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davidm

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Everything posted by davidm

  1. I trialled the short DPA MMP-C preamp module, the MMP-B module which has the LF cut and HF boost along with an omni capsule and a couple of cardioid capsules. I own a DPA4017 short shotgun so was keen try these out. Using a Schopes MK41 hyper-cardioid capsule as a benchmark, the DPA cardioids didn't prove to be useful for dialogue. Great for close micing but not enough reach for general dialogue duties. The omni capsule sounded superb but has limited application in screen production. The compact MMP-C preamp module was just to short to be effectively mounted in a suspension. I'm considering a 2nd DPA4017 and will probably go for the modular version with the MMP-B preamp module. DPA only make one foam windscreen for their cardioids. It wasn't included but Schopes are the class leaders in foam and small basket windshields. The DPA's and the Sennheiser 8000 series for that matter are 19mm in diameter and so won't take any of the 20mm Schopes products such as the B20 basket or B5 hollow foam. Schopes win for me. David M
  2. The first Universal Binary release of Metacorder was version 1.5 in about September 2006. The current version is 1.83. David M
  3. I have 10 x 216 Comteks on the village channel and 5 Lecto IFB's on the sound channel. The max we have had out for on set use on my current series was the 10 Comteks and 3 of the Lectros. There were no producers present. One of my 2 alternating 1st AD's always wears a Comtek, the other has one from time to time. There's a Comtek in the monitor tent for the DP's. Camera operators, dolly grips and crane operators ask for them along with the 3rd AD's and set PA's. Crew wearing Comteks, even if its for occasional queuing results in an increased appreciation of the work of the sound department. David
  4. We assessed a Dyson a year or so back and they aren't that good. Not enough air volume to be useful and the motor/fan in the base is noisy when turned up near full. David
  5. Wind machines are operated by the Special Effects Dept in my part of the world. In my experience, only the occasional person in that department is a true artist at wafting say a curtain with cutter/flag in a natural manner, take after take. I agree that a fan closer to an actor's hair on a low setting is better than one placed at a distance. On the other hand, actors dislike having concentrated air blowing in their faces. It's not a natural effect. My current projects have exterior scenes all filmed in studio's with green screen / CGI backgrounds. Interiors tend to be have large openings to the outside. We commonly have fans moving curtains, costume and hair. With 2 camera coverage it's difficult getting consistently good sound with wind machines. We do duct air from outside on one set providing "silent wind" but it's only effective on close ups. Just looking for an alternative modern wind machine. David
  6. Does anyone know of a wind machine that's quieter than a Mole Richardson and is commercially available? Thanks, David
  7. Arri have been using their own variant of Ambient Lockit technology for some time in their film cameras. I just don't understand why they think 10 minutes is long enough to hold timecode. Back in about 2008 or so, I supplied an Ambient Master Controller to the VFX department of a feature film. Arri had just put the Lockit technology in their Lens Data System boxes. A database with the timecode and all the lens settings could be output at the end of the day via USB. When power was removed from the camera, code was lost after 10 minutes. The idea was that someone in the VFX department would pickup timecode on the Master Controller from the sound mixer at the start of the day, set the timecode on the LDS boxes and then re-jam the boxes after battery changes throughout the day. A couple of Tech's from Arri Austria were on hand to set up the system. I did ask why they couldn't put a storage battery in the LDS box to hold timecode for a much longer period....... David Madigan
  8. Ouch - I have been using Li-Ion with a float charger since 2008 and no sign of any flames or explosions yet. 2 banks of 4 x 95watt batteries for a total of 760 watts. http://www.ocean-server.com/overview.html LiFe looks to be the future though as my Li-Ion system has burnt a hole in my wallet. David M
  9. Hmmm, 3 x Li-Ion cells = nominal 10.4 volts and 4 x Li-Ion cells = nominal 14.4 volts (as in a V-Lok Li-Ion). The display in the picture shows 13.74 volts. This could possibly be the charge volts for 3 x Lion cells or something else altogether.... David M
