This Mac-centric audio workstation is getting an upgrade. This is what you need to know.
At this year’s NAB, Audio Design has announced Audio Design Desk 2.0, the world’s first digital audio workstation plugin which can mix and sweeten audio tracks of video from within the timeline of industry-standard video editors including Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut, and DaVinci Resolve.
The Design Desk DAW is able to isolate and adjust the audio levels of every element present in an audio stream, giving editors the ability to remove unwanted background noise from Production audio as well.
“This is the tool I’ve been looking for my entire career,” said Jamie Hardt, the sound editor on Spider-Man, It, Zero Dark Thirty, and Insidious. “It makes the pain and chore of sound editing disappear.”
What is Audio Design Desk 2.0 bringing to the table that Audio Design Desk doesn’t have? Let’s get into it.
Innovative
Audio Design has been named one of the top ten most innovative companies in film and TV in 2023 by Fast Company. Audio Design Desk’s (ADD) released last year, garnered it Product of the Year at NAB 2022, Best Software at CES 2022, and Fast Company’s Next Big Thing in Tech in 2021.
Version 2.0 builds on that success with a new look and functionality that supports video editing workflows, and dramatically reduces the post-production window.
A New Interface
With a sleek new user interface rewritten from the ground up, ADD 2.0 can be incorporated into a supported NLE with minimal setup. The integrated tools allow video editors to sync their timelines with ADD to produce, refine, mix, and deliver all the sound for their videos without ever leaving their editing timelines. The DAW is able to automatically mix and clean up production audio with a touch of a button, instantly providing a balanced audio mix, adjusted gain, and cleaned-up audio with complete control.
“This tool gives people like me so much power, it almost shouldn’t exist!” Lesley Fogle, governor of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) added, “I designed a feature film in three days rather than three weeks. It doesn’t get better than that.”
A Stuffed Toolkit
ADD 2.0 allows for further manual fine-tuning and collaboration with robust file management utilities and creative AI tools, which Audio Design says translates into giving video editors “unrivaled audio superpowers.”
That sounds like classic marketing talk, but if ADD 2.0 is able to deliver on its AI-driven audio mixing while providing video editors the ability to remain within their set workflow, then it’s bound to be a valuable tool for users to take advantage of.
Moreover, ADD 2.0 can also be used in concert with podcasting, live streaming, sound design, and other forms of content creation.
ADD 2.0 is highly Mac-centric. However, it can operate as a stand-alone app or be fully integrated with Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Final Cut Pro. No word on if Audio Design will explore a Windows-based app in the future, but since this is the second generation of the software, it may not be in its development roadmap any time soon.
How to Get the Audio Design Desk 2.0
ADD 2.0 is currently in BETA and will be available as a subscription which includes cloud storage, royalty-free assets, cue sheet export support, and other tools starting at $8.99 a month for its basic service, as well as personal and professional tiers that top out at $14.99 and $29.99 a month respectively.
There are also annual, student, and educator discounts available.
Audio Design will be showcasing and demoing ADD 2.0 at NAB North Hall, Booth N1828 from April 16-20th. More information can also be found on the Audio Design website.
Let us know your thoughts on Audio Design Desk 2.0 in the comments!
