John E. Walker

Switching computers resolved the OMF export problem! Funny. Also, I got my 24 bit very easily by changing the sequence settings in FCP. I compared a region of the OMF to its original production audio file counterpart in PT, and they sound the same. The drawn waveforms are absolutely identical at maximum zoom, as well. That's good news, as I won't be tediously syncing all the original files to the OMF; I can just use the OMF.

Hey Dan, I can report one success story with boosting +21 dB on a 24 bit track. I was worried when I first saw that waveform with peaks about half as tall as the region in Pro Tools. Pleasantly surprised was I that I could detect no rising noise floor as I added gain in post. My guess is two factors behind this: 1. The number of bits per sample correlates to dynamic range, approximately 6 decibels per bit in digital audio. That means you could have the same resolution with peaks hitting -48 dB in a 24 bit file, as you would with peaks hitting 0 dB in a 16 bit file (8 bit difference times 6 decibels). 2. The noise within our signal flow was excellent. We used a Sennheiser 416 > Sound Devices MM-1 > Sound Devices 744T. Canare cable with Neutrik connectors. My experience is telling me it's okay to use the headroom if you need it. Final Cut Pro editors won't like it. "Why are the levels so low?"

Man, I know what you mean. I want to believe that the earlier production brings sound on, the better. Many of the problems we encounter during the shoot could be avoided by planning ahead. However, I've only been invited to a production meeting before a shoot on three occasions, and there wasn't much opportunity to advise them. Locations have not been chosen with my approval, ever. I have gotten extra furnie-pads ordered in the grip package before. Generators have always been chosen based on budget and insurance, so they get whatever they get. I guess the best use of your time during a reading would be to do test recordings? Of course, you know your gear works, so this would only be a useful exercise if the actors were reading in the exact place they're going to be on the shoot. The background will never match without the rest of the lights and the crew. Maybe you could nip dialog overlaps in the bud now... and irritate the director. You could start memorizing their lines for boom cues! Nah, my feeling is that it's not a very productive use of your time. You can meet some of the people you'll be in the same room with later... I'm reaching here.

Oh that's interesting. I hadn't heard of AVTransfer. I saw that the audio files FCP is referencing are 24 bit. I suspect that her 16 bit sequence must render audio in order to playback. So, it may be as simple as changing the bit depth in the sequence settings dialog. The audio started out as 24 bit BWF files from a 744T and have made their way to an external hard drive sitting on her Mac. I didn't see a place to specify audio only in the OMF. I'm pretty sure the route her cursor took was File > Export Audio as OMF, to which a dialog box popped up. I'll look at it again when she's available.

I am looking into taking on post audio for an indie short I actually boomed on. Picture lock won't be for another two weeks, but I took it upon myself to go meet with the picture editor to get a sense of her workflow. Mainly, I wanted to see what kinds of trouble might be up the road (regions not named accordingly, for example). Her timeline looked good. I hadn't ever seen audio and video clips merged before though, which gives them a new name for one thing. Every single clip had the word "Merged" in its name, like "10-6 Merged" for scene 10, take 6. Usually I see audio and video clips linked. She also unwittingly created a 16 bit sequence, not even noticing that our audio was 24 bit. Anyway, I asked if I could take an OMF export to test out which she was totally cool with, but it didn't work. A dialog popped up reading something like "Over 2 GB not supported." I understand that OMF files cannot exceed 2GB, but this was only a 19 minute timeline, with 4 tracks of 48/16 audio. We tried 2 minute handles, 30 second handles, and even no handles. It's a mystery to me. I have exported OMF from a project 30 minutes long with 10 mono tracks before. Anyone know what's going on?

My first time with a Deva. I was just on a little industrial video recording an improvised sales pitch about an advertising company. Long takes (15-20 minutes) and three EX-1 cameras meant I was relying on up to 5 lavs to be used simultaneously. I had a rough time trying to mix 7 people down to two tracks on the last gig, so this time I convinced production to rent a Deva. It was beautiful experience. My partner and I got there early to set-up our little base in an office cubicle and got to work coordinating frequencies. I had 5 Lectro UM400s transmitting to 411As and outputting to a Deva V. Everything went swimmingly. I had been reading the manual all weekend, and practiced with this set-up at home, and no surprises or mishaps popped up on the shoot. We even had brought a back-up SD 744T, just in case. We had fun. The talent went to pre-fader iso tracks and I got to practice mixing in real time to a post-fader mono mix track. Analog out went to the 744, for redundancy... and to see who could set levels better! I love this machine, BUT As far as I can tell, there was no way to deliver the audio files except to mirror on a DVD-RAM. There was about an hour and a half of material which took 40 minutes to write. Everybody else wrapped and went home. The editor, my sound buddy, and I were the last ones in the building waiting for this thing. The FAT32 formatted DVD-RAM worked, but am I missing a slick way to copy files off of the internal hard drive? I tried connecting the Deva via Firewire to an external LaCie HDD, and a Mac Pro tower in the editor's office, but there was recognition between any of them. I couldn't find anything in the manual about actually delivering the lovely polyphonic wav files other than the brief section about mirroring to the internal DVD drive. Up until today, all the other digital recorders I've used either connect to a computer through Firewire, USB, or can spit out a CF card. Am I missing something or is that also your experience?