  10. Phil Nick will probably have clocking issues with the incoming MADI steam if he uses the Lockit wordclock with the Protools rig. It's the Apogee that really needs to be clocked from a Lockit and that Lockit's timecode fed to the Protools rig for a really stable setup. Logistics might be problem though. David
  11. Hi David, Chinhda's small cart development looks great and I'm interested. I've built 2 carts from ITEM extrusion that's similar to 80/20 and have been thinking about a new cart to replace my 2001 vintage ladder style cart. Here's a few observations. 1) I'd like to occasionally remove the base and wheels and pack up the cart for air travel. I liked the way this French cart folds in half for travel but I'm not sure the ITEM or 80/20 extrusion would be the best material for this though. Anyway, can the wheels and base section be removed or reassembled in say 10 minutes? 2) In my current cart, I replaced the original steel 2U steel drawer, steel shelf and steel rack rails with an ITEM subassembly. I did this so I could assemble and wire most of the electronics outside of the main cart frame. My new sub rack, complete with drawers weighs less than the steel components it replaced. Fully assembled with electronics,, my sub assembly is heavy and a bit of a pig for one person to lift on it's current mount points. Getting to my point, the Chinhda cart appears to be made from a 80/20 profile similar to the ITEM 30mm profile. I made my sub assemblies from a lighter 20mm profile. Strength wise the smaller profile is fine for the sub assembly and the uprights can be used as rack rail. You can see my Venue and Metric Halo rack width case's mounted in the 20mm profile slots. Just noting this as the Chinhda prototype appears to have both compact and rack width sub assemblies. The rack width version seems to have mounts on the inside edge of the 80/20 profile requiring more engineering than just using smaller profile. I don't know if 80/20 make a 20mm equivalent. I don't have a picture of the installed sub assembly. It's sitting on top of one of Rob Stalders carts in the picture above and replaced the steel assembly in my cart below: There's a tendency to have equipment mounted high and close to the rear on ladder style carts and use weight, usually in the form of gel cells on the base to keep the cart from tending to tip backwards. With the sub assembly at the top, the instability is possibly more pronounced if there's no gel cell. I note this as this as every now and then I get out my original ITEM ladder cart for playback duties and without any weight in the base it feels a little to easy to tilt backwards. As we move to Li Ion batteries, there's going to be less weight in the base. A lightweight cart could be run off a V-Lok or two. Probably just a matter of where the rear wheels are mounted. David M
  12. Hi Nick, I have retuned Master Controllers on many occasions. You will need a timecode source clocked from the Apogee to do the Tune. The wordclock sync tune has not been implemented on the Master Controller though my one will tune to PAL video. Assuming you have the ACC501 Controller, go into the "TUNE" menu and first select "2 Tune Intern". Keep a record of the 'dac value" on the screen if you want to reset the Controller back to it's current value at a later date. Then select "4 LTC" and it will retune the Controller to incoming timecode which should be sourced from your Apogee wordclock. If the timecode is stable and has low jitter, the Controller will sample the timecode for 60". If not, the Controller will sample the timecode for 10 minutes. Once the Controller is retuned, it will go back and do a 2nd sample. You may have to do this a few times to get it down to 0.1ppm. Sync over a week or even a day depends primarily on how stable the Apogee unit is. The Apogee is possibly more of a music grade product than a 1ppm or better broadcast grade sync source. You could use a Lockit or Master Controller to clock the Apogee. David M
