Izen Ears

If you're serious about a production sound career, buy your own kit, and don't get crappy stuff. If you're not sure what you're going to be doing in 5 years, go ahead and rent. But then again if you purchase a good sound kit in 5 years you could sell it and probably get at least half back, versus the whole "throwing your money away on rent" thing. Dan Izen

!!!!!!!!!!NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!!! Honesty prevailed for once. The driver went down the street to the same number address different block, and the residents were honest and gave him back the Zaxcom box which was just now brought to me. So I got it Monday instead of Friday. The box was opened but none of the internal bags were opened so everything is fine. Sorry for the drama fellow listers but hey my plan worked, the "make a big deal out of something and it will work itself out" plan! Thanks for the stories too they made me feel better. As far as that whole "Think about how many thousands of overnight parcels get delivered" business yeah so what? There's shitloads of amazing things companies do in this Age of Exponential Technolgy Advancement, and they all should be held accountable if they mess up! Despite this turning out ok I still will use, and recommend Fedex since their default is "signature required!" Dan Izen

Hmm, Robert that's an interesting thought. I guess I could have added the Deva 16 to my Heffernan policy before it arrived, in order to cover it's initial journey. My plan was the moment it arrived at my house I'd add it! It's Sunday and I've heard nothing about this box being found. My guess is some sleazebag here in New Orleans saw the insurance on the ticket and just took it. (I don't see how it could not have been the driver since he's the one that reports it delivered.) Unless of course, there was no insurance. Had I been asked of course I would have gotten the full insurance, but in fact I wasn't asked what carrier, if a signature should be required, or how much insurance to get. Dan Izen

Ha! That is amazing pverrando! Honestly in 120+ boxes I've had Fedex-ed NONE have had dents, yet with 20+ boxes UPS-ed all but a couple arrived un-dented. So this morning Zax called UPS and initiated an investigation, the first step of which was to call me and ask if I had received the package yet. Nope. UPS also stated that there was no signature required. I cannot imagine why they would have that since it is inconceivable that Zax woulda sent a Deva 16 no sig req'ed. There's no way. They told me 8 days to try and find the package, now I'm going to have to figure out what to do on my JOB that starts on Tuesday, not in 8 days. UPS messed up big and I hope they pay big! Shocking what dfisk says about Fedex, but that was years ago. Maybe they used to be like UPS but they've cleaned up their act? It feels good to rant thanks JWsound! Dan Izen

No didn't get the package sorry I was unclear - I meant the driver left the box at SOME door, not mine... Wow Mr. Sanders I am impressed at your quick response here! Wave of the future I guess. I was just ranting and expecting no more than perhaps some similar stories, not a direct response that helps me! (You'll be getting a call from PSS Monday.) See Senator, sometimes this board is quicker than CTM, since the "M" was closed for the weekend! Yeah let's hope they can find it. I for one find it *very* odd that the driver can't remember where he dropped the box. I looked at my phone and my call to UPS was exactly 20 minutes after the box was reported delivered. Very suspicious. Dan Izen

I just purchased a new Deva 16, paid cash outta my account. (Nothing wrong with my 5.8 I just wanted two.) Zaxcom sent it UPS. As soon as I learned this I had a bad feeling in my stomach. In the past it's been a miracle if a UPS box arrives un-dented, they NEVER require a signature when it's supposed to be required, and they always come really late in the day. They lost my new Deva 16. And they listed it as delivered at 4:10pm today! I wasted the whole day waiting around and checking the online UPS shipment tracker, then at 4:25pm I check and suddenly it's listed as delivered. But I was home the whole day in the front room right next to the door: no one knocked, no one came onto my porch, no big truck pulled up except the Fedex truck that came at noon. I called UPS and they said they'd start an immediate investigation and call me before an hour was up. After an hour they failed to call me, so I call back and they said they spoke to the driver and he didn't remember where he left the Zaxcom box. Even though when I first called was a HALF HOUR from when his delivery is listed, he can't remember where it was. Then they inform me a detailed investigation can only be instigated by the shipper, Zaxcom, who closed 10 minutes earlier. It's Friday. I'm working all week next week how am I going to be home to get a delivery? By the way no one mentioned that the driver left the box at the door despite the box requiring a signature. Never had a single issue with Fedex ever, except once where there was a storm in Chicago and that delayed my box a day. Have a great weekend y'all I know I will. Dan Izen