I was on two RED shoots this summer, but we did double-system sound (all recordings on an FR-2, no feeds to the RED). The DIT was the owner of the camera, and he went along for dumping and general tech support, if needed. He had mini-XLR to XLR cables, just in case. Not a bad idea to add those to your assortment.

FWIW, I submit my POV: I went to film school. I handled camera and lighting gear as an employee of the checkout room. I had privileged access to anything that wasn't reserved for the weekends. I worked on student productions as the sound guy, sometimes that meant the all-in-one sound department. I spent more time than anybody in my class editing post sound, recording ADR, Foley, and doing the mix in our Pro Tools labs. I've been a camera operator, an editor, an actor, and a director. Every film position I've played with serves to inform my decisions today. Importance? Not so important. The great names in production sound who've had little experience booming is a testament to that. A sound mixer has his own set of responsibilities, his own talents to focus on. Certainly, a familiarity with the performance art of booming is fundamental, if the mixer is going to make decisions about boom technique. But I don't think the mixer should be. That's one benefit why he has his boomer. "It's the boom operator's job to bring the sound to the mixer" as my boom sensei Junpei Shinozaki taught me. A superior team combines a mixer and boom op who can truly do both jobs well, who trust each other with each task. Junpei never wanted to hear my takes when I was mixing, and I could see that his ninja skills were getting what I needed. Doing one-man-band gigs gave me the ultimate control to help my ears learn the many ways good sound can be captured. However, it wouldn't take long for a person mixing on a team to understand. It's funny. I came out of school having mainly mixed, or mixed and boomed. I quintupled my experience within the first year out, and I'm finding in my second year that I really like booming better! This crew position has to be the most intimate experience with the action. Boom ops often stand nearest to talent, and sometimes must mimic (or follow) their movements. I get a bit of exercise, I talk to everyone, and I'm treated with respect. I had a magical moment in June, too. I was so in tune with an actor's performance that we moved in synchrony, I could mouth her words, and I even felt sympathetic emotion. Booming is technique. Booming is dance. I love it. No, my arms don't get tired, but my feet sometimes do--from standing around all day! Which reminds me of a joke a mixer told me: How tall is a sound mixer? Nobody knows. They never stand up!

I love the idea of "Cut camera, but keep sound rolling." That's really the time when the crew is most attentive. It might take a few times to get everyone in the new groove. I say that because I know how few times people actually remember not to cut when we intend to tail slate! Getting a bit of tone for every take sounds wonderful for post. I've spoken with directors before production to count to at least three between "Marker" and "Action" and between the moment he wants to say to cut to actually saying it. It also gives picture editors a buffer zone, but it may be viewed as wasteful. "Cut camera, but keep sound" rolling is a good compromise. So good to hear room tone encouraged from Randy Thom. I admit, there was a time when I felt like room tone was a joke, because it was like pulling teeth to get the crew to cooperate. Also, I can't prioritize when I don't know what the set-ups will be until they happen. How many times have you gotten a shot-list that didn't change? There can potentially be many, many room tones, one for each microphone position. Sometimes if the surroundings are distinctly noisier from one direction, I will choose to aim the boom straight down for all the coverage (placed just above and front of the speaking actors, of course), so that the background will sound the same. However, I'm a proponent of getting options for the editors. So other times, it seems like a better idea to get one actor really clean and the other the best I can making use of the null area to calm down the offensive noise. John E.

Landon and I used that set-up a few weeks ago. I asked him to switch the 442 to monitor for my channel only, and adjust the volume as needed. He listened through the recorder, a Fostex FR-2, which is probably better for quality control. Clearly I was hearing whatever the monitor out was from the 442. He spoke to me with a slate mike. A week ago I was booming with an MM-1, which I liked just fine. I got to make my own volume adjustment. It was a little weird to occasionally switch the input gain on the MM-1 for the mixer, though, and with our set-up there wasn't a way to have him talk back to me.

