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Blas Kisic

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Everything posted by Blas Kisic

  1. Got it. Yeah, I just feed TC from a Denecke SB3 into the last track: rock-solid timecode all day. BK
  2. Phil, I don't use the clock when I record with Boom Recorder - I feed TC from a Denecke syncbox into one of the inputs. All the recording actually happens into my laptop. The mixer is just for routing. Unless I misunderstood your comment… BK
  3. Thanks. Unfortunately, it weighs 36lb, which is 11lb more than the 1620i weighs - and I'm trying to go down in weight, if possible… BK Leaning toward the A&H at the moment… Will keep you all posted. Thanks for your comments, BK
  4. Richard, you may want to take a look at the Ram Promaster City Tradesman van. Its specs beat the Transit, as well as the Nissan NV200. I went to see one and came away truly impressed. I will be going for a test ride this weekend, and will probably be buying one within the next two months. I wasn't aware of the Metris - will take a look. But I'm sure it's more than the $25,000 I'm planning to spend on the Ram… HTH, BK
  5. This sounds petty and somewhat inconsequential, but most experienced mixers I know are somewhat OCD about how they keep the gear in the carts/drawers/cases, and have a particular way how they wrap the headphone cables, lav wires, etc. and like things done a certain way. You may feel those are not important things to keep in mind, but you'd be wrong. I know that I would probably not hire back a boom operator or utility person who didn't do those things. And the reason is, I want to find things the same way and in the same location the next time I need them - it saves me time and energy. BK
  6. I have an aging Mackie Onyx 1620 in my cart, with a FW card, which connects to a MacBook Pro. It has served me well for a few years, but I'm having issues with a few mute and solo buttons. I've taken it in for service, but the issues persist. Chances are, it would cost close to what it's worth now ($450) to have those buttons repaired/replaced, so I'm looking for a board to replace it. I need 8-12 input channels, at least two submixes or aux outputs and talkback, as well as FW or USB connectivity for Boom Recorder. I've looked at and considered the following mixers: Presonus StudioLive 16.4.2 AI Allen & Heath QU-16 Yamaha LS9-16 (not sure it has talkback, though) Soundcraft Si Expression Any thoughts, comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Cheers, BK
  7. Looking to hire a sound mixer fluent in Arabic and English for documentary project (NOT reality) in September-October. Most of the shoot involves international travel. Competitive rate. You can be based in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world. Ideal gear would be: lightweight ENG bag (SD 633 os similar) with two wireless lav receivers, TC syncbox and mono wireless feed to camera. Still in the preproduction phase, don't have a budget or a schedule yet. Please send me your CV and list of gear at: blas-at-blaguecommunications-dot-com Thanks!
  8. Thanks, David and Phil. It was a posh residential area in Pasadena (hillside) so I don't think it would have been another crew, but who knows. Sad to say, I just hope for better luck going forward. BK
  9. Thanks, Phil. Indeed, we were pressed for time, so our troubleshooting, such as it was, had to be done in a minute or less. BK
  10. Thanks, David. This one was actually a Variac. Either way, the source of the interference remains a mystery. BK
  11. I had an interesting issue crop up a few days ago. I have two Comtek feeds: one for my crew and one for Production (which includes Director & Scripty, as well as agency types in VV.) Transmitters are two BST-25 216. So I was working on a commercial shoot in a home. My cart ended up in a corner in the kitchen, and I installed my two Mini-Mite antennas upside down so as not to hit the ceiling. Everything was tested, no problems found. At some point, a four-foot Kino fixture with four bulbs was put next to the car, vertically. It was connected to a Variac dimmer, at what I would call minimal intensity. After all adjustments were made, the light ended up about one foot from the Mini-Mite, directly in the path to where Director and Scripty were seated, some 25' away. Eventually (don't know the timeframe, it was a pretty busy and tense set) we heard that the signal is "cutting out". My boom op checked and, indeed, it was cutting in and out intermittently. We moved the cart to get a clear line of sight to them and it mostly was resolved. Unfortunately, we were short on time and dealing with a difficult shoot, so there wasn't much time to test and troubleshoot properly, so I can't share any more information - but I'd love to hear comments or experiences from my colleagues, in case the issue crops up again. TIA, BK
  12. As luck would have it, I happened upon this thread (though I read it when it first came out) this morning, decompressing from a three-day commercial shoot that was an incredibly frustrating experience, especially considering it was a union-crewed project for a major international brand. The AD department actively sabotaged my efforts to get clean sound, ignored our requests to record takes for sound or eliminate the main source of noise (a lamp for a "cascade" gag playing in the background) which whined between 2800Hz and 3500Hz while an A-list actor softly played the guitar and sang a country song. I'm confident (and, I swear to God, I hope against hope that I'm wrong) that those takes will have to be overdubbed. Which is truly a great shame. On the second day I got a call from the editor (a first for me) asking whether I was aware of "noise issues", to which I replied that we were doing the best we could, considering the circumstances. I promised I'd record room tone with the lamp on, and with it off, so they can figure out the best way to filter it out. Well, I was not able to make good on my promise, again thanks to the 1st AD, who scheduled us into a corner and, even though we were willing to skip lunch on the last day to get those tracks, ordered all the lights wrapped and the set stricken before we came in to do so. I'm sorry if this sounds like whining, and I'm certainly venting, but I feel that this sort of thing happens more often than not, especially on commercials, and I'm trying to find ways to deal with it productively. For one thing, if I ever work with this 1st AD again, the first thing I'll do is take him aside, look him in the eye, and let him know that I won't let him sabotage the project's sound again. Thanks for listening, BK