One thing that has always stood out to me about sound people, is that we try to help each other. When I meet another cool sound recordist I pass them jobs, I tell other clients how great they are, and it comes back to me when I get a ref from them. I daresay I would not be where I am if other sound people didn't pass my name along. Unlike say the vanities, sound folks are all bonded by the fact that we're the only people who care about sound on a set! (Okay maybe a director or editor here or there cares also.) I happily use both Remote Audio and PSC products and I haven't had either fail! I would think this conversation could be more civilized like Ron's response was, without "ripped off" or "stole" being used, but I don't want this to become private! I enjoy seeing people's passions in text. Dan Izen

As terrifying as the implications are, it would be awesome to have to go back to 100% hard line boom sound!!! Dan Izen

Ok so forget the anecdotes just numbers on how long (if ever) it took to get paid. That's not slanderous right? The RFI sounds great also, really really great. I would not host it. Dan Izen

There is something about this shot that I keep coming back to for some reason. In T2 when Eddie Furlong is riding his bike right before getting chased by Arnold in a semi. He's just riding in a ditch with the camera leading him, close enough that you can see his expression. No dialog. It's weird I know but I was 19, just becoming a young man when I saw this in the theater and somehow that shot made me think about becoming an adult, being independent, riding a bike into freedom. In the movie the kid wants to run away from home. I didn't want to do that I just didn't want to have to grow up! Luckily I've avoided that so far. About 2 years ago I watched the movie again and again that shot stood out to me, and also the cool dolly zoom when he sees Arnold in the semi crash through the barrier of the overpass right at him. Dan Izen

I once lost one of these screws and then found it when I unscrewed the other ones - it was deep inside the shell! It was loose, but it had not fallen out. In fact as I recall those screws tighten outwards so loosening the screws just puts them inside the shell not outside where it could be lost. I might be wrong about that so don't quote me. Dan Izen

Wow that is absolutely tragic about the 52 grip. It's enraging I hope that production company gets the pants sued off them. On a long-day show recently production was offering hotel rooms if anyone felt too tired to drive. Someone suggested that every single crew member take them up on it and check in even if they jumped back in their car and went home. This way production would feel an extra bite on those long days. Never happened though but it would have been cool. Probably wouldn't have changed the long days though. Dan Izen

Hey man they make blacklists for us (thinking of the thread "a cautionary tale") why can't we make one for them? I support a "do not trust" database I think if it's done right it would be valuable, VERY valuable since I know these companies will just keep doing it. By done right I mean each person or company on the list would have supporting anecdotes and contact info, including the ability to update each listing and even take someone off the list if they shape up. It would have to be private or course, which these days is probably impossible. But then again even a public list would be ok since it's not personal crap, it's just the facts about not getting paid. Hell it could even be a TXT file that would be available to the members on this group, updated as needed. I have two gigs that each still owe me $100 from about 6 years ago, other than those I've been lucky. Once I had to wait 2.5 months on a commercial for the same reason (which they didn't tell me at the time!) that they waited until the client paid them. I've heard of many people who take that hard line, "if I don't know you I get paid on the day" and I think it's great. I'm not that courageous, I've given people the benefit of the doubt and thankfully that has worked out so far. Dan Izen

