Lancashire soundie

My Weltron 2001 (sold in the UK as Prinzsound).

I work on the World Rallycross Championship as soundman and this weekend had an interesting diversion.  The job is fairly simple, a robust SQN (no time to turnaround separate audio files etc) plugged into a camera for VT stuff, couple of radio mics, press conferences, supplying wireless mics for other crew, etc.  Nothing remarkable but there's a lot to do each weekend.

This weekend we had a fully electric rallycross car make it's debut on the track, doing passenger laps.  Our presenter was one of those passengers, so in addition to a bunch of Gopros and track cameras covering it, I volunteered to try to get some driver/passenger audio in the car.  Budgets are such that I don't include personal recorders in the kit, so I put the SQN in the back (only place with any room) of the car, strapped it to the roll cage, and used it to feed a Tascam DR-70D which is something I chucked into the kit as a general purpose recorder that people could use to grab audio of "whatever".  I did all this in the morning, knowing the car would be out a few hours later.  I had other stuff to do in the meantime.  The only place in the car I could put the SQN was on top of the car's 2 invertors, which I'm told are about 400V.  The Tascam was on top of the SQN, about the height of the SQN from the invertors.

Anyhow, the car duly made its way onto the circuit and I went over to mic the presenter (Lectro radio).  There was hardly any time, so I didn't mic the driver, I just checked everything was set, pushed record, locked the controls on the Tascam and let them go.  The team was getting a bit anxious for the car to get moving, as track time was limited.

When I checked later on, the DR-70D had recorded 4 2-second-long files of nothing.  One file had a quick burst of static.  That was it.  It wasn't a critical issue, nobody was bothered (it was a last minute decision to try to get something), and the Gopros picked up his shouting and screaming anyway (this thing is a rocketship).  It's a social media piece so not on the main broadcast.

The Tascam has never done that before, so I can only assume it was the car's electrical systems that caused it to fail.  I haven't tested it since the job, it's in a flight case now on it's way to South Africa so it'll be a few weeks before I can.

Anyone had a similar experience in an electric car?

Probably referring to reflections off hard surfaces, such as booming in a concrete room.

I've used an MKH60 for 20 years now, never been serviced, still in perfect working order.  Don't think I'll ever change it tbh, it's a workhorse.

I think I'd save the TXs for something else.  The G3 is perfectly good for it's price point (I have a couple for a particular job), but it isn't really suitable for a boom (IMO).  Keep them handy for the odd occasion you'll be asked to provide a radio stick mic or something.

But if you insist, you could power the mic with this - http://www.pinknoise-systems.co.uk/ambient-ump-ii-universal-mic-power-supply.html

On 10/17/2018 at 12:34 AM, Armin Siegwarth said:

While I love DPA 4061 sound wise I was disappointed when I had a crack in the insulation about 3cm long. The lav was only a few months old, and very little use but dpa refused to replace the cable. They could not understand how that could have happened.

Its like the insulation is split. Taped it and still use it since over a year now.  

I wouldn't have accepted such a refusal.  I would have insisted on a refund or a date in court.  The EU gives you good, solid protection against such behaviour - a microphone cable should last at least 5 years IMO.

Brilliant, thanks guys.  I'll bookmark that little box in case it comes up.  I'm just hedging bets at the moment, trying to get production interested in having 4 radio sticks instead of 2 [ugly] wired mics shared between 3-4 people.

AFAIK SDI can cover 16 channels, but my question is more about getting the audio into the camera/transmitter.

I need an answer for a question which may come up soon.  Possibly up to 4 presenters on handheld stick mics, feeding 2 radio receivers on the back of an RF camera on an OB.  Is it possible to feed those 4 channels into the camera (no, I don't know the camera model yet) and have them fed over the digilink via SDI, to the truck, so the audio mixer can control the levels independently?

Or I give the audio assistant following the RF cameraman a simple mixer and 4 channels of radio, and have him mix them and give the camera a mono feed.

Take some cables so you can plug whatever you bring into consumer devices, mainly a phone or a GoPro.  If you turn up with gear that terminates in XLRs you're going to have a hard time explaining it's for personal use only.

Make sure you have something like Filmic Pro on your phone.  FWIW I have never once been stopped in airport customs.  I once had to do a Carnet from Norway and the customs officials in the UK looked at me like I was an alien.

Interesting to know, I was considering buying one of these next year to replace an SQN on a job where my kit travels without me.  I guess I'll look elsewhere now.

> zaxnet worked on this devices some month ago with the previous owner

Are you certain he wasn't adding Zaxnet via another device, like an IFB200?

On 18/03/2018 at 9:16 AM, Rawturnip said:

What would I gain by upgrading?

Primarily, audio quality.  The SR receivers with smqv transmitters (for example) will sound much clearer with loud noises and the like.  They'll essentially sound as though you've got an invisible wire between you and the microphone.  They're very reliable too and as Jim has said, very, very well built.  My tx's live in the leather cases they came in (some people don't like those) and they're as fresh as the day I bought them.

