Dutch

A picture is worth a thousand words! Love your work Mr. Rose.

Mike's a special sound engineer. This was a real treat to watch, Thank you both!

While there are many ways to handle this your best bet might be to buy the items back via credit card and then resolve the issue through ebay. That would potentially get you the name and address of the seller for police, you'd have your gear to keep working, and surely you'd have better luck getting your money back having ebay and your credit card company on your side. If you let the police handle it alone: he might get away since they would have to get a warrant and they'd have to find the gear. Also the police would be required to impound the gear as evidence for trial. Might take awhile until you get your gear back. Not to mention that if the gear is sold the seller could also get charged with selling stolen gear. Might be hard to prove he was the one who stole it.

Hope things work out in your favor RDSound, good luck!

Finally got to see the making of "Roar" as it was just on Animal Planet. Cool footage, great interviews, and pure insanity of a film idea. Hard to believe Mr. Goodin made it out without a scratch! Fenced in sound cart maybe? Hats off to Tippi for taking responsibility for the animals and establishing Shambala. I'll certainly visit on my next trip out and donate to the refuge.

As many have stated, this will eventually come out of our pocket. I think everyone wants to see advancement in innovation and the continued success of both these manufacturers. Let's find a way together to keep this a "family" argument as a loss (in judicial court) for either side will just leave deeper wounds! Seems that this is something that could be rectified by a temporary boycott (for the good of all) to force mediation instead. I've been planning a 10k+ upgrade and will hold off on my wireless decision to start the ball rolling. Anyone else in the same position willing to do the same?

Really interesting to see what it takes to work on a Ridley Scott film. Always been a fan of RS and watch all the BTS on the DVD's just to hear the story's. But they rarely talk about sound so this was truly a treat. Ben Osmo sure sets an impressive standard and it's kind of mind boggling to break down all the skills/aptitudes needed to succeed at his level.

Met him in 1999, the coolest person I've ever met. God bless you Gregg! Chris Cornell and Gregg in a week this is so sad. Thanks for sharing your souls with us in your music.

Not sure where your seeming angst is coming from Crew, but it's not rooted with me. I capitalized your screen name because they taught me in school to always capitalize names and it's no sign of disrespect.

7 hours ago, old school said:

I will give you this truth, It's never the gear, it's what you do with it. It's never the monitor or meters that matter, it's what you do with the tools to make the recording as thorough and complete as it can be. Simple in theory. 

I disagree with your statement as it's a mix of quality gear and knowing how to get the most from it that produces professional results.

7 hours ago, old school said:

When did you join this conversation? Credits matter amigo.

I've been reading this forum since 2011 and joined within the last few years. I have a dozen IMDB credits since the last film on your list and over 3000 hours of feature film and reality TV work in that time period.

Thanks Jim, it's been a long tough winter and I realize everyone is facing personal/professional challenges. Just hours ago my girlfriend dumped me because she sees no future in what I enjoy doing (film production/sound). It's been one of those weeks! Lol

This is a pretty awesome group of people here and I'm very thankful of all the positive member contributions. Wish I had enough spare $$$ to make the trip out to NAB and meet some of these people in person.

I will take that to heart Old School. But frankly I wish you'd share some of how you deal with recording challenges. I wouldn't take that as self congratulating or blowing smoke. Don't you ever say that I threw shade on John because that's bullshit and not true. I spoke to John as a peer who ripped on another peer. Surely Robert doesn't need my defense but I've appreciated the viewpoints he shares and I agree with 99% of what he shares so I did. Obviously there are biases here that I'm unaware of.

John, since your comment was about what I wrote, please vent your thoughts to me. I'd love to get a 688 eventually and what you said may have some validity. But my role in the area I service is certainly not to compete against the people who taught me how to be a professional. My 633 fills a niche and does it well. Right now my niche is not as a department head for feature films. For those I enjoy supporting my friends careers as a boom op or assistant.

So John as good as you may be as a sound mixer, it's really not cool to throw stones. Not many of us are in the same league as some of the masters on this board. In my opinion it takes not only skills, a willingness to listen, but also genuine humility to get to their level. Peace out bro!

32 minutes ago, RPSharman said:

When an actor suddenly changes a performance. Shouts instead of whispers. Everyone LOVES it!! Your 6-series line input clipped. There's the problem.

We can all agree that proper gain staging will prevent the use of limiters for regular use. But we're not getting paid as professionals to record ordinary things. Almost anyone can do that (although I've hear a lot of distorted news reports lately). We are paid to capture performances that are out of the ordinary. We can't simply say, "Ooops. That actor is going into one of my line inputs without a limiter, and I didn't get that take." Although when an actor changes the performance and overshoots a mark, and it's out of focus, they seem to be ok with that.

Thanks RP, you summarized it well!