I'm aghast at how calmly my fellow crew members take this kind of crap. Long hours suck and are dangerous, period. I'm always asking dept. heads if they want to walk off at 14 hours but no one will, and I needed the money too badly to just throw the job away. (Both my people would have loved to walk.) Perhaps there is some sort of legal action us IA members can resort to to change the contracts? Is there a list of IA members who were injured due to lack of sleep? Say someone we know gets in a car accident and there is a verified record of 15-16 hour days with 9 hours of less turnaround, can't we call OSHA? I've fallen asleep while driving home from work a few times and it totally freaked me out. Any JW listers know of someone being injured or killed from this? If we could document the injuries, wouldn't you think we could straight up take some legal action to declare the contracts unfair and force IA to change them? It's an unsafe working environment if only we had the documentation to show it. Of course there would have to be some sort of clause for those who lost their jobs by speaking or acting out against long hours. They would probably be screwed. I heard that in New York it is illegal to force people to work more than 16 hours; that if someone was telling you you're fired if you don't work past 16 and you don't want to, that the cops can be called and this person can be arrested. Maybe an urban myth but I always liked the idea of seeing a douche producer thrown in a cop car! Dan Izen

Senator - don't tell me what to do you ain't my faddah! I hate BNCs and their vulnerability and always have - you can't make me like em. Still wondering what Marc, Richard, and all the rest of you do to get picture to your HD monitors. I'm assuming BNC you dinosaurs. This thread was to investigate alternatives to both HD-SDI via BNC and downconverters, since I would like to get HD monitors. Dan Izen

So Marc and Richard: how do you get your signal? Must be HDSDI BNC less than 150'? A 150' two-channel BNC snake? I want to use baluns! I love CAT5, mostly because I never worry about the cable! I can let it live in the street, it gives me two pictures with one cable. You must have had to invest in some serious BNCs, perhaps even the Canare crimper and all that good stuff? I want to splurge on the HD monitors, but I can't get past having to go back to BNC. I had so much troubles and expenses with those. One wrong door closes and it's curtains for a BNC. My original CAT5 is still running strong, after 15 or so door-mashes, I have about 8 patches where the CAT5 was busted through to the wires and some waterproof tape later and it still works as good as new. Oh and by the way the Decimator 2s did not output a flicker-free SD signal on the 23.98 Red show I just wrapped! It was strange, one of the monitors was fine, the other one flickered. Perhaps one was old and one was new? Oh yes - and to Senator and JW regarding flying blind: maybe in olden times with single camera shows and true rehearsals you could turn out a great mix without monitors, but with 6 wires and 2 booms to mix a 5-pager with no real blocking or rehearsals are you nuts?! When I've had problems with picture someone inevitably makes some snarky comment about how mixers were fine for decades without monitors and that us kids are spoiled these days, and it always irks me. Yeah thanks to technology I can easily do what all mixers of yore could never do, and they had to do stuff differently because of technology restrictions. So there, so what! Gimme my damn picture! Dan Izen

Funny I read your post just after I posted mine. I think the 100' could be a limitation, though it would be super cool if it could easily go through walls. Perhaps then I could ditch the 200'+ long cable runs I need sometimes in order for the cable to be camera safe. For the price it's worth the experiment, of course I'd need to have HD monitors or downconverters at the sound cart to try this out... I agree latency totally sux. I've started instinctively bringing up wires when I sense the actors are about to speak. I've thought about just getting a spy-cam rig so I could see the whole set all the time without lag. Mr. Greg Sextro - I love the DV camera pointed at the village! Hilarious. I could use my old VX-2000 for that... Hmm... Dan Izen

