Technical Reference
262 topics in this forum
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- 20 replies
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Hello, I've been given some dailies and I see the audio has been recorded at a sample rate of 44,100/32 bit. Now I thought the minimum one should record audio is at 48,000 khz. Thought this was industry standard? With it being recorded at 44,100, is that bad? How big of a quality difference are we looking at vs 48,000? Does the fact that it was recorded at 32bit, make the 44,100 superior to a 48,000 recorded at 16 or 24 bits? Thank you
Last reply by afewmoreyears, -
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Tri-Level Sync in a Bi-Level World by Dave Pincek, Vice President of Product Development The advent of HDTV has brought a number of new concepts and technologies with it. One of the concepts put into practice is tri-level sync. Tri-level sync solves some traditional problems found with bi-level sync. Although tri-level sync is preferable with the new television system, we still find ourselves interfacing to systems capable of handling only bi-level sync. Therefore, the need exists to convert from tri-level to bi-level sync on occasion. This Tech Corner will acquaint the reader with the new tri-level sync format and its relationship to bi-level sync. Bi-Level Sync…
Last reply by VASI, -
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- 68 replies
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OK everyone. I'm off work and I have nothing to do but to read this board. And there's an epidemic of "What frequencies to use in......." -threads so I figured; why not make a Google Document Spreadsheet that ilsts all of these "OK" frequencies to use in different countries? We are legion on here, from all over the world so acquiring the info from locals wouldn't be that hard. Let's give it a try at least. This is the link for it. I contributed with Sweden. https://docs.google.com/a/tjockishjartafilm.se/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgnGQulSs_YrdFAwZGZ2LWVjRkRuY0owOEtHcHZqclE#gid=0 Anyone can edit or add information. You don't need a google account to edit If…
Last reply by ALVIN, -
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- 46 replies
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Hey all, I'm curious what mixdown levels most (post-production) sound mixers use with films, particularly short films. I vaguely remember from college that our outputs should be peaking around -10 or -12dBFS at the most. However I think this must vary a lot depending on the application of the film and more confusion is added on what is an acceptable loudness, since peaks do not define loudness. Furthermore I suspect these levels would be inclined differently for web purposes. I've done a few sound mixes in the past that clients were happy with, following the above rule, however recently I've received a request to basically get the mixes peaking as loud as poss…
Last reply by ccsnd, -
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Just had a recent experience that I thought others would find useful. I wrote about it on my blog, found here, but the text is below. WAV Goodbye To File Corruption They say that power corrupts. I had never really given that much thought until my 788T froze on me a few days ago. At the end of a 1 hour, 8 minute clip, my unit ceased to function. Running firmware v3.0, I incurred the fatal(Please power cycle your unit) error. I pressed the power button and it immediately blanked out. I didn't have to remove external power or anything, which I found odd from previous lockups. I turned the unit back on and everything worked like normal. While doing my sound repor…
Last reply by Brian, -
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- 39 replies
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Hello everyone, I've looked through the site and have found some very good info in regards to the setups used by many of you. I've looked at the Meon and PSC offerings and think the pricing is very high for what I need. From what I have gathered so far, I am looking for a 13.8v/10a regulated power supply, to float over a fully charged "xxmAhr" battery, and then out to some sort of 4-pin distro box and distribution method to get it to all the parts. My question is what are the favorite Power Supply's in use? Favorite batteries? And in regards to distribution boxes, what is necessary for this? Is it straight copper to copper for wiring, or do I need fuses, diodes, etc, …
Last reply by mikewest, -
- 2 followers
- 24 replies
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Hi all, Did some search and couldn t come up with any suitable answer. Video monitoring creates a delay between sound and image that makes judging proper lipsync on music video challenging when looking at monitor. I ve used simple technique to guesstimate delay with a slate listening to my erx ifb but i d like to have a way to have a proper time measurement? Filming fs700 hdmi to hdmi to sony monitor guesstimate gives me around 80ms. Any ideas? Cheers!