  13. Hi Zack, It's unlikely that your Lockit is faulty. It's more probable that it's need of a "Tune" and to do that, you need an Ambient Master Controller, preferably one that has been recently calibrated. As with any high performance timecode generator, a Lockit and for that matter, your Fusion are only going to be accurate if they are routinely calibrated to a known standard. The difference between Lockit's (and Sound Devices Recorders) and other timecode generators is that they are designed be field tunable so that very low drift can be achieved. You could possibly get a Master Controller from a rental house that has Lockit's. Ask if it can be calibrated with Ambient's GPS unit. If they don't have a GPS unit, make sure the Controller has an "internal tune value" of around 100 to 110. Then "Tune" your Lockit as per the manual. It takes less than 60" and verifies the amount of amount drift. You may have to do this 2 or 3 times if it's way off tune. You should get the tune down to 0.2 ppm which is practically 0.1 frames drift in 10 hours or better. Just to make sure every things working fine, set the Lockit running from the Controller and jam the Fusion from the Controller. Then compare both the Lockit and Fusion LTC timecode outputs with the internal generator on the Controller over an hour or so. This wll show up any long term drift. David M
  14. Hi Peter, Half Moon Bay is about 12km east of the city centre as the crow flies and about 24km south east of Albany. I wouldn't anticipate any problems at Half Moon Bay. David M
  15. Auckland has one primary UHF site and 4 infill sites for each TV station. You could be fine or not so good depending on where you are filming. Reputedly, the analogue UHF TV stations have all been turned off very recently and migrated to UHF or Satellite TV. SKY TV supposedly shut down their 6 analogue channels in March but you would need to check with a scanner. Radio mic licensing is similar to Australia. It's a General User Spectrum License which means if it's vacant UHF TV bandwidth, you can use it without cost as long as you don't interfere with anyone else. Radio mic's in use at Rugby World Cup venues in September & October will be individually permitted. Note that NZ TV stations use 8MHz blocks rather than the 7MHz blocks in use in Australia. Lectro Block 22, Leave them at home. 558 to 606 MHz is where most of our DTT stations are sited. Lectro Block 24, 614 to 622 is clear, 622 to 630 has DTT infill transmitters in the city and at Albany and 630 to 638 may or may not have a primary analogue station. A very popular block with the locals. Lectro Block 26, There's a primary DTT on 662-670 and possibly an analogue low power infill in Remurea from 670-678. Lectro Block 28, There's an analogue infill transmitter at Albany on the North Shore from 726 to 734MHz which may or may not be turned off but otherwise clear across Auckland. As with everything above 686MHz in New Zealand, available for auction for Telco use from about 2015. Lectro Block 31, Our UHF TV band runs out at 806 MHz so only part of band legally available. There's a primary analogue UHF TV channel which may or may be not transmitting from 798-806. Try Oceania for the multicore: http://www.oceania-audio.co.nz/audio David M
  16. Hi Jeff, Regardless, have made a contribution and for past arrears as well. David M
  17. I queried Ambient last week re the Lectromote App & the possibilities and politics of adding gain controls. It would seem that all good things come to those who wait. David M
  18. Thanks for testing this out. I don't have access to Pro-Tools at the moment. I tested it with Ardour which doesn't report the incoming timecode rate. I'm fairly sure that my ACC501 did LTC-MTC conversion but it's gone out on rental today for a week. Sebastian will no doubt have the definitive answer. David M
  19. The ACC501 Controller definitely functions as an LTC to MTC Converter but not MTC to LTC. The baby Ambient ALL601 generator provides for MTC & LTC conversion in and out. Both Ambient devices can be set to 23.976 but inside a computer it's a black hole as far as confirming actual MTC frame rates is concerned. David M
  20. If you are working with 23.976 timecode, be aware that the MIDI specification does not support that format. Some SMPTE - MIDI converters may support 23.976 but there seems to be a lack of reliable information about the subject. I'm searching for a way to get 23.976 timecode from BWF files out of Pro Tools without having to acquire a full HD system. Solutions anyone? Thanks, David M
  21. Avid's don't read much in the way of metadata from audio files except Scene and Take numbers and the Tape field. Avid's definitely don't read the track names which are stored in the optional iXML section of the broadcast wav files recorded on your 744T or Boom Recorder. David M