Ok so everyone always pooh-poohed and said "Oh you don't need HD monitors I don't know any sound mixers who have them" but this was a year or so ago. Maybe that was more true then than now. Well I've had it up to here! I cannot describe the problems I've had with various DITs and video assist guys over simply getting me a standard-def picture. They always blame my gear and then it's fixed when they order new downconverters or DAs or some shit they shoulda had in the first place. Once I ended up going days without picture for an intense dialog driven show and boy did my mixes suffer! So either I get my own downconverters and force production to rent them (which is totally doable just another stage of crap to work out), or I make the huge plunge and splurge on some fancy ass waste-o-money-but-wow-they're-cool rack HD monitors for $3500. But if I bought HD monitors I'd want to also invest in an HD CAT5 system, a pair of balun boxes with connectors that are compatible with modern and at least near-future HD tech. Component HD seems iffy, seems plenty of perfectly good HD monitors lack these outs whereas almost every HD monitor big or small seems to have HD-SDI and HDMI outs. But then again the passive component balun boxes are pretty cheap... Is there a 2-channel HD balun system? The only ones I've seen are single channel component boxes, or single channel HDMI boxes that require 5-volt power. (The passive HDMI baluns are only good for 160' or something.) A video assist pal of mine suggested I get two Redbyte Decimator 2s and stick with my standard-def monitors. He mentioned that Decimator 2s have HDMI outs, which in the future means I can save on HD monitors because HD-SDI-taking monitors are more expensive than HDMI. This way I couldn't have my beloved CAT5 system, but I could run a double BNC of HD-SDI (he told me HD-SDI signal is strong and can go 150' or 200') and put the downconverters at my cart, and be ready for HD monitors when that day comes. But then I could only go 200' on highly un-bulletproof BNC cable. Part of my love of the baluns is the whole 1000' thing, the rest is the whole 2-channel picture over cheap-but-nearly-bulletproof CAT5 cable. Which goes back to downconverters at the village thing which means keeping the standard def thing. So what downconverters to purchase? On my last Red show the Decimator 2s gave me an annoying intermittent flicker, a flicker that wasn't there with the AJA downconverters (some reclocker thingee). I know this is a lot of thoughts but the main question is do I get HD monitors or downconverters, and if I get HD monitors how do I get the signal/can I use CAT5? It would be supercool to have HD monitors... Y'all (I know I'm not from the South but there is no other single English word for "all of you"!) must be having the same problems right?! Same kind of imminent or recent decisions out there? Thank you very much I love this board, Dan Izen

Hey Larry don't you mean The Exploited? I haven't heard DKs cover that classic. Kind of a heavy way of seeing this change. I like that conventions are being questioned but I also expect there to always be a place for good sound. Dan Izen

HA HA HA HA I love that urban dictionary!!

Reefer! Ha! Love that. Keys has worked for me, so has locations. That wallpaper is a damn good and very modern idea... Dan Izen

Wow BobD, confirming everything I thought about owning a sixpack. I know they work fantastic and I want one. Actually an eightpack would be better because then it really could double up as the cart rxs; when on the cart six rx ain't enough for me. Maybe that's why Lectro discontinued: they're planning a 411a-laden eightpack called the eightpack rather than the octopack? Thanks RLightstone for the tip! A pair of these & the Vark magnet whips were what I was forgetting to buy recently, when I remembered I had meant to purchase some stuff but forgot what it was. ha ha Dan Izen

Has anyone invented a shoulder-mount that can hold two helicals? It could go under your sound kit harness and hold a pair of antennas above each shoulder! Probably sharkfins would be better for that tho- Dan Izen

I can definitely try them out at $189 each, didn't realize they were so cheap... Might just have to get some of those right now! I would like to use 411a rx not the octo rx. First because I thought they didn't use the front end tracking dealio and hence don't perform as well, and second so I would have backup 411s for the sound cart. Dan Izen

I've been thinking about the same thing, how to get big antennas to work with a bag rig. Thought about two of those passive splitters figuring the 3dB of signal loss would way be compensated by the +14dB gain of the helicals - but aren't those splitters like $500 a piece?! I was thinking for that kind of money I could just get another Lectro UMC16BL multi-coupler and just power that from an NP cup, plus it would fit 8 rx. Much bigger and bulkier than the passive splitters tho... Dan Izen