Petros Kolyvas

I agree, I assemble all my cables with Canare; using the same Star Quad and 2-wire as you. I do think there are other fine choices out there but I've found my jam (and yours)

I'd suggest caring about cables is important but not in the "one brand is dramatically better" kind of way. Mogami, in my experience, are not great for field work. At least they weren't for a long time - things can change. Many off-the-shelf Mogami audio cables use cabling that has straight, non-braided shields which can get mangled very quickly in the heat of the moment as opposed to Canare (or others) that use a much more robust braided shield. The straight shielding can be felt as the cable doesn't "twist" - I can't think of a better description at the moment, but I'm only on my first coffee. If you're not making the interconnects/patches/cables yourself, I'd skip Mogami or at least test how the cable behaves.

@mono Thanks for sharing. That was incredible. I don't know why but I especially enjoyed the multiple checks.

We had a guerilla scene that was shot on an A7S-II using audio TC - so there are still some out there willing to take the plunge. He had used it (tentacle/audio TC/DSLR) successfully in the past,

I just did a doco where the DOP swore by the tentacles and I was pretty impressed - jamming was quick and reliable. We checked sync at the end of each day (sometimes 12 hours) and drift with MixPre10T was 0 or very close to it. He had his setup with velcro and attached to the side of his Helium and did the same for the FS7 the 2nd Camera was using. A short stand-up meeting at the beginning of each day and we were set.

After a very successful run - nearly 8 years without a single issue across a huge number of batteries from a variety of shipments - with Maha Imedions (the low-self discharge PowerEx), I've moved on to Amazon Basics. I'm over a year in and pretty happy - they don't seem to swell at all.

Unfortunately, class-compliant USB interfaces will not have the multi-client audio features you're used to in a more full-featured audio interface, usually it the internal routing.mixing that's the issue as you noted; well that and drivers optimized for low latency recording and playback. I say this as a loving owner of a USBPre2 and a 552 (which I had tried to sell for a MixPre10T btw.) While you'll get get access to the physical inputs and outputs, you're going to have to to a dance to move audio around internally (virtual routing within OS X). There are some options to get around this. They will require a bit of work on your part (however, as with most things, you'll be the better for it): Jack Audio for OS X; probably the most powerful option, but also the most challenging to wrap one's head around. Once you do though... Recently I've also been using this free app I stumbled across called LadioCast (which was designed simply as a way to send streaming audio to various services) but works as a simple virtual mixer in OS X. It is very limited compared to Maestro or RME's Totalmix (which is hard to beat) and is very limited channel-wise. But it's not nothing and it costs nothing. The good-old SoundFlower (it still exists but it now lacks the front-end that could help with mixing/routing in High Sierra) There are also tools like Rogue Amoeba's Loopback/Hijack - but I haven't played with them to a great degree. With a class-compliant interface, once you get to the type routing you're used to where you might want internal playback on virtual outs 5-6 & 9-10 to go to analog outs 3-4 and 7-8 all while re-routing the incoming audio to some other outputs virtually, it's just one of those right-tools-for-job things. I wish the MixPre series was made with internal, zero-latency routing/mixing, but I don't believe it's trivial. Heck a fair number of strictly-interfaces on the low-end are only class-compliant for OS X. While I would bet that eventually we'll start seeing true, portable all-in-one solutions (imagine a battery-powered 1/2 rack RME UFX with DURec). The real answer in the near term, would more likely lie with something like MADI or DANTE I/O on the future MixPre/6-series and then a simple interface like the highly portable USB3 Digiface DANTE (or similar); that way they can work as emergency interfaces, but could be connected as high-quality front-ends to true interfaces without SoundDevices having to dilute their gene pool too much.

The one thing the isn't great about SD USB interfaces on OS X is they use the generic (IE not great) USB audio drivers on OS X. These are not great for low latency/near-realtime playback from DAWs. Oddly they provide an ASIO driver for Windows. I have a USBPre2 I picked up as a simple, high quality preamp that I thought could double as a simple interface in a pinch for my small home music-den. It does that, and is great for recording and playback as long as it's audio-only. Once I need soft synths or In to Out routing, the generic driver performance isn't up to par - and also being able to manage clocking from a driver - for me is important. Also, as someone who uses and loves RME interfaces in the "studio", for a recorder with so many ins and outs, the lack of a mixing interface for the desktop/laptop into which it is plugged is a strange choice. The lack of a real low-latency driver for OS X is another. I hope they're coming, it me it felt like the missing piece with the MixPre3/6/10T for "interface" use, so I was surprised to see it absent with this Musician's version. Edit: I realise this isn't an interface first and foremost, I just think that feature is the one that needs the most work.

I've been using Soundsnap.com for many years now and until this week I've been very happy with them as a supplemental library when I can't create/record/use my own sounds. The issue in question isn't resolved yet, but basically a sound I purchased from them was flagged by one of the auto-copyright-detection mechanisms over at SoundCloud (for track that was private for heaven's sake!) - and it was just one in track of 30-40 sounds. SoundSnap has not responded to my requests (what do I expect for such a low price) for help in sorting it out and the "invoice/receipts" they provide are quite inadequate to prove I purchased that specific sound from them. I'm hoping to get some satisfaction from them shortly, but I think it's buyer beware here as they could be rushing through doing their due-diligence on some sounds and creators may get caught out by it. Fair warning of course. We'll save the tirade against SoundCloud for a thread more appropriate for it. Thanks for all the other amazing suggestions though - I came here to see what my alternatives are and your combined experience has been a great help! PS - I remixed the track in question - but it was no fun as it was client-approved and so a large, time-consuming headache!

I use both PT and Logic, depending on the job (and sometimes if the job doesn't care, how I'm feeling.)

Wow, thanks so much - that's incredibly helpful.

I'll give it a second whirl. Doing the same with Audio Finder was a benefit, so why not here.

I did look at their other utility, Library Monkey Pro, and downloaded the demo… it's on the demo list next.

Yeah, it seems I can't do any metadata editing within SoundMiner HD - but yeah, thousands of sounds is what I'm looking at…. whereas my re-try of the Audio Finder demo yesterday made easy work of such things. Also, I didn't find a good way in SoundMiner HD (again probably because the basic version has very little) to collect sounds from all over into one place. I had to do the copying by taking the scanned/found sounds and dragging them out into a Finder window to collect them. I could be doing it wrong, though I couldn't find anything in the provided manual indicating otherwise.

Thanks Marc - that's where my issue is, SoundMiner HD does very little. I did get the AudioFinder demo working long enough to give it a real whirl and it's closer to what I'd expect a complete feature-set to be (and at a reasonable price) - it also has a more conventional UI setup, properly using most of OS X's conventions (Apps like SoundMiner where the menu isn't on the "menu bar" and use cryptic icons scream poor design to me - standard or not.) Basehead is equally cryptic, forgoing some clear-at-first-glance functionality for form. At this point, I'm leaning towards AudioFinder since it meets my needs a little more closely and the price is palatable, but I'm open to try many more.