This is the Production Mix cart I used on the Woody Allen San Francisco Film 2012. It was my first time recording a film on a computer. Boom Recorder v8, using a RME Fireface800 interface into a MacMini i7 with SSD boot drive and a 7200 Baracuda media drive.
Boom Recorder was stable and I had no serious issues. The recording and patchbay interface were very easy to use, clever and laid out logically. Playback is limited, but Take, the developer, is working on that. This is practical, efficient recording software that I can recommend.
The cart has a gigabit Ethernet switch, firewire 800 hub and USB-2 hub to allow flexible I/O. I used a thunderbolt adapter so I could Image/Backup the MacMini drives as needed. Connecting to another computer via the GBE provides very fast transfers as well.
On the Woody Allen film we delivered on Compact Flash cards, using a permanently mounted FW800 CF reader. We didn't mirror in real time, since the CF transfers are fast, about 1GB/Minute. Having used Nagras running NagraMaster and changing with every camera roll for many years, this was, of course, very much easier.
The front end is the same as I have been using for many years. Modified Neve 5422 console with custom direct outs built by Stephen Balliet of Reflection Audio, feeding Waves L2 hardware maximizers for ADC and the fantastic limiters.
AES out to an RME ADI-4DD to convert AES digital to Toslink to feed the FF800.
I use a studio Rosendahl Nanosyncs word clock to feed everything needing WC. And a Denecke GR-1 to feed TimeCode to one of the channels of Boom Recorder, which embeds the TC in the metadata of the BWF perfectly. On the show we used a sample rate of 48048, being fed by the word clock. Time Code was 30 FPS. This was all coordinated with post WAY before production started.
Denecke T-1 and T-2 transmitters for wireless monitoring.
This is the first show I have not used my Audio Ltd. radios for the wireless booms. These have been fantastic, but illegal in the US (780mHz). The quad box is up for sale and would be great for the UK and Asia.
Anticipating having to sell my AL radios, a few years ago I did comparative tests of Lectros, AL and Shure UHF-R radios comparing DPA 4060 lavs against a hard wire. Surprisingly, the Shure radios were essentially equal to the AL and these were closer to a hard wire than the Lectros, which did not have the same low level detail or overall fidelity. The Shure receivers are not that practical for a portable cart, being only rack mount AC and having internal fans that needed to be addressed! But they sound VERY good and have good RF capability. They are a good value as well. I use an ethernet switch to connect the receivers together for integrated RF analysis and auto-setup. Now that I have a computer on the cart, I have installed Wireless Workbench which will allow me to save Frequency stack presets for different locations. A Shure RF distro feeds all the receivers from a pair of active antennas.
The cart is AC only, usually not a problem. But I have a Honda EU2000 when needed. FYI...this is very clean power and pretty quiet. 100 feet away and behind something usually does it most of the time. The cart uses a Cyberpower PR1500LCDRT2U pure sine wave power conditioner and UPS.
All this new stuff added some weight to the cart and I had to make some mods for the additional equipment. I do my own design and AutoCad work. My son Gustavo Stoll did the latest TIG welding. Most of the other fab work was done in my shop. The extensive wiring work was done this time by Dalton Patterson, including all RF, audio and power. We do some custom design/fab work for others when needed as well.
Probably due mostly to the playback DACs in the Fireface800, the overall sound quality at the cart was improved over what it was using the Fostex DV824, which had served me well since THE KITE RUNNER in 2006. Input and output sound are essentially identical, at least in mono :-)
This is basicly a small studio on wheels and obviously won't work when AC is not available or having to go up a mountain path very far. The whole top section of the cart hinges down so I can get it in my Eurovan and makes for a compact package.
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