Bash

Hi Dan, Might you have been using very recent software? Might you have been burning to a DVD-RAM at the time of the 'apparent' screen freeze? Just a theory that I am working on.... Kindest regards, Simon B

I seem to remember that my Cameo drew about 2 to 2.5 amps, in all modes. But if you are using Deva 4/5/5.8 or Fusion then Cameo is a little old hat now. Mix 12 (and soon to come Mix draw next to nothing - they are as near as insignificant. On my cart I have a great meter that reads out the voltage and current being used at any time. I am an=ble to see how much power individual units use as I turn them on and off. The Mix 12 drawsabout 250mA. Basically I can run the D5.8 with the Mix 12 and its using about an amp. Be aware that the Fusion runs even leaner, as it has no HDD to spin. I, too, am surprised that Zax have not made a little more of this, but as Jeff states Zax dont do that much advertising. Kindest regards, Simon B

I have had some success as follows:- Use my normal (Schoeps CMIT5) gun mic, but back it right off (10 feet or more) for the actual shots. Get one or two more mics. Something like an RE50, or an SM58, and run that as close to the gun as the shot allows (within reason). Have another mic (gun or whatever) about 15 or 20 feet away - pointing at anything that might reflect the gunshot noise (wall, hill side of lorry. I often record as separate trax, but when mixed all together it makes a nice, long, fat gunshot sound. Experiment. Enjoy, simon b

About .8 amps in idle, i.e. with the DVD-RAM burner empty. Slightly over an amp when the burner is burning. They are very frugal. Kindest regards, Simon B

Dublin - interesting. As far as I know Dublin is Eire (Ireland) and are not necessarily part of the United Kingdom (it is often written as 'UK & Eire'). I suspect that they may well have slightly different rules. That said, the 'Union' thing will not be a problem in the UK as such - the Unions lost their 'closed shop' in the 80's under Maggie Thatcher. Nowdays if you can get the work, you are welcome to do it and charge for it. The immigration thing may well be different - certainly the UK's Home Office are looking at the issue of what I believe they refer to as 'Managed Migration'. Now - Dublin - what a great City - my sister has been principle French Horn in the Symphony Orchestra there for the last 20 years or so. It is a great place to spend time - the Irish have some great people and ways. A few years ago the Irish Government passed a bill to ban smoking inside public places - pubs and bars etc... One of the pubs came up with the idea of knocking some holes in the outside wall of the pub. If you stood indide the pub, you could lean your torso and head out of the hole, and smoke outside, whilst being inside. Only in Ireland!! Enjoy. sb

Assuming girl is British 1] Marry Girl 2] Problem solved!!! 3] Enjoy!!! Kindest, sb <<<<<<<<<Goal: 1. Spend time with girl. 2. Travel 3. Don't go broke accomplishing 1 and 2. >>>>>>>>

Very interesting. Simon Bishop here from London, England. I have found that for over 20 years it is incredibly difficult to come and do jobs in the USA. For some of the last 20 (or maybe it is 25 years now) I have had an I visa in my passport. An I visa, however, is not good for coming in and doing drama or feature film work. I visa's are basically for journalists, and really I would have to prove that I was with a factual crew, that worked together regularly, and that we were on an ongoing job in order to use my I visa. It has been useful on a number of accassions, but I have to book and attend an interview at the US Embassy in order to get one. I know plenty of pals that have gone for their interviews and not got an I visa. I was lucky enough to work on a big TV drama for the BBC about 7 years ago. We were to shoot in the North of England, then some studio work around London, then to Arizona for a month, and then back to some studio work at Pinewood. it was just after 9/11 and the BBC had terrible trouble getting us (I think it was) J visas for that shoot. I know that they spent an inordinate amount of money at US lawyers in order to sort us out. If I remember correctly we took 46 UK techies out to the US, but the line producer quite deliberately made a point of employing 48 local crew and ancillary folks in order to try and 'make things work' with immigration. The Union (BECTU for sound folks) in the UK is a bit of a spent force - the union's stranglehold on all things film was smashed to pieces by the Conservative government of Maggie Thatcher in the 80's. Now the Union is ineffectual at best, and has to try and flex it's weak muscles in areas of Health & Saftey in order to make any difference. There are many, many, good technicians (both set and post prod) who are currently very short of work in the UK. Both film and TV seem unusually quiet at the moment. I guess something will come along, but I am certainly not seeing a rush of work!! There are regulations here regarding the granting of temporary work permits for non UK workers. They have not been enforced to my knowledge much in the last few years - I have certainly seen and heard of quite a few non UK folks coming over to work. I am most interested that you have seen a similar thing from your US perspective. The grass is always greener etc.... Kindest regards to all, Simon B

