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
J
ust when you thought there wasn’t any
room in the world for another DAW,
along comes a plucky new upstart
that starts making waves. But instead
of competing in the well stocked end of the
pool, where music and post are what matters,
Hindenburg is aiming for a much more
sparsely populated niche: radio. Well, actually
the ambition is for Hindenburg to major on
story telling rather than engineering features.
Having badgered various manufacturers
to do a native radio editor over the years I’m
thrilled that a new start-up should be brave
enough to launch an all-new product at
times like these. Currently most radio (and
think of a market that includes online radio
and podcasting) is produced on either big
networked systems like Dalet, VCS, RadioMan,
etc, or on tools not designed from the groundup for the job, like Audition, Wavelab, or – dare
I say it? – Audacity. So it makes sense in one
sense to pitch a product squarely at radio and
broadcast production that cares not a whit for
MIDI, SMPTE, or ADR.
THE REVIEWER
ALISTAIR McGHEE
began audio life in
Hi-Fi before joining
the BBC as an audio
engineer. After ten
years in radio and
TV, he moved to
production. When
BBC Choice started, he
pioneered personal
digital production
in television. Most
recently, Alistair was
Assistant Editor, BBC
Radio Wales and has
been helping the
UN with broadcast
operations in Juba.
Down To Business
On start up, Hindenburg displays a clean
modern interface singularly lacking the
baggage of many modern DAWs that have been
fighting the ‘feature wars’ for a decade or more.
The layout is classic, with track headers on
the left, four tracks ready for action, and at
the bottom of the screen a classic transport
bar with clipboards on the right. On start up,
there are four of these arranged vertically, and
they’ll be familiar to journalists who have used
RadioMan or other networked software as a
handy place to keep your clips while working.
Having multiple clipboards allows great
flexibility in house keeping.
62 September 2012 | audiomedia.com
If you want to do something nasty to a clip
now, but you think you might want the unedited
clip again later, just control drag it to another
clipstore. And, while the clipstores are project
specific, you can have a pan project ‘Favourites’
to keep all your sigs, stabs, and stings in
one place.
One really neat feature is the small play icon
alongside every clip. Click on it and the clip
plays from the top for just as long as you have
the mouse button depressed. A simple thing,
but it makes auditioning clips that tiny bit faster.
And if you want to hear the whole clip
just hold down the shift key while clicking on
the icon.
You can import audio into the clipboard(s)
or direct into the playlist. I was impressed that
Hindenburg imported my mp2 files that are
tagged with the .s48 extension without batting
an eyelid. Flac files, however, are currently not
supported. Clips can be dragged in directly
from OS (Hindenburg is available on Windows
Hindenburg
effects.
and OSX), or direct from iTunes, or from a
CD. The CD import, like much in Hindenburg,
is simple, easy, and elegant.
Clips in the Hindenburg playlist have the
magic five adjustments: drag the out or in, drag
fades from top corners or drag level up or down
anywhere on the top of the clip. Dragging a
range allows you to alter the level of a segment
of your clip, and when you do that you have full
control over the points at which the fades start
and stop, as well as the levels of the plateaus
inbetween. There is no adjustment for fade
shapes, but as a journalistic tool, we can live
without that. You can create crossfades on a
single track just by overlapping clips.
Dropping a clip on a ‘selected’ clip replaces
it, while dropping a clip on an unselected clip
overwrites that portion of the clip.
Levelling Up
One of the key design aims of Hindenburg is to
help you get your levels right. Each project can >
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.
Chapterisation and images for iTunes enhanced AAC.
> have a loudness template (UK, EU, US) and optionally
automatically adjust the level of every clip you drop into
the playlist to match the template. Given that much time
is spent (or maybe on the other hand, not enough time)
in getting levels right, any useful help here is going to be
much appreciated.
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
the VO clip in the music, and ducked it under nicely.
Hindenburg automatically put the ‘shoulders’ of the duck
in, and when I hit play, it was a better balance than many
I’ve heard from the news room’s finest.
Hindenburg comes out of the box with four effects:
a three band equaliser, a compressor and two meters, a
loudness meter, and a BBC style PPM. The equaliser is
a bit of a dark horse in that it presents you with three From The Manufacturer:
controls and that’s it. Low, mid, and high frequency “Hindenburg develops
adjustment; however, you can click and drag the shape
editing tools specifically
of the curve for more interesting shapes, and I must say I
for audio storytellers
thought it sounded pretty good.
In the compressor someone has finally got it – radio journalists,
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
traditional DAWs are
use it properly… well, great things could happen.
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
I could. And now I can. As these metering options are for music production or
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.
On the other hand, the integrated Call Recorder with that user needs are
Skype connectivity is a boon for any working journalist, addressed first and
and with the ability to check all your Skype contacts and
foremost. Fullytheir online status direct from Hindenburg, this is a real
integrated desktop and
crowd pleaser.
To round off the workflow, there’s the output side. mobile solutions allow
Hindenburg can upload your audio as mp3 or AAC as a
podcast, and offers ftp upload and the option to upload fast recording, editing,
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.
There’s a full metadata editor for your podcast on board, podcasts from anywhere.”
and a handy ‘chapter’ view to get the big picture of Chris Mottes,
Hindenburg Systems
the podcast.
Conclusion
I have to say that Hindenburg is an impressive system.
With versions for Windows and OSX, and for your
iPhone, it has a lot of bases covered. Don’t compare
it with Wavelab or Sound Forge and bitch about the
features it doesn’t have; Hindenburg is about focused
content creation for radio and podcast people who are
interested in story telling first and foremost, and for
them it is a welcome relief. Hurray for Hindenburg. ∫
Information
Feature Set
• Automated Levels
• Voice Profiler
• Call Recording • One-Click Publishing
• Mac OSX 10.4 - 10.8 and Win XP - 7
Manufacturer
Hindenburg Systems
www.hindenburgsystems.com
Price Details
€350 – Hindenburg Journalist Pro
€85 – Hindenburg Journalist
€380 (prices starting from) – Hindenburg Broadcaster
audiomedia.com | October 2012 63