One of the big catch-phrases at this year’s CES in Las Vegas was “wearable computing”; the integration of the machine and the human…if not on our clothing, then somehow inserted in our bodies. Any cyborg comparisons notwithstanding (3-of-7?)…this idea actually has acceptance and a market.
Not quite yet…at least not in a practical & affordable sense.
But make no mistake, the ubiquitous miniaturized computer you already have in your hand — the smartphone, tablet, or “phablet” — is a giant step forward in that evolution that started with the desktop, continued in the laptop, the PDA, then made the jump to MOBILE.
The voice-over community began clamoring for quality mobile recording apps before the News Release for the iPad was barely published. Android apps followed in time. (See my blog: https://courvo.com/2013/06/audio-evolution-and-usb-recorder-for-android.html).
Even microphone manufacturers, and all manner of 3rd-party devices have catered to this market (Blue Mics, MicPortPro, Alesis iOdock, Apogee, etc.). Clearly, if it was up to voice-actors, we’d jump to the smallest size recording configuration possible with the caveat that it still come fairly close to the sound from our studios. (Dan Lenard: it’s really about your recording environment anyway!)
Sheesh, if we could just some how put ISDN, Source-Connect, SoundStreak, or IpDtL on our smartphones…wouldn’t THAT be cool?
Actually Luci Live already meets that challenge (see my blog: Meet Luci Live). The app is $350 at last check, though… so not really for everybody (altho, there is a $30 version worth checking out).
Now enters a name we all know as having a reliable track-record in this realm: Source-Elements.
I had a conversation with the always-helpful Source Connect tech support yesterday. Actually, they were kind enough to just check in with me to follow-up on a call I made late last week. In the course of the conversation, the support person mentioned they were close to releasing an early version of Source-Connect for iOS.
Well, you can guess my ears went up!
A subsequent email offered the statements below…given with full knowledge that I would blab it all over my blog and the social media space for voice-actors. There are not a lot of specifics, but certainly some confidence that they’re very close to something a great many of us would love to get our hands on, no?
Please pay attention to the last line if you’d like to consider being a tester for this new functionality.
CourVO
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Source-Elements:
We’re close to a private beta of a new service called “Source-Connect Now”, allowing you to do professional real-time audio via the Chrome web browser, and soon iOS and Android phones. This is an extension of developments from our new Source-Live Gateway that we showed at AES in October last year.
While it’s in beta it will be limited so we welcome to hear from any advanced Source-Connect users wanting to try it, and we’ll be announcing a public beta soon after that. While currently offering browser-to-browser connectivity, the full vision is to operate seamlessly with Source-Connect and possibly more.
Because this doesn’t require an iLok and it will be an attractively priced subscription-based plan, it will very useful tool to the VO artists where something as fully featured as Source-Connect isn’t required yet will still offer interoperability with Source-Connect itself. While a browser-based solution does not provide a VST/Pro Tools/AudioUnits plug-in interface, Source-Connect Now is already fully functional with our new Source-Nexus plug-in for Pro Tools on Mac OSX, should a talent need to integrate Source-Connect Now with their audio workstation.
We’re really excited to be able to announce this and welcome anyone who’d like to be part of the upcoming beta to try Source-Connect Now.
