Dan Backhouse's Lounge Discussions

Hey Kirsty! Welcome to Stage32! Always good to see the British contingent grow. I've sent you a friend request... It'd be nice to add you just in case I need a sound guru! Kriss

Kirsty. Leeds-based Producer/Director, literally just came across Stage 32 and saw your post. Always looking for good sound people who may be able to work up this way. Would love to keep your details if possible. More info on me/us at zenithpictures.info

Hey Kirsty, thanks for the invite! Always good to see a fellow northerner getting work in the industry. Hope to work with you or your recordings someday :)

Great to have you in this community ,Kirsty.

Hi Kirsty, great to see you on board with Stage 32.

Apparently MacX Video Converter Pro was specially designed to help convert SWF to MOV. Not tried myself. It's $34 tho http://www.macxdvd.com/mac-video-converter-pro/

Thanks !!!

Hey Dan, we're actually in the process of redesigning the lounge, so we will definitely take that into consideration! Great points!

Thanks Shannon, look forward to it :)

When you redesign the Lounge, Shannon, can we get those red velvet chairs that tilt back, please!! And it's been a while since the fancy peanut platter was refilled. Just sayin'!! (wink)

A trailer board somewhere could be cool, for people to post trailers for their latest projects with a block of info and perhaps available vacancies. Also with a scrolling page for the app. Just throwing ideas out there now :P Could have a short films board/stream. Instead of just videos on profiles. Videos all together on a stream with links to profiles. Damn you guys should be paying me for this..

Stage 32 should reach out to projectionists. A solid dialogue between film makers and projectionists would be a very good thing.

I used Adobe Audition in its Cool Edit days and it was always the most flexible+effective when it came to editing single files. I remember it having great processing tools too. Surprised no to see Audacity on that list- it's free and it would certainly be a contender against most as far as editing goes. These days it's Pro Tools all the way for me but I would change to Nuendo anytime if it was more widely used. I also find I use iZoptope RX quite a bit to clean and master single files- I only wish they expanded it's basic editing abilities a bit more.

For audio cleaning it's RX3 for me as well. Works way better than the basic sound restoration tools in Audition. Audition as Angel says is great for the single file stuff. Multichannel editing is not its strong side :)

thanks for the list, i'm relatively new to all this.

Been using Audition since Cool Edit days also and for sound editing and processing it's not bad. If you do mixing i feel it works better alongside Pro Tools, Ableton Live or some other DAW. I do like it's integration with Premiere but then it's just saving a few extra minutes using a different DAW and just import the editing through OMF or similar.

I use pyramix and protools on a daily basis. Both got great features when it comes to editing.

Given the choice, I'd go with John Williams. Both are incredible composers, but I feel John Williams is better in terms of thematic development and orchestration. Also, his music is much more well-known. In fact, I can identify just about every film he's done just from his music and vice versa. Whenever I think of a film he's scored, whether it be Jaws, Harry Potter, Star Wars, E.T., Indiana Jones, the very first thing that comes to mind are the musical themes associated with each of those films. Few other composers have left such an impression on me than John Williams.

Yes I agree with Gary. Williams was so creative in his uses of Atonality and Leitmotif/Chord Progressions in each successive film he scored. He knew that was all you needed to rely on in its simplicity. Ian is correct as well, I can recognize any Williams score just by hearing the first few notes and instantly know what film it is from. Personally I have been liking Hans Zimmer recently in his "Batman Begins/Dark Knight" scores and think he is the only reason those movies work at all, but will he equal or surpass Williams? Not sure, I think time will tell and things are much different now with scoring Daw's and other things. It's like Williams' era was more traditional Orchestral Romantic and Zimmer's is something different.

As for Xan's original question regarding James Horner: Well Braveheart/Aliens/Wrath of Khan/Troy are some of the most epic and my own personal favorite movies of all time, and he scored them. What does that tell you? Maybe technically compositionally he doesn't surpass Williams, but maybe with the emotion and feeling he is right up there, and damn is he good. :)

I'd go with John Williams, he's the best all rounder. Goldsmith was a pro with melody, along with Horner, but Williams could do something of everything.

