Bash

Would this not be a classic case of a job for the Zaxcom recording wireless transmitters. If they stay in range then all well and good. If, however, you lose them, then no problem, you can rebuild it all from the Tx files. Kindest regards, Simon B

Ah yes - I forgot to give you that info. Truth is that about 2 years ago. for one reason or another, I was due to treat myself to a present. That present became a SADiE LRX multitrack recorder, and a Soundfield ST350 mic. Have I used the Soundfield for proper grown up, paid for sound recording - not once!! I have, however, managed to hire it out a few times, so at least it pays to insure itsself!! As regards post - a pal used it recently to do a load of FX in a police car for one of those ghastly 'Police Bad Driver Weekly' shows that he does the audio post for. He shot WXYZ with my Soundfield, but found a free decoder/matrixer/whateveryoucalliter plugin online. They are out there - see your friend Google... Kindest regards, Simon B

I have a Soundfield ST350 which I love to bits. They can be a bit quirky with condensation but as I understand it they have built in heater that sorts it out. Rule of thumb seems to be to turn it on a while before you might need to use it. I have had no trouble with it so far on jobs. It needs a dead good suspension - I have a much modded Rycote that works brilliantly. Soundfield do a nifty program, I think it is called Surround Zone, that works as a plugin with PT or SADiE (or I think Nuendo). It is really cool and allows you to decode the WXYZ signals into 5.1, 7.1, 9.1 etc... Kindest regards, Simon B

I dont think that HHB are very likely to come out with a Portadrive 2 - though I would love to see one. Portadrive is a much underrated machine - it sounds great, has great software, and two user interfaces, the front panel and the top panel. It is a very capable machine, let down by the SCSI external port. What a shame. Kindest regards, sb

Three things that put me off Cantar. 1. The unbelieveable amount of button presses and wheel turning required in order to set my own choice of numbers into the TC. 2. The complication, and amount of time it takes to add, say one extra mic, to a mix/routing setup. If doing this at the last moment it can take a long time. 3. I cant look at 8 channels split over three different meters at the same time. Two things I really liked about the Cantar. 1. That you can pre program in a number of mix/routing setups and then change from one to another almost instantly by turning a knob. Mind you, I think I can do that (from memory) in about two button presses and three taps of the screen on my Deva). 2. That you can plug it into your pc and the HDD and it's .wav files will pop up like a mass storage device. Deva cant do this as the files are MARF anyway so wouldnt really mean anything to my pc. Something you can do to a Cantar that you can't do to a Deva. . . . Spray water on it!! - Would I do that to either machine? I think I'd rather poke cocktail sticks into my own eyes. Something that you can do on a Portadrive that you cant o on any other recorder... You can move any file or folder, to any other file or folder, or to a new file or folder, even within the same HDD. So, for instance, you could move all the WT files from a day folder to a WT folder, and then burn a disk or whatever of that WT folder at the end of the day/week/block/job. The file handling on Portadrive blows away all the other recorders on the market!! I am really glad to have been an owner of a Cantar, some Portadrives, and a number of Devas, over the years. They are all good machines and have their stronger and weaker points. We are lucky indeed to have such a wide choice of recorders. Kindest regards, Simon B

I am very releived indeed over on this side of the pond now that we know what SD had up their sleeve by way of the 788T. It is clearly a multitrack recorder, not a mixer recorder. I am relieved as I had already put my order in for a Fusion some weeks ago. My thinking is/was that the Fusion will take up the roll of bag recorder, process car recorder, back up recorder should I ever have a problem with the Deva 5.8. It will also work fine for eng and run and gun and video type jobs. I have just sold a 744T and a 442 mixer in order to free up some space and $$ with which to buy the Fusion. Now that we have seen the 788T I am sure that I had already made the correct decision. Kindest regards to all, Simon B

Could you tell whose sound was who's Eric - are you buying the beers or me ;-)) Kindest, sb

Lets hope that we are all in on the secret a week or so from now!! sb

I have always so desperately wanted to get the to RAMPS doo at NAB. So far I have been working that week for every year since I knew about it except for one. That year I was without work and penniless, so had to sit it out here in London yet again. I will get there one day, and I hope soon. I still desperately need to meet Eric T since he finished a job off for me in Miami (I think it was there) a year or two back. And just in case I didnt mention it already, yet again I am working that week this year so cant make it. Kindest regards, Simon B

With ears like that it could only be a sound recordists dog!! I bet you wont do that again. Kindest regards, Simon B

