Dan Smith

Up until this point they'd just used shotguns on the cameras or a c-stand boom. Just a wired lav would be a big improvement. The bigger overseas shoots that require lavs etc, they would continue getting a local sound guy that would know the ins and outs. The comment I made on consistency was mostly geared toward the ability to use the same mics etc. for in-house studio shoots, as they use for an on-location shoot. Right now sound is an afterthought and they rig up whatever happens to be in a camera bag. They don't have anything beside a few pocket recorders, shotgun mics, and iphone lavs etc. that just float around. They want consistency in that there is a case with the sound equipment they can take out with their cameras. They really don't need much more than some booms and lavs for their in-studio shoots and when a camera-op is going solo. But with their budget my buddy suggested spec'ing and entire package with recorder. Now hopefully with me putting this kit together, they'd be calling me in most of these instances when they need a sound guy, but I want to make the kit standard enough that others would feel comfortable if put in that position. I highly doubt that will happen. You hit the nail on the head. This is coming from up the line. And I can see how it makes sense from that perspective. They own all the cameras, lights and studios, "why don't we own sound equipment?" I highly doubt the entire thing will happen. I hope it doesn't. But nonetheless I'm just helping a friend out.

These are all great considerations. I'll pass these onto my friend. Obviously with a setup like this it opens up a new can of worms.

Guys, guys. Sorry. I don't mean to come off defensive. You're preaching to the choir here. I'm a post mixer, with a background in broadcast in production. I realize this isn't an ideal business decision from our perspective. I hope they don't get the gear because of all the things you've brought up. I'm not here to defend their business decisions. I'm just trying to help out a personal friend that works for the company. I was just giving the backstory and explanation so you can understand the gear choices I was making. Just looking for some feedback on the kit itself. Thanks again.

This gear would be for professional sound mixers to use. This is a multi-billion dollar company working with industry pros. They already have hundreds of thousands invested in live sound PAs, cameras, lighting, grip, media servers, edit suites etc. This is a corporate decision to move sound equipment from project budgets to a capital budget. Up until now they've just rented from the mixers. Some projects (due to the last minute nature) would have to go without a sound guys because they couldn't get budget for the op and the kit. For them it makes sense because they can have a known cost and setup, with its weight etc. for when they travel. And it's not my decision to make, they just want me to get a kit together. -The case would go on a truck or plane pallet(s) with the rest of the gear. I'll likely add another case or two for the option of splitting the kit into smaller cases for different use. Great point. -Yeah I haven't tried any of these newer tactical harnesses. I've only used a basic harness, which I would assume most guys would bring their own if they're picky. I will have everything inventoried to send to the mixers beforehand so they know what they are getting. Maybe just not get a harness until they get some feedback if it is actually needed. -Very good point on the lectros LR. For now I'll stick with what I have because they cost is similar. That would be a question to take up with the guys at Trew and see what would be best. Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, as I mentioned in the last paragraph, if they decide to move forward with this, I will taking it to Trew to get into all the details. They have taken care of me before. I'm just giving them ballpark figures to start the conversation. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check out the supershield. I haven't used that yet. Adding wind protection for the senny. I'll look into a wide-band kit. That's a very good point, bandwidth would likely trump wattage in most of their situations. And a dual receiver! Of course. What was I thinking?!

I'd really appreciate some feedback on this little sound package I'm putting together. I have a corporate client looking to invest in a sound package for use on its various in-house and marketing shoots. They asked me to provide a preliminary quote for a package, just to get the ball rolling. A little background: They use a lot of different sound mixers, and travel all over the world to sometimes remote locations. So they are hoping this kit will help there be more consistency in the sound from project to project (as a lot of the time they can't afford a true post mix). Another reason is that the media team in the corporate office would have some proper sound equipment to start using for in-house studio shoots (which they are ramping up on). The media team would just be using the mics mostly, going direct to camera; that kind of thing. And lastly, for their budgeting, moving equipment costs out of each project's budget. And they got the budget to spend! (lucky them!) Again, they travel all over the world so it needs to be small and portable, but pretty comprehensive. The VAST majority of the shoots would be sit down interviews either inside or outside (thus the two boom kits and wired lavs). But there are also times when they want to do run and gun type work and a standard boom and 2 lav kit would work. I put together a little B&H wishlist of things off the top of my head. I only spent a few minutes on this and some things are just placeholders for now (like the cheap XLR cables and boom kits). If they get the greenlight I'll be taking this over to Trew and specing out all the details, this is just a start. Any glaring omissions or feedback? THANKS VERY MUCH!!! http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/wishlistDetail.jsp/li/74A4C71258

Occasionally I work at a place with Dynaudios and have been pleased with the results. I found them pleasant to work on and they translated well. Certainly not a bad choice. My personal preference are the JBL LSR6328 or the older 28P. (They're essentially they same.) They're quite common around LA. They sound amazing and have great bass response. I don't need to use bass management with them. Tons of power so lots of headroom. They translate extremely well to larger dub stages and theaters, a lot of which have JBL arrays. New they're a little above your budget but If you watch the used market they come up pretty often and you can get some great deals.

