• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

TECHNOLOGY REVIEW “The loudness meter is comprehensive while very clear – much more sophisticated and powerful than the metering journalists will be used to, and if they learn to use it properly… well, great things could happen.” Alistair McGhee Hindenburg Journalist Pro Radio DAW ust when you thought there wasn’t any If you want to do something nasty to a clip and OSX), or direct from iTunes, or from a room in the world for another DAW, now, but you think you might want the unedited CD. The CD import, like much in Hindenburg, along comes a plucky new upstart clip again later, just control drag it to another is simple, easy, and elegant. that starts making waves. But instead clipstore. And, while the clipstores are project Clips in the Hindenburg playlist have the ofJ competing in the well stocked end of the specific, you can have a pan project ‘Favourites’ magic five adjustments: drag the out or in, drag pool, where music and post are what matters, to keep all your sigs, stabs, and stings in fades from top corners or drag level up or down Hindenburg is aiming for a much more one place. anywhere on the top of the clip. Dragging a sparsely populated niche: radio. Well, actually One really neat feature is the small play icon range allows you to alter the level of a segment the ambition is for Hindenburg to major on alongside every clip. Click on it and the clip of your clip, and when you do that you have full story telling rather than engineering features. plays from the top for just as long as you have control over the points at which the fades start Having badgered various manufacturers the mouse button depressed. A simple thing, and stop, as well as the levels of the plateaus to do a native radio editor over the years I’m but it makes auditioning clips that tiny bit faster. inbetween. There is no adjustment for fade thrilled that a new start-up should be brave And if you want to hear the whole clip shapes, but as a journalistic tool, we can live enough to launch an all-new product at just hold down the shift key while clicking on without that. You can create crossfades on a times like these. Currently most radio (and the icon. single track just by overlapping clips. think of a market that includes online radio You can import audio into the clipboard(s) Dropping a clip on a ‘selected’ clip replaces and podcasting) is produced on either big or direct into the playlist. I was impressed that it, while dropping a clip on an unselected clip networked systems like Dalet, VCS, RadioMan, Hindenburg imported my mp2 files that are overwrites that portion of the clip. etc, or on tools not designed from the ground- tagged with the .s48 extension without batting up for the job, like Audition, Wavelab, or – dare an eyelid. Flac files, however, are currently not Levelling Up I say it? – Audacity. So it makes sense in one supported. Clips can be dragged in directly One of the key design aims of Hindenburg is to sense to pitch a product squarely at radio and from OS (Hindenburg is available on Windows help you get your levels right. Each project can > broadcast production that cares not a whit for MIDI, SMPTE, or ADR. Hindenburg effects. THE REVIEWER Down To Business ALISTAIR McGHEE began audio life in On start up, Hindenburg displays a clean Hi-Fi before joining modern interface singularly lacking the the BBC as an audio baggage of many modern DAWs that have been engineer. After ten years in radio and fighting the ‘feature wars’ for a decade or more. TV, he moved to The layout is classic, with track headers on production. When the left, four tracks ready for action, and at BBC Choice started, he the bottom of the screen a classic transport pioneered personal digital production bar with clipboards on the right. On start up, in television. Most there are four of these arranged vertically, and recently, Alistair was they’ll be familiar to journalists who have used Assistant Editor, BBC RadioMan or other networked software as a Radio Wales and has been helping the handy place to keep your clips while working. UN with broadcast Having multiple clipboards allows great operations in Juba. flexibility in house keeping. 62 September 2012 | audiomedia.com Last but not least there’s the mobile dimension: Hindenburg has an iPhone app allowing you to record and edit in the field, and when your iPhone is connected by wireless to the same network your computer is on, you can even directly exchange clips from desktop to phone and back. This looks cool and had me wistfully looking at iPhones, this being an Android/Blackberry household. But, hey, Hindenburg: we do have an iPad… The app also supports emailing of clips or upload via ftp or to SoundCloud, and finally, if your phone is connected to your computer then you can load directly to iTunes. Conclusion Chapterisation and images for iTunes enhanced AAC. I have to say that Hindenburg is an impressive system. With versions for Windows and OSX, and for your > have a loudness template (UK, EU, US) and optionally iPhone, it has a lot of bases covered. Don’t compare automatically adjust the level of every clip you drop into it with Wavelab or Sound Forge and bitch about the the playlist to match the template. Given that much time features it doesn’t have; Hindenburg is about focused is spent (or maybe on the other hand, not enough time) content creation for radio and podcast people who are in getting levels right, any useful help here is going to be interested in story telling first and foremost, and for much appreciated. them it is a welcome relief. Hurray for Hindenburg. ∫ As a quick test, I dragged Miss You into the playlist (just my small revenge against the Smurfs) and quickly recorded a voice over. As I dropped in Miss You, Hindenburg took it down by 13dB, while my cheesy VO got a 5dB boost. I dragged a range over the length of Information the VO clip in the music, and ducked it under nicely. Feature Set Hindenburg automatically put the ‘shoulders’ of the duck • Automated Levels in, and when I hit play, it was a better balance than many • Voice Profiler I’ve heard from the news room’s finest. • Call Recording • One-Click Publishing Hindenburg comes out of the box with four effects: • Mac OSX 10.4 - 10.8 and Win XP - 7 a three band equaliser, a compressor and two meters, a loudness meter, and a BBC style PPM. The equaliser is Manufacturer a bit of a dark horse in that it presents you with three From The Manufacturer: Hindenburg Systems controls and that’s it. Low, mid, and high frequency “Hindenburg develops www.hindenburgsystems.com adjustment; however, you can click and drag the shape editing tools specifically Price Details of the curve for more interesting shapes, and I must say I €350 – Hindenburg Journalist Pro thought it sounded pretty good. for audio storytellers €85 – Hindenburg Journalist In the compressor someone has finally got it – radio journalists, €380 (prices starting from) – Hindenburg Broadcaster right: one knob, turn it clockwise for more, and back podcasters, and for less. Brilliant. The loudness meter is comprehensive while very other audio narrative clear – much more sophisticated and powerful than the producers. Most metering journalists will be used to, and if they learn to use it properly… well, great things could happen. traditional DAWs are And, it’s great to see BBC PPMs – they cheer me up developed primarily and I would probably mix with these on all the time if for music production or I could. And now I can. As these metering options are applied on a track by track basis, you will need to add a as integrated subsets master track to meter your whole mix. There is no mixer of a larger broadcast in Hindenburg, and to be honest, I don’t think journalists will miss one. There’s no volume curve on the tracks enterprise solution... either, but you can group clips and then adjust the volume All Hindenburg solutions of the group while retaining any level offsets the group are designed contains. Simple and easy to understand. There’s also an onboard voice profiler function, which by, with, and for allows you to profile a ‘good’ take of your voice and then professional radio apply it to a not so good take, to improve the quality. I wasn’t so sure about this. It’s profiles everything on the journalists and track, so you’ll need to make sure it’s only the material you podcasters, to ensure want profiled on there. that user needs are On the other hand, the integrated Call Recorder with Skype connectivity is a boon for any working journalist, addressed first and and with the ability to check all your Skype contacts and foremost. Fully- their online status direct from Hindenburg, this is a real crowd pleaser. integrated desktop and To round off the workflow, there’s the output side. mobile solutions allow Hindenburg can upload your audio as mp3 or AAC as a fast recording, editing, podcast, and offers ftp upload and the option to upload to a SoundCloud or PRX account. Hindenburg supports and delivery of radio chapterisation of podcasts and e-books, and you are packages or enhanced able to add images and urls to files destined for iTunes.

Load more

  2

Copy Link