Acon Digital Restoration Suite 2

When it comes to audio plug-ins, video editors have different needs than audio mixers. Sure, you need EQ, compression, and limiting, but the plug-ins you reach for most often revolve around the clean-up and enhancement of dialogue.

There are a number of third-party plug-in solutions, which augment the built-in enhancement features of most editing applications. However, solutions like the full version of iZotope RX can be pricey, especially for upgrades. Accusonus, another alternative, has left the plug-in business. The tools in Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve vary in effectiveness; however, they lack comprehensive user control, often presenting only an amount slider. So there’s room for innovation.

A friend recently pointed me to Acon Digital’s Restoration Suite 2. Acon Digital is a Norwegian software developer that offers a portfolio of audio plug-ins. The Restoration Suite includes four professional-grade plug-ins: DeNoise 2, DeHum 2, DeClick 2, and DeClip 2. Their larger Acoustica application (available in Standard and Premium versions) adds a few more tools. Yet, for most video editors Restoration Suite 2 fits the bill.

Version 2 was introduced in 2019 and added 64-bit OS support, improved algorithms, and Mid/Side processing functions. Acon Digital’s software supports Windows and macOS and runs natively on Apple Silicon, as well as Intel processors. The plug-ins install AU, AAX, VST, and VST3 versions.

DeNoise 2

Of the four plug-ins that constitute Restoration Suite 2, DeNoise 2 provides the most versatility. It’s designed to remove background noise, like wind or waves hitting the beach, but there are additional factory presets for voice and music. You can run it adaptively or with a noise profile (noise print). Adaptive processing can tackle broadband or combined noise. The difference is that combined processing takes into account noise with a tonal quality, like hum. Using the combined mode will affect the voice to a greater degree.

The noise profile works in a similar fashion to other tools. Run a piece of the audio that only has background noise for a few seconds and click Learn. Then click the “power” icon to apply that noise profile. According to Acon Digital, “Version 2 introduces the novel dynamic noise profiles that help reducing noise that varies randomly over time, such as wind noise or rustle from lavaliere microphones. Where the earlier versions merely captured a static noise print with time-constant noise levels, the dynamic noise profiles capture statistics from the noise to be reduced. The noise suppression algorithm then estimates the most suitable noise threshold curve for the noisy input signal using the measured statistics.”

Unlike most other noise reduction plug-ins, the DeNoise 2 interface includes controls for reduction, knee, attenuation, and reaction time. The Adaptation Time slider sets how long before the the plug-in responds to changes in the noise floor. A shorter time means that processing kicks in more quickly, but it can affect the desired signal.

A histogram dynamically displays the audio signal versus the processing curve. Click Emphasis and you now have control at multiple frequency ranges. Let’s say you want to remove background wind noise. That’s usually a higher frequency noise. Simply drag down that control point and adjust the curve. You can then raise the other control points if you like. While sounds like wind noise work well in the adaptive mode, I got the best result setting a noise profile and using Emphasis to tweak the control points. Finally, there’s a Mid/Side mode if you are working with stereo source material.

DeClick 2

DeClick filters are commonly used to remove clicks, scratches, and pops in recordings. This is typical with any music tracks that come from an older vinyl LP. Another source of clicks can be from digital recordings. This filter can be used to minimize them if minor, but if the audio is completely trashed, you are out of luck. However, DeClick 2 has other uses, such as the reduction of plosives – a voice-over announcer popping “p” consonants. There are separate factory preset groups of 78 RPM, Vinyl, and Voice. The later group includes presets for reducing mouth clicks and for plosives. So DeClick 2 covers more audio artifacts than the name might imply.

DeClip 2

This plug-in is designed to restore distorted, clipped recordings, such as an over-driven voice recording. DeClip 2 replaces distorted peaks with an estimate of the proper signal level. The histogram displays the signal with a positive and negative threshold slider.

The first step is to adjust the input gain so the signal is loud enough for the filter to make a proper correction. But, make sure some headroom is left. Pick the worst-sounding section and click Detect for an automatic selection. Then manually tweak the two threshold sliders to fine-tune the sound. Adjust the output gain if needed. This filter did a great job for me in recovering the transients in my test clips, thus repairing otherwise distorted voice recordings.