Well, if I MUST pick between those 2, then I would have to say Williams. I mean, there aren't too many cues he has written that aren't liked. But to this day one of my all time favorite melodies he composed is "Luke & Leia" from Star Wars - "Return of the Jedi".

Thanks guys! Really helpful. I'm wondering whether to bother with the SSD PCI-E now at all. can always get one and move the OS later I guess. My main reason behind it was the faster bus speeds even than SSD SATA but I don't suppose it should be too drastic a difference, especially just for the OSs. I'm having the machine built by a company which specialises is custom building Mac Pro 5.1s so I'm just selecting parts from their own list. I'm hoping that should mean no driver problems but something I can ask about. Sam I'm not sure about how is best to dual boot tbh. I used Paralells in the past on my Macbook Pro with issues but I want to dual boot the new machine as I won't need to access Windows when I'm working and vice versa. I'd just like the machine to start up with the page where I choose which OS I want. I've come to the basic understanding that SSD = best for reading and HDD = best for saving/writing to. With that in mind the drive setup I'm planning atm is; 250GB SSD PCIE - Partitioned Mac and W7 500GB SSD SATA - Mac Apps (Pro Tools etc) 500GB SSD SATA - Sample Library Instruments 2TB HDD - Windows Games Projects will be saved to and run off external HDDs for the time being. I may scrap the PCIE and move the OSs to the Mac App drive, that would mean having W7 on it too tho. Thanks for your help :) Dan

Hi Dan, I have a feeling you may be taken for a ride here.... Without knowing your budget or what exactly you want, you are buying into an old technology that has little growth for "updating" Macs. Macs already have a very, very stringent platform and have very few parts that they can actually used for updates. Replacing harddrives and video cards are really the only things that can be done (there are a few mods that can be made to the CPU, but that's not worth the cost). You can look on ebay for price comparison, since you most likely are buying a used MAC that is being modded: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HURRY-SALE-APPLE-A1289-MAC-PRO-2010-5-1-12-CORE-... If you are paying more for your computer (minus the SSDs) then you are probably being taken for a ride. SSDs write and read very differently than standard Platter-based 7200 rpm drives. SSDs are faster for both reading and writing, and specially seeking... Platters are just MUCH cheaper, and can store a lot more. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404258,00.asp SSD PCI-E cards are twice the price of a standard SSD drive, and while about 2x as fast, the difference you will see is negligible, unless you are doing heavy writing and reading - (mostly graphic apps, and serious number crunching where memory needs constant dumping). The best thing to do is max out your ram, get 2- 250gb SSD, for the OS(s), 1- 500gb SSD for your sample streaming (depending on the sizes of your libraries) and a 1 3tb drive for your other samples, project drives, etc. The cost of all these drives is around $600 total (these are good quality drive prices too) that you can install yourself - and which is about the price of the SSD PCI-E Card.... Also begs the question - why go mac at all? PCs are half the cost, will do the gaming you want much better, and are much more efficient in running apps like Cubase and Kontakt. Unless there are some Mac specific programs (like Logic) then I would seriously recommend you just get a PC. (I use both PC and MAC equally, I have no bias, except for gaming, PC is the only way to go there....) Use the money you save and invest in the software, sample libraries, plugins, etc... it's a much better investment, IMHO.