I go to Brigham Young University in Provo, UT. Here's a quick video tour of our truck and broadcast building. We have 4 television properties and 4 radio properties constantly being broadcast. I've worked there almost 3 years, starting in post-production and now I'm shared between post and production sound departments.

This is what I've been doing for the past few years. I am still in school studying film (last year!) but have been working at my university's broadcast network. There are a few positions open to students and I've been lucky enough to fill one of the slots. Its been awesome to get this much hands-on training and work my way up from A3 to A2 and now more A1 work. I was worried when starting school because I knew that learning through long-term apprenticeships were much less common. But its been more than I could have hoped for to learn under real professionals. I've Worked on studio shoots, ENG/EFP, and uplinks but my favorite is working on live sports events. I love working as the A1 but man its awesome (and less stressful) being the A2 in the arena or stadium with all the energy of the crowd. It can be pretty intense but I love that it's live and there are no 2nd takes. I find it very rewarding to be able to think of things to do while mixing and if I'm quick enough to implement it I get that instant satisfaction. It takes a while to wrap your head around all of the responsibilities of an A1 because there is so much to do. Its been so nice to have a constant flow of events to work on because we get to try new things and not have to work about what equipment will be available to us. We do around 150 sporting events a year and I get to work on about 50 of them as A2 or A1. Then there's loads of other studio and efp stuff going on. So what I have learned at work has been infinitely more useful than what has been taught in my classes. Though classroom learning has its place and has helped in other ways. Of course, without my enrollment I would have had the opportunity to work and learn where I do. One thing I have noticed is that after mixing live TV everything else seems so much slower. I may be working the same hours but it goes by faster in live TV. Now when I freelance in narrative work it seems so much more manageable and simple.

Well I really appreciate everyone's input. This gig has come and gone and I didn't get booked for it. It was a last minute thing and communication wasn't wonderful so I wasn't expecting to get it. But I was booked on something else for the rest of the week so no big deal. I just want to thank you all again for not only this but all the threads on this forum. I don't pop up much but I'm an avid reader. I now feel much better equipped should this be asked of me in the future. I am much more confident in my awareness of various variables to look out for and for equipment and workflow. Thanks again.

I love this thread. I haven't posted much as I have just been soaking up knowledge but whenever I have you guys have been amazing. Thanks graham for the reminder on the caller, I wouldn't have remembered that. I don't have any details for dialogue or timecode but I am feeling much better educated for my next discussion with them. It's good to know that a lot of people use protools for playback because I'm very comfortable with that. And if they have a good PA then I won't have to worry about equipment really. I'll let you know how it goes.

So I'm in discussions with a production, that needs to have some playback on set. I searched through the site as well as google and didn't come up with anything. If you know of specific threads I would love the links. It's for a typical square dancing scene. While I feel comfortable as a mixer in narrative and broadcast (my bread and butter) situations, I've never done playback on a set. Playback in broadcast usually is worked out in pre-production with the script and cues, editing them and programming them into a playback machine. I can imagine it would be similar for a film production but I want to know what is the standard. So if someone would be kind enough to be enlighten me with some of the responsibilities, workflow and typical equipment that would be needed, that would be greatly appreciated. I talked with another mixer about it and he said that he usually uses a Fostex FR-2 for playback out to some PA speakers. He said that he had marked the files in the Fostex to playback at each cue when needed. So how does this usually get organized? Do the production give you the tracks before hand with a list of timecodes and corresponding shots? Thanks!

1) Sending off to transcription. 2)You mentioned sending audio to camera. Now with digital workflows this can enable a video editor to start cutting right away and not have to worry about syncing all the sound first. This way they only have to deal with 1 or 2 tracks of audio for each video clip. At some point the assistant video editor will add in all the iso tracks for use in post sound. Basically for a cleaner video editing sequence.

I did some work in a studio where they had made trays like what you have in your picture. They did this for concrete as well as well as wood, tile and some other surfaces. They used between 6-10 inches of concrete in each tray the built (I can't remember exactly). Then laid the flooring on top of the concrete like you normally would on a foley stage. To protect their flooring and to cut out a lot of the resonance they placed these trays onto a few layers of carpet padding. They would use moving dollys if they needed to reposition them, since they were so heavy. They also had a wood surface that was for porch/western type wooden floors. Simply wood planks on a wooden frame. Since there was about a 6" gap between it and the floor I found I could control (somewhat) the amount of squeaks by leaving it open or stuffing packing blankets under it. With it completely stuff I actually used it a lot for regular wooden floor recordings. Sounded great. Half the fun of foley is the experimentation. Good Luck!

I've done it by sending line level through padded cables (first thing I tried after I learned it doesn't work well with true line level) as well as adjusting the direct outs to be at mic level. Both seem to work pretty well. There is no option for sending audio out the direct outs post fader. If you'd like that option you'd have to use the 552, which it seems like you already are. But from what I know most mixers don't send it out post fader though.