  13. Well, if anybody cares… I rewired the cart and it's working as expected. I just ran everything for 60 minutes off the battery, and it still shows 11.4V, which is more than enough for my needs. Cheers, BK
  14. Thanks, Phil - and sorry I pestered you at work today… Was in a bit of a panic! ;-) In any case, I did figure out that the Furman should be at the beginning of the chain, to feed the Xantrex clean voltage. I will just feed the mixer and the other critical devices by plugging them into a power strip, which goes into the Xantrex. I just tried that and it's working fine. I will rewire everything tomorrow and retest. Thanks again, BK Incidentally, the Xantrex tech told me they just came out with a pure sine wave unit, just like the one I have. It's $200 more than what I paid for this one - I think I'll just stay with what I have for now - but good to know. BK
  15. Well, I did the test: as Richard suggested, I plugged the Xantrex into the Furman power conditioner, which was then connected to house power. I plugged all the devices into a power strip, and plugged it into the Xantrex's AC output. Well, it works just fine. I guess the Furman didn't like what the Xantrex was sending it - off to reroute all the cables… Thanks, all. BK
  16. Indeed, it was. It was a Samlex pure sine wave inverter. How is one to know which power conditioner will like the output from the inverter? Seems like a hit and miss proposition… BK Thanks, Richard. The Furman power conditioner gets its power from the inverter. All other devices are plugged into it. As far as the battery's condition, it's less than a year old, it's a gel battery, and has never been depleted. Actually, most of my cart work is off house power, and I don't remember the last time I worked for any length of time off the battery… Are you saying that I should plug the Xantrex into the Furman, and then connect all other devices off the Xantrex? BK Thanks, Robert. I just thought it'd be simpler to make everything AC, rather than getting an additional unit for all the other stuff… In any case, this setup worked flawlessly for two years - it frustrates me that it suddenly doesn't work. BK
  17. My cart is AC-powered. After a couple of years of getting power with a Samlex inverter and a separate charger, I decided to buy a Xantrex Freedom HF 1050 inverter/charger, to simplify my workflow, following the recommendation of Phil Palmer, Richard Lightstone and others. I have a Furman power conditioner, which feeds a number of devices: a Mackie Onyx FW mixer, a Venue receiver, a BlackMagic dual SDI monitor, two Comtek base stations and a Mac laptop. Power comes from a 34Ah gel battery. I installed the inverter and set up everything as per the instructions. Everything works fine when connected to house power: the Furman shows 112-120 V, the battery is being topped off, hovering around 13.8V and all the devices work as expected. However, when I unplug the AC power, everything dies - and the Furman starts blinking, eventually causing an overload alarm on the Xantrex. Everything is exactly the same as when I had the Samlex connected, so I can't figure out what could be wrong. I called Schneider this morning, and the tech had me connect an unrelated device (without involving the Furman.) No problems. The next step will be to connect all the devices in the cart to a regular power strip and connect it to the Xantrex. I will be doing so tonight - but, in the meantime, I wonder if anybody here might have a similar experience, or is able to shed some light on this problem. TIA! I forgot to mention that the system consumes less than 150W… So if a 300W inverter was sufficient, I would think that a 1KW one would be no problem.
  18. Thanks, Phil. I'm already looking at alternatives. The front runners now are one of the PreSonus and the Soundcraft Expression Si. But, like I said, if all it needs is a cleaning, I'll put it back in service. I really wish an OEM would step up and cater to our market, small as it is - but willing to spend on good, reliable machines. If Line 6, A&H or Behringer came up with a control surface with optional Dante connectivity, smooth 10mm faders, 12 48V XLR inputs, decent routing options in a compact, lightweight package I would gladly pay $1K-2K. But, I guess, they wouldn't expect to sell more than a couple thousands…
  19. Have Deoxit, but have been hesitant to use it for that, as I read in a Mackie user's group it wouldn't be a good idea. Either way, it's at the repair facility - let's see what they say a week from now. BK
  20. On a client like that one (and I've had a couple) once you decide you want to part ways the most efficient and elegant course of action is to bid high. If they end up taking you on, at least it was worth it monetarily. Otherwise, they go elsewhere - regardless whether they got the message or not, the point is they're out of your hair. HTH
  21. Thanks. I'll find out in a few days, but I'm 90% sure that all it needs is a simple cleaning. OTOH, if it ends up being something more serious, I'll probably reconfigure the cart altogether. I'm considering a 664+CL12 setup, or some other option yet to be determined (looking at the Soundcraft Expression Si at the moment…) Cheers, BK
  22. Indeed. That's the quandary. I took it to another vendor that will charge me $90 to clean and lube it. They'll let me know if it needs anything else. BK
  23. My cart mixer is a Mackie Onyx 1620, which has served me well for a couple of years. Recently, though, I've noticed that a "solo" button and a "mute" button (in two different strips) "stick". Also, there's a 1/4" port that has makes contact intermittently. The mixer is otherwise in good condition and I have no reason to believe there's anything more serious than a lack of cleaning or lubrication. I called "Stretch" at Valley Sound Music Technologies (a Mackie authorized service center) and they pre-charge $75 to take it in, then there'll be somewhere between $150 and $200 for checking, cleaning and lubrication - assuming there's nothing wrong with it. I wonder if there's anything else I can do on my own before I take it there (compressed air, contact cleaner…) and part with $300, seeing as it isn't worth more than $400. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated, BK
  24. Thank you, Jan. My Lithium batteries last me three to four days, so no complains there. Regards, BK
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