Q

I've had a dream where I'm in a production truck directing and switching the show, and none of the cameras are actually following the action or my direction, leaving me with no good shots to switch to. I say a few choice words to the crew over headsets and things shape up. After the show we have a crew meeting to discuss the show and all the camera ops are crying because I yelled at them.

Off the top of my head, one common use is a 2 track mix to camera and up to 4 iso tracks recorded as backup.

It's not when you notice it, it's how long you can ignore it.

The handle on the Rode blimp is the thing I most disliked about it. Nice to see this mount now available. And I bet a set of Rycote lyres could also be fit into the blimp, eliminating the metal ring and rubber bands.

I prefer topless. I think mine will fit inside yours.

Congratulations. I started out in live television so I never was able to see my work for many years. I used to get calls on my answering machine from people who said they saw my name on TV. Then I started to get crank calls and other weirdness from total strangers. It was freaky enough that I changed my phone number to an unlisted/unpublished one.

Yup, a Best Buy sales guy tried to sell me $50 HDMI cables. Even the cheapest cables they had were $25. I passed because the DVD player I was buying only cost $40. (I was production manager at a TV station at the time and after our dubbers sent out a few dud discs I just needed a cheap player to test burned discs that we were sending out to commercial clients.)

Every day is something different.

You know what would be really great? Next time one of you California based mixers comes to Louisiana to work, how about letting us local guys know? I would be happy to "intern" for a couple days with one of you guys instead of sitting home wondering why the show shooting 5 miles from my house didn't call.

I would think the mic and transmitter would not be damaged unless you clp the mic to the collar. Electricity passes into/through the body while the mic would be surface mounted. That's just my thinking. But, you could get some RF interference.

The word you are looking for is "Audiologist." Years ago I worked for a millworks company. Many of the mechanics had twice yearly, company paid, visits from the audiologist. They also received custom molded ear plugs with inserts that allowed in some of the less damaging frequncies, so they could hear some voices. Attenuation was in the 25 to 32 dB range if I recall correctly, depending on the level of noise the mech usually worked around. And yes, they were expensive.

I try to keep a couple different shirts with my gear as it is easier to change shirts than to try and black out (or white out) with duvetyne.

If you are just doing interviews you don't need that much headroom.

What camera are you shooting on? Also, you didn't mention a mixer. It could be cheaper, easier, faster to record sound directly to the camera. I know, blashemy on a sound forum, but most corporate shoots I've done were straight to camera. The preamps on most modern HD production video cameras are more than adequate for corporate work. Monitor through headphones. How will the project be delivered and who is going to see it? Internet? Broadcast? Internal company video? DVD? Blueray? This can determine whether or not you need to hide mics. On most corporate shoots I've done in the past 20+ years, visible lavs are OK, especially if it is talking heads addressing the camera. Not having to hide mics can cut down on a lot of clothing noise issues, especially on fast moving shoots. In that case, 2 Rode or OST lavs straight to camera would be a good sounding an inexpensive solution.

I love the idea of a 556. It could record 5 isos plus a mix track.

I honestly don't know. I can't recall ever turning that switch on or off.

I have gotten better results with the site search by putting the searched terms inside "quotes" in the search bar.

4 AA rechargeable batteries will give you about 5.1 volts at a full charge (the H4n is a 5V device). I haven't tried fresh alkaline batteries so don't know if a full 6V will kill it. This little box costs about $4 to build and I already have lots of AA rechargeables on hand. To test, I ran a strong line level stereo signal from a TV tuner into the Zoom, hit record and went to bed. It was still running 8 hours later when I shut it down, and still had battery charge on both sets of batteries. The recorder will run with only the external battery, but with internal batteries installed I can remove the external pack (the pack has a switch) and the machine keeps running. I didn't do lots of testing but I think the machine might draw from internal and external batteries, as the internal AA battery pair did go down some during my overnight test.

Though more function and less weight is good (and expected in electronic devices), the weight difference is 2 ounces and not "almost half a pound." But, according to SD: 442, 2.0kg (4.5 lbs) unpackaged with 4 alkaline AA batteries 552, 2.0kg (4 lbs 6 ozs) unpackaged without 4 alkaline AA batteries So, the weight is the same? What is the weight of the 4 batteries? 2oz?

Oh, you mean the splash pages that serve no purpose? Or the moving ads that shift pages around and take about a minute to stop moving? Or the videos ads that get in the way of the content that I actually want to read? I don't miss them at all. I started using Flash to build animated computer presentations 15+ years ago. It was a resource hog then as it is now. It seems that every other option has gotten better over time, except Flash, so I was quite happy to ditch it for After Effects in the late 1990s and I don't miss it one bit. 95% of the Flash content that doesn,t load on the sites I visit ends up being ads, so I guess I don't miss much of the internet at all.

The current one is me on my back in 2 feet of snow ... the most fresh powder this La. boy has ever been in. And No, I was NOT in La. at the time.

I'm also a big fan of the MKH50. Very quiet mic and it doesn't mind humidity, which is a big concern in Louisiana. For drama I use my MKH60 for most exteriors, and for doc work I use a 415, or a Rode NTG-3, or a 416 outdoors.

Zoom, as a company has been around for about 30 years ... they started out making digital guitar pedals and processors. Not sure where you get "poor quality" from. It delivers a lot of features for a $300 device. The preamps get noisy with cheap mics, but they are fine with my MKHs. You can get better, but not for $300. Since it's a $300 device ... I don't expect it to sound as good as my Sound Devices recorder. But the Zoom sounds great behind a good mixer, much better than a $300 device used to sound in the good old days of analogue. I've had no quality issues whatsoever with my H4n, and if I dropped it into a lake today I would get another one tomorrow. And it records 4 simultaneous tracks ... for $300.

Whitewater canoe and kayakers, and rescuers, use vests with higher flotation rating than plain PFDs because it helps hold them up higher in the water. Maybe look at whitewater outfitters and rescue suppliers. Some of the rescue vests have straps and D-rings for attaching tethers, tools, lights, etc.

I use the tape out to a mono adapter into a comtek transmitter