Hi Sam thanks for your help I really appreciate it! The company I'm looking at is Create.pro and they seem pretty well established with reasonable prices and reviews from studio working people. They have an ebay shop with pre built ones too. What do you mean exactly by old technology? Tbh the machine I'm looking at getting I wont be needing to upgrade for a while for what I want to do and it shouldn't be an old machine. Check out their site. If you're interested you can go here http://create.pro/configure?cat=scratch#config and you just select what you want in your machine from the drop down menus. They have recommended setups for different requirements too. I'm looking at something like; 3.46GHz 12 Core Xeon X5690 (New Chassis) 12GB (3x4) Nvidia GTX 780 3GB (Custom) Angelbird wk for Mac 250GB SSD PCI-E Angelbird wk for Mac 500GB SSD 2.5" Angelbird wk for Mac 500GB SSD 2.5" WD Black 2TB HDD 7200RPM SATA 3.5" Total £3,280 I'll be buying a lot more RAM from elsewhere as it's cheaper. I may not bother with the PCI-E tho now and just go with the 2 500 SSD SATAs. As for a PC it has been a thought in the back of my mind but I honestly don't know if I could go back now or want to. I personally dislike Windows and like everything about Mac. I'm not a big gamer I just want to be able to play a select few games to a good level on my own now and then. The Nvidia GTX 780 3GB with that system should be more than enough better than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 512 MB in my Macbook Pro, for me anyway :) The only other thing is you saying Cubase and Kontakt run better on PC? Is this a huge difference, especially with that system? I don't only do composing tho so I'm after an all round machine. I also do audio post for film in Pro Tools, and will soon be doing sound design for some games in Unity. Thanks again for all your help, really appreciated. Cheers, Dan

Interesting... Well you are UK, so that does change a few things I suppose. Here's the thing, Apple is not making the 5,1 macs anymore, they only manufacture the new trashcans... All the old ones are getting revamped, and repurposed. Chances are these guys have a bunch of old stock that is "new" and then they are doing the chip swaps on the mobo - so you are getting a better chip that is up-to-date. SSD PCIE is a waste of money for you want to do. If you can replace RAM, then you can add SSDs (just make sure you get the chassis adapter - otherworld computing (OCW) sells them. Protools runs a bit better on MAC, but Cubase and Kontakt are infinitely better on PC. From the price you quoted me, I could easily get a nice MAC and a kick-ass gaming PC, but that is State-side pricing... not sure what you get get across the pond. FYI - the GTX 780 is a nice board, last I heard it was incompatible with Mavericks.... must be a way around it now... The last one I know that worked was the GTX 680 Mac edition., which is 50% more expensive than the PC version..... My main work rig is a PC and MAC tethered together using a program called Share mouse. So I use just one Mouse and Keyboard, I have two screens, and can just jump back and forth on them, as if it were one computer. I can also drag files back and forth... workflow is super easy this way, and when I need to use PC software I have it already running - might be an option for you as well to get both machines....?? Well - best of luck on finding your system. It's never an easy decision, I just hate to see people over spend when there are other options. Best, Sam

Thanks Sam I’ll probably give the SSD PCI-E a miss then. I’ve been playing around with the configuration of hardware on that site for a while now just trying to get the best basic system I can then add to myself. Thought about adding SSD SATAs and drive sleds after too but tbh I’d save pennies if anything. Your system sounds amazing! I’m not sure it’s for me tho as I’m only really adding windows and a slightly better GPU for some reasonable gaming now and then. I won’t need windows running while I’m working. Would love than setup tho! I’ve had a look at a few custom pc sites now in the UK too and tbh the specs for the price don’t seem as good. Create.pro only have 5 GPUs to choose from. I read that flashing may be needed but I’m pretty clueless about it which is why I’m aiming to just get the best I can from them and not have to mess around upgrading later. Whether this ‘flashing’ will effect use in W7 is another thought :S If you’re interested they fit the following GPUs so I guess they work in Mac Pros now. I’ve no idea what (Custom) means tho.. AMD ATI Radeon 5770 1GB (Official Apple) AMD ATI Radeon R9 280X 3GB (Custom) Nvidia GTX 780 3GB (Custom) Nvidia GTX Titan 6GB (Custom) Nvidia GTX Titan Black 6GB (Custom) Anyway my main query about having OS and Apps separate or not has been cleared up I think so I’ll give the SSD PCI-E a miss and just get SSD SATAs and HDDs. Thanks for your help and all the best :) Dan