Freeheel

Does anyone know where to find the customs law that permits film equipment as "tools of the trade"? I run into this problem all the time with inexperienced US customs agents, and would like to be able to quote the actual statute and law to them. I'm going to do a search, but I've looked before and have not been successful. I will post up again if I find it in the meantime. Cheers, Brent C

If I'm not walking around much I keep the bag low with the weight on my hip belt. I built a double waist belt for even more support, and the shoulder straps don't actually hold much weight at all. If I have to run up a mountain, (which is not infrequent on Vancouver shoots) I have rings up high on the shoulder straps of a good Arc'teryx mountaineering backpack, onto which I lift the entire sound bag up to for extra height. I also have the daily harness still on and the waist belt (which is now at the bottom of my ribs) serves to keep the bag from flopping outward from my chest. Sounds complicated and messy, but clip 2 carabiners and it's ready to run - undo the carabiners, and I can drop the backpack entirely, and still be in my regular rig. (good for when you can stop chasing your subject and talk to them in one spot for a few minutes) I spent an entire summer shooting in the backcountry with this rig (4 wires and 552) carrying about 60 lbs at all times. - Being able to drop the pack quickly was awesome! Being able to climb steep mountain trails was even better! cheers, Brent Calkin

Was sitting in a house Vancouver doing an interview and didn't even feel it. I think it was kind of long and slow and the people who noticed it the most were swaying about in the taller office buildings. No damage as far as the news has told. cheers, Brent C

Good to know. Sorry about the incorrect info. I spent the last three days sending audio to an EX1 and my shooter looked at me blankly when I asked about an expanded audio display. He said he'd never seen it on an EX1, so I assumed it was only an EX3 thing. Oh well... heat of battle and all that... cheers, B

<<< edit-- Caution- This post contains incorrect information. I could correct it and pretend I'm perfect, but it would make the rest of the thread a little weird.>>> The EX1 has no numbers, and no -20 line. So put -20 (on the 302) near the middle of the tiny little audio input meter on the EX1 LCD screen. Then hit the limiters on the 302 by cranking the volume and humming or yelling or whatever into your mic. If you don't hit the end of the meter on the EX1, you are good. If you hit the top of the EX1 Meter, dial the level control on the EX 1 back down a bit until you are no longer peaking. If you get upset by the lack of easy to see and read audio metering, relax and feel empathy for your camera-person who is going to spend the rest of the day not really knowing whether the camera is in focus or not... cheers, Brent C

I'll add my number to those who have had issues with 442 and moisture. One drop in the wrong place caused the trimpots to open up wide. A bit of snow got under my raincover and melted on the face. Suddenly the channel I was using started blaring and I realized that the trim was no longer attenuating audio. I tried to adjust it using the fader but the signal was totally overloading the front end. Had to throw the wireless rx onto the camera to finish the shoot. The 442 spent that evening under a hair dryer and I never had another problem with it. After this event though, I always made sure I had good protection over top of it during rainy shoots. Cheers Brent C

I've even used carefully chosen frequencies in the SAME block for talent and hops and it worked fine. I did put the hop tx up on my shoulders though. This was with 411 rx. Cheers. Brent C

I saw this on huffpost today and thought It was kinda cool to have a film critic basing his reviews entirely on the work that we do. I also like the way he laughs at his own jokes... Cheers Brent Calkin

Hey Craig, good to see you on here. Haven't seen you forever! The last time I was asked to use someone else's gear for a shoot, I told them that I would charge them the same rate either way. I had no interest in using someone elses low budget, badly maintained and badly set up crap. No one will take care of the gear with the same attention to detail as you will, and you will always have more gear than what you are being paid to bring. The production coordinator was a little shocked by my response, but called back the next day to say that I could use my own gear and get paid for it. And could I please not mention this to the other sound guy that they had hired who was going to use the company's gear. So I get to the shoot and the other sound guy is trying to get the provided wirelesses going. Now I don't have anything in particular against a pile of single frequency lectro 185s stuck in a one strap portabrace bag. As long as I'm watching someone else do it. The lectros were all in a block covered by a strong local tv station and were useless. I ended up pulling 2 of my 411s out of my bag and renting them as extras to the production. They were already frequency coordinated and ready to go. Unlike the gear the company was ready to hand to me to save a few hundred dollars on the day rate, The only times when using someone elses gear appeals to me is when they want you to mic someone who is skydiving into a salt lake in a active volcanic crater or something similar. Though I still usually up my labor rate a bit to make up the shortfall. Hope things work out the way you want! Cheers Brent C

Damien is correct. and when you have the channels 1/2 linked M/S AND the headphone monitor set to M/S what you are hearing is the undecoded (non stereo) signal - effectively the mid microphone on the left and the emesser on the right. That will obviously sound weird, as you have discovered. The regular XLR and multipin outputs will be putting out a proper midside stereo image though. Have a look at the 552 manual, M/S is a little tricky since the linking makes channel 1's panpot the balance control, channel 1's fader the overall fader for both channels and the only way to balance the mid to side mix is to use to input trims. I have a sennheiser mkh 50/30 midside rig and I find I'm always playing with the level of the side mic to get the best effect. Cheers, Brent C

You want to be on the top shelf and have the entire length of the antenna exposed for best reception.