I did two days at the beach back in January. I was doing the one-man band thing with a Tascam HD-P2 in a Port-A-Brace, two Sennheiser G2 wireless kits, and an 816. You're right about the ocean roar. At El Matador State Beach in Malibu, it was also windy and really cold (I wore gloves and a hood) until the marine layer overhead dried up and the sun came out. My car stereo couldn't get the radio stations as I neared the location. There was hardly any intermodulation interference and the wireless kits had a huge range out there. Actors walked maybe 200 yards away and I could still hear them clean in the extreme wide shot, unless they walked behind a rock. The lavs sounded remarkably good, because the level of the voice was much stronger than the level of the ocean. The 816, pointed straight down or slightly away from the shore, was even better for close-ups. I would tell myself to bring a towel or a blanket and a chair for next time. There was nowhere to set down the gear during downtime. Sand everywhere! I also recommend keeping all of your accessories in pouches to keep the dust and sand off. Stay in shade as much as you can, and take care of your skin.

I'd try out the Sanken CS-1. Ask if you can have a listen to both at the rental house. Your ears are a better judge than the tech specs that I read. I'm also always eager to try new stuff, and the ME66 with K6 power module is the microphone we learned on in film school. It works well up close, but it's an electret condenser. You'll likely get a quieter signal from the CS-1.

Recruit a boom operator. If you don't know one, recruit someone to mix while you boom op. The placement of the mike is the most important aspect of production sound. Don't trust the camera to record your precious audio. Absolutely use a mixer; the input pre-amps and the circuitry inside will do wonders for your signal, even if you're not actually mixing any channels together. It's not abnormal to grab sound effects on set. Note: the art of Foley is actually making sounds while watching a picture (usually in post), like actors lip-syncing themselves during ADR. As for microphones, there are many others here on this forum who know better than I. I've only had the pleasure to use old reliable Sennheiser MKH416, 50 and 816 as true condenser mikes, and many times with the electret condenser ME66. I hear great things about Schoeps and Neumann. It seems that cardioids are favored to hypercardioids for small, reverberant rooms. Car interiors are tricky because there's very little room, but I've had success with planting a mike in the glove box or under a visor. Last week I sat in the back seat during a couple of dirty singles (OTS CU) and pistol gripped a 416 right at the top of the side frameline, aimed at the space just in front of the actor's mouth. It sounded just like an overhead boom just above the hairline. Short shotguns always sound better than lavs to me, so I encourage using a second boom if possible--not to mention the trouble with getting clean RF transmission/reception and that the inputs on the transmitters won't be as good as those on the mixing console. A good dynamic mike can be great for recording effects, provided you can put the mike up close and don't want the reach (sensitivity) of a condenser. Just some thoughts.

I love the Coffey Audio Files. I just realized I could get a hard copy free. Should've subscribed when I first discovered it a year ago!

John E. Walker Long Beach, CA at your service in L.A. and So-Cal (760) 473-9845 johnesound@gmail.com

One pistol. One SMG. The two actors peel away from the border inspection in the Plymouth Belvedere with guns out. No firing. The weapons guy didn't look happy (Why was he even there?). The D.P. and I were sad pandas. He had even taken a one day class on arms for this. I was going to use an old dynamic just out of frame, our old 416 about ten feet away, and the new 416 twice that distance facing distant buildings. The actor was wearing a wire, and I was ready to take the microphone away for the gun firing takes. I had seen a list of SPL numbers measured from a shooter's ear for 9 mm rounds. Listed were 157, 154, etc. I was thinking about inverse square law and max SPL for the mikes which averaged 130 dB. This post generated a lot of replies. We had ear plugs. I had a plan. The producer did not. I found out from the D.P. that we didn't have a permit to film at the location in Fontana. What an idiot. Those of us with some common sense decided to change the scene from guns a blazing to guns threatening the guard as they high tail it out of there. Sigh. We were going to try the Heil PR30 but the schedule became such a fiasco. Day 1: The promised set was still being constructed. One shot by lunch. 20 hour day. 5 hours sleep. Day 2: Picture car two hours late, and not the trailer the D.P. had specified. The roof was 6 feet off the gorund! We raced against the setting sun and then we did a company move to the next interior. 15 hour day. 4 hours sleep. Day 3: Our delivery of the generator did not come with a key to open the vents. The set needed the letters "UNITED STATES BORDER" and the promised painters never showed. Our production designer stood on a scaffolding doing it himself with masking tape for 12 hours, while we covered reverse angles. 18 hour day. 6.5 hours sleep. Day 4: This day actually kinda flowed. However, at wrap we were promised two P.A.s to guard all the equipment during the day, so that the elaborate set-up didn't have to be struck completely. We wrapped at dawn. Only the A.D., the Mixer and myself were left at 7:30 AM. We stuck by him. We called the director, the co-producer, and the owner of the location three times. The owner finally showed up at 9:10 AM. 18 hour day. 7 hours sleep. When I wake up, it's 6:00 PM. Ya. Not going to be getting down to Coffey Sound. Day 5: This is the day. And what can I say? We were under a lot of pressure to get the rest of the film done by sunrise. This is the kind of day where the sound team is totally ignored because everyone is scrambling to ready the set-ups for camera. D.P. would shout, "We're just going to shoot it!", "If you're not lighting this scene, clear the set!" and one was even, "I'm rolling now!" with no A.D. call, no slate, and no heads up of any kind. It was a battle to be out of the way and prepared at the same time. And we won. It all sounds golden. I did say to the mixer, "Man, what's the deal with this schedule? We're not fighting a war, we're making art!" He laughed and laughed.