DeHum 2

I didn’t have a real-world dialogue source with hum to test this last plug-in. Instead, I created my own, taking a VO track, mixing in 60Hz hum, and bouncing that out as my test clip. DeHum 2 completely removed the embedded hum without distorting the voice. There’s a preset for 50Hz and 60Hz sources, along with a variable frequency control. You can manually dial in the frequency and sensitivity or click the “target” icon to set the profile automatically. The hum in my test clip turned out to be 59.97 instead of a true 60Hz.

The number of harmonics can be selected, should the offending hum have those. This is displayed on the histogram. There are two modes selected by toggling the Notch Filter button. The Notch Filter mode reduces CPU load, but can impact the voice more. When it’s disabled, DeHum 2 subtracts a hum signal created through a re-synthesis technique in order to minimize signal distortions.

Conclusion

Acon Digital has developed a very useful audio enhancement/repair toolkit for video editors. It’s also handy for anyone producing podcasts – especially those recording interviews via Zoom. These four plug-ins are easy to set and adjust and give you plenty of control. Three include a solo function to monitor the noise being removed. In addition to the factory presets, you can save your own – tailored to your particular audio needs.

For complex challenges, stack more than a single instance of these filters onto a clip. For instance, you might apply DeClick 2 (remove plosives) plus DeNoise 2 (remove background noise) to the same on-camera presenter audio for the cleanest results. Each filter can tackle a range of similar audio artifacts.

When you compare that to competing products, others might require you to buy several plug-ins to tackle the same set of conditions. For instance, you might have to purchase separate filters for plosive removal and mouth clicks, rather than one filter that’s able to perform either task. With only four individual plug-ins contained in the Restoration Suite 2 bundle, you might mistakenly think another bundle with more plug-ins is also more comprehensive. That’s definitely not the case here.

Along with Acon Digital’s Restoration Suite 2, Acoustica, and a separate Mastering Suite, the individual plug-in products also include a handy, free reverb filter (Verberate Basic). You may run the software on as many computers as you personally own and have control of. All of the plug-ins that I tested worked well in the Apple and Adobe DAWs and NLEs that I use. Be sure to check out a trial version first if you have any questions about your particular kit.

This article was originally written for Pro Video Coalition.

©2023 Oliver Peters

Mixing – Analog or Digital?

A perennial topic among YouTube audio production channels is whether analog is better than digital and whether or not it even makes a difference. While I’m a video editor and not a mixer, the music projects that I have been involved with have all been recorded analog. Of course, in the past 20 years audio has been increasingly recorded and mixed purely in the digital realm. Although, sometimes analog pieces of gear were used for character and color.

Produce Like A Pro is a YouTube channel that I follow. Music producer Warren Huart frequently features videos by Grammy-nominated producer/engineer/mixer Marc Daniel Nelson. Many of these videos include downloadable session tracks that enable you to remix the songs in order to learn from the process.

I found this particular video (linked) of Nelson’s intriguing, because it tackled the analog/digital debate head-on. It’s from an older session of his in which he recorded and mixed the song “Traveling Light” by artist S. Joel Norman. As he explains in the video, most of the instrument tracks were “multed” – i.e. the mic signals were split and simultaneously recorded to 2″ analog multitrack tape, as well as directly into Pro Tools. Once the tape tracks were also ingested into Pro Tools, they could compare and pick whichever sounded the best. According to his commentary, the instrument tracks that were recorded to tape were preferred over those recorded directly to Pro Tools for this song. This is in keeping with the soul/gospel/RnB vibe of the song.

Doing my own remix

Since I like to mix some of these tunes (a hobby and to learn), I downloaded the tracks, dropped them into Logic Pro, and compared. As I first listened to the soloed tracks, the digital versions sounded better to me – louder and more open. My intent originally was to mix in Logic using mainly the built-in plug-ins. Unfortunately as I started to build the mix, I had trouble getting the right sound, especially with drums. Drums are often one of the hardest parts of the mix to get right. It’s usually the largest number of mics with the most leakage. Getting a drum kit to sound right and not like someone is pounding on cardboard boxes can take a mix engineer a lot of time.

I decided to change my approach and wherever possible, switch over to the tracks recorded to tape. Instantly the mix started to fall into line. This is a classic case of what sounds great in solo might not sound as good in combination with the rest of the mix. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. This is why veteran mixers always caution beginners not to fixate too much on making each individual track sound perfect on its own.

