Sam Mallery

Even still, a term like "Go friend yourself in the beauty" still has a gratifying bang to it.

I just tested out a bunch of on-camera mics for DSLR video: http://www.sam-mallery.com/archives/566 I know this forum is a bit more "feature-mixer" oriented, but I figured some of you folks may find this interesting. Best, Sam

Just found out about this. It'll be interesting to give it a listen: http://rodemic.com/microphone.php?product=lavalier

Looks like you've got a Digi002 rack and an RME Fireface 400 in there. Why two interfaces (if you don't mind me asking)?

Last week my girl and I spent a week on Fire Island. It was an awesome time, chilling comfortably on the beach while the rest of New York was sweating it out in the heat wave. Our mobile phones barely got any signal at all on the island, so it was a week free of the usual distractions. Instead of texts, voice mails, emails, and Facebook alerts, we got to relax, swim, and read books. At night in our rented room we did have satellite TV, which received about 9 stations. One night we popped on the TV after making dinner, and the film 9 to 5 was just starting on the Fox movie channel. My girlfriend hadn't seen it before, so we watched the whole thing. I was aware that you did the mixing on that film as I watched, and it was fun to listen to your work and think of what challenges you may had faced while shooting the scenes. Even though I'd seen the film several times (including when it was in the theater), I couldn't get over how great the actors were. It just seemed like everyone involved was kicking ass and having fun too. Anyhow, just thought I'd share my little story. I wish I was still on vacation. Be well, Sam

From my experience, clairvoyance isn't requested from sound people, it's expected. Chris's experience sounds like a longer version of the projects I've worked on in the last year, with the exception of having a two person audio team. Usually I'm doing everything... miking people, booming, mixing, recording, often at the same time. Nothing is ever communicated. I keep waiting for a shoot to come up where someone else on set tries to keep me in the loop, but it has yet to happen. This is to the extreme of being at a location where there are multiple scenes being shot in different areas, often with a 5 minute walk from one location to the next. The gaffer team is clued in to what's going on because the lights all seem to get set up and readied in time. The camera team is in the loop because they're on the move and know where to go and what gear to bring. My job is to provide perfect sound in each location, and to somehow predict what's going to happen next. I've gotten used to it, and in a way, when your psychic abilities are working and you're able to keep up with the ever changing schedule of events, I almost get a kick out of it. Part of getting a kick out of it is how the same problems with communication persist from one production to the next, with completely different sets of people each time. I very rarely get to catch a glimpse of a monitor. If the DP and their crew are nice folks, sometimes I'll ask about the frame. I've worked with unfriendly DP's as well. In that situation I go back to pure clairvoyance. I always try to get the boom in there as best as I can, but the lavs usually do the brunt of the work.

Yeah... and you could control it with the Voice Command function. "Antenna up."

I think a lot of phone manufacturers are guilty of putting presentation over performance. A few years ago many mobile phones used to have telescoping antennas, but you don't see them much now. I was thinking about the body of the iPhone 4 acting as the antenna, and how it isn't optimal. But, if Apple put a telescoping antenna on an iPhone they'd be scorned and laughed at. That will never happen. They've put fashion over function for a long time. Anyhow... if the iPhone were available on Verizon, I would probably still stick with AT&T. Verizon's customer service is dreadful, and they always seem to find a way to charge more $$$ at every turn. I don't find AT&T's network to be that much different than others I've had in the past (Sprint & Verizon). But then again, I don't really spend that much time talking on the phone.

Always interesting to hear it from his side. I like what he had to say about helping professional journalism, and avoiding only having a "nation of bloggers."

I bought my SRa in January specifically for bag use. I also own two Series 100 wireless kits, and I bought the SRa because the 100 Series were giving me a much harder time than I had anticipated. In hindsight, buying the 100 Series was a big mistake. I've been very happy with the SRa as my main bag receivers. I also bought an SM and an SMQ transmitter in January to go with my SRa. I'm very happy with those too. My perspective is skewed, because I've never owned 411's. Even though I've never had 411's, I still recognize moments when they would likely outperform my SRa. Here's an example... two weeks ago on an exterior scene, the DP had two grips hollywood some bounce boards. He moved the grips from one spot, and had them both stand right in front of me (of course). When the grips got in my way, I suddenly heard a little squiggling in the audio which sounded like faint mobile phone interference. Just as I was going to ask the grips if they had mobile phones in their pockets, the DP moved them to another spot and the noise left with them. There's only been a few times like this where I suddenly hear a little weirdness in the audio. So far nothing has caused me any real problems. The few times I've heard interference, I can usually work around it very easily, or the problem goes away before I have a chance to come up with a work around. I don't regret buying the SRa one bit. I also see the value in having a 411 or two on hand. But, when I buy again, I'll get another SRa before I plop down money for anything else. @ P-Did... I haven't used my SRa as a camera hop, so I can't comment there.

Yeah. That seems a lot more likely than paranormal interference. I've been thinking about getting the cable on my 7506's modded anyway (to be free of the curly wire and to have a more sensible length). Maybe it's a good time to do it...

