Izen Ears

This does not apply to union members in LA or New York as those cities don't use the Area Standards contracts. This year I volunteered for my local 478 ASA negotiations team, and I need proposals. My local will submit proposals along with all the other locals. Those proposals will be from all departments, and after a certain period no new proposals can be submitted. This time around locals are forming negotiation committees - any member can be on it! The best would be for every single local to get identical sound dept. specific proposals. That would make everyone's jobs easier because rather than arduously merge proposals, we soundies would be handing them identical proposals that need no merging. It also signals a cross-country unity among sound folks. I'd like to get a private discussion going where we form sound dept. proposals. These proposals should not be publicly discussed, because it gives the other side advance notice. However I believe we can have a group PM on this site, so we could in essence have a private "thread." I have a few ideas but they need input because I'm kinda dumb. I absolutely stand behind the writers and the actors, and think this strike should go on for as long as it needs to. The fact that there is any strike at all is galling beyond belief, because these are "common sense laws of decency" we're talking about. Why is it okay for them to hoard profits? Then the fact that productions don't want us to have any guaranteed turnaround beyond eight hours says it all right there - they only care about us as much as they are forced to. They are greedy profit driven executives that will never come down to earth. I have always supported strikes and I have many times I asked other department heads to walk off an abusive set but no one ever did. I can't do that by myself, but if every department did it then the production would have to listen. Anyhow let's just say I don't believe anything they need is beneficial to us, and these contracts are the only thing standing between abuse and work. Anyone who wishes to give me ideas or discuss proposals please PM me. I would love to discuss these things, I have ideas but I'd like to be more informed before I submit them as proposals. Let's get a group PM going! Dan Izen

That may be true from a scientific carbon perspective, but I don't think they are the same in practice. Burning and burying are vastly different processes. Paper products being distributed amongst trash helps everything biodegrade more efficiently and quicker. It also doesn't release carcinogens into the air. I'd love for you to elaborate how wrong I am about that. I'm interested in learning. Dan Izen

I meant throwing it away like normal trash and allowing it to breakdown, not burning! Who does that?!! I've never heard of a municipality burning their paper trash. But have you seen where the "recycling" is done, or exactly what happens after the separation? I stand by my stance, recycling is a sham. Reusing and not using plastic is the way to go.

This is why *we* need to step up with our unions and demand a three person team beyond a Tier 1! The area standards contract is about to be up for negotiation, and that's the one that we get the most of out here. It's also the one that most of you all use outside of Los Angeles, so you guys could help with this! I have joined my locals negotiation team and I gotta say it's very disheartening. The producers could just decide to say "we won't make a decision on that" and bang! the issue is gone. There's only a few areas that they must respond to, so they usually throw everything else away because they can. The three person sound team is one of those issues. I'm going to propose it anyhow, but I fully expect it to be shot down. My recommendation is to have as many locals as possible put this in their negotiations, that might make them answer. So contact your negotiations team and request a proposal for a three person team for anything over Tier 1! This should actually be its own thread, because I would love to bring other proposals that the national sound community wants in our contracts. Dan Izen

This is a first for me. I mean seeing actual recycling. It's a big mystery what really happens inside those places. Every recycling plant I've ever tried has not allowed me to see what happens inside. For most of America recycling is a huge myth: I believe it never happened. Instead the trash was shipped to China up until around 2018. They started refusing our recycling because we don't know how to recycle! (Real recycling means removing all tape and food matter, for example.) What little recycling was actually done used heavy chemicals, natural resources, and created pollution. I'm talking about paper recycling where they have to bleach the paper to get rid of ink or other materials. Glass recycling is even worse because there are only a few processing plants in the country, so the recycled glass has to be driven hundreds of miles! This absolutely negates any benefits, as the transportation is a huge waste. I also believe recycling paper is misguided since wood and paper is in fact the most renewable natural resource we have. 20 to 25 years is enough time to restock a pine forest. But that requires intelligent harvesting rather than profit-based harvesting, which the United States doesn't even understand the concept of. In my little Third World American city, the recycling is picked up and taken to the same dump with the same garbage trucks. It is 100% a lie and yet we still have separate trash bins.

Awesome mixer! I wish I had one. I can't help but I will say that sounds weird. Maybe someone modded it?

Have someone offset with the wav file call the cell phone and just play it back. Hold the phone up to the speaker of a labtop. I suggest the person who green lit the whole phone thing would be a great playback operator!

The answer is to own a backup. That's what all the successful sound guys have done and continue to do. Nothing is bulletproof and the best sound guys in the world have three of everything.