Along with the decision to change my approach, I also abandoned the idea of doing the whole mix with Logic’s native plug-ins. Don’t get me wrong. The tools included with Logic Pro are quite good. Their compressor and vintage EQ options are designed to emulate certain models of sought-after, classic analog gear. They just don’t use the licensed branding. I did still use them, but more sparsely.

Tracks -> Stacks -> Submix -> Output

My standard track layout for these mixes is to combine each instrument group into a summing track stack (a bus) – drums, guitar, bass, keys, vocals, etc. I usually route all of these instrument stems (buses) to a submix bus, which in turn is sent to the output. This allows me to mix levels and add plug-ins/processing at three stages – the track, the track stack, and the final submix bus. I don’t add any processing to the output bus. Only metering plug-ins are applied there.

For this project, I decided to use a modified approach. All instrument stems were routed to a separate instruments bus (minus any vocals). Then the combination of instruments, vocals, and choir were routed to the submix bus. The advantage of this type of film/TV mixing style is that I could adjust all instruments as a group on a single channel and balance them as a unit against the vocals and choir.

In the past I used to rely on hardware faders, but I don’t own a control surface. I also used to write live automation passes with the mouse, but I’ve gone away from doing that, too. Instead, I surgically add and adjust keyframes throughout the individuals tracks, as well as the stems. Usually I will balance out the mix this way before ever adding plug-ins. Those are there to sweeten – not to do the heavy lifting.

Mixing with plug-ins and channel strips

My main effects tool for this mix was the Waves Scheps Omni Channel plug-in, which I applied to each track stack (instrument group). Andrew Scheps is a renowned mixer who has partnered with Waves to develop the Omni Channel. The advantage to a channel strip is that you have multiple effects tools (filters, compression, EQ, etc) at your fingertips all within a single interface. It mimics a channel strip on an analog console. No need to open multiple plug-in windows.

I also have both SSL and Focusrite channel strip plug-ins, but I prefer the Scheps version. Instead of simply designing just another SSL or Neve copy, Scheps was able to pick and choose the character of different products to create a channel strip that he would like to use himself. It sounds great, has a ton of presets, and unlike the name-brand emulations, the modules within the plug-in can be expanded and re-arranged. When applying it to instrument stacks, I can really develop the character that I want to hear.

No mix is ever finished after the first pass. When I compared my mix to the official mix that’s available on Spotify, I noticed some distinct differences. The artist’s version had some additional overdubbed instrumentation (strings and some embellishments) that I didn’t have in the download. They also chose to delay the start of the choir after the breakdown mid-song. These are all subjective choices based on taste. Of course, the release mix has also been professionally mastered, which can make a big difference.

What bothered me in my mix was the lack of a really present bottom end. This is often the difference in amateur versus pro mixes. A top-level mixer like Marc Daniel Nelson is certainly going to be way better at it than I am. In addition, he might be mixing in a hybrid fashion using Pro Tools along with key pieces of analog gear that really improve the sound and help to sculpt the sonic qualities of a song.

In an effort to increase and improve the bottom end, I decided to swap the kick drum tracks recorded to tape for the digital versions. I also dropped the bass amp track in favor of only using the bass DI track. The second thing was to use Logic’s vintage graphic EQ to boost the kick drum and bass low frequencies. This particular plug-in emulates an API console EQ and is a good choice for the low end. 

In the modern era, live drum sounds are often replaced by drum samples. The samples are triggered by the live drums, so you still get the right feel and timing, but a better drum sound. Often a mixer will combine a bit of both. I don’t know whether or not that was done in the actual mix. I’m certainly not implying that it was. Nevertheless, this is a fairly common modern practice to get really killer drum kit mixes.

Dealing with recording reality

When you start playing with raw tracks, it’s inevitable that you’re going to listen to each in the solo mode. You quickly see that even the best recordings will have some wrinkles. For example, I don’t like when a singer or a voice-over artist takes huge breaths between phrases.  At first, I tried to mitigate these with De-Breath plug-ins – first Accusonus and later iZotope RX. Both introduced some annoying artifacts that I could hear in the mix. So I decided on the old-school approach, simply adding keyframes and ducking the vocal track at each breath. In doing so – and paying very close attention to the vocal, I also realized that some sort of gate must have been used during the recording. You could hear a track drop to silence as a last word faded between phrases. Riding levels helped to smooth these out, too.

Working with the bass track, I also noticed some “fizz” in the 3khz range. This appeared to be coming from the bass pick-ups. Noise reduction/restoration plug-in hurt the quality too much, so I used Logic’s parametric EQ to notch out this frequency.