As for range, you'll find they go further than the G3s by a long way.  I've shot diagonally across the length of a football pitch with the presenter's tx in his front pocket on several occasions and got a reliable, usable signal.  That's on 50mW with just the whips.  Obviously that was in an empty stadium, but you see my point.  Indoors they work extremely well, although I have had occasions inside reflective buildings where the receivers have got a bit confused.

The G3s are a very good system (I have two) but the Lectros are far superior.  If you're buying new, may I also suggest you look at Zaxcom's gear with internal recording and remote control of gain/frequency, and the new Audio ltd stuff which also does internal recording.

One more thing - the Lectros use digital technology, there's a 3.5ms delay in the audio chain.  You need to consider that when mixing with non-delayed sources like microphones.

I'm using this:

http://www.pinknoise-systems.co.uk/ambient-quick-pole-qp-480-boom-pole-105-350cm.html

It's very well built and has enough reach for pretty much anything.  This after sticking with a 2m Panamic that's still in superb condition after nearly 20 years of use.  I'd stay with Ambient, just get a shorter one.

The plastic tubes Rycote are selling as part of this kit aren't something they've designed and manufactured for themselves.  They're fairly standard screwpack postal tubes, I've had bicycle components arrive in some.

Buy one of the LMC units and chop some of the plastic off with a tiny hacksaw or a hot knife.  Or a file.  I doubt you need the clip to completely surround it, it only has to grip it lightly.

Another option is to use a Tram tr-50 vampire cable clip, they hold microphones surprisingly well.

18 hours ago, Derek H said:

Especially when most productions don’t want to pay extra for it either. 

If they don't pay they don't get.  But there are situations where you can make it pay, for instance, the last time I used it was on a building site.  If you're filming in a city centre, around pedestrians, there's another location.  Or walking alongside a road.  It's very easy to justify these things to production - nobody likes to ignore the word "safety".

I use the TRX900CL and RX200.  Digital out the mixer into the CL, digital across the air, digital output into the camera too if it supports it.  The RX200 is small, weighs very little and has a useful level indicator on the side.  The only downside is that mounting it can be a pain on cameras like the F5, due to the amount of stuff cameramen bolt onto them these days.  An added benefit is that with this combination, you don't need separate timecode sync - the CL sends timecode with the audio, you just plug the RX straight into the camera's BNC and that's that.

It's a simple but effective system and the RX200 will also work with any Zaxcom body-worn transmitter.

On 27/11/2017 at 9:20 PM, John Updike said:

 

Thanks everyone. 

 

Lancashire I didn't know this! I'm using a mini jack to 3 pin mini XLR as the RX output due to it being connected to a line input on my 633

Ensure you're using the correct Sennheiser cable (they have a blue ring on the XLR).

I had this many years ago with a second hand MKH40, it was faulty so I returned it to Sennheiser for repair.  It's been fine ever since.

I've been using a couple of G3s with the handheld sticks for the last 12 months and I have to say they've worked perfectly, right across Europe and beyond.  They're only plugged into an SQN so there's nothing really "digital" going on in the bag that could cause problems.  I've used them on recorded and live work and had no issues at all.

Are you using the correct cables, and are they tightened up fully on the receiver?  The Sennheiser cables form part of the antenna and you can have problems if you don't use the locking ring on the minijack fully.

11 hours ago, fieldmixer said:

Ive been getting shorter range than ever on my nomad>erx system this year. Doing, in the field, doc, 1and2 camera stuff.

Is this caused by what larry is describing above? Or is it possible there is an issue with the transmitter itself? How can i test this? Using original long antenna.

Im not feeling confidant any longer in the scratch track im sending. Cam people are telling me about drop out less than 10-15 feet often.
Ive seen it. Light goes red.

Open your mixer and check the Nomad antenna socket is still connected securely.  They can come loose.

I have two ERX's, I love them.  Good for IFB in most situations, but also great for sending scratch audio to DSLRs and other things.  On a shoot recently I had one providing audio and timecode to a roving camera, and the other providing IFB to a boom op so he could hear his mic.  Worked very well.

I think you should charge whatever you normally expect in your locale.  What UK mixers charge isn't particularly relevant, although they're lying if they say that everyone charges £350 all in.

Tell them that it doesn't matter what UK mixers charge, they're not in the UK now, they're in Brazil and will have to pay whatever Brazilians charge.

I find my universal plate works very well, on just about every camera ever made:

Sounds like Sound Devices are sticking a sticker onto normal memory cards and charging a premium for it.  I'd just buy whatever cards they say are compatible from Amazon and spend the difference on beer.

15 hours ago, Constantin said:

Just wanted to point out, though, that in the EU all US tx are illegal regardless of freq band, except, I believe, Zaxcom which can be switched to EU modulation and have the CE label

Perhaps a manufacturer has to jump through certain hoops before selling their equipment in the EU, but as far as I know, provided it transmits at 50mW and is in a legal band there's nothing to stop a private [licensed] buyer using whatever he likes in the EU.