You're cracking me up. Man, I love this forum. Thanks for so many quick replies. I really like Simon's idea of planting some mikes from different perspectives that can be layered. I'm getting excited to hear how good the gunfire I record can sound. I don't have any pressure to get it, I'm not expecting the gunfire to be used, this is mostly satisfying a curiosity and going for a challenge. Hey Frank, you don't by chance have a Heil PR-30 for rent? It looks pretty dope from the internet, but I can't drop $250 for it at the moment.

You're right Dan, two clean singles would have been the ultimate. Then I control the overlap and how much level. I guess I would have preferred either consistency or more alternate takes to try swapping audio with takes the picture editor chose. What I got from picture lock was one recording of a loud and clear Gourley stepping over another recording of a more distant, more reverberant Digger with louder roomtone. Those were my two choices. What had to be smoothed was the transition of one louder background to a quieter one. The editor also cut to Gourley between his two lines, so his voice changes in a single outburst. I did try letting the wide shot audio play out while the picture cut to Gourley's CU, but the cadence and intensity of his speech was too different. Besides, the audiovisual effect was a bit strange to me, like a nearby person with a far away voice. I can't remember exactly now what I did. I think I simply crossfaded to the CU sooner than the picture cut so Gourley would sound normal. Prefade isos would have been awesome. This particular project was shot single system, with an ME66 plugged into a Canon XL1. Yikes. The boom op was a film school student who had done sound on a couple of projects, and was thus deemed the most experienced among the crew of 5 that went to Scotland last summer. I'm sure the only mixing involved was an occasional check of the XL1's meters. It was one mike, one input, and not even the second channel as OL safety. They rushed through the shots, too, so I didn't really have outtakes to go to. I guess what I wanted most was a CU of Digger to go with the CU of Gourley. Some clean wild takes might have been terrific, if the performances matched. That's the other thing. The cast was all non-actors. My wife (did theater for 9 years) thinks 'non-actor' is a nonsense word. She may be right. From an editorial point of view, the performances weren't as similar as I'd like from one shot to the other, when I'm trying to convincingly glue together dialogue that's supposed to happen in one space and time. I think the strategy of get clean or choose a perspective will work out fine. It could be awesome to arrange a regular line of communication between you and the post sound people, if they've already signed on. I've only ever dreamed about that. I have done post on a few short narratives that I did production sound on. Best production sound I ever worked with! Haha.

Look at his concentration! I feel like that sometimes...

Who knows about production sound and firearms? I just got out of a pre-production meeting for an upcoming short that will have an automatic rifle firing blanks on Day 5. My immediate concern was, "Is there going to be someone who knows weapons to supervise this?" Thankfully, the answer is yes. I spoke with him tonight. He knows guns but was curious about sound. I am a gun virgin, really. I shot a bee bee rifle when I was six years old in the Indian Guides in 1980, but somehow haven't handled or been around firearms since. I'm curious about keeping microphones safe from intense dB SPL. We will be using a Senn. 416, and the ME 2 lavs that come with our two wireless kits. The ammunition to be fired is 9 mm YAS rounds. We've already addressed doing clean dialogue with pantomime gun-firing. I also want to record the sound of this thing going off. Going to do some homework about it, but Day 5 will be next Wednesday, and I thought I'd fish for some sagely advise in the meantime. John E.