Final thoughts

Circling back to the original analog versus digital debate, it simply comes down to preference and the genre of the music. If you grew up on the classic rock, country, or RnB/soul music of the 70s, 80s, and 90s, then you’ll probably prefer the sound of analog. After all, those recordings were usually made in the best studios, by mixers at the top of their game, and using the finest analog gear of the day. Can you reproduce those exact sounds on your own computer with bog standard plug-ins? Maybe, but unlikely. On the other hand, if your musical tastes go off in a different direction – electronica, hip hop, etc – then maybe digital will sound better to you. There is no right or wrong answer, since taste is personal.

The trick is starting with a great recording that gets you nearly there and then enhance it. To do that, learn the tools you already have. Every DAW comes with a great set of built-in plug-ins. There are also many free and/or inexpensive third-party plug-ins on the market. The upside is that you can apply multiple instances of a fancy name-brand emulation on each and every track of your mix, which would never be possible with the real hardware due to cost. The downside is that you have so many options out there, that a lot of users simply amass a collection of plug-ins that they have no idea how to use. This induces option-paralysis.

If you own a ton of plug-ins, it’s a good idea to ween yourself off of them. Focus on a select group and learn them well. Understand how they work and when to use them. As I’ve mentioned, I like Omni Channel, as well as the Logic plug-ins. If you are looking for a family of products, it’s hard to go wrong with any of the tools from iZotope, Sonible, and/or FabFilter. Music mixing is about taste and emotion. Be sure to preview your mixes for some trusted friends to get their feedback. After working for hours on a mix, you might be too close to it. Then refine as needed. In the end, if you are doing this for fun, then you have only yourself to please. Enjoy!

Click this link to listen to the remix on Vimeo.

©2023 Oliver Peters

The Color of Analog – FabFilter Saturn 2

In the beginning there was analog and it was good. Then audio engineers developed digital and it was better. Wait, not so fast! The more we heard pure digital production, the more we started to miss the character – and yes, flaws – of analog. After all, grit, saturation, and distortion are synonymous with rock ‘n’ roll. And so, since the dawn of the digital era, many audio software developers have designed products to bring back some of that missing analog sound.

The character or color of analog is generally a function of saturation, which originally came about because of the physical medium of audio tape and electronics used to record and mix songs. Tubes, transformers, and tape introduced internal compression and frequency roll-offs, but most importantly, harmonic overtones. You could push the signal hard and get a certain amount of “warmth.” Push it past the limit and you’d get distortion, but not harsh clipping in the same way as digital signals.

Plug-in developers have sought to emulate the characteristics of analog through various types of emulation. Generally these take the form of a simple saturation or overdrive plug-in. The bulk of these feature very simple controls with a range from subtle warmth to complete distortion. Unfortunately, you don’t have many options to tailor the effect with most of them.

Enter FabFilter Saturn 2

If you really want the ultimate in saturation control, then one of the best tools on the market is FabFilter Saturn 2 from FabFilter Software Instruments. I’ve reviewed their Pro-L2 limiter and it’s since become my go-to limiter for any music mix that I do. It’s often a good idea to stick within a family of products when you find a top-notch developer. There’s a reason that FabFilter plug-ins are the preferred choice by many mixers.

First of all, if you want a plug-in that mimics the appearance and operational controls of some vintage piece of gear, then this isn’t it. All of the FabFilter products feature a similar, modern design aesthetic with easy-to-use controls. At first glance, FabFilter Saturn 2 appears deceptively simple. But, once you dive into the presets, options, and various controls, you’ll find that it can work as a simple saturation plug-in all the way up to a multi-band audio processing device.

The main set of controls are accessed from the bottom control bar. The style selector button covers a range of emulations, including vacuum tube, audio tape, guitar amps, saturation, transformers, and special effects (smudge, breakdown, foldback, rectify, and destroy). Each of these categories includes numerous options within. As you can see from these groups, the options cover not only a wide range of musical production possibilities, but also broadens into sound design. The central drive dial controls the strength of the saturation. Controls to the left and right let you further adjust the sound. At the top right, you can also select from a wide range of presets.

Click into the top area of the interactive display to change the plug-in into a multi-band processor. Each band has its own set of controls. You can also adjust the crossover position and slope between the bands. Each band can make use of different styles of emulation, along with different control adjustments.

