mikewest Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 If you feed production audio to the Alexa there is always a chance it will be used despite any quality shortcomings. If you feed a guide track, then your sound rushes ex-hard drive or whatever will support your reputation! My thoughts mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 That's what we need! A little broad spectrum noise generator which will lay down a half-second of noise every 5 seconds, just enough to not be annoying in dailies for a "scratch track", but rendering the track unusable beyond dailies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bryant Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 I'm shooting with the Alexa in Germany right now so checking some posts here. What's going to be the audiophile gripe about Alexa audio? It's a line level at 24 bit 48khz right? Are some analogue to digital converters better than others?(can't think of what else the 744T would be doing differently as a recorder, would seem to me that there are more important things affecting audio in the chain...? Clients are loving the audio and love it when they can have usable audio from the camera... I do back up to a 744T since version 3 on the Alexa is still beta so can't take chances Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Matt, I don't have an audiophile gripe about the Alexa, or about a lot of cameras. My gripe is the perceived diminishing need for a professional sound person if the camera is seen as a sound recording device. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bryant Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 My feeling/experience is that if a client is spending the money on an Alexa, they're not going to want to trust a camera operator or a PA being in charge of the sound since most understand that audio involves more than pressing record on a camera. Think it's the assistant editors who'd be the most miffed about audio into camera since there's no need to spend the time and money to sync... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Toline Posted March 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Sorry I disagree. A professional sound mixer is still required to get the best quality sound regardless of where it ends up being stored. I don't see how a camera op or pa would be in charge of the sound. The Alexa has no external audio controls so there are no knobs to be bumped or taped down. I spent a couple of hours at the S. Florida Arri/CSC rental house yesterday going over the Alexa for an upcoming shoot. I ran various audio tests and the playback from the SxS cards on an editing system with good monitor speakers was superb. The obvious limitation is that it's only two tracks but for those jobs where two is one to many or when you send a mix to the camera and have the iso's on your multi track recorder the Alexa is head & shoulders above pretty much any other camera else audio wise. Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bryant Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Sorry I disagree. A professional sound mixer is still required to get the best quality sound regardless of where it ends up being stored. I don't see how a camera op or pa would be in charge of the sound. Eric I'm guessing this in regard to RP... but just to play devils advocate, if there's just one person on camera one could wire up talent with a lectrosonic wireless transmitter and send audio via a 411 with a 3 pin xlr-female to 5 pin xlr-male cable...? there are unfortunately people who just want to hear what people are saying on camera and don't care if it sounds good or not, even if the bad sound is making their highres footage seem a bit lame Either way, using a lav with the Alexa is a bit "developmentally challenged", in my opinion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Toline Posted March 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 I'm guessing this in regard to RP... but just to play devils advocate, if there's just one person on camera one could wire up talent with a lectrosonic wireless transmitter and send audio via a 411 with a 3 pin xlr-female to 5 pin xlr-male cable...? there are unfortunately people who just want to hear what people are saying on camera and don't care if it sounds good or not, even if the bad sound is making their highres footage seem a bit lame Either way, using a lav with the Alexa is a bit "developmentally challenged", in my opinion Well we both know that there are times when a lav is your only option. OTOH I just got booked on a 2 day shoot with two Betacams. Easy sitdown basic talking head Q&A, but betacam? I can't remember the last betacam job I did. It's not digbeta so tone alignment is "0" out and set "0" in. Oh fun! Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Bryant Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Well we both know that there are times when a lav is your only option. OTOH I just got booked on a 2 day shoot with two Betacams. Easy sitdown basic talking head Q&A, but betacam? I can't remember the last betacam job I did. It's not digbeta so tone alignment is "0" out and set "0" in. Oh fun! Eric I remember Home and Garden Network requesting Betacam a few years ago. Recently I've been asked to run sound into a Canon 814 XL-S, there's still stock with sound around, or so I'm assured but I'll have to see if everything still works though. Definitely going to be recording a clean back up... as someone too young to remember 8mm, this seems like a cool experiment but a bit off topic for this thread. Working with the Alexa is great though, hoping the RED dies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Toline Posted March 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Based on purchase or rental costs I think the RED will be around for a long time. Rental for an Alexa is $1500/day and purchase is $80,000. All with out glass. Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 Eric, You're preaching to the choir here. We all know "garbage in, garbage out". But there are lots of "producers" out there who simply don't know the difference. The more the consumer gets used to poor quality sound, the more the producers will accept it as "good enough". I am regularly shocked at some of the sound I hear on television. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 " That's what we need! " I'm with my close personal friend on this. Most folks spending the $$ for an Alexia will probably know what they are doing, and be professionals; they will typically have full crews, pro's doing sound on these shoots. " It's a line level at 24 bit 48khz right? Are some analogue to digital converters better than others? " YES, and YES!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Steigerwald Posted March 2, 2011 Report Share Posted March 2, 2011 The more the consumer gets used to poor quality sound, the more the producers will accept it as "good enough". Sad to say it's following in the trend of the music world. A vocal gets tracked through a $5000 Neumann with a $4000 preamp, mixed on a million dollar console through ultra reference speakers in a purpose built, tuned room and sent off to gods like Bob Ludwig to have it mastered... All so some kid can listen to it as a lossy MP3 on an ipod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toy Robot Posted May 3, 2013 Report Share Posted May 3, 2013 Finally got around to making my own Arri Alexa snake extension. I chose to terminate dual XLRF since one of my snakes does not have the Neutrick OSC8M connector like on my Remote Audio cables, and frankly I didn't have one to build the cable with anyway! This extension is now usable with any snake / breakaway. I'm going to place another Markertek order soon and purchase a few of the OSC8 connectors and make another Alexa cable with the OSC8F connector at some point just for kicks. No such thing as too many cables in our world, is there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo Posted May 5, 2013 Report Share Posted May 5, 2013 Good looking cable build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VASI Posted May 7, 2013 Report Share Posted May 7, 2013 Well done Eric! I like it! You can create and something like this for complete solution. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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