Last reply by Philip Perkins, -
- 1 follower
- 39 replies
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Hi All Wanting to find out if anyone has had a try at making their own UHF helical antennas. Thanks
Last reply by wolfvid, -
- 43 replies
- 10.8k views
Marc Wielage has kindly provided a .pdf of the telecine specifications and capabilities he presented at our union seminar awhile ago. There may be some updating required but for the meantime this is a valuable and instructive document regarding our evolving workflow. Regards, Jeff Wexler
Last reply by Jeff Wexler, -
- 4 followers
- 57 replies
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A quasi continuation from my other recent posts. The hits just keep coming; let's talk levels for a moment. I've gone through the audio for the first couple days and the levels are pretty low around -42 to -30db and occasionally peaking around -24db. This is occurring for both the boom and lavs. From my understanding the levels should be around -12db? I'm not just talking about Wide shots where the boom can't be near the actors either, the same thing is happening in Mediums and O/S, and it's not framed in some artistic way, the players heads are near the top of the frame, so the boom mic if placed properly should be giving a pretty strong signal and I imagine the l…
Last reply by Glen Trew, -
- 1 follower
- 14 replies
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Files weren't copied off the Zoom H6 and the owner had already managed to format the unit. Fortunately as it turns out the owner's not too tech savvy so he used disk utility to format the 8gb lexar (premium series) SD card, and hadn't recorded anything on it. I have the card, I did some recovery and managed to recover the Wav files. Problem is, the files are broken. I watched and read through mutliple tutorials and I couldn't manage to un-corrupt the files but I was left with the impression that it could be done. I would love to know definitely if these files are 100% recoverable, then I'd know how to proceed with the client. I uploaded th…
Last reply by cmgoodin, -
- 3 followers
- 23 replies
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CAT-5e cable for portable applications: (pre-chewed but not inhaled: researched but I have only a little reliable field feedback) To distribute SD video and audio for Video assist purposes this paper is much too complicated but CAT5 is good enough. Quality is secondary to convenience and cost. Go to Pac Radio and get what they have on the floor. You do the sales people a favor, they will make their quotas and get their commissions, forget all this research stuff. Anyway read on you geeks: Cat-5 solutions are for analog component video and audio signals through cheaper lighter weight Cat-5 cables were the best quality is not so important. Cat 5 was originally mad…
Last reply by studiomprd, -
- 1 follower
- 40 replies
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Greetings all: I've done way too much work with the Canon DSLRs lately. I'm certainly glad to be busy, but I'm getting a little weary of the endless technical issues. Here's the latest: Every shoot I've done with the cameras since the firmware upgrade last spring have synced just fine. No issues that I've ever been called on. When possible, I send at least one camera a reference audio feed, but I don't go to extreme lengths to do it. Every single shoot I've used 29.97ND or 23.976 TC. Every online reference just says 29.97. A client is experimenting with pulling actual time of day timecode from the cameras files, something to do with the Magic La…
Last reply by Actualsizeaudio, -
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- 30 replies
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I have considered getting 1 Lav for a noisy location with a presenter direct to camera where the lav can be visible, perhaps a cardiod pattern lav but only if the presenter is directly addressing the camera without a sweeping arm gesture and head turn. After this week I am considering something else: I recently had to use the VT500 single lav in a supermarket using Lectro 411 unit. Background ambience faded way to the background much more so than many other lavs I've used. And later that day, two separate provided lav models on 2 talent on-camera together using Lectro 411 units. -A white Voice Technologies VT500 -Lav Mic which was for a broadcast TV talkshow segm…
Last reply by Constantin, -
- 2 followers
- 34 replies
- 8.7k views
Hi all, Just curious what typical delay do you setup between boom and lav to avoid phasing. My lectro system creates a 3.6 ms so i delay my (cabled) boom channel +3.6ms on my nomad and pretty much leave it at that. What s your recipe do you play alot with it depending of the situation? Cheers!