Modulation

In the default mode, Saturn 2 looks pretty simple. But you can open the area below the control bar to further modulate any of the effects. There are numerous ways to modulate these and the interface uses a handy color scheme and visualization to give you a better idea of what’s being done.

There are also drag points. For example, click on the circle above an envelope setting and drag it to one of the controls on the control bar. In FabFilter’s description this now connects a modulation source to a modulation target. These are now linked and the action of one impacts the other.

Trying to explain how this works for a blog post would really get us in the weeds. It’s better handled by FabFilter’s user guide or their comprehensive YouTube tutorial.

In use

Saturn 2 installs on both Windows and macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) systems in AU, VST/VST3, and AAX formats. Therefore, these plug-ins will work with most video editing and audio mixing applications. There is no right or wrong way to use Saturn 2. For example, you could apply it with a default setting to a vocal track, pick a warm tube selection, and dial in a bit of drive for character. Since it has four tone sliders, you can also use it for a bit of equalization.

Or add Saturn 2 to a guitar track and use one of the guitar amp emulations. If you’ve ever used Apple Logic Pro, then the options will be similar. The choices are listed by generic names, since actual brands haven’t been licensed. However, the selections are designed to sound similar to recognizable amp manufacturers, such as Fender, Vox, Marshall, and others.

You can certainly use Saturn 2 on an instrument stem or the final mix bus and dial in a more aggressive setting. This is where the presets help you to learn how the controls function. Apply the plug-in to the mix bus and you can radically add character to the complete mix. Of course, there’s no reason you couldn’t apply multiple instances of Saturn 2 at various stages to get the analog color you are looking for.

Aside from analog character for music, Saturn 2 can also be used for some pretty extreme effects. Need to pitch down a voice-over to sound like a monster? No sweat – Saturn 2 can do this. Special effects settings work for vocal processing, sci-fi sounds, and musical processing, like ping-pong and tremolo filtering.

I’m personally running this on mixes on a 2020 iMac in Logic Pro. Like FabFilter’s other filters, it performs well. Even when I have Saturn 2 applied to numerous tracks, there’s really no drag on the application. The filter has two high quality settings – good and superb. Even with all instances set to superb, my iMac had no issues. While you can definitely go crazy with the possibilities, a little goes a long way. When using Saturn 2, it’s best to start out with a subtle setting and dial in the various adjustments by ear.

There are plenty of other saturation filters on the market, but I have yet to find one with such a wide range of filtering options. This is especially helpful when your audio production needs cover more than just music mixes. It’s hard to tell from demos and blog posts whether a plug-in fits your needs, so be sure to check out FabFilter’s 30-day trial for this or any of their other outstanding plug-ins.

©2023 Oliver Peters

Impressions of NAB 2023

2023 marks the 100th year of the NAB Convention, which started out as a radio gathering in New York City. This year you could add ribbons to your badges indicating the number of years that you’d attended – 5, 10, etc. My first NAB was 1979 in Dallas, so I proudly displayed the 25+ ribbon. Although I haven’t attended each one in those intervening years, I have attended many and well over 25.

Some have been ready to sound the death knell for large, in-person conventions, thanks to the pandemic and proliferation of online teleconferencing services like Zoom. 2019 was the last pre-covid year with an attendance of 91,500 – down from previous highs of over 100,000. 2022 was the first post-covid NAB and attendance was around 52,400. That was respectable given the climate a year ago. This year’s attendance was over 65,000, so certainly an upward trend. If anything, this represents a pent-up desire to kick the tires in person and hook back up with industry friends from all over the world. My gut feeling is that international attendance is still down, so I would expect future years’ attendance to grow higher.

Breaking down the halls

Like last year, the convention spread over the Central, North, and new West halls. The South hall with its two floors of exhibition space has been closed for renovation. The West hall is a three-story complex with a single, large exhibition floor. It’s an entire convention center in its own right. West hall is connected to the North hall by the sidewalk, an enclosed upstairs walkway, as well as the LVCC Loop (the connecting tunnel that ferries people between buildings in Teslas). From what I hear, next year will be back to the North, Central, and South halls.

As with most NAB conventions, these halls were loosely organized by themes. Location and studio production gear could mostly be found in Central. Post was mainly in the North hall, but next year I would expect it to be back in the South hall. The West hall included a mixture of vendors that fit under connectivity topics, such as streaming, captioning, etc. It also included some of the radio services.

