What is replacing studio to studio ISDN connections

[postman56]

I was interested in hearing from other studio engineers on what they are using to connect talent in different markets to their studios for real time sessions. I know the ISDN box was the unit of choice for most, but is it something that is still necessary or should I be looking at something different.
There is great talent on on our west coast I'd like to acess more often, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ken

[Oroz]

This seems like a pretty good option:
/ Source Elements / Introducing .. /
I've worked with ISDN only a little bit but I think that I'd go the Source Element's route if I needed that type of connection.

[Stizz]

We still use ISDN every day, but I would imagine that Source Connect will be taking over in the next 3 to 5 years, as the technology improves and more facilities buy the program.

[pisser]

Still using ISDN. Have tried Source Connect a few times but had too many issues too make it a replacement. I need to have a system that works seemlessly all the time and found SC drops out or skips to often, even with dedicated connections. The new version seems to address some of these issues but I can't afford to beta test software

[soundguydave]

I own source connect because I have to. But the telos is my first choice everytime. Source Connect is not up to snuff for serious sessions by any means.

[matt82aust]

The forethcoming version of Source Connect looks amazing. The fact that it automatically sends the uncompressed audio after the session (i believe?) will give it the edge over ISDN finally i would hope!

[postman56]

Thanks for the info, the Source Connect isn't cheap by any stretch I see, which ISDN being used out there would you suggest? Telos?
They've come down significantly, maybe I should get into one in the interm?
Ken

[Frank S.]

We use ISDN every day too. We have both Telos Zephyr and APT-X Milano boxes. I think the APT is better, but if you're dealing with talent that have home studios they will more than likely have a Zephyr or an equivalent box.

APT has a new box they were showing at AES that has both ISDN and IP capabilities. It seems that they have the technology down and the packet drops will be minimal to a point where they can't be heard.

Here's a link: IP Audio Codecs, T1 Audio Codecs, E1 Audio Codecs, X.21/V.35 Audio Codecs and ISDN Audio Codecs

[Berg]

I would recommend one of the APT boxes as well. We have a Tokyo here as well as a few others and it is the most versatile and best sounding box I have seen/heard. They are a bit pricey, but if you do ISDNs a lot like we do, it will pay for itself in no time. I will have to check out their new models.
I can see the day when ISDN gets replaced by something like source connect, but right now it works very well and a ton of people have it, so I don't see it going away any time soon.

Matt

[e-cue]

ISDN has no easy time sync between systems while SC currently does ( this is good for ADR, overdubbing, remote mixing w/ picture lock). Also without some sort of time lock, matching back with the uncompressed audio is a lot harder. SC version 3.0 with replace will really solve the headache of matching back all the uncompressed takes. Restore takes care of any skipping or drop outs.

The Standard version is only $395. More and more post houses are getting hip to it.

[Tony Shepperd]

I have been using Source Connect/Live for almost a year now.
I looked into the whole ISDN thing, but once I heard the price of the hardware, I passed on it.
Source Connect has been awesome. I have yet to have a problem with it.
For my money, Source Element is one of the best plugin values out there and the sound quality is really impressive.

3 weeks ago, I had to get 2 producers (one of them was audiomichael here at GS) to sign off on a mix.
I used Source Live and everyone logged into the mix.
I got both of them to listen and tweak the mix, in their studio environment on monitors they know and trust.
The old way would be waiting for them to download the mix and come back with opposing views on the mix. tutt

It's one of the plugins I can truly say has permanently (for the better) changed the way I work.

[Energie]

Source connect IS a serious alternative to ISDN, and it can have better sound quality. ISDN is limited to 128, which in mono is fine, but do Stereo and thats 64 per channel. I used ISDN everyday for several years, as well as Source connect with some sessions. It takes just a little to get used to, and when things work, they worked really well, routing was a bit more complicated, but once you get a hang of it.

ISDN is pretty solid most of the time, though its not cheap. I do think SC and or something like it will eclipse ISDN over time, though it will take awhile because many people still have ISDN.

[TheGolfer]

Source-connect pro worked flawlessly for me. From what i heard at the AES convention 2 weeks ago, the auto replace fonction will be available only for the PRo version. If a Sc pro is connected with a non-pro SC, he will be able to download and replace files from the non pro Sc but the opposite won't be true. In my opinion $1500.00 is really cheap for this kind of flexibility. I also use source-live and love it! I would recommend anybody to give it a try with the free downloadable demo.