Skype Promising "CD Quality" Sound With New Opus Audio Codec

About two years ago I wrote a plea to Skype on behalf of us home recording folks, that if they could deliver 720p video, they could provide us a higher quality audio stream. They had an infrastructure that could potentially help us start migrating away from ISDN. 

Well, following Google's recent announcement of higher quality audio in their Hangouts, Skype is now touting a new codec aimed at bringing a higher quality audio stream with a smaller data footprint. They're calling this codec Opus, and there's no word yet on when it will be implemented. They do however have a 45 minute video presentation from January detailing its development and certification. 

Full PR at Skype's The Big Blog

Fun ISDN Session at The Voicecaster (photo blog)

So even though most of my work comes from directing voice over casting and production sessions, I also do a bit of engineering on the side. ISDN sessions can be kind of dull, as once you've set everything up, you're pretty much just babysitting.

Well yesterday I had a really fun day of ISDN-ing. I got to work with a great bunch of actors for a series of radio spots.
First up I had the LEGENDARY Carlos Alazraqui (Reno 911, voice of the the Taco Bell dog and Rocko from 'Rocko's Modern Life). Not only is he a talented animation actor, but he crushed a dozen spots full of natural conversational announcer work. He's producing his own animated web series "Off the Curb" which looks like it'll be RIGHT up my alley.

Next up I had Larry Cedar, who happens to be a personal hero of mine. LONG before I was ever in this industry, I was a HUGE fan of Square One, which Larry was a part of. Most recently you might have seen him in the re-make of The Crazies. He's the one with the pitchfork...



And what session would be complete without a funny gal? Enter the lovely and witty Julie Wittner, who you can catch in the web show "Two Hot Girls in the Shower" starring opposite Kim Evey (producer of The Guild).

The session required her to eat cookies for sound effects. Thankfully she kept the mess of crumbs to a minimum...




Thanks for a great session guys!

Potential Competitor for ISDN and Source Connect? About Time!

Hot tip from my pal Mike Vaughn, while I'm waiting for Skype to get it's act in gear for us working type audio folks, there's a potential alternative on the horizen to over priced ISDN, and under-adopted Source Connect.

eSession isn't really setting it's sights on remote collaboration, as much as they are wanting to be a one stop shop for casting, hiring, and producing voice performance (which just so happens to include remote recording).

I've not used their service, nor do I know anyone who has, but it looks to be an interesting project. Especially as no one has cornered the market on internet based remote production.

Check them out at http://www.esession.com/


Thanks Mike!

Source Connect updated to Version 3, Incompatible with 2.5, Upgrade is Free

For those of you looking for ISDN like recording over the internet, look no further than Source Connect. It allows you to send your audio anywhere in the world (with broadband access), in real time (usually with very little lag), and allows you to be recorded on the receiver's end (provided they have SC).
The nice thing about SC is it doesn't require you to purchase any other equipment to add to the recording chain. You don't need to route back and forth from a Telos Zephyr. Everything is handled internally by your computer and soundcard.
It's these kinds of technologies that are a god send to voice actors across the country. It means you're just as competitive in Poughkeepsie as you would be in NY/LA/Chicago. As ISDN slowly starts to die off (wont happen for a while yet but still), these audio connection technologies are going to have to step up to fill the gap. Especially as it seems that ISDN support is getting harder to find, and ISDN lines are becoming more expensive in some areas.

Source Connect has just been updated to version 3.0. The Source elements site has a warning about this update:

Source-Connect 3.0 is not compatible with 2.5. Current 2.5 users must upgrade to 3.0. Due to a number of internal improvements Source-Connect 2.5 and Source-Connect 3.0 are not compatible. All current 2.5 license owners are eligible for a free license upgrade.

I think this is actually kind of cool. So often with software, compatibility issues seem to only be discussed in the darkest of forum threads. Kudos for putting this right out in the open and saving us all the search.
Also making the update free is a really classy thing to do. I get really tired of paying for '.1' upgrades (Apple and Pro Tools I'm looking in your general directions). Considering they are acknowedging that their upgrade breaks compatibility with their own previous version, making the update free is really appreciated.

So come on SC users. Lets get to updating, so we're all on the same page!

And you closet junkies, needing a remote recording solution or phone patch, check it out!