That article has been bouncing around my brain. Then I saw this on Reddit:

AMAZING article!!! Thanks a million for posting. Now I have a name for what we are living in, techno feudalism. I've known for a while that we are not in a true capitalist economy because corporations are not adequately regulated. Whenever people start talking about how much they hate capitalism, I point out that we are not enjoying capitalism because the regulation isn't there. I just didn't know what to call it. I've been so divided on digital stuff. Obviously it's great to be able to call somebody from your pocket, and all the other cool things we can do with smart phones. But of course the corporations had to sully it by adding all their tracking and targeting crap, and now we're physically addicted. Forgetting your phone at home does not fly, one can't really do that these days. Even try leaving it in your bedroom when you're home and that doesn't work! I also like that the article pointed out how dismal the future looks without regulation. Great article! Dan Izen

That's insane!! I love it. I wonder if dogs were affected?

That was a lovely read, I'm sorry for your loss man. Those little stories are pure gold. The cat reply is brilliant!

If the pinouts are known, why not? I like this idea. The impedance thing might be a thing, but for a measly 12" run it might not be.

That's really interesting, thanks for posting. As a child I would play my dad all the time, except that I called it chest ha ha!

Well I'm convinced, sign me up to record ant farts! I really enjoyed reading this thread, thanks for posting all that great information everyone!

That's what hipped me to it, although I had heard of it before. That's insane about the ET woman. Now they could just do a deep fake.

Paul F that is AWESOME!! What great stories. I cannot believe you have that whole session. Is it true that no one really knows who that voice actor was?

We all need some "It depends..." t shirts! Glad he's upright! Dan Izen

DEERRRRRRR Of course this must be where that 1kHz comes from - intelligibility! Which are those hissy sibilant consonants, not the main fundamental freqs of the voice. Thanks everyone for chiming in! Dan Izen

So we all have this idea that around 1 kHz is the average freq for human voice. Maybe it's between 800 and 2,000 Hz? I've read how our hearing is particularly attuned to those frequencies because of this. My recent activities have brought this into question. I just got a free phone app called Pano Tuner, which features an active, moving note-and-frequency display. I've been experimenting with trying to hold pitches and guess at notes (learn perfect pitch), which is super fun. My lowest note is about 96 Hz in between A and G flat. (Throat singing can bring that down to about 56 Hz.) My absolute highest pitch is around 1446 Hz, between F and G flat. (But I have pretty epic squealing and falsetto ability haha!) But DAMN 1K is super high! My voice doesn't go NEAR that frequency unless I'm squealing, not even falsetto singing gets anywhere near that high. I spoke into the app and used a "high voice" and that was only about 300 Hz. My very surprised "what are you talking about?!" tone goes up to about 500 Hz. My regular speaking voice freq range is only around 120 - 300 Hz. I realize I am a male but I do not have a particularly deep voice, and even if I speak in a high voice the frequencies are still way under 1K. What am I missing? How did that number come into being? Just put this in the "random musings while I wait out the strike" category. Dan Izen

Wow I love those! What a cool sound. I'm surprised metal dudes haven't gotten hip, they could SHRED with one of those. Great thread Mono!

I used to worry about this a lot. Then I did this, and those fumes are sucked right out of the house. A pal gave me a 6" duct fan and it works! I never want to have to deal with lead-free solder! (Black bag is for cat-proofing the heat shrink! Bunsen the cat loves to chew that stuff.)

Was all of the sound on that also AI generated?

Inductors! Haha! I only understand their principles, I haven't gotten to them in my extremely slow paced self learning. Thank you! I still don't get what those inductors and capacitors do. Dan Izen

Turns out I had two of these cables from the old days, so I butchered one of them to try and find out the values. Holy crap it's a maze! There are two caps and two resistors. My ability to read the value code of the resistors is shameful, so I metered them both at exactly 1 ohm. EDIT - these are inductors not resistors! Cap 1 is labeled "102 A54" and the capacitance meter said .28 nF. Cap 2 is labeled "026 AHH" and metered at 1.28 nF. Here's what I saw. XLR Pin 1 cap 1 jumped to pin 2 jumped to pin 3 XLR Pin 2 cap 1 jumped to pin 1 cap 2 jumped to pin 3 1 ohm (EDIT) inductor --> 1/8" tip XLR pin 3 cap 2 jumped to pin 2 jumped to pin 1 1 ohm (EDIT) inductor --> 1/8" ring and shield The XLR pin one is not connected to a wire, only jumper to its neighbors. The 1/8" connector is a TRS style, but the sleeve and the ring are connected. The white went to pin 2, and the red and shielding went to pin 3. So, everything is connected together and I am thoroughly confused! I would love it if some smarty-pants could explain what the electrons are doing.