With NAMM on in Anaheim this week, and George on location, we figured it was the perfect opportunity to take you live to the floor and get the low down on what’s new and what’s happening.
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The Pro Audio Suite Podcast copyright George Whittam, Andrew Peters, Robert Marshall & Darren Robertson.
Products or companies we discuss are not paid endorsements. They are not sponsored by, nor do we have any professional or affiliate relationship of any kind with any of the companies or products highlighted in the show…. sadly! It’s just stuff we like, think is cool and may be of interest to you our listeners.
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.”
― Hunter S Thompson
this is the pro audio suite podcast
00:03
quick bytes welcome to another quick
00:06
byte pro audio suite this one we’re
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carrying live tune am in Anaheim and our
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man on the spot is George Widom g’day
00:14
George hey guys how you doing hey good
00:17
sounds like you’re having a good time we
00:20
are having a good time it’s it’s a
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technical hurdle just doing something
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it’s what seemingly simple as having a
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phone patch as it were while I’m not
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spilling your champagne have some
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strawberries with that lovely so we’re
00:40
on Souls connect now by an Android we
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are and two connections one previously
00:44
be one from Melbourne you’re sitting in
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the grace designs booth is that correct
00:49
I am in I’m in the grace design suite it
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isn’t I’m on the lower level of their
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suite no it’s will I’m in their booth
00:56
they have a double wide as they do in
00:59
Colorado yeah I got a double wide booth
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and I’m looking at their their mic
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preamps that they that they lovingly
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create and sell in Colorado and also
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right in front of me is the key studio
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monitors that they are view the u.s.
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distributor
01:17
yeah we just riveted in the US yes
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really really high-end dutch powered
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monitors I’m blowing studio monitors
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that look like bookshelf monitors but
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they go flat down to 25 yeah flat down
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to 25 Hertz all DSP controls 1,500 watts
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of amplification per speaker beautiful
01:37
and now Evan are you gonna be talking
01:39
about Louis Chiodo about getting modes
01:41
in Australia you know we are just
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distributing them for ki which is you
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know German and Dutch I’m pretty sure
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they probably have Australian hi-5
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distribution you know I’m not sure mate
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I don’t know if they’ve talked to Louis
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or not I don’t know if anybody has a
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relationship over there but it’s wit you
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know we’re just we’re just tending to
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them in the u.s. uh-huh I thought you
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were manufacturing sorry I’ve
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misunderstood
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no sir just distributing them in the US
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for the pro market because you do not
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even but we don’t know I’m gonna tell
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you now but might the first proper
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preamp that I ever got the first
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high-end preamp was an M 101 on the
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recommendation of Luis that’s great
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Luis is a see ya he’s even better now
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yeah yeah so Jorge what’s happening is
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why is he better what happened to him
02:42
I don’t prove he’s probably going up now
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because I’m just giving him giving him a
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big plug so what’s happening at NAMM
02:53
Jorge well we are trying with a group of
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three ragtag a ragtag band of three
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we’re trying to cover the show three
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people is not necessarily more efficient
03:04
than two I found out but we’re doing our
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best and we’re we’ve covered a few
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vendors today it’s been cool there’s
03:12
three guys in one phone three guys one
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phone one lady it’s actually one lady
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two guys and one phone we have a lady
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that could be misconstrued very quickly
03:25
hello to our friends at pornhub and your
03:30
big pink bag yeah we’re adding some
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color some flavours some female fun to
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our ragtag group but it’s we’re trying
