Comp, A Multiband Compressor Built For Surround And Atmos

dlvr.itMax1mus Audio Launches Mult1Comp, A Multiband Compressor Built For Surround And AtmosMax1mus Audio has released Mult1Comp, a multiband compressor and frequency router built specifically for surround and Dolby Atmos immersive mixing. Rather than treating each channel in isolation, Mult1Comp splits both bed channels and linked object tracks into independently compressed frequency bands, with routing and bass management built around how immersive mixes are actually assembled. We have the details.
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Sonnet Updates Echo III PCIe Expansion Chassis Family With Thunderbolt 5

dlvr.itSonnet Updates Echo III PCIe Expansion Chassis Family With Thunderbolt 5Sonnet has updated its Echo III PCIe card expansion chassis family with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, bringing three PCIe slots to a wider range of Macs and PCs that lack built-in card slots. The update spans five configurations, from a bare module through to rackmount and xMac combo builds, and carries over Avid's Pro Tools HDX qualification from earlier Echo III generations. We have the details.
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Denormal Audio Launches Guardrail, A MIDI Plugin That Turns Chord Tracks Into Playable Performances

dlvr.itDenormal Audio Launches Guardrail, A MIDI Plugin That Turns Chord Tracks Into Playable PerformancesDenormal Audio has launched Guardrail, its first plugin and a MIDI performance tool that turns static, blocky chord-track MIDI into expressive, playable material. Instead of editing notes by hand, a musician plays the result live from a MIDI keyboard, with the plugin transforming it in real time. We have the details.
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Evergreen Audio Version 26 Adds Custom Meters, Screening Mode And More

dlvr.itEvergreen Audio Version 26 Adds Custom Meters, Screening Mode And MoreEvergreen Audio Design Group has announced Version 26 of its professional metering tools, covering Massive Meter, Massive Meter Pro, and Meter Bridge Pro. The company calls it the biggest update to the system so far, and it is aimed at rooms where metering has to serve several people at once, from post-production stages to broadcast facilities with a house standard to meet. We have the details.
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DDMF Releases OberComp, A Four-Band Compressor With Automatic Per-Band Detection

dlvr.itDDMF Releases OberComp, A Four-Band Compressor With Automatic Per-Band DetectionDDMF has announced OberComp, a four-band compressor with independent auto-compression units in each band, designed to remove the guesswork of setting attack, release, and knee values across a multiband chain. The company says guesswork is especially awkward in a multiband compressor, since each band can have very different time scales and dynamic behaviour from its neighbours. We have the details.