I recently made the leap and updated to Source Connect Standard. I had been putting this off as I had heard that the setup was complicated and took a long time. Here was my experience!  (I don’t work for Source Elements or get anything for writing this).

From their website: “Source Elements have helped make mission-critical connections and what seemed impossible possible by introducing high-speed internet connectivity to multimedia production workflows through a suite of software applications that enable near real-time broadcast quality production in a collaborative online environment.”

For a voice actor like me, that means I can work with a client anywhere in the world, with zero latency or lag. It is similar in function to older technology like ISDN or ipDTL. Once you download the software and set it up, its a much cheaper alternative.

So getting started! I went to their website and chose Source Connect Standard. They offer a monthly subscription for $35 or you can buy the license for $650 (there is a $75 set up fee for both). They do offer a free browser-based product called Source Connect Now, which I have never used. I downloaded a 15 day trial but didn’t do anything with it.  It’s nice to be able to download the program and see what it looks like, but until it’s set up you can’t really do anything with.

You have to set up an iLok account. The iLok can either be a portable USB key or the login you use to sign in to Source Connect. Once I had paid for my subscription, there is an option to set up a support appointment and I highly recommend you do this too!  The set up session is included so why not take advantage! I had heard that it took a long time to get an appointment, but it actually only took me 2 days.

The day of the appointment, 15 minutes before actually, I got an email from them requesting that I have the following information at the ready:

1. router’s IP address,

2. administrator user name, and password (both of these are for port forwarding)

Cue minor panic: I would have appreciated a little more time to figure out where to find this information.

You also have to download RealVNC for the support session but that went quickly and easily.

I managed to get the info just in time for my support specialist Elena to call me.  She asked if I had plugged in my ethernet cable; I had not.  Elena waited patiently while I ran down the stairs and plugged the cable in to the router and back upstairs to plug it into my computer. (My husband had had the foresight to order a 50-foot ethernet cable from Ama3on!).

Elena set up my port forwarding and even helped me set up my DAW to record my sessions.  The only delay we had was when my computer stopped talking to the router for whatever reason.  For 20 minutes I was running back and forth from the router to my computer unplugging and re-plugging cables, resetting the router, and adjusting different settings. What worked in the end was changing the security settings of my wired connection from “public” to “private”. I guess the public setting is a default as I had never used a wired connection before on my computer.

So far I’m happy with the software. Sometimes during a session it will randomly drop out and re-reconnect, but I have a back-up recording of everything. The sound quality is excellent and based on my experience with Elena, their customer support is great.  I was glad it didn’t take weeks to set up (as I had heard) and was thrilled the set up was included at no charge.  Overall: a great experience!