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Magic Bus II - Music Cart


Jeff Wexler

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Here are some pictures of the new Music Cart I have built for the next Cameron Crowe movie. Named "Magic Bus II" since the first cart I built for Cameron was sometimes referred to as Magic Bus. As you know, Cameron uses music all day long --- he actually directs with music so his music cart plays a major role during our shooting day.

 

This one uses a TeachLogic PA speaker, similar in design to the typical Anchor portable (DC powered) speaker. The TeachLogic PA-800 has what I feel to be a much better sound, uses a Nickel Metal Hydride battery (much lighter than SLA), and is very well built. It also has various accessory modules that can be installed: a CD player (with both a USB and SD card slot since almost no one plays CDs anymore), a wireless RF receiver module and a RF transmitter module (to link the main speaker wirelessly to a second slave speaker). I got the wireless receiver module that works with a really nice wireless handheld microphone. This provides a really quick portable Voice of God setup if needed in addition to music playback on the set.

 

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I have to give thanks to Kevin Sorensen who originally found the plastic pegboard tiles at Home Depot that I used for the shelves. I had used them before, badly, on my other lightweight (failed) cart based on Kevin's (successful) design. This time I re-inforced the tiles a lot better and IU think it's going to work out fine.

 

The cart is self-contained DC and AC powered, a MacBook Pro is used (sits on the top shelf) as the source and is plugged into the Focusrite USB interface. The interface provides for music to stream from the USB port on the laptop to the inputs on the amplified speaker. I chose the Focusrite because it has a very large knob for the main output level and a headphone output (with separate level control).

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It was in Hawaii when I began to use iSkin silicone keyboard protectors. It kept the sand, salt spray, dust and dirt out and my MacBook Pro living longer. 

http://www.iskin.com/products/macbook/

 

An umbrella on that cart will help too, especially in Hawaii. 

I've been using the Sport Brella for my main and support carts. http://sport-brella.com/sport-brella-xl

 

They now sell a chair with a nice little umbrella too - I can just see you in it, Jeff. http://sport-brella.com/chairs/super-brella-chair

 

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Buy them at Amazon, much cheaper. Looking good.

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We do play music during takes, sometimes even in the spaces within dialog --- it's a little tricky but we've made it work for the last 5 movies. For those who think we should go with silent earpieces, this is not an option for a variety of reasons. I will say that the soundtrack for the most part has not suffered from this practice, the only downside has been additional work for sound editorial in terms of Foley and ambiences --- there is no useable "room tone" or effects when there is music playing while the actors are not talking. It's a small price to pay for the amazing effectiveness of Cameron's use of music on the set.

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  • 2 months later...

Nice cart Jeff! I just was wondering how you affixed your Focusrite Scarlet? Did you just drill the screws into the side of it? :o

 

- Justin

 

P.S. Your signature is awesome, I love that quote from Ray Charles! 8)

Right, I drilled some holes in the really solid aluminum case (looked inside first to make sure I wouldn't hit any components inside) then tapped them and made angle bracket to hold it in place.

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