  22. The new Mac Mini looks fairly easy to power off DC but cutting the wires from the power supply will take it out of warranty (IMHO). Here's how my setup currently works. I have two independent 18 volt DC mains supplies and a float charger that runs a bank of 14.4 volt Li-Ion batteries. The mains supplies have a common earth at the AC input and this is the only common earth between the power supplies on my cart except for the two cables described below. One supply feeds audio equipment, the other the Mac Mini and monitor. I use a custom firewire cable with the +ve bus power disconnected and the earth shield has an inline series 32Ω resistor. This isolates the garbage from the Mac Mini power rails getting into my audio interface. I don't know where I got the idea of the resistor from but it works. The 2 twisted pairs that carry the firewire data don't seem to work without the earth shield - wire. The only other connection between my audio equipment is an unbalanced timecode feed going from a 744T to the Mac Mini audio input. A colleague was asking about using a Remote Audio "Juicer" to power a Mac Mini. The Juicer possibly uses a fully floating DC-DC converter. By that I mean the inputs and outputs are isolated from each other. I suspect this style of DC-DC converter would solve much of the audio noise problems compared to a Carnetix which has a common earth at the input and output. The Juicer may not be able to supply enough current for the boot which can peak at 2.5A or more for a couple of seconds. After that the current will settle down to 1 to 1.5 amps. The 9-36 volt input, 15 volt output 40W DC DC converter from XP Power would probably do the trick for the older Mac Minis and the 12 volt version should work for the current model: seriesid=100596&lang=ENhttp://www.xppower.com/orderPriceList2.php?seriesid=100596〈=EN David M
  23. The Carnetix has a common earth input to output and also has a noisy fan which you can't disconnect. I used to use a Carnetix - with an independent DC power supply. David M
  24. Hi John, Assuming you have the older style Mac Mini (Pre mid 2010), you can generally run them of 14 - 18 volts. They boot of a 14.4 volt V-Lok Li-Ion battery and run for hours without any problem. You do need a 3.4K resistor between between the thin "isense" cable and earth within the Mac Mini power cable. The main issue is that in the Mac Mini "brick" power supply, there's lots of filtering. Without that power supply, you will end up with serious DC-DC converter noise from the Mac Mini going back down the power cable which will be a problem if you are using a common power supply with the rest of your audio equipment. By this I mean either or both common earth or positive volts. If you must go with a direct DC supply, it should be independent of your audio equipment power supply. The mains inverter method ensures a quiet power source. David M
  25. For the majority of applications, there isn't any significant difference between a Lockit and a SB-T when considered as an individual timecode or genlock/trilevel sync source. It's when you add an Ambient Master Controller to the equation that the Lockit comes into it's own. Rather than just jamming, the Controller interrogates the Lockits with the Aaton ASCII protocol when setting and checking timecode. The Controller also provides for the user to tune the timebase of each Lockit so that they have the best sync accuracy available short of using physical cables between units for genlock/trilevel sync and timecode. Typically, you can tune the system so the sync drift over 10 hours between any number of Lockits to 0.1 frame or better. The limiting factor then becomes the audio recorder but even then you can reverse tune the Master Controller to best match the timecode generator (of the recorder). As to the use of genlock or trilevel sync, the world is divided into two schools of thought. The first group believe that timecode is a sync signal that glues everything together and all you need is to squirt it around between devices and all is well. Genlock/Trilevel sync / wordclock is ignored. This group relies on post to tell them everything is OK and for the most part, given that editing systems are frame based, all seems well. One of the fundamental flaws of this approach is that the timecode value has to wait until the start of the next video frame to be registered to a frame. The wait period could be practically anywhere from 0.1 to 0.9 of a frame. It's a lottery. The second group are of the opinion that timecode is merely a time address for a video frame or audio sample. They regard the absolute timing and stability of genlock/trilevel sync and audio wordclock timebases as the fundamental necessities of quality camera and audio recorder sync. This group always use trilevel sync from Lockit's or SB-T's to ensure the timecode will be perfectly aligned with the start of the current video frame. David M
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