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The Source Elements Effect:
20 Years of Evolving Voice Connections Worldwide
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By Rudy Gaskins, October 27, 2024
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In 2019 I spoke with Rebekah Wilson and Robert Marshall of Source Elements, creators of Source-Connect. In the 5 years since, we’ve seen massive global changes in the remote recording industry, and taking their almost-20-year history into account Source Elements has a unique perspective on the state of remote recording and where the future lies. I reconnected with Rebekah and Robert to see where things are at and what news they’d like to share with us. To see their 2019 interview with us, click here.
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When we talked in 2019, you told us some wonderful things were coming. Can you give us an overview of the last 5 years at Source Elements since that time?
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Robert
We greatly scaled up and survived the pandemic together. Then we were able to get back on track and prepare for Source-Connect 4. Because of the situation, developments we had on-going in 2019 were no longer viable so we restarted our Source-Connect 4 efforts in 2021 so we were able to meet the new kinds of remote-recording modes of working. So that was a lot of work these last 3 years! New servers, new staff— the entire company got bigger which was, in itself, an operation.
Rebekah
I wouldn’t say we just survived the pandemic, but we were really proud that we were able to be called on at such short notice to support the industry, and we were able to do that. That was very significant to me personally. As a result, we scaled up our operations and arrived at the next level of sophistication as a company because of the demands that were put on us and the changes we made to meet those demands. We now have a different outlook of what Source Elements means as a business. That means it’s more meaningful to the creative industry and it’s got a stronger position in the marketplace.
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Source-Connect has been a staple in the voiceover industry since 2005 so it’s great to hear that there is a new version of Source-Connect out very soon. What are the benefits of the new version?
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Robert
No iLok, no port-forwarding. Full-parity and compatibility with Mac and Windows. A modern core that’s been redesigned for the future. And no iLok! Feature-wise, we’ve added the Replace feature to the standard Talent version (which was Standard), which basically allows the talent to be recorded in the highest possible fidelity by the engineer. No compromise. Previously, the Standard version didn’t have Replace, any recording made by a remote engineer was derived from the compressed audio stream. And now the end result is uncompressed. So, we’ve massively upped the quality for the talent to be recorded by the engineer or the record side.
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Rebekah
We also now support remote group performance, up to six people on a call. And as Robert mentioned, we’ve renamed the versions. Source-Connect Standard is now “Talent” and it’s been carefully, specifically designed for performers, guests and podcast creators. The other versions are Studio and Facility, with features specific to their requirements. Additionally, we have better directory, better searchability, better ability for the talent and studios to showcase their business and be found.
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What have been the most significant challenges in the last 5 years?
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Robert
Scaling and keeping focus! But after that, I think we’ve finally come through with something that doesn’t have the caveats of the previous older version. You know, there were some difficulties in getting the software configured with ports and the audio setup. Now it’s even more transparent and easy to use. We needed to learn to keep focus while building Source-Connect 4 because of all these crazy things that were going on, so many new feature requests coming in, we had to learn to hold back on all those until after the release. Now Source-Connect has the ability to have things added to it without being such a huge tech burden, to be able to add the features people want. So, there’s a lot of things coming up after the release because the initial release is about establishing a new platform for the next generation of Source-Connect.
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Rebekah
We definitely went through a process of saying, “what’s the most important thing for us to do?” And for Source Connect 4, it was to make sure that everybody could transition from Source Connect 3 to 4 without any hesitation, without any doubt, without any worry. And I believe that we’ve done that. In that sense, the challenges were making those engineering decisions, knowing if we’re going to go and rebuild something from scratch then we should be making the right choices for the types of technology that we’re using, so that we have a long life into the future and we don’t make the same mistakes that we made with Source-Connect 3, with its extensibility limits. So, Source-Connect 4 was designed from day one, so that we could add new features and support things like iPad and Linux and Atmos.
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Article continues after announcement.
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From Society of Voice Arts and Sciences:
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Has there been a change in the brand since that time?
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Robert
Obviously, we’ve got a new logo, and our website is prettier, but in terms of how it feels, I think we’ve worked hard to keep that same. You call us, and we’ll pick up the phone. We’re here for you.
They don’t need to know about the insane amount of internal meetings we have now. There was something nice about being small, I must admit.
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Rebekah
We do have a lot more meetings, that’s true. There was a big change for sure: more people, more meetings. I think Robert and I would both like to go back to being a very small company. It was kind of nice, but we’ve adapted now to the changes, and we love the people we work with now.
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Source Elements has been very visible about supporting the people in our industry, for example with supporting Ukraine.
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Robert
Yeah, I could say that one of the big challenges was when the Ukraine war started, and many of our developers were in Kyiv at that time. That was scary. It was very scary. But the team help up incredibly and made it work sustainability, even with difficult situations like power outages. Constantly. Thankfully the product they developed allows for mobility and it really is the age of complete mobility now. Every person is now a quantum element: they are where they show up at the time.
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Rebekah
It wasn’t fun for anybody, you know, they were all having to decide quickly where everyone’s going, how they’re getting there, are they safe? But we got through it to create a new normal where being remote from each other suddenly made the product a lot stronger. our team has been forced to be uncertain about where they’re working from one day to the next. And that’s actually something important that we wanted to bring into Source Connect, which was to reflect the change that came with the pandemic, where suddenly people are deciding within five minutes to the next, “I’ll work here right now” or “I’ll go there and work. We also learnt quickly to trust each other in important ways and be deeply compassionate where needed.
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Why is it important for you, as business founders, to invest time in such community outreach?
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Robert
I think that the whole voice industry is this industry that we all enjoy being in, and we like supporting each other and furthering the industry and bringing in new people and new talent, as well as honoring pioneers like James Earl Jones. Just being part of that whole community and trying to help it find its footing in circumstances like AI, keeping it relevant. I think we’re just part of the voice industry. I think that’s what it is.