Last reply by Arn, -
- 2 followers
- 30 replies
- 8.5k views
Hey all, I've edited this topic as I think people are getting confused and answering the wrong thing. I've gotten early into the preproduction of an upcoming film on which I will be sound recordist. It is a great opportunity to do whatever I can before those rushy production days. One thing I told them to do is wash the wardrobe. This is based on information I acquired here in posts about reducing lavalier clothing noise at jwsoundgroup. They asked me if there were any specifics so I decided to ask you guys directly. I wanted to know if anyone knew anything about the following: -Whether they can be safely washed several times in a row (without drying until t…
Last reply by James Louis, -
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- 17 replies
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Greetings to all I bought mini starq uad cables recently and went ahead soldering some mini stereo jacks to XLR cables. I also wanted to make a couple of Switchcraft Mini XLR cables to XLR M and XLR F but the mini star quad cable's diameter was not permitting the cable to make it through the Mini XLR tight Switchcraft sleeve. I remember the first time I switched from a typical XLR cable ( not anything fancy ) to a Mogami mini star quad, I was amazed by what my ears were listening ! To make sure that it was not a psycho acoustic mind trick, I switched back to the previously used cable and then plugged the Mogami again and there it was once more ! The low end con…
Last reply by Jeff Babb, -
- 2 followers
- 32 replies
- 8.2k views
My 788t locked up during recording. I had to unplug it and take to battery out to shut it down and reboot. Has this happened to anyone else? Any clues why this happened? Thanks
Last reply by afewmoreyears, -
- 4 followers
- 55 replies
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...or at least we should know them, or learn them, as they keep coming up! for example, we keep getting asked about interference issues amongst transmi9tters and receivers: "Desensing or receiver desensitization: Desensing occurs when a transmitt er is operating in close, physical proximity to a receiver, even if that transmitter is not on or near the receiver’s operating frequency. Receiver desensitization occurs because receivers must maintain critical voltage and current levels throughout the frontend stages and a strong (i.e. physically close) transmitter can cause these levels to vary greatly. As these levels widely fluctuate, the receiver performance will…
Last reply by Wandering Ear, -
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- 11 replies
- 8.1k views
Looking for some advice so I can plug a mic to any line level only input; there are different settings out there.... Using 10kOhm & 100Ohm resistors seems to be one of the most common but I am not shure if it is the right choice for me Any help? Cheers!
Last reply by Rick Reineke, -
- 5 replies
- 7.2k views
Funny I just started diving into HAM stuff and for the first time realized that audio and radio were not technically on the same spectrum. I always remember those spectrum line images with light up to cosmic rays at one end and sound near the other, but after realizing radio freq's have a much longer wavelength but the frequency is technically higher really messed me up for awhile. Now that I understand that radio is a propagation in relation to light and not in an air medium in regards to frequency, what is the highest audio type frequency that can be reproduced? I know we can't hear above 20k, but what is the highest frequency a human can reproduce by moving air pre…
Last reply by atheisticmystic, -
- 2 followers
- 43 replies
- 6.9k views
I'm doing an indie short film recording on a 702T this week. Just like to find out what is the acceptable range of levels on the recorder. My range was between -30 to -4dBu but it turn out soft when playback on the MacBook pro speaker.
Last reply by Marc Wielage, -
- 25 replies
- 6.8k views
I've outgrown my powerstation and and cant justify a meon or powermax right now. I also dont have the time or skill to craft anything so elegant as Phil(beautiful distro box from another thread). Peter at Gotham recommended i take a look at the Super Powergate http://www.westmountainradio.com/SuperPWRgate.htm It provides power from either a power supply or battery(switches to battery if there is a kickout) or can be set up to float a battery. It also has a staged battery charging system built in The other item i found on their site are their Rigrunner series http://www.westmountainradio.com/RIGrunner.htm It seems these would be great to use for distro. each outle…
Last reply by wolfvid, -
- 5 replies
- 6.7k views
We all have been dealing with Time Code since it was introduced. Why is it still so expensive and hard to make work. Shouldn’t there be a single mass manufactured chip that has all Time Code functions built into it, that can be used in all devices? I had a Zaxcom Fusion that when a IFB 100 transmitter was plugged into the TC on the Fusion, it froze the whole machine. When the Red camera first came along it took several years to get the TC bugs worked out. (There still may be ongoing problems). On the show I’m on now, when the DIT’s Time Code Generator gets hot we loose code. He’s on the latest, greatest Codec system. I know that every one of you ha…
Last reply by mikewest, -
- 20 replies
- 6.5k views
Hi I'm looking to buy a new shotgun Recording mostly interviews and doco. I'm just tired of the 416 Actually im starting to hate it Any alternatives? Thanx
Last reply by ALVIN,
