In this episode we'll learn about
Digital Audio Workstations,
the workhorse of any production.
You may think you know them
but they are developing all the time
and a working knowledge of every aspect
of the project is exceptionally
important in today's production world.
I want to introduce you to in my view
the crown prince's of the DAW world
and an old new kid on the block.
They all come in lots of different guises
but let's look at what they are
and what they do.
DAWs are multiple tracks of audio
playing at one time in sync with each other,
just like a pile of tape
machine stacked on top of each other.
All playing at the same time.
You can have one track or many tracks
on your timeline,
all playing together
and a timeline is just the start
of your project through to the end.
On each track you can manipulate,
edit, adjust parameters
of each sound clip on that track.
You can do this individually or
to many sound clips at once.
These adjustments can be anything
from volume changes
to making the sound clip longer
or shorter. Even cutting out bits of audio
in the clip. There are other functions
of the DAW. Each DAW hosts an array
of plugins; little programs within
the DAW that perform different tasks
from cleaning up audio
to putting a reverb on your sound
or even controlling
the dynamic range.
The range in job functions
that these plugins are endless.
Each DAW has a different way of communicating
with these little plugin programs,
so Nuendo, Cubase, Fairlight
and a few others talk to VST plugins
and Pro Tools talks to AAX plugins.
Final Cut and Digital Performer will talk
mainly to AU
Apples audio units.
Another function in DAWs
nowadays is to play picture.
Simple I hear you say,
not so a few years ago,
even the not so high-end DAWs
play pictures nowadays,
to facilitate
you editing and mixing sound
to that picture.
Apart from editing the other main
function of DAW is mixing
whether you're mixing
within the software of the DAW
or you connect an actual mixing desk to it
and use its faders to mix the audio.
Mixing is ultimately raising and
lowering the volume of each sound clip
on the timeline in relation to each other
and the overall loudness of the project.
Loudness is the overall volume
in relation to the rest of the show.
There are different loudness standards
depending on where you're working
in the world.
In the u.s. it's A/85, R128 in Europe,
OP-59 in Australia, TR - B32 in Japan,
oh such memorable names.
Everything for broadcast needs
to be mixed to these standards.
Don't try and mix a project
and then throw through a loudness plug-in
because it'll be so very wrong
and it sounds so very awful.
So who are the main contenders?
ProTools has been around
for a very long time. It seems to have a grip on
a lot of the industry
who are slow in shifting from it,
even though there are better alternatives.
Steinberg's Nuendo is the main contender.
I love this piece of kit.
It sounds beautiful
but the main advantage is that everything
you may need for any production workflow
comes in the box.
In other products
you get the basic package
and have to pay a fortune to upgrade
to get more functionality.
Nuendo ships as an amazing DAW
with all the functionality built in
and the other one to watch out for is Fairlight.
It has been around for years
and never really made an impact
but now it's been incorporated into DaVinci Resolve,
giving video editors the confidence
to mess up the audio
in a whole new way.
This has just been a basic overview
of DAWs and what they do.
I want to delve a little deeper
into ProTools and Nuendo
over the next couple of episodes.
There are demos available of all
the DAWs that I talked about.
You should play with all of them
education is a wonderful thing.
I'm Keith Alexander
and you've been watching AdoramaTV.
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