03:38
to find new stuff it’s it’s a needle in
03:40
the haystack sometimes it’s such a
03:42
gigantic place but the only way to do it
03:45
is to wander the halls and see what
03:47
comes up because you discover things
03:50
that way grace design Evan what do you
03:54
guys what’s your focus for the show
03:55
today is it the whole prayin or one
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thing in particular
03:58
I mean well our you know our big our big
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you know sort of long slow moving
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product release right now is a high
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channel count monitor controller for
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surrounds
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work surround post-production film
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post-production you know for people who
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are having to retool to do Atmos so it’s
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an app most at most friendly monitor
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controller at most yeah yeah that’s up
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to twenty two point two or something
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like what arts will do yeah yeah yeah
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yeah so ours that’s 22.2 there was a big
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demand for this I hear there is there is
04:38
because all the big streaming net you
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know services are now adapting you know
04:45
Atmos really so Wow so there’s gonna be
04:50
just loads of content you know having to
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have at most stream every Quinn very
04:57
quickly being adapted quite rapidly yeah
05:00
so so having a hardware piece of
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hardware that that makes that workflow
05:06
possible is sort of in one box is gonna
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be really useful for us the other things
05:10
featured here are there definitely
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preamps the one the M 108 is probably
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the thing that blows my dress up the
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highest because it’s the most you know
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stuff you can pack into a single rack
05:21
space I think you can about yeah yeah
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and you you know you voice guys you love
05:27
those black Grace design preamps there’s
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eight of them now in one big black box
05:32
oh you’re running a voiceover studio and
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you’re tracking a bunch of animation
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boys yeah for an ensemble this thing is
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the bomb yeah it really is quite
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impressed with piece of cake if you’re
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hearing some funny noises coming down
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the line that’s Andrew drooling on his
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microphone exactly
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I hope using a dynamic mic that can
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handle more you know it’s an underwater
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mic that’s Evan what’s your GC is your
06:00
main competition in the preamp area
06:04
well I mean you know for years and years
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like we’ve sort of got neck and neck
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with millennium meat millennium media
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who you know they’re friends of ours
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John the crews an awesome designer and a
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great guy and you know but when it comes
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to sort of you know going head to head
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in this sort of high-end a channel mic
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preamp world you know especially for
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people doing you know more sort of
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classical music concert music stuff like
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that you know it’s always kind of in
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millenia or grace and you know we’ve
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millenia they sell a lot of mic preamps
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we saw a lot of mic preamps too but they
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they definitely have sort of cornered
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that market for a long time so I think I
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would say that they’re a competitor but
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it’s also such a small industry that you
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know we don’t we don’t necessarily worry
07:04
about trying to like beat out
07:04
competitors and just more worried about
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staying relevant with what we do and
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just you know making sure that you know
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we’re we’re discovering interesting
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niches for us and you know because we
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make we make you know quote-unquote
07:20
transparent mic breeze and that’s about
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you know 5% of mic pre business most
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people want to buy a mic Bri that makes
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them sound better or makes a thing sound
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warmer or fatter or whatever so the