OK, a couple of questions from one who did the PD2/PD4 thing, but made a choice NOT to do the PD-6 thing. I should point out that my general experience of PD2/PD4 was good. In fact, Roger Patel was one of my salespeople when he worked at Fostex UK (who were less than a mile from my house, so dead good for service etc...). Roger now runs Everything Audio here in the UK - they are the. . . . eeeerrrrr Zaxcom dealers!! Am I correct to understand that the new PD-606 has only 6 x switchable mic/line IPs? Am I correct to understand that IPs 7&8 are digital only? If the answers to the above questions are both yes then that would be a bit of a deal breaker for me - as I tend to run up to 8 analogue IPs plus up to two channels of mixdown. I am not saying that that makes 606 a bad machine - just that that would make it the wrong machine for me. One of my issues with Cantar (I bought one and thought it was/is a great machine, but I preferred Deva, so I sold it) was that there were limitations as to the analogue IPs (only 5 at mic level, and 4 at line level - if you wanted more of either then you get into all sorts of matching amps or attenuators etc...). For me Deva has found a good way to go - 8 x switchable mic/line analogue IPs, plus 2 x trax to mix on to. I cant help but point out, Scott, that the Fostex stuff you pasted in to this thread is a pretty blatant piece of marketing 'puff' as it was described to me some weeks ago by a pal here in the UK. As Jeff points out it is pretty disingenious - I would certainly expect a movie of the Bond tyype of budget to be using new technology etc... What would be most interesting would be to ask - What does a PD606 do that a PD-6 didnt do before it (other than to record to a disk that is available to be bought in decent quantities)? Have they made significant changes over the PD-6 and what are they? Why might I now consider buying one, whereas I chose not to do so before? Someone persuade me - please? Kindest regards to all, Simon B

Chris is a colleague of mine on the council of AMPS (like your CAS) here in the UK. I have no idea at all whether he makes any financial gain by endorsing their products in their adverts. I do know, however, that Chris certainly used to own a company that amongst other things sold Fostex location recorders. I believe that he still owns said company, but am not entirely sure. Kindest regards, Simon B

I thought it was your pic Jeff. I wondered where that Roger Slater had got it from!!! Kindest regards, sb

I have been using SADiE LRX and PCM 2 for the last 4 months on a MacBook Pro, running Win XP through Bootcamp. Not so much as a blip so far. Now all I need to do is to remember how to start the machine up as a Mac and start learning about the dark side!!! Don't bite Jeff, I say it in jest ;-)) Kindest regards, Simon B

I just found pictures of this on Tim Fraser's website. Looks like the Chinese have had a look at a Cantar!!! http://web.mac.com/timfsound/Site/Welcome.html Enjoy, Simon B

Top left, third row down @show unread posts since last visit'. Is that what you are looking for? sb

apologies, it is late here. That should have explained that the soldiers were holding up the camera, and Haskell looked through and aimed it!! a very tired sb

Oh I'll write it anyway. I worked on Rolling Stones at the Max 17 years ago. We ghad a huge meetingg to talk about the comms and TC and guide trax. During the meeting they asked if I could make all the comms wireless, but with local private lines at each camera posi for grip and operators to talk amongst themselves. I said it could be done, but would be very expensive. They answered - we didnt ask how much it would cost, just if you can do it. We did it, at great expense. I did sound for some vox pops - the dop was one . . . . Haskell Wexler - what a nice guy. The camera was so heavy that we employed two local soldiers to stand either side of the 'handheld' camera - Haskell looked through and kind of aimed it at the punters. Our portakabin for tech gear was very hot, so whilst opening the window I met the girl from the portakabin next door - turns out she was Ronnie's private chef, and that her job was to cook 3 x Shepherds Pies every day for Ronnie to eat if he wanted one. About an hour later a knock on the window. 'Ronnie missed lunch so do you want his pie?. I shared it with my crew with huge grins on our faces. We ate Ronnie's lunch!! Kindest regards, and sorry for the short versions above. I am bushed!! Simon B

I just lost a long post that I tried to send in about working on Rolling Stones at the Max. The system timed out whilst I wrote it. Will try to rewrite it tomorrow when it is not midnight!! sb

Good news indeed today Jeff. SADiE will be re opening its doors extremely soon, under the new ownership of Prism Audio. It was announced today on the SADiE website that Prism Audio have bought the business and IP of SADiE. The LRX will live on, and continue to kick multitrack ass ;-)) There must be ahuge number of very happy SADiE owners today!! I am one of them!! I actually carry a SADiE in a mouse (PCM-2) with me at all times. I can edit, even master, on it, wherever I am with my laptop - it is an excellent product for sure. Kindest regards to all, Simon B

I believe that the analogue only RM-1 is no longer a current product. Anyone know what the 12v DC mod entails? Regards to all, sb

Hi Phil, could you let me know what is the 1U rackmount speaker affair that is in your cart please. I am interested!! sb

This is a pic of the patch panel on the back of the cart - I had my UK engineer (it is way beyond me all this precision stuff) mount the patch panel at 45 degrees - much easier for us all to plug things in and out of. I do however now need a plexiglass panel or similar to stop the rain going into the sockets!! Regards, Simon B

They belong to Caroline Make Up - she is Scottish, and very gorgeous. A while back I had to go to a funeral and a pal stood (sat) in for me for a day. Caroline must have been in on a daily that same day - when I came in the next day she had left that kiss for me on my fader panel. It stays there at least until I bump into her again and claim the real thing!! Happy Sunday to you all, sb