Christian Spaeth

I'd say 250-300 ish (€) for the basic kit, given you offer 4 wireless kits. Extra lav at least 50 €. Maybe others will chime in so you can get a good average. By the way, speaking of producers, I sometimes get the feeling some of them will always try to negotiate on labour rate but will often accept equipment rate, both regardless of actual price. And if we talk about proper commercials, prices are generally higher.

I had this at home... sounds good but (to me) inacceptably high self noise.

Dude you certainly don't get to play the South Park card. South Park is a deeply political, thoughtful analysis of modern American society, that has absolutely nothing in common with the unf***able-white-male-trolling you spend your time with.

I think the rate in Brazil doesn't have to be the same as in Britain, as general costs of living can differ significantly, so for foreign productions I think it's sensible to charge on the upper end of what you would charge for a local production. Now for the equipment, prices should be similar in all the world, as prices for buying the equipment are similar too. That said, I think 350 pounds including kit is too low.

Definitely keep your 416, it's a weapon for doc exteriors. Additionally, a CMC6/MK41 combo for sit down interviews and interiors. You'd be surprised how much reach this hyper has, while sounding great off axis (unlike the 416). Also maybe get another or two wireless. And if you haven't already, put a mic on the cam, hyper or shotgun, even a Rode NTG1 is fine for this, very useful sometimes in uncertain situations where you cant get as close as you'd like.

...And the earth is actually flat!

Double thumbs up!

Hi Paul, thanks for clarifying. One question: What happens when I change metadata/track names etc. after a file has been copied? Will it update the info automatically?

The copy mechanism sounds to me a lot like what e.g. the Zaxcom Nomad does. If the primary card failed, you'd be f*ed too. You'd be a bit better off because of MARF but the idea is very similar.

Timecode boxes have become like printers or something like that in such little time. Not too long ago it was almost a luxury, now you have plenty of very affordable options and they're all really good IMO, so you can't really go wrong on either of the aforementioned.

huge plus!

I didn't want to spell that out but I agree.

Schoeps refused to produce an interference tube design mic for decades as they are microphone purists and believed the principle to be somewhat flawed. As more and more people were using MK41 capsules in production sound, more and more people asked for an interference tube by Schoeps, so they eventually gave in and made one (and a very good one at that). But I'm sure they could have made one much earlier on, they just didn't want to.

CMR is great. I think someone once posted a picture of a wireless boom with it. Tiniest boom mic ever. Adapting to 48V might somewhat degrade the signal (should you want to use it that way), but probably only in studio sound quality terms, so I don't think that would be noticable in location sound situations.

When I did dialogue editing in post and there was a second boom, I often used that to add room for smoothing out transitions. Also, when you wanna replace not-so-optimal sound on a wide shot and use a closeup's audio for that, a real closeup boom sound can sound "wrong" or distracting (i.e. too close), so in those instances, an ambience mic, like Tom described, can be quite useful to add room in post/edit (though I have also used lav tracks of off talent for that at times too, but that's not as pretty). I have also had a sound-savvy editor specifically request an ambience mic for that purpose. I wouldn't completely discard consistency in mixing. Maybe better call it perspective, as a wide shot doesn't need to, or shouldn't sound exactly like a CU, more like what Crew said, it should sound like it looks. My direct advice to you James: Always have two booms on the scene. Second boom takes off lines or at least ambience. That second boom track may well turn out to be very useful later. Also you probably won't need to use lots of lavs, which will make actors happy, and also yourself as the mixer, as double boom is the cream of the crop of production sound mixing, and you might not get the chance to try that process so often.

I watched Good Time on a festival a few days ago. Not too bad a movie but maybe slightly overrated, a bit retro 90s style, apparently made with a very low budget. Since 95% of the movie consists of closeups, doing sound must have been a fun job on this one. +1 LMAO

For the Rodelink you need line of sight. Going through walls or objects is unreliable, as well as exteriors to some extent. A G2/3 is more forgiving in these respects. If you had problems with yours maybe you had interference. I also disliked the self noise of the Rodlink that sounds too apparent to my ears, while I find the G2/G3 self noise less noticeable. Used G2/3 are widely available and cheap, plus you can get the antenna mod to improve range. And later once you get better wireless you can use them for cam hops or IFB. And there's a reason why nobody (yes, I mean nobody) uses the Rodelinks. Don't try to prove me wrong, nobody uses them period. So, no-brainer IMO.

Re: wireless: maybe get a used G2 or G3 set instead of the Rodelink. It'll do you much better service. The Rodelink isn't much.

"LiveTrak is also a 14-in/4-out USB audio interface " "Mix and overdub your finished project onLiveTrak" sounds promising... BUT: "Recording format: WAV 44.1/48/96 kHz, 16/24-bit, mono/stereo WAV format" so one will end up with plenty of mono files. Not so promising...

I doubt post could hear the Nomad notches being active. They are very transparent yet effective but don't colour the overall sound at all. Which is why it's easy to forget they're on. Maybe it's the wireless that were in use on this particular production?

The deviation of US transmitters can be changed to the EU mode by a competent seller/repair shop. It is not too expensive and works well.

Thanks Jim, and RIP Don.

beautiful!

This may be besides the point, but honestly, if I get asked to work on a student film and they can't afford to rent proper wireless, I would only work with boom and plants instead of working with bad wireless. Good learning effect for them too in many ways.

Yes, but only as in 2-channel polyphonic files (aka stereo). 4x Mono and Wave Agent is your friend...