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transparent sort of end of the pool is
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much smaller so we’ve always we’ve
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always had to branch out into other
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things monitoring instrument preamps for
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perform and stuff like that so yeah I
07:50
would say yeah millennium media has been
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a competitor I guess yeah yeah I was
07:55
gonna say millennia but because you both
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work in that really super clean preamp
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area it was only because when I first
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spoke to Lewis the thing that he set me
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up with because I said to him I wanted
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something that was so transparent so
08:10
flat that you know is unaffected by
08:12
anything not colored by anything and he
08:14
said okay we’ll buy a micro tech to fill
08:17
in
08:17
thirty and grace design m101 and then
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years later I saw that come up on a for
08:24
I’m s one of the the top combinations of
08:27
Mike and Priya get that’s awesome
08:31
yeah so did you say you had some new new
08:35
product for them yeah I mean that really
08:38
that the new product that we’re pushing
08:40
right now is is a is a large surround
08:44
sound monitor controller it’s hardcore
08:48
I mean it’s the kind of thing that it’s
08:50
for if you’ve got a big mixing stage or
08:53
maybe even a mixed post makes type place
08:55
or film explains yeah for doing
08:56
post-production for film it for Atmos
08:59
yeah yeah yeah yeah up to twenty two
09:01
point two channels yeah Wow twenty four
09:04
channel monitor mixer yeah so that’s
09:08
really what we’re pushing right now yeah
09:09
wow that’s and honestly my monitoring
09:13
for us is the biggest part of our
09:14
business so playback so our stereo
09:17
monitor controller and now the surround
09:19
sound monitor controller and you guys
09:21
dipped your toe a little bit into sort
09:24
of the affordable audiophile market
09:27
didn’t you with like the that little
09:30
headphone amp yeah yeah absolutely
09:32
that’s called the EM 900 BM 900 yeah
09:35
yeah sort of baby brother of it
09:37
no that’s the baby well that is the big
09:39
name here is the baby brother we used to
09:41
have a slightly bigger ones but those
09:43
are all out of production because that
09:44
yeah this took over that kind of
09:46
business one away got you yeah sort of
09:49
mid mid thigh hi-fi computer playback
09:52
you know Dax and headphone amps yeah all
09:56
that business just went down markets so
09:58
far that it’s all just one hundred two
10:01
hundred dollars into the base that’s
10:03
right yeah yeah it’s not our not our not
10:07
our core competency hey you guys I’m
10:10
gonna have to tap out for one second I
10:11
have I have a client yeah Evan is
10:14
actually here to try to get money as
10:17
yeah we’re gonna let him go by the
10:20
client well I’m gonna hang out with you
10:22
for a minute
10:34
sitting next to me on my left is my
10:37
partner in crime you might know his
10:39
voice
10:40
hi mr. dan Leonard its Dan again hey
10:43
gummy Dan it is it is doing fine doing
10:47
fine how’s things down under well
10:49
actually we’re just saying about that
10:50
it’s very warm it’s very warm here and
10:52
none yeah if you’re anyone’s been
10:55
watching the Australian Open on
10:56
television then you will know how hot it
10:58
is yes well it’s the middle of January
10:59
that’s nice year so so what have you
11:02
seen Dan that’s impressed you at NAMM ah
11:04
so far it’s all pretty much the same
11:06
stuff you know yeah it’s like you know
11:12
there’s there’s a couple of new
11:13
microphones that came out I was just
11:15
talking to the guys at Vanguard they
11:16
have a mic that just came out and and
11:20
you know most of the acoustical stuff
11:22
because I’m the guy that when I really
11:24
talk to people I explained to them for
11:26
your voiceover studio it’s all about
11:28
your acoustics we saw yeah we’ve seen
11:30
microphones always we see microphones we
11:33
got a good look at gik acoustics
11:36
acoustic treatment which Dan and I
11:38
always like to focus on acoustic stuff
11:40
yeah right because here is sexy mics are
11:43
sexy but love people don’t know the
11:45
acoustics studio bricks these guys make
11:49
these incredible ISO booths in Barcelona
11:52
not only did I see them here today but I
11:55
got to assemble one with them at joe
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cipriano his house yesterday yeah which
12:00
was a unique experience actually having
12:02
the owner of the company alongside you
12:05
basically running the show in essence
12:08
you know yeah yeah I got to build one at
12:11
Warwick on which was you don’t want to
12:13
over come this year yeah yeah so studio
12:15
bricks has been great and then we saw
12:16
our friends Mike Goodman Michael Goodman
12:19
at mixer the creator of mixer face
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that’s entrants yeah sentence they have
12:25
a new mono channel version of that
12:29
little mixer face mic preamp mixer so
12:32
it’s not really a mixer no it’s really
12:34
them like for pro – yeah it’s a expanded
12:38
mic for it for once it’s just a really
12:40
high-quality mono mic preamp with built
12:42
in battery that can run on an iPhone or
12:44
an Android or right
12:45
Windows or Mac
12:46
yeah for all you traveling people that
12:48
have to record while traveling for
12:50
suckers exactly I pity the fools so that
12:54
pretty much wraps up what we’ve seen
12:55
today we have a whole day tomorrow of
12:58
coverage to do so we do hope to discover
13:00
some cool stuff well that sounds like a
13:02
wrap from them I’m guessing so George
13:05
thanks for your time thank you Dan and
13:07
please thank you and from grace design
13:09
nice to talk to you that’s George and
13:12
Dan from the NAMM show in Anaheim
13:13
California signing off
13:16
that was the pro audio suite if you have
13:19
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13:22
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13:24
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13:29
you