In this week’s edition Julian & Ashea are joined by Paul Maunder, where they discuss some of the best advice, tips and tricks they've learned during their careers to date.

Talking Points:

Workflow tips, shortcuts and things you’ve discovered along the way

Recording, production and mixing tricks.

Things you wish you knew when you first started out

Mindset tips

How has your approach changed since entering into this industry?

Who were your mentors, inspiration and reasons for adopting a different approach, workflow or mindset?

Must have plugins or gear.

Finds of the week:
Julian: DX7 Podcast On SOS
Ashea: PSP Bin Amp
Paul: Beyer DT700 Pro X

In this week’s edition Ashea is joined by Dallas Taylor from Defacto Sound & Twenty Thousand Hertz Podcast, where they discuss the sound design process behind some of the world's most famous brands.

Talking Points:

Working to a brief: What is your process for capturing the mood and creating an experience that complements the visual storytelling?

Sound choice, inspiration, foley etc.

What makes a sound instantly recognizable, e.g Netflix. What is the process like getting to that point?

Optimising workflow: Tools, gear, deadlines. 

Emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities facing sound designers in an ever-evolving industry.

Finds of the week:

Ashea: Waves Stream
Dallas: Buy Back Your Time- Dan Martell

In this week’s edition Julian and  Ashea joined by Anna Bulakh of Respeecher, where they discuss the importance of ethics in AI and how to proceed with caution.

Talking Points:

• What are some of the current threats AI poses in society/the audio and music industry today?
• Synthetic media, voice cloning software and other tools are still in their early stages but are incredibly powerful tools that can all be really useful if used wisely, however there needs to be ethical principles in place. 
• The dangers of Deepfakes
• Provenance.
• Please tell us about Respeecher, what this tool offers and how you are putting ethical practices and policies at the forefront of your company.

Damian’s article On Respeecher 

Finds of the week:
Julian: Now TV has ads
Ashea: Notion App
Anna: Brief History Of AI - Michael Aldridge, Chip War Michael Phillips

In this week's edition Julian and Ashea are joined by Steve DeMott, where they discuss the music industry Gatekeepers of today, who are they and are they worse?

Talking Points:

• Social Media age and the “democratization” of the industry.
• Labels vs the new A.I/Digital gatekeepers
• Youtube, Google and artist revenue

Finds of the week:
Julian: High Strung/Nashville Strings
Ashea: MCenter
Steve: Pulsar 1178 

In this week’s edition Julian and  Ashea are joined by Reid Caulfield, where they discuss a recent article from the LA Times and ask ‘Is AI coming for our jobs, and should we be worried?’

Talking Points:

LA Times Article:
https://www.latimes.com/.../ai-artificial-intelligence...

From the article:

"In the music and sound-recording industry, the tasks most likely to  be affected by AI are voice generation and cloning, music generation and  recording and lyrics composition,  followed by mastering, mixing and  tools programming, according to the study.

More than 50% of survey  participants anticipated that AI would displace sound designers in the  next three years, while more than 40% saw AI coming for music editors,  audio technicians and sound engineers. Roughly a third of respondents  predicted a similar fate for songwriters, composers and studio  engineers."

Our thoughts on the survey

Bearing this in mind how should audio professional go about keeping themselves valuable (better than A.I)?

How can we use A.I to our advantage?

Finds of the week:
Julian: PSI Audio A17-M
Ashea: Landscape With Invisible Hand
Reid: Altiverb 8, Arrival

On request of our listeners. In this week's episode Ashea is joined by Russ Hughes and Paul Maunder where they give tried and tested advice on  how to make a living in today's audio industry.


Talking Points:

• What was your first pro gig and how did that come about?
• Getting work in a traditional studio setting
• Freelancing
• Types of clients and how to deal with them
• Balancing a day job
• When/how to transition into full time

Finds of the week:

Ashea: All You Need To Know About The Music Business
Russ: Criminal Record Show , i73 Pro
Paul: Deity Theos digital radio mics

In this week’s edition Julian & Ashea are joined by Oliver Thomas and Maurice Patist from PMC.

Talking Points:

PMC & its history - background of company

Relationship with UGM/Dolby

PMC and suitability for Immersive - any particular features which you think make them particularly suitable?

How does an ATL differ from a ported or band pass cabinet in performance?

PMC and DSP, Network Control

What, if anything, can you share about future developments at PMC?

Finds of the week:
Julian: Focusrite Vocaster Two
Ashea: Crumple Pop Plosive Remover
Maurice: Voyage Audio Spatial Mic, Julia Holter Something In The Room She Moves
Oliver: Audient Oria

Talking Points:

In this episode Ashea is joined by Russ Hughes & Lexie Morgan of HHB London and formerly iZotope, to give three different perspectives on the recent UK government report about the obstacles women are met with while pursuing a career in the music industry.

Summary of the UK Government report:

The Report:

Production Expert Article:

Let’s briefly discuss how we feel about this report and how our experiences correspond with the data from the report.

Sexual Harassment & Safety Issues:
What safety & other measures do studios and workplaces need to put into place? What desperately needs changing?

Dismantling The Bias:
Change needs to take place from within. As well as the wonderful work that women (and men) are already doing to improve things, we also need to get more help from our male colleagues, bosses, fellow artists etc. What can men do to be better ‘allies’?

Mentioned In This Podcast:
https://www.production-expert.com/home-page/2017/7/31/pro-tools-expert-podcast-episode-280

Finds of the week:
Ashea: Quickbooks App
Russ: Billy Joel - Turn The Lights Back On
Lexie: Poor Things Movie

In this week’s edition Julian & Ashea are joined by Eli Krantzberg where they discuss some of the stand out gear and plugins from NAMM 2024.

Talking Points:
Wolff Audio Console
Heritage Audio i73
SSL 360
Blue Cat Audio
Yamaha- Seq track
Raven MTi2
Beyerdynamic -DT-770-pro
ACE Studio - AI vocal synthesizer

Finds Of The Week:
Julian: Kii SEVEN
Ashea: Solodome
Eli: The red plastic water flask my wife got me for NAMM

In this week's edition Julian & Ashea are joined by audio engineer and current student James Watts, where they discuss ​​whether music education is adapting to meet the evolving needs of students and the industry.

Talking Points:

How much emphasis is placed on the following?

• Hands on experience, using hardware, navigating a mixing desk and traditional studio setups.
• A.I and one knob plugins: How granular are you taught to get with plugins?:
• Career Goals & Prospects: Training for commercial studio vs freelancer.
• The role of entrepreneurship, how the industry,networking and career advancement is changing.

Finds of the week:
Julian:  Avid NAMM Tech Preview
Ashea: VEA
James: Pythogorean Tuning

In this week’s edition Julian and Ashea are joined by  Steve DeMott where they discuss the importance and power of saying 'no' in a music production environment. 

Talking Points:

‘The Power of No’ in music production, recording & mixing.
 Expanding on William Wittmans article:

Finds of the week:
Julian: PMC 6-2
Ashea: Sketch Casette 2
Steve: Zoom H6 field recorder