I concur as we're hired and paid well to get clean recordings in challenging situations. White hot, artifact free, and impactful recordings that support the 4-8k high def visuals being recorded. As an example I recently did a roundtable shoot with women who had lost a child. I knew it would be emotional so I ran my boom and 4th lav through my 302 into the 633 line inputs. Also chose to put the African American woman through that lav as she had the most powerful range in her voice. Was a good move too as she went from super quiet whisper to thunderous vocal projections. Those 302 limiters saved that part of the scene until I could ease the faders down. The director was worried we lost the audio as she was deafening but to her surprise on playback it was excellent, even at clipping. My mentors never taught me that stuff but they did teach me how to plan, to think, and set the standard that I strive to maintain as a professional. Being a good soundman is much more than being technically proficient and really is a background art form unto itself.

On 3/18/2017 at 8:18 PM, Jeff Wexler said:

Of course you know I would love to hang out on the set, any set, pontificate and tell stories, and not have to actually WORK ... that would be a little selfish, even for me, so I won't attempt it. As for the whole rocking chair thing, thanks for the offer but no thanks. As a working sound mixer for all those years sitting behind the sound cart, now that I'm retired I have to be even more aware of how little exercise I get.

Sure hope guys like Old School and you only semi-retire. I'd split my wages anytime just to have you on set and soak up some of your wisdom. Thanks for breaking the trails and building the bridges!

Not sure what was funnier, Dan's rant or the picture of a zoom with a cedar! Nah, Dan wins!

Thanks Glen, as I typically work in small market areas it's important to invest in gear carefully. Looking forward to the early summer specials and word back about the latest and greatest from the NAB show.

I have a lot invested in Lectro's but really like the new Zax wireless after working with a peer who swears by them. Just been waiting on the FCC auction which just ended and saving a few more $$$ before taking the plunge.

Of course you always leave headroom, that's elementary! I love the size of my 633 but realize that there's always a trade-off between size and function. Surely it would be the size of a 688 if it had six analog in's. Chris's comment about it not being a professional unit because of this trade-off was quite untrue as exampled by the many great sound recordists using this gear.

When working on unscripted projects you quickly learn the benefit of hardware limiters which has nothing to do with proper gain and headroom settings.

One of the great films has to be "Microcosmos". Philippe Barbeau and Bernard Leroux did an incredible job on sound. The film took 3 years to make and is still probably the most ambitious film of its type to this day. Have you ever heard an ants footsteps? Watch this film! It's a marvel from both visual and sound perspectives.

Short clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76R2EKEnoJQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfUf5IawJ30

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117040/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcosmos_(film)

12 hours ago, chris_bollard said:

I have noticed this on both my 633 and 688. 

Kind of makes those inputs unusable. 

I would have preferred to pay a bit more to buy and a more professional unit. 

Not sure what you mean by more professional unit as they all have their drawbacks Chris. I just run the inputs through my 302 and into 5 and 6 when using my 633 when additional analog are needed. I'd put my recording results using SD equipment against anything on the market in a field comparison. Not knocking other equipment either as it's all give and take.

Works great, especially with the heavy duty Canare 4 wire. Not needed for under 50ft but for my boom op 2-way and 100ft long it really saves time.

+1 Dan Izen, I'd fight alongside you in the trenches any day brother! So true, everything Dan stated, so sadly true!

I'd keep your 302 as it's a very versatile piece of gear. There's something special about those limiters too! Maybe someone here can explain why they seem to work better than the ones on the 633? I've used the 302 and 633 combo for many interesting applications (ex: pzm's + shotgun's) with good results. The 302 also provides an extra 3 channels of phantom power when needed without having to commit to the larger footprint of the 664 or 688. Not to mention that you're covering your butt by having two mixers if you also have a simple recorder such as the DR-40 which is what I use for emergency. You can get creative too in follow car or other challenging applications by having two mixers/recorders.

It's guys like yourself and Don that I'd love to learn from as we share a similar passion for the art form of film making. Keep me in mind if you ever need a second boom or if Don isn't available, it would be an honor to work with people of your caliber!

20 hours ago, ramallo said:

Bye bye Rock'n'Roll king :_(

http://variety.com/2017/music/news/chuck-berry-dead-rock-n-roll-dies-90-1202011575/

 

"King", well said ramallo!

My mother in-law told me a story about seeing Chuck Berry at a small venue concert and only about 20-30 people showed up. He wasn't upset though and had everyone come up and get close around him in a semi-circle. All smiles and full of his patented vigor he rocked the place for a full show.

Only now, looking back can we see that those special people (Chuck Berry, and Elvis), The King's of Rock-n-Roll started a renaissance in music lasting 25 years that may never again be duplicated in any era of time. No other art form touches our emotions and communicates to the masses as music does, to be King of that renaissance is quite the lifetime achievement. Chuck Berry may have passed away but he will always be with us!

Easy to see that Don commands respect on set and is an asset to the sound mixer and the production in general. My biggest pet peeve with the young film crew professionals is they don't care about the production, only their little bubble.