Thanks Michael, much appreciated. sb

Someone posted a link a while back to a really nifty utility that allows one to preview and move .wav files in a mac. I seem to remember that it also allowed one to attatch the .wav to an email as an mp3 and send it off to wherever. The company wot made it had a neat little video that showed you how to use it. BUT - I have lost the details. Can anyone remember what it was, please? Kindest regards, Simon B

I tried the DAP and thought it sounded a bit thin. It is, however, well directional. I tried the Rode NTG3 last week against a 416. I thought that the Rode was just a tiny bit more 'sss'y up at those high frequency Hz. Kindest regards Simon B

I, too, have become accustomed to hitting the record button just after the clapper goes clap. I have, however, found that I have a big problem when the camera folk go for end slates. I have to really concentrate on making sure that I run when the 1st calls 'Action', otherwise I go to push the stop button on 'cut' and discover to my horror that I wasnt running in the first place. This is made worse if I am distracted right at the beginning of the take - its usually one of the execs ttapping me on the shoulder to tell me that their IEM isnt working. Why do they ONLY check them at the very beginning of a take!!! Kindest regards, Simon B <<<The FR-2 does have a great false start provision, it's called the 10 second pre-roll. |>>>

Glensound make brilliant gear, but it tends to be radio or OB oriented. Twelco in Hungary make more portable mixers, ENG style. Kindest regards, Simon B

Audio Developments are a Great, British Company of the old school. They make rock solid products, and their service is second to none. I suspect that of late, the dollar to pound rate has worked against them in the US market. They used to make a whole range of little problem solving boxes, all of which were built like tanks, and worked brilliantly. Unfortunately I dont think that they make them any more. I ceased to be a customer when I chose to go digital by way of a Cameo mixer. I have missed dealing with them since!! They now make a digital OP module for their 149 mixers, so digits are available at last. Kindest regards, Simon B

Hi Chris, for UK take a look at www.jfmg.co.uk They do the Fz allocation and licences for tyhe UK. Basically the most commonly used Fz are in the region of 850MHz, on what we know as Ch 69. It is all there oon jfmg though. Kindest regards, Simon B

I have done a few opera things over the years where we have shot a video of the conductor when the original audio is recorded. They then make an edl of the audio edit, cut the pics to match, and play the whole lot back to the singer when they do the miming. Again, this video stuff could be dropped into the timeline of (most certainly, cos I know it) SADiE, but most likely PT or Nuendo. Kindest regards, Simon B

I would go with a Schoeps 41, the little one, is that a CCM or a CMC? (which is slightly over your budget), and a Rode NTG 3 (which is considerably under your budget. Kindest regards, Simon B

How about stick it into SADiE, Pro Tools, or whatever, and put the words up in the time line in time with where they are sung. Artist can have a second screen, or it could be projected. You would get audio, and TC. The artist would get the words, and could see the waveform to know where the long notes are held etc? Better still, if they gave you a session with the backing trax, and the singer on a separate track - they could see REALLY easily where they have note on, note off stuff, and where long notes are held. Surely they would get used to watching it very quickly - they are trained classical singers for sure! Hope that this helps, Simon B

Did anyone notice that it is quite a 'large' machine? I had a good look at one this week. It sounds fab, and the limiters are scrummy. The screen is great, and can be read in most sunlit situations. The software is easy to learn and to get around. It is, however, quite a big lump, though not too heavy. One nice feature - when you move a gain knob, the screen shows a bargraph of where that knob is . It includes a 'notch' which is where the knob started to move from - so you can easily go back to where you came from. Kindest regards to all, Simon B