INT. PIGEON SOCIETY - DAY Digger: If I see the hawk I'm gonna shoot the bloody thing-- Gourley: You cannae shoot a bird. It's a bird like any other bird! The only coverage of Digger was in a wide shot. Gourley's interruption happens in two angles: the same wide shot and in his own close-up. It took a lot of trial and error before I finally found the perfect inaudible cut that successfully blended the two. This happened to me in March. I groaned in my dark room of solitude. I didn't see a point in bringing it up to the production mixer who did his work way back last summer in Scotland. I fixed it in post well enough this time, but I was working with no options. When I'm on set, I often think about providing options for post. I'm with RVD on this one. Do what they want, but ask for the chance to do clean takes, or ask for wild takes. Having no alternatives in post can sometimes suck. Oh, I also believe in focusing the sound to match the perspective of the camera. I rarely mike an off-camera actor. However, I can also tell you that the "cocktail party effect" actually works, too. Last year, I was recording two groups of people shouting taunts back and forth in a showdown of gangs, toe to toe. I was at least 75 feet of XLR cable away form the action, and told my boom op to stay with the handheld camera's POV as it darted from one character to another. I couldn't understand a thing in my headphones during the takes. Nothing but a mash of yelling. Later, that night, I was anxious to hear how it sounded with picture, and I spent some time syncing up our dailies from the P2 files. Those of us on the crew who were sleeping at base camp that night got to witness our own amazing ability to read lips as every actor in frame was understandable among the gobble-dee-gook of voices. Overlaps make editing harder, but they can also do well for the performance. So much of what makes movies work hinges on believable performances. I don't want an actor preoccupied with a technical concern. Yeah, the track is usable if there's overlap... as long as there's no cutting involved! Otherwise it's tricky, and sometimes the results are just not the best they could be.

I'm interested to hear how to quote prices too. Earlier this year I was hired to do post sound on five different student projects. There was no negotiation, just take it or leave it. My concern became realistically guessing how much time it would take from spotting session to final mix. The project I spent the most time on was a 28 minute short, mostly dialogue driven, for $400. I was hired to do the FX build, and I guessed I would need about 5 six hour days. Here's what you can learn from my experience. The dialogue had been done by a friend who "knows sound." What I got from the OMF was one stereo region spanning the whole timeline, within which had way too short fades and completely silent gaps between dialogue. I had to insist on getting his original Final Cut project from before his friend worked on it. I was happy to work from scratch but the director really liked some of the reverb and filtering the other guy did in certain scenes. What a mess. I spent closer to 18 ten hour days on the whole thing. He had no more money to offer, but I felt committed to the movie. Try to break it down into how long you think you'll need for organizing, splitting, cleaning, FX, Foley, ADR, and the mix. I would want a good four weeks for a 12 minute thesis. I know how weird problems can really set you back. Then, how much is your time worth? You know once you get started you're not going to want to stop. All my sound design work has been on student films, though. Students don't spend more than half a grand on post sound in my experience. It's not a good business. Hey, one dude paid me $150 for five hours of work on a 30 second spec commercial, though!

I try to concentrate straight-faced as if I was a surgeon and the actor's life depends on. I sympathize, though. Last week I was booming a young man as dinner rolls were tossed at his face in a series take. The A.D. started just pummeling this kid, and eventually one hit him square in the face. The roll fell apart and I did too. I started the laugh that the whole crew followed in. John, you just went way up on the cool meter for me. The Jerk is one of my favorite comedies ever. I hope I'll be able to contain my 'I'm not worthy' feeling if I see you again in your shop!

I've been paid through PayPal twice. Seemed like a good idea twice. The payers both said they could send the money instantly as soon as I give them the email on my PayPal account. Both times were about three days late. Once wasn't even for the full amount because the payer realized he didn't have enough in his PayPal account and had to go through the slow deposit process. I grumbled over it inside because I could have followed him to his house after wrap for a check in hand (he had forgotten to bring his checkbook on the last day). I could have walked into one of my bank's branches the next day and walked away with a shiny new balance. Instead, I waited for the PayPal money to show up, and then ordered a withdrawal by direct deposit into my checking account, which took three more days to authorize. I then, of course, had to wait for the remainder of the payment to show up. I don't like PayPal now. It took too long to transfer funds, and it seemed so easy I think the payers got lax. I'll use it for spending. I don't want to use it to collect anymore, if I have a choice.

I just became romantically involved with RoboPole. The mixer on my second to last job had one. I had handled one about a year ago on a UCLA thesis and at the time I just thought, "What a piece of junk." However, since then I have handled many booms from Gitzo, K-Tek, PSC, and I must say RoboPole is awesome. Easy to collapse and extend, there's only one knuckle. More comfortable in my hands because of the wider diameter. Totally silent. I tried shaking and swinging it but the cable inside is held by these rubber washers. There's not many parts really to rattle or get dirty. It does have a curious side out where there's a big rectangular hole in the side where the cable hangs free. I don't know, man. It's unusual, looks kind of retro, and I really dig it. John E.