I did a shoot over the weekend and I had a ghostly little bug with my 302. We shot all day from early morning to night at an old resort. I lost count of how many different scenes we shot in different locations around the facility. Anyhow, during the day we shot a scene beside the pool. I had hidden lavs on the two subjects and my boom in the third channel. The sun was darting in and out of the clouds, and after setting up the shot we had to wait several minutes for the sun to reappear to shoot the takes. As we waited for the sun, I momentarily lost control of the monitoring in my 302. I usually monitor the Return when shooting, and toggle between Mono, Stereo, Return, Left, and Right when setting up. In the five minutes that the sunlight was obscured, the monitor knob stopped working. For example, I would turn it to Mono, and where it landed there was no audio at all. Then I would switch it to Left, and when it landed again there would be no audio. I started switching all around and none of them worked. However, I did hear a tiny spot of sound inbetween the spots where the knob lands. I tried turning the knob so it would land inbetween, and when I did so I heard a stereo feed of the audio, but only for a few seconds - then it would cut out. When my monitoring had died, I checked the mix in my external recorder and it still sounded good. I decided not to alert the crew and just roll with it. Our schedule was really tight and it was already taking too long to get this scene shot. Moments later the sun returned, the director called action, and somehow suddenly my monitoring knob was working again. I don't know if I should get my 302 serviced or not. It continued to work just fine for the next 6 or 7 hours after that, and then worked again for 8 more hours of shooting on Sunday. It did scare the crap out of me on set, but in a sense I can't rule out user error. Like, maybe the communication between my brain and my fingers was just off for a minute? That doesn't seem likely... but who knows? The knob really did seem to be broken. The location was a really old resort. One of the reasons we were shooting there was that it was so creepy. Maybe an old ghost was messing with me? Has anyone else had this issue? ::somehow I doubt it:: Thanks

New R0DE mics are shipping with an unusual spacer ring that may prohibit an XLR connector from securing into the mic. The ring is installed in the output of the mic. More info here: http://www.rodemic.com/support.php#q22 And here: http://pro-audio.bhinsights.com/content/important-notice-r0de-mic-owners.html

I'm looking for a Sound Utility position. I'm available to work from March 30th till April 6th. I have a lot of experience booming on set, mixing, miking up talent, hiding lavs, and operating & maintaining equipment. I want to gain experience working on a higher level production than I'm capable to finding through the usual avenues (Mandy, etc.). I normally work a day job, but I have these 8 days off and I'd like to put them to use in furthering my production sound skills. I'm located near New York City, but I have a car and I'm willing to travel. For more info on me: www.sam-mallery.com Thanks!

Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

It is an unusual position. I get a lot of useful information for the location work that I do from this forum. I tried out these earpads and they felt nice on my head, so I posted about them. I do my best to remain neutral when it comes to my day job. Because at the end of the day, that's really all it is to me. A paycheck... some food on my table. It's just that these things felt so nice and mushy that I wanted to share.

I just posted this because after using them for a week I'm convinced that these pads are the best way to go for 7506 users. Period. They're more comfortable than the Beyer earpads because they have a foam layer with a silky surface that covers the headphone drivers. The Beyers (which are designed for Beyerdynamic headphones) are just rings that expose your ears to the drivers. The only thing a buyer should beware of is an unnecessary witch hunt.

I've been using these velour Pearstone Deluxe Earpads on my MDR-7506 for about a week, and I love them. Here's a link to the review that I wrote: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/find/newsLetter/Deluxe-Earpads.jsp They're so much more comfortable that the stock earpads, I figured the jwsound people should know about them. I haven't worked on a location job with them yet, but I'm confident they will help make the day go by more smoothly. It's like getting a brand new (and different) set of headphones for $20. Worth a try...

Hey guys... thanks for welcoming my buddy Buzby into the forum. He's a great dude. I had the opportunity to hang out with him and his awesome collection of friends in Reykjavík a few years ago. A mutual appreciation for Ableton Live and the act of helping out random strangers on the Internet are the forces that allowed me to visit Iceland, and it's cool to see the tradition of helping each other out continue on. If anyone has any specific advice about using a Cantar, I'm sure Buzby would love to hear about. I don't know what it's like working on set in Iceland, but in the States more often than not sound is the last thing that the director, producer, and camera crew consider when working. They'll spend 45 minutes setting up the next shot for lighting, camera, and lens, position and rehearse the talent, and at the very last moment you'll get the green light to enter the set. In other words, you are given about 30 seconds to be up and running (bag recorder rolling, connection to the camera established, boom extended and in position). If it takes you any longer than it's likely you'll hear sighs and see eyes rolling. It's not always that extreme, but it can be. Preparation and attentiveness is the name of the game.

I do this every time with my R-09HR, whether it's asked for or not. In my short career it's already saved a couple of scenes. I always roll it at 24-bit 48kHz. You can fit many many hours of audio on a $20 Radio Shack brand SDHC card. Back in 2002, a few friends of mine who were into production (on the video side) shot a video of the band I had at the time. They came to two of our live shows with two camera people. On one of the shoots one of the cameras had an audio glitch freakout in the middle of the show. It pretty much ruined their plan, and they ended up never finishing the video. I was surprised because (at least for 2002) they had pretty fancy video cameras. I guess it sort of cemented in my mind that you always have to run double system. I was talking about the topic of redundancy on a shoot recently with a photographer who was a big equipment fiend and an former Marine. He said in the Marines they have a saying "Two is one, and one is none." I thought that was pretty right on. We aren't audio people. We are Marines!

I haven't done that but I would put my money on "Yes."

A levitating Flip Wilson... getting teased by the Chicago police department... this thread delivers! Thanks for all of the advice. I think it all comes down to common sense and "being in the moment." Hard rules can't apply to all circumstances. You just have to feel it out (please, no pun intended). I just finished this five day shoot with mostly young actresses being miked up. Some of them were more shy about the process than others, some of them were gung-ho about being professional actors and seemed to like being miked up in front of the whole crew. Case by case it was always a little different. These stories are great! Keep 'em coming. And Vin, I'd love to hear more stories from The Darjeeling Limited...

Nope... it runs the iPhone OS.

It would be useful for that timecode slate app...

I wonder if the monkey director and the chimpanzee DP naturally had a low opinion of the production mixer primate...