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Rebekah
For example, Robert, you worked with a voiceover group last week doing a workshop. We give discounts to forward diversity, which is to say we don’t want to see anyone left out when it’s possible for us to help. We really encourage anyone around the world who needs our tools and say, let’s find a way that will work for you. Maybe that’s just it, right? We are just part of the voice industry, and therefore we want to be involved with that community. They are our friends and our colleagues.
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Do you have any advice for aspiring voice actors, how they should get started with Source-Connect?
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Robert
Grab a trial, get familiar with it. Even better, you can grab a subscription and keep it for a few months and get even more familiar with it. I always advise that it’s the type of software that should pay for itself. We offer all kinds of plans that are at the sort of speed of different actors—from people that’ve been doing it as a career their whole life, and they use it every day, to other actors who maybe only need it once a month here or there. But it’s good to be familiar with it, and therefore sometimes it’s even good to get the subscription so you can get tech support with us and make sure that you’re very familiar with it. Above all, please avoid the last-minute chaos of downloading it 15 minutes before your first-ever session.
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Rebekah
Don’t do it at the last-minute, please! If you know that you’re going to be working in the voice industry, you are going to use Source Connect. That’s a given. We’ve got all these YouTube videos, and we’ve got an academy.
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Article continues after announcement.
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From Society of Voice Arts and Sciences:
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How has life changed for the both of you personally given the positive impact of the industry’s move towards remote working and the effect of this on your business?
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Robert
With the move to remote working, we were and are grateful to being so well-embraced by the industry. We got a lot busier, and it’s brought us together as a company. But we have lots of meetings. And a lot of our focus has been the voice industry, but the music industry is really exciting. We’ve always been used in the music industry to some degree, Rebekah and I are both musicians. But I think it’s fun being able to now not just make the specific tools for ADR and refining things for the voice talent like finding a source and making Source-Connect easier, but also making specific workflows for other creative musicians who often are in a position where they have to do something technical remotely, but they’re not technical themselves. So we have a duality of having a very technical-oriented product that interacts with creatives who need a very accessible interface. For them, we’re excited to bring new workflows. For creative people, musicians in particular, podcasters as well, who are dealing with a remote connection, because remote is here to stay.
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Rebekah
I found that because of my previous research and working in music, I had a lot of musicians get in touch during COVID-19 or we got connected on many of the remote events and conferences that suddenly exploded on the internet during that time. So I’ve been giving a lot of lectures and talks on how to use our remote technology for music-making. It’s very satisfying for me.
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We asked this question in 2019 and it’s even more relevant today: Do you see Source Elements’ role changing as a result of the growth of AI?
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Robert
I don’t think it’s obvious to everyone, but our role has definitely changed. I think AI is here to stay. I don’t think anybody’s role can be exactly the same, because AI is in play now. It really does change everything. You know, back in the early 2000s when the Internet was replacing switched networks, we saw that at Source Elements as the future network to use before it was even possibly fully ready to do what we can so easily do today. There’s going to be uses of AI that are not as diabolical as everyone thinks they are. And we’ll find those and provide that to the industry that AI can be a tool that everyone doesn’t fear. I think we haven’t even gotten to the point of where really, truly new forms of art are made, where remote is all part of it. And then AI is definitely going to augment how people create.
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Rebekah Wilson
I agree. I believe the concept that we’ve had the introduction of many tools in the past that could have been completely destructive to an industry: for example, tape recording did not ruin the music industry. The invention of recording to vinyl did not mean that orchestras were no longer needed for live concerts. All of these threats that we thought were going to change the industry actually just added to its creative potential. I think it’s fairly clear that there’s a place for AI as much as there’s a place where it’s not needed. There’s a place that is still developing which will spur on real human creativity because it forces us to look at ourselves and say, ‘What makes us human?’ We want to go there together. We want to live in that place. So, I think the future holds exciting things still to happen on a human level. However, right now is a time for fighting to maintain copyright and undo what has gone wrong with AI’s massive theft of data. We at Source Elements completely support those efforts.
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What’s the next big thing for Source Elements?
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Robert
In 2019 I was saying, “wow, who would have thought we were doing 5.1 streaming over the internet,” and now just five years later, we’re doing 128 channels over the internet. So, the future is kind of right here. We’re right on the cusp of critical change, it’s happening faster and faster. The developments are faster, the industry changes faster.
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Rebekah Wilson
Source Connect 4, which is VERY close to beta, since we’re speaking today in late October. You can go to our website and sign up for early access. Robert, you and I have been in the business 20 years, and so the next big thing would probably be a surprise to both of us. But for now, we’re just enjoying riding the wave in the direction that we believe the technology should go. ♦♦♦
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Rudy Gaskins is the CEO and co-founder of the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the global community of voice actors and the professionals who contribute to the voice acting industry. He co-created That’s Voiceover!™ Career Expo and the Voice Arts® Awards. Rudy is an Emmy Award-winning TV producer and documentary filmmaker, with a career spanning PBS, ABC News, NBC Sports, Court TV, and Food Network. His natural talent for advertising led him to become Vice President of Creative Services at Court TV, after which he founded Push Creative Advertising, offering branding services for major global brands such as American Express, Lexus, NBC Sports, Delta Air Lines, Costco, Food Network, BET, and TV One. He has received numerous awards across the media spectrum, including multiple Telly and Promax awards. Under his leadership, SOVAS has been honored with Special Congressional Recognition from the United States Congress, a Certificate of Merit from the New York State Assembly, and a City Council Citation from The Council of the City of New York.
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From Source Connect:
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