X2 on the "not matching". They also seem higher on the nano than on the camera. I have ignored it, reasoning that a digital audio stream that was at a good level at the camera should not suddenly be higher at the next point of the data stream. I figured it was funky metering. Has anyone recorded hot to a Nanoflash and heard distortion that is not on the camera media?? cheers, Brent Calkin

Hey Tom, easiest solution is to get regular length toggle switch and cut the toggle down with a pair of sidecutters. Smooth it with a dremel tool or a file and you're done. HTH Brent Calkin

I got to visit the Highland Park distillery a few years ago in the Orkney Islands on a shoot and it's my favourite. Rich and Peaty. The 18 year old is the one I like best. Mellower and more flavorful than the 12 year old, which is a little more fiery. The 21 year old imo, just tastes older and a little tireder ( is that a word?) - not necessarily worth the extra cost... cheers, Brent C

Be aware that there are two audio settings AC3 (compressed) and LPCM (uncompressed) choosable in the menu. The setting chosen is shown on the screen at the lower left. cheers, Brent Calkin

SD Spring Reverb? Dang hidden features... At least now I can take the external spring tank out of my bag and get back that channel I was using as a return. Brent C

nicely labeled clear ziplock bags - each with individual wacky cables (or several of similar type) then sorted into larger see through mesh bags with labels. In my pelican 1650 case... cheers, Brent Calkin

Technically, it's not a Y split 'cause each of your two cable legs are going to different pins of the lemo - but yes that works. I have one of those that I got from Trew... I would have made it myself, but the only thing worse (in my book) than soldering lemos is making BNC connectors... although doing COS 11 wiring for a waterproof Lectro MM400b beats all of those hand down. Cheers, Brent Calkin

http://www.nosedial.com/ Leave your polar mitts on! cheers, Brent C

I got a set of etymotic ER-4s a few years ago for use with helmets, hats and in high noise environments. They are now the only monitoring system I use. Its so nice to be able to mix with any hat, hood, goggle, or sunglass combination you want! Downsides are fragility of the wires and a tendency to induce mechanical noise from the cable into your eardrum. You soon learn to distinguish this noise from what's being electrically generated by the earbuds. You have to keep your ears pretty clean, which some doctors say is bad. Even with clean ears you will have to occasionally replace the little porous earwax blockers in the driver tips. These are easy to replace. upsides are very accurate sound and up to 30 db of isolation (if you are listening to distant wirelesses and your director talks to you - you are NOT going to hear the director) You can also have custom molds made, but I stick with the off the shelf variety. cheers, Brent Calkin

I've got jumpstart and made a TRS 1/8 (3 conductor) connector to TA3F for getting Timecode from the iphone to the 552. It's actually pretty fantastic for $20 . Easy to use (1 press start for instant Time of Day code from the cell time signal) and easy to do a custom start time. It just starts the 552 off and t/c stamps the beginning of the file- the 552 doesn't follow sync to the iphone at all. Obviously this will not work if you are "replacing audio track with LTC" More importantly it will fire up the 552 to record at whatever frame rate you want instead of being stuck with the default 30fps. If you are doing a 5D shoot (or like I did today, a 60D shoot) you can have the 552 T/C stamp match the frame rate of the camera. Next job is to get a 4 conductor 1/8 connector so I can get the iphone's mic active. Then send Timecode from the 744t it to the new Ambient timecode reader app so I have a mini timecode slate. (and the Ambient app is free!) Of course this is mainly for amusement since I found out how easy and powerful the Pluraleyes software is... I don't know if anyone is going to want to sync by hand anymore.... cheers, Brent Calkin

Be glad you're going during the winter cause that stuff is HOT. I wore full armour with a large ENG kit (442 & 4 wireless) and as the senator said, just be sure you have a lot of adjustment on your harness. The gear was annoying but not a terrible hardship- you just end up being bigger than normal which can be a pain when you are jumping in and out of vehicles and chasing soldiers through their training areas. I was working with a Canadian Regiment and using their gear so I can't help you with sizing the American gear. The Kevlar vests aren't super heavy - just hope they don't give you the steel plate stuff.... One warning about Fort Bliss, especially if you are riding around in the Light armored vehicles or the Hummers is that the place is evilly dusty with a fine dust that gets everywhere - protect your gear and take a few proper dust masks with valves. Another tip - use ear buds. helmets + regular headphones = total headache. Also if you get in-ears like the Etymotic ER-4 or the shures you will be protected from the sound of gunfire. The artillery is frickin loud- I would turn my volume all the way down - set the levels by looking at the meters- and use my in-ears as 30db protection earplugs. good luck and stay out of the firing arcs! Brent C

Hey Mike, 2 years ago my Block 24s were fine. There was a bit of interference here and there but easy to work around with the onboard scanner. cheers, Brent C

Laughing at the extra cases to make the kit look bigger... I was working on some show and needed a couple of extra channels for something. I had a Mackie 1604 16 channel mixer in the closet so I brought that along. The producer saw it, and with an impressed intake of breath, asked how much extra it was going to cost for that big mixer... I was kinda torn between charging him the extra he was expecting, or explaining that the mixer was worth about the same as his comtek... Brent C And on the subject of prep, I love that my Ipower 9 volts mean that I don't have to A) figure out how many 9 volts I need for an out of town shoot, run out and buy a large heavy pile of 9 volts, and C) figure out what I'm going to leave behind so that my bags will still be under the baggage weight limit...

It's not really funny, but since we're indulging in bathroom humor I had an actress bring me a radio pack and tell me that she had put it down on a wet counter and was worried about it. I thanked her for her concern and she immediately vanished to some distant part of the set. I opened the pack and water flooded out of the battery compartment ( who knew those wacky audio limited battery doors could hold water?). A PA sidled up to me and confided that he was in line for the washroom behind the actress and had heard a loud splash and a lot of muted cursing... I got that PA to go to the nearest drug store and get some 99 % alcohol and managed to clean and dry the unit. Saved the unit, ( I did NOT want to send the unit to the UK for servicing from Vancouver). All was good, except my sudden dislike for this actresses sneaky behavior. I hoped at least she had learned a few things from the experience. Until the next day, when she did it again. Cheers Brent C