Although the booths covered nearly all of the floor space, it felt to me like many of the big companies were holding back. By that I mean, products with large infrastructure needs (big shared storage systems, large video switchers, huge mixing desks, etc) were absent. Mounting a large booth at the Las Vegas Convention Center – whether that’s for CES or NAB – is quite costly, with many unexpected charges.

Nevertheless, there were still plenty of elaborate camera sets and huge booths, like that of Blackmagic Design. If this was your first year at NAB, the sum of the whole was likely to be overwhelming. However, I’m sure many vendors were still taking a cautious approach. For example, there was no off-site Avid Connect event. There were no large-scale press conferences the day before opening.

The industry consolidates

There has been a lot of industry consolidation over the past decade or two. This has been accelerated thanks to the pandemic. Many venerable names are now part of larger holding companies. For example, Audiotonix owns many large audio brands, including Solid State Logic, DiGiCo, Sound Devices, among others. And they added Harrison to their portfolio, just in time for NAB. The Sennheiser Group owns both Sennheiser and Neumann. Grass Valley, Snell, and Quantel products have all been consolidated by Black Dragon Capital under the Grass Valley brand. Such consolidation was evident through shared booth space. In many cases, the brands retained their individual identities. Unfortunately for Snell and Quantel, those brands have now been completely subsumed by Grass Valley.

A lot of this is a function of the industry tightening up. While there’s a lot more media production these days, there are also many inexpensive solutions to create that media. Therefore, many companies are venturing outside of their traditional lanes. For example. Sennheiser still manufactures great microphone products, but they’ve also developed the AMBEO immersive audio product line. At NAB they demonstrated the AMBEO 2-Channel Spatial Audio renderer. This lets a mixer take surround mixes and/or stems and turn them into 2-channel spatial mixes that are stereo-compatible. The control software allows you to determine the stereo width and amount of surround and LFE signal put into the binaural mix. In the same booth, Neumann was demoing their new KH 120-II near-field studio monitors.

General themes

Overall, I didn’t see any single trend that would point to an overarching theme for the show. AI/ML/Neural Networks were part of many companies’ marketing strategy. Yet, I found nothing that jumped out like the current public fascination with ChatGPT. You have to wonder how much of this is more evolutionary than revolutionary and that the terms themselves are little more than hype.

Stereoscopic production is still around, although I only found one company with product (Stereotec). Virtual sets were aplenty, including a large display by Vu Studios and even a mobile expando trailer by Magicbox for virtual set production on-location. Insta360 was there, but tucked away in the back of Central hall.

Of course, everyone has a big push for “the cloud” in some way, shape, or form. However, if there is any single new trend that seems to be getting manufacturers’ attention, it’s passing video over IP. The usual companies who have dealt in SDI-based video hardware, like AJA, Blackmagic Design, and Matrox, were all showing IP equivalents. Essentially, where you used to send SDI video signals using the uncompressed SDI protocol, you will now use the SMPTE ST 2110 IP protocol to send it through 1GigE networks.

The world of post production

Let me shift to post – specifically Adobe, Avid, and Blackmagic Design. Unlike Blackmagic, neither Avid nor Adobe featured their usual main stage presentations. I didn’t see Apple’s Final Cut Pro anywhere on the floor and only one sighting in the press room. Avid’s booth was a shadow of itself, with only a few smaller demo pods. Their main focus was showing the tighter integration between Media Composer and Pro Tools (finally!). There were no Pro Tools control surfaces to play with. However, in their defense, NAMM 2023 (the large audio and music products exhibition) was held just the week before. Most likely this was a big problem for any audio vendor that exhibits at both shows. NAMM shifts back to January in 2024, which is its historical slot on the calendar.

Uploading media to the cloud for editing has been the mantra at Frame io, which is now under the Adobe wing. They’ve enhanced those features with direct support by Fujifilm (video) and Capture One (photography). In addition, Frame has improved features specific to the still photography market. New to the camera-to-cloud game is also Atomos, which demoed its own cloud-based editor developed by asset management developer Axle ai.

Adobe demoed the new, text-based editing features for Premiere Pro. It’s currently in beta, but will soon be in full release. In my estimation, this is the best text-based method of any of the NLEs. Avid’s script-based editing is optimized for scripted content, but doesn’t automatically generate text. Its strength is in scripted films and TV shows, where the page layout mimics a script supervisor’s lined script.