Try this one - oh, some of the language is a bit strong!! Kindest, Simon B

A .wav file comes in a number of parts. One is the file header - this includes admin stuff to do with the contents of the file, like frame rate, TC stamp, length of file etc... Another bit is the audio data. The file header keeps the TC stamp as a value, which is calculated as 'samples after midnight'. This allows the TC stamp to be altered by programs like wave agent or bwf widget, by recalculating the value of samples from midnight. Some machines jam the TC value at the moment you hit record, others a few secs after it, and others again when you hit stop. It is generally felt that recorders that start at the 0 frame are good thing, as this can help reduce problems with pulled up or down frame rates. Some TC devices are able to 'cross jam', where one might be at e.g. 25fps but can still jam to another at e.g. 30fps. others cannot. Hope that this helps, Simon B

PDF's can be read by many if not all computers, given the appropriate software. PDFs are, however, tricky at best, and sometimes not possible, to unpick and edit. Many sound post prod depts may well wish to edit some of the info on the original sound sheet, or to add to it. This is far easier with an excel, or a .csv file, than it might be on a PDF. So - Aaton (pdf) have a good thing, and Zaxcom (.csv) also have a good thing. Kindest regards to all, Simon B

I am starting a shoot next week which will be on an EX1. I took a look at one last week, and it seems OK, if a bit my first Sony!! It took me ages to find audio level meters with numbers written on them - i.e. dB numbers so I could line up my tone. I found them in the end = you go into the status screen and curser down to the second page. In the audio setup page there is an adjustment that feels like it might be the equivalent of the master IP gain on a mixer (the far awy pot, not the close to me fader!!). Anyone tried adjusting this value (it is in dBs) and what effect did you notice (if any). I ran out of time to test that setting. Kindest regards, Simon B

Most 'dinkycams' have a LANC socket on the side. The LANC socket usually includes TC information in its stream of data, even if the camera is running Record Run TC. Ambient now make a box called the ACC601, the LANC Lockit box. The LANC Lockit box is a miniature Lockit box TC generator with a logger built in. Jam the TC from your SD or whatever audio recorder, and attatch the LANC Lockit bos to the dinkycam (it is half the size of a conventinal Lockit box, it is tiny). Tell the LANC Lockit box to do a logging job, and it will make a flex file of the cameras RR TC against the ToD that matches that on your audio recorder. At the end of the day you download the flex files from the LANC Lockit box, and deliver them to post with your .wavs. It is then a pretty simple task to autoload the .wavs into FCP or Avid whilst referring to the flex file from the LANC Lockit box. Hey Presto, the .wavs arrive in the FCP/Avid in the correct places. It is like magic. Take a look at Ambient's website - its a brilliant product. It can also convert from midi TC to LTC, and from LTC to Midid TC, plus a load of other useful 'jobs'. Kindest regards, Simon B

The Ambient box can be 'tuned' to the exact rate of whatever your master source of TC is. The Denecke box cannot. Kindest regards, Simon B

Many, many years ago, I found myself working in Wales on a TV drama. For some reason I didnt have my usual boomerator, so I had an imposter. He was a nice enough guy, but was soetimes a bit rough on the mic, and I would often have to ask him to be a bit more gentle when operating the boom. We were filming a lot of stuff outside, and I noticed that when we did atmos Wts he would often point the mic into the set, and I would hear all of the crew shuffling about during my WT (why do they have to continue to build the camera, just as noisily, but slower, during my WT?). I asked Martin a few times that when we did atmos tracks maybe he might walk an extra cable length away from us, point the mic away from the crew, relax into a comfy position and wait till we called a cut. So - there we are on the top of a big Welsh hill, where we had been for much of the day. we had done the last shot and it was time for my atmos track. Much shouting for quiet, I record an ID, and Martin stands with his back to us and I start recording. During 'the minute' there are many funny looks between us crew, and without saying a word I realise we are about to do a prank. I stopped the Nagra, unplugged the mic cable going to Martin, and we all (except of course Martin) crept off down the hill. He arrived about 20 mins later to a chorus of cheering from the crew - he had stayed motionless all that time, and only turned around when ho started to get cramp!! He DID see the funny side of it though. Kindest regards, Simon B