Metacorder in fast paced Location Shoot?...

[Edwardo Santiago]

Hello,

Yesterday I had my first day on the job working with Metacorder on a fast paced second unit TV gig. A Sound Devices 744T handles Master Timecode, Word Clock for a Yamaha 01V96 v2, & backup recording. A Lacie Rugged 500GB HD is the "Primary Record Drive" for Metacorder, while a Sound Devices XL-DVDRAM is selected as "Background Mirror". A second XL-DVDRAM is connected to the 744T.

My explanation/questions:

1. While on a quick location move that requires me to strap into a truck I'd like to shut down the cart, but leave my MacBook in sleep mode so I can start back up quickly with a recognized DVD Ram "Background Mirror" available. Is this Possible?

2. Does the "Background Mirror" function in Metacorder automatically start the Mirroring process When I stop recording each take (Pressing "Standby")?...

3. ...Or do I have to initialize the Mirror process manually between takes by pressing "Start Folder Mirror" in the Background Mirror Section?

I'm hoping to hand off discs quickly for film breaks and wrap. There's usually no time for people to wait on sound for film breaks, and nobody wants to wait thirty plus minutes for the sound reports after wrap is called.

Thank you,

E. Santiago

[Philip Perkins]

Hello,

Yesterday I had my first day on the job working with Metacorder on a fast paced second unit TV gig. A Sound Devices 744T handles Master Timecode, Word Clock for a Yamaha 01V96 v2, & backup recording. A Lacie Rugged 500GB HD is the "Primary Record Drive" for Metacorder, while a Sound Devices XL-DVDRAM is selected as "Background Mirror". A second XL-DVDRAM is connected to the 744T.

My explanation/questions:

1. While on a quick location move that requires me to strap into a truck I'd like to shut down the cart, but leave my MacBook in sleep mode so I can start back up quickly with a recognized DVD Ram "Background Mirror" available. Is this Possible?

2. Does the "Background Mirror" function in Metacorder automatically start the Mirroring process When I stop recording each take (Pressing "Standby")?...

3. ...Or do I have to initialize the Mirror process manually between takes by pressing "Start Folder Mirror" in the Background Mirror Section?

I'm hoping to hand off discs quickly for film breaks and wrap. There's usually no time for people to wait on sound for film breaks, and nobody wants to wait thirty plus minutes for the sound reports after wrap is called.

Thank you,

E. Santiago

I've done a lot of fast paced etc w/Metacorder, but my setup is different from yours.

1: I don't put the computer to sleep.  I either shut it down or leave it on.  Sleeping seems to occasionally cause issues between MC and the Traveler, requiring a reboot.  If you need to close the lid slip a piece of foam between the halves so the computer doesn't sleep.  I should say that I haven't had so many issues w/ this in more recent revs.  If your system is lean and mean the reboot doesn't take that long.

2-3: I haven't used the MC mirror function except to fool with it in the shop.  I have the XLDVDRAM hooked up to the Sound Devices recorder (making a DVDRAM for quick handoff of a dailies mix) and roll the MC system to an external "pocket" hard disk.  On longer jobs (more than a day) I sell the prod co the pocket drive w/ the isos--usually they see that that is much cheaper than my time burning DVDs.  On a short job I do the DVDs, and sometimes mail or fedex them to editorial if they don't want to wait.

Eduardo--sorry I didn't call you back--I was shooting run-n-gun all day.....

Philip Perkins

[Edwardo Santiago]

Phil,

I can't thank you enough for the time you took to reply to this thread. I'm very grateful. I'm so new to MC that I'll just have to learn as I go, and put the advice I get from you and other users to practice in the process. I think the 744T Dailies disc is the best option until I get comfortable with MC.

Which Pocket Drive do you use for MC hand Off? I thought it would be good for me to use one as a secondary record drive along with my primary and DVD ram Mirror.

[graham]

I use metric halo gear and boomrecorder. Putting the computer to sleep also causes issues with this. One thing I do if down for a little bit, is to dim the screen 100% and hopefully prolong the MacBooks life

[Edwardo Santiago]

Graham,

That's a great idea. I was thinking about how to deal with the screen and just wasn't sure what the best option was. For normal use I have a screen saver run @ 15 minutes, bur I changed it to 30 for MC. Tuesday was hectic and the screen saver never went on. Today I set the screen saver to never turn on and we had a very calm, normal paced day. MC ran great & I turned in discs quickly for film break and wrap. But I will change my screen settings for future use. My MacBook is over four years old and I was lucky enough to have it die last year a week before Apple Care ended. It now has a new logic board and HD (7200 rpm) and I payed $0.00. Like you, I'd like this MacBook to last a lot longer.

Thanks for the posts guys, and have fun making movies,

[Philip Perkins]

Graham,

That's a great idea. I was thinking about how to deal with the screen and just wasn't sure what the best option was. For normal use I have a screen saver run @ 15 minutes, bur I changed it to 30 for MC. Tuesday was hectic and the screen saver never went on. Today I set the screen saver to never turn on and we had a very calm, normal paced day. MC ran great & I turned in discs quickly for film break and wrap. But I will change my screen settings for future use. My MacBook is over four years old and I was lucky enough to have it die last year a week before Apple Care ended. It now has a new logic board and HD (7200 rpm) and I payed $0.00. Like you, I'd like this MacBook to last a lot longer.