Adobe’s approach seems better for documentary projects. Text is generated through speech-to-text software within Premiere Pro. That is now processed on your computer instead of in the cloud. When you highlight text in the transcription panel, it automatically marks the in and out points on that source clip. Then, using insert and overwrite commands while the transcription panel is still selected, automatically edit that portion of the source clip to the timeline. Once you shift your focus to the timeline, the transcription panel displays the edited text that corresponds to the clips on the timeline. Rearrange the text and Premiere Pro automatically rearranges the clips on the timeline. Or rearrange the clips and the text follows.

Meanwhile over at Blackmagic Design’s massive booth, the new DaVinci Resolve 18.5 features were on full display. 18.5 is also in beta. While there are a ton of new features, it also includes automatic speech-to-text generation. This felt to me like a work-in-progress. So far, only English is supported. It creates text for the source and you can edit from the text panel to the timeline. However, unlike Premiere Pro, there is no interaction between the text and clips in the timeline.

I was surprised to see that Blackmagic Design was not promoting Resolve on the iPad. There was only one demo station and no dedicated demo artist. I played with it a bit and it felt to me like it’s not truly optimized for iPadOS yet. It does work well with the Speed Editor keyboard. That’s useful for any user, since the Cut page is probably where anyone would do the bulk of the work in this version of Resolve. When I used the Apple Pencil, the interface lacked any feedback as icons were clicked. So I was never quite sure if an action had happened or not when I used the Pencil. I’m not sure many will do a complete edit with Resolve on the iPad; however, it could evolve into a productive tool for preliminary editing in the field.

Here’s an interesting side note. Nearly all of the Blackmagic Design demo pods for DaVinci Resolve were running on Apple’s 24″ candy-colored iMacs. Occasionally performance was a bit sluggish from what I could tell. Especially when the operator demoed the new Relight feature to me. Nevertheless, they seemed to work well throughout the show.

In other Blackmagic news, all of the Cloud Store products are now shipping. The Cintel film scanner gets an 8mm gate. There are now IP versions of the video cards and converters. There’s an OLPF version of the URSA Mini Pro 12K and you can shoot vertical video with the Pocket Cinema Camera that’s properly tagged as vertical.

Of course, not everyone wants their raw media in the cloud and Blackmagic Design wasn’t showing the only storage products. Most of the usual storage vendors were present, including Facilis, OpenDrives, Synology, OWC, and QNAP. The technology trends include a shift away from spinning drives towards solid state storage, as well as faster networking protocols. Quite a few vendors(like Sonnet) were showing 25GbE (and faster) connections. This offers a speed improvement over the 1GbE and 10GbE ports and switches that are currently used.

Finally, one of the joys of NAB is to check out the smaller booths, where you’ll often find truly innovative new products. These small start-ups often grow into important companies in our industry. Hedge is just such a company. Tucked into a corner of the North hall, Hedge was demonstrating its growing portfolio of essential workflow products. Another start-up, Colourlab AI shared some booth space there, as well, to show off Freelab, their new integration with Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.

That’s a quick rundown of my thoughts about this year’s NAB Show. For other thoughts and specific product reviews, be sure to also check out NAB coverage at Pro Video Coalition, RedShark News, and postPerspective. There’s also plenty of YouTube coverage.

Click on any image below to view an NAB slideshow.

©2023 Oliver Peters

Software Subscriptions

A decade ago Adobe launched its Creative Cloud subscription model to mixed reactions. On March 27th, the audio plug-in developer Waves once again raised the ire of the creative community by switching to a subscription model. Let’s dig deeper into the topic.

Prior to the digital era, when a company built a recording studio or a post facility, they invested in physical hardware – mixing desks, switchers, edit controllers, etc. These were assets on the ledger that had value if the company decided to sell. Once the industry moved to software tools, those no longer functioned as assets with any value. You could sell the building and furnishings, but no one wanted the old software. That’s assuming you could easily transfer licenses. Instead of an asset, software became an ongoing operational expense.

In response to this shift, many software companies have introduced a SaaS (software as a service) subscription model and dropped perpetual licensing options. To understand this, first take a look as any of your EULAs and you’ll quickly see that you never really own software and the company can make changes to the agreement as they see fit.

“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.” – Darth Vader

To be fair, a company has the right to offer their products in any way they like. But, users are also free to accept or reject the company’s business model. The tougher part is how to correctly transition from one model to the next without alienating established users. SaaS models typically benefit both the developer and active, professional users.

