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mclaindigital

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Everything posted by mclaindigital

  1. I just worked a narrative short with two kids 8 and 10 with this exact situation using COS11ds. I was wishing I had brought some B6s or DPAs. I had decent luck with the collar seam area - rigging the cos11d sideways. My main hurdle was hiding the pack (Lmb) - I ended up rigging it behind their head on the backside of the shirt collar(!) and hiding it and the antennae with their long hair, which worked better than on their waist for certain scenes as their shirts kept riding up to reveal the tx - and a waist strap wouldn't have worked since the shirts were too tight. Both my thigh and ankle straps are huge for their lanky bodies, and most scenes had them walking through. I also tried using two tiered layers of moleskin as the base, then another layer of moleskin over the mic with the capsule hanging over the edge, then I used the curvy brackets that come with the Bubblebee lav conceler and used those on the moleskin rig for protection against the shirt rubbing, and that worked pretty well! Seemed to be just slightly thinner than the Bubblebee. +1 on using smaller mics. Live n learn.
  2. Thank you David - both sets from B&H - going to try a couple different brands and run some record tests on these next ones. Cards I was using were Sandisk Class 10 95mb/sec cards. And I would assume if the card was locked I wouldn't be able to get anything recorded at all? In both instances this happened, (on my F4 and on my F8n) it recorded for a few minutes before freezing, both times resulting in zero kb recorded to the cards. The only constants in both situations were: 1. My location, office building where we shoot this bit 2. The operator (me) 3. The cards 4. The record scenario/settings The only differences between the two occurrences were F4 one time and F8 the other, no external TC on F4 occurrence, external TC on F8 occurrence. I can't imagine an office environment would be emitting any kind of signal that would make both an F4 and F8 freeze up. And I am not sure what sort of settings I would be employing to make the device act like this (single mic, channel 1, dual record, that's it) and it's never been a problem on any other time I've used it - only in that specific location with those specific cards. I thought maybe the SD442 going direct in could be causing an issue, but my headphones are in the F8, where I'm hearing the high pitch squeal, not the 442. So, by my eye, it's gotta be the cards. Good to know about the FB groups too! Thanks!
  3. Yes, see screenshot. Both cards had this on them. Files, but they were blanks. They were identical Sandisk 32GB cards. I've used them before on other lengthy recording sessions, but they were freshly formatted prior to the shoots. The 'recommended' list from Zoom - many of the part numbers aren't relevant any longer, so I guess I'm going to go for the next best thing I can find. Thanks for the recommendation Chris and Allen - and thanks IronFilm for chiming in, I know you are a Zoom user. Thanks to all for your time! Got myself some new cards - but man, as much as I'd like to use just the F8 in a bag, it makes me nervous to not have the breakaway or hop option off my 442 in play, just in case I have a card freeze again. I have a gig where I run outs to a PA for sound reinforcement while also filming and recording the presentation, and if I did this off just the Zoom and it went into freeze-and-squeal, that would be very bad! But at least if my outs are coming out of the 442 to the mains, the squeal won't come through and my breakaway can at least keep a recording going! Yikes. Hoping it is just an anomaly. Zoom tells me it's very rare. Chalking it up to Live and learn!
  4. Thanks y'all. I guess it begs the question of what the actual point of the SD performance check is on the device if it then comes up OK only to then fail? I'll explore some other SDs. Are there any known offenders out there? This Zoom list has some new-to-me brands like GreenHouse, Baffalo, Silicon Power and IO Data. I've used Lexar, Sandisk and Kingston but not these others. I'll dig in and see what the 'net says about these. Cheers!
  5. Hello all, I had some issues with my Zoom F4 and F8n and wanted to see if other users have experienced this. The F4 would freeze, the elapsed time would stop, and no buttons would work and I’d have to remove external Talentcell power and remove the AA battery tray to get it to power down. My setup is: Shooting with a hypercardioid boom mic into input 1 of Sound Devices 442, direct outs 1-4 into the Zoom F4, recording to PolyWav files on (2) Sandisk 32GB Class 10 SDHC cards. Using breakaway from SD442 to camera. Then, I got the F8n, hooked it up to all this the exact same (SD442 direct outs to F8n 1-4) and had the exact same problem on a shoot today, along with a high pitch squeal coming through my headphones when it froze up. I unplugged the Talentcell battery to just finish the take out on my Eneloop AAs, but the elapsed time was frozen. I removed the Eneloop AAs to get it to shut down. Started up again without Talentcell and it froze again, so it’s not the external power. I ran a Quick Test on both cards and both came up OK. Kept freezing so I ditched the F8n and just recorded from 442 to camera (which saved me! Pristine Sound Devices audio, someday I hope to upgrade) After the shoot, I ran a Full Test on both cards and after the 45 mins both came up OK. When I download the files, they are completely blank of information. The wav file is there, but no audio, as in only kb in size. The only other constant is that I was filming in the exact same location for both the F4 freeze-up instance, and the F8n freeze-up. Not some wild industrial space, but just in an office in an office building. I can't imagine my environment would be able to tweak my recorder into a freeze (?). The main difference being F4 day had no external TC connected to recorder. F8n day had Timecode Systems external TC connected and wirelessly transmitting to a couple cameras. Any ideas? I only found 1 dude on Creative Cow who has had a similar issue and am waiting to hear back from him and the manual didn’t provide any clues. Thanks in advance for lending any expertise/thoughts, Jeff (JW feel free to move this to a better spot if I posted in the wrong area, I’ve been reading here for a while but rarely post) Sandisk 32GB Class 10 U-1 Extreme Pro 95mb/s SDHC Cards (freshly formatted and tested) Talentcell YB1208300-USB Audix HC microphone Canare XLR cable Timecode systems wireless TC boxes
  6. Thanks Marc for your thoughts on it. True, Montana has thin amounts of feature work (and work, in general) compared to the big cities, but there is some reality tv work based here. I'm relocating in the coming year to a larger market anyhow. Cheers.
  7. Thanks for the nice welcome Rachel and good advice. Good advice Old School and Philip also! I wasn't planning to do any undercutting. I am more curious as to how many of you folks got your start. Cheers
  8. Hello all, I've read a bit about this general topic of 'greenhorns undercutting the industry' on this forum and thought I'd respectfully ask a couple questions of the seasoned pros here: What is the best way for a green location mixer to get involved in the industry without undercutting others? Say the production is OK with a newbie and feels they should not pay a full-rate to the newbie due to their experience level - yet, this undercuts the industry as a whole when that producer should really pay a fair rate. Would you say that the newbie should just work on student films until they are 'pro-level' fluidity with their gear? And with that, the gear is very pricey, so it's hard for a green (who needs the gigs to get the experience to save for the 788T-level equipment that job boards note they want) to know when to invest to maximize their ROI. Should they just rent the mixer and wireless systems and own the rest until they've saved up to invest? For me, I have taken some training from another mixer, as well as getting Mr. Rose's book - I've done some of my own audio recording/mixing and so the technical aspects of mixers/lavs/trans-receivers etc, is not my hurdle - but rather, gaining experience and fluidity with the gear to get the gigs that require experience and fluidity with the gear. What are your thoughts/experiences on how you did it? Thanks in advance! (and if there's a post thread here that answers all my questions - feel free to point me to it!) Jeff
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