Thanks for the posts guys, and have fun making movies,

I'd advise you to turn the screensaver to "never".  It will bite your ass one day.

The Mac Book should hold up, but you will eventually need backup.  I still do a lot of small track-width (8 and under) recording w/ a G4 Powerbook.  Lean and mean, works great, and it if is damaged or stolen....no great loss.  RE pocket drives, Firelite, Iomega, have worked well for me, bus powered.  For only 8 tracks or so they don't have to be ultra fast.

Philip Perkins

[Edwardo Santiago]

Thanks guys,

The system looks promising so far. I can now finish a thread I started four months ago when I first put it together. I hadn't routed the mLAN Network or finalized the wiring when I got called to be utility and boom on a couple shows lasting 4 months. I was hoping to have time to figure it all out, but like almost everything in this business, time got crunched and figuring out came at the last minute. Hope one day we can meet and talk shop.

Have fun today,

[Edwardo Santiago]

Ok, I've figured out the Mirror function of Metacorder. Here are some notes on how to make it work perfectly for handing off full Metacorder disks in seconds at film break and wrap:

If you have a DVD Ram Drive plugged into your system:

1. Load a new DVD Ram into the drive. After 20-30 seconds a warning (With Red Stop Sign) will pop up saying, "Disk Insertion; The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer". Select "Initialize" and Disk Utility will open.

2. When Disk Utility opens select your DVD-RAM drive, then "Erase" (Top Center). You'll notice 2 selections; "Volume Format:" (With a pulldown menu to it's right) & "Name:" (With a text window to it's right). Select "MS-DOS" at the bottom of the pull down window to the right of "Volume Format:", then name it whatever your sound roll will be, to the right of "Name" (You have limited characters, so make it brief).

3. Select "Erase..." at the bottom right corner of the Disk Utility window. Then "Erase" again in the pop up window that appears. After a short while You'll notice that a new disk appears on the left just below your DVD-RAM drive in the Disk Utility directory containing the name of your sound roll. 

4. AFTER you Format & name your disk THEN launch Metacorder (Metacorder will not recognize the disk unless you launch Metacorder after the disk has been formatted and named).

5. Once Metacorder is launched select the "Mirror" Menu (Top Right). In the Mirror Menu you can now select your newly formatted DVD-RAM disk in the pull down menu under "Background Mirror" (Top Left of Mirror Menu).

Now's where the fun starts...

6. Now you can stripe & tone, Record your intro/tone, or what ever you say on your sound roll at the beginning a new record disk. After your first recording into Metacorder go back to the "Mirror" menu and select "Start Folder Mirror" to the right of the pull down menu where you selected your newly formatted DVD-RAM (Top Right of Mirror Menu).

You'll instantly notice the "Mirror Idle." message on the bottom left of the "Mirror" Menu change into a message saying "Copying File...". This starts the triggering function for your mirror disk. From this point on your mirror disk will automatically start the copying process every time you press "Standby" or "False Start" while recording.

I learned that you can have your mirror disk open on the desktop at all times by selecting "GOTO FOLDER" at the bottom left of the "SndRoll" Menu, then navigating to your DVD-RAM disk and selecting the sound roll folder. This allows you to constantly keep track of what you record to your mirror disk while mixing your best sound roll ever. This also helps to change scene & take names in your mirror disk on the fly, just incase your script supervisor changes their mind on what to call the take while "ROLL SOUND" is screamed at you (but that rarely happens right?!!!)

Well, I'm excited about the features of Metacorder and I'm hoping to optimize my setup to avoid any unforeseen glitches in the software/hardware combo. But for now I'm very pleased and very glad I invested in this crazy software. As camera op Phil Pfeiffer says, "It's Mind Blowing!!!"

Have fun making movies.

E. Santiago

[Edwardo Santiago]

I forgot to mention that if you happen to quit Metacorder while shooting (Location moves, Lunch, by mistake {some of us}, etc.), you will have to re-start the mirror function by selecting "Start Folder Mirror" in the "Mirror" Menu after your next record cycle. This will re-initiate the automatic copying process when pressing "Standby" or "False Start".

Yummy!

E. Santiago

[davidm]

Hi Edwardo,

I recommend that you use the Mirror function in Metacorder only when you have finished with any scene / take / notes metadata editing. I transfer batches of files using Mirror when I finish a scene or have some downtime. Admittedly, I use hard drives and CF cards which are a lot faster than DVDRAM.

Metacorder like Fostex and Sound Devices recorders have common file names and scene/take metadata. Editing the file names on the DVDRAM media in Finder does not change the metadata of those files.

It's the metadata that is used by Avid or FCP for file management, not the file names.

Metacorder has slipped behind the competition with respect to true Mirror file Metadata updating. Otherwise, Metacorder is a very effective system.

David Madigan

Auckland

NZ

[Edwardo Santiago]

David,

Thank you for the post. I'll have to be careful then. Well, there's always some thing new to learn. In this case I'd either have to be very good about setting scene/take names properly before recording/mirroring, or take time in between setups after recording to make any changes to files before copying (just so I don't have to wait for a long copy process at the end of a sound roll). A little more juggling on set, but this is show business. It's still better than what I used to do. I still think this software is amazing.

Thank you,

E. Santiago