Stepping aside from the subscription issue for a moment, there is a huge advantage to staying within a single ecosystem. That’s the big plus for Adobe users, but it is also an advantage for Mac users who purchase products through the Mac App Store. It’s easier to keep track of updates and make sure things are compatible, as opposed to a hodgepodge of unrelated third-party products.

When a company “sells” products with perpetual licenses, it becomes an act of juggling development costs and trying to estimate how many new sales will be generated. When you shift to a SaaS model, development and revenue projections become more predictable. According to Adobe, subscriptions also help combat software piracy. Obviously, companies like the model and many are shifting to it – Microsoft, Filmic, Avid, and many other plug-in developers. In fact, Waves is coming late to the idea of subscriptions.

In the case of media, Adobe Creative Cloud covers many applications used on a daily basis by working designers, editors, photographers, etc. Likewise, Waves (or other plug-ins) are used on a daily basis by professional mixers and recording engineers. However, the landscape of potential users has shifted over the past decade. Thanks to social media outlets, there are many more hobbyists and part-time content creators who are also using these tools. They are often not using the tools on a daily basis, so SaaS doesn’t work for them. There’s no incoming revenue to offset the expense. This group of users is far more interested in free and cheap tools, which thanks to software development, are bountiful. These users far surpass the professionals in whatever way you define that.

Waves has traditionally had a weird business model. While their plug-ins are usually quite good, the company has been selling them like they are the “Kmart blue light special” of the audio world. Plug-ins are listed with a retail price of several hundred bucks, but almost always are “on sale” in the range of $30-$50. As a casual user, I appreciate the low cost, but I can’t help but think this undervalues Waves.

The Waves product mix includes a lot of simple variations to what are more or less the same plug-ins, which tends to make the portfolio look larger than it is. You have to routinely pay for updates, which are priced proportionally to the number of plug-ins you have. The truth of the matter is that you can go for a few years and never need to pay for the upgrade. But, due to an OS change or a move to Apple Silicon, you can’t avoid it and may get hit with a surprisingly large invoice.

When Waves shifted to subscription, they made two huge mistakes. First, it was done overnight with no advance warning. Second, all perpetual licenses were frozen without the ability to update. They’d continue to work, but at some future date might not work any longer. The Waves Creative Access subscription plan itself includes two tiers: Waves Essential (110 plug-ins for $14.99/mo) and Waves Ultimate (all 220 plug-ins for $24.99/mo). But there are some important details. The Essential plan is not just any 110 plug-ins, but rather a curated group. You might find that certain key plug-ins that you need require the Ultimate plan.

Needless to say the nature of the change and the lack of advanced communication caused an uproar in the online audio community, with plenty of negative posts by YouTube influencers. Anyone familiar with how Apple handled the transition from Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X should have seen this coming. Learning from the past can head off a lot of embarrassment.

The Waves Creative Access plan doesn’t seem to me to be one that really has professional users in mind either. Seriously, what pro studio uses 220 Waves plug-ins? I think the company is trying to entice casual users to pick up more Waves plug-ins than they are now using. And to experiment with some that they might not have otherwise thought about using. That’s good, but it opens Waves up to a world that’s different than Adobe faced a decade ago.

Product promotion is often pushed through social media influencers, including many YouTube channels devoted to certain product types, such as audio. They usually are an affiliate with the company and earn revenue through affiliate links. Therefore, influencers are quite sensitive to the blowback that comes from angry comments on their channel. And so, having a formerly favorable influencer trash your product or company policies does impact sales.

I’m purely speculating now, but in the case of Waves, this may have also been coupled with back-channel feedback from other partners. For example, famous mixers and studios like Abbey Road, who have lent their names to branded products. Or large retailers, like B&H Photo, Thomann Music, or Sweetwater.

But wait! There’s a silver lining. On March 29th, Meir Shashoua, Waves CTO and Co-Founder, issued an open letter acknowledging the concerns and backtracking on the decision. According to the letter, plug-ins will once again continue to be available with perpetual licensing and updates, in addition to the Waves Creative Access subscription plans. At least at the time of this post, all Waves plug-ins are listed at $29.99. If they are sincere and continue with both models, then it’s a win-win for both professional users and hobbyists alike. After all, do you really need 220 plug-ins? It’s refreshing to see when the user voice actually has a positive impact. Hopefully trust isn’t violated again.

©2023 Oliver Peters