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Ilari Sivil

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Everything posted by Ilari Sivil

  1. I like Ursa Stickies a lot at the moment, I used to use Advanced Stickies quite a bit. Ursa's Soft Circles are also much better than Undercovers, but I mostly use them for color matching to decrease visibility, the mild wind/plosive protection is a bonus. They don't get a lot of use in general. I really like Overcovers, especially the Advanced ones, but I've also had good experiences with Ursa Plush Circles and Bubblebee's Piece-A-Fur. I'll probaly get Ursa Fur Circles and the Piece-A-Fur on my next lav supply order.
  2. Can't say much about boom use, but I'm happy to share my experience. I'm using A10s on talent and I'm reasonably happy. I find myself wishing I had more range, at least with whips. I've been able to get as much as ~60m on high power outside in a free field at a clean, co-ordinated frequency with line of sight in a real situation, but I've also had some trouble with ranges as short as 6-10m in an apartment. One time I was almost totally wiped out by other RF when recording in a metal framed ferris wheel at about 3-4m away, I think there was a GSM transmitter quite close by. When the signal is there - it sounds fantastic with Core 4060s. When there are problems, it doesn't sound as weird as analog wireless can sound, it's either pristine or nothing. Thus far I haven't had a job that I couldn't get done with the A10s. I've had them out on maybe 10 gigs, mostly bag work for non-scripted content. Haven't tried timecode synced recording yet. On my previous job with them, I managed to set gains and frequencies for 2 talent without touching anyone or bothering them beyond asking them to stand still for ~10-20 seconds. I'm thinking things should improve with better antennae and a filtering distro, but honestly, I'm a bit on the fence on whether I should invest more in A10s or perhaps even switch to Lectro. I love the A10 Remote app for talent use, especially in the time of Covid19, it works very well if you reset it each time you use it. The last time I used Lectros for talent I kinda missed my A10s a little. I haven't managed to update to the latest firmware that's supposed to increase range, I've heard it's good though.
  3. A sauna is less extreme than people think, unless you really overdo it. Don't go in there with too much clothes on, it's uncomfortable. There's a Finnish documentary called Steam Of Life (Miesten Vuoro is the original Finnish title), where they've shot a lot of footage in various saunas. I've heard that they let the camera and the microphone warm up and cool down along with the sauna to avoid issues and that the gear survived everything. I think they used MKH-series mics from Sennheiser since they're very popular in Finland. They probably didn't use lavs at all, in the sauna because everyone's naked in there as is the tradition in Finland. Finnish saunas tend to sound pretty nice at least to the ear, since they're usually all wood except for the floor, which is usually tile or stone. I've never recorded in one.
  4. In the case of a radio drama, since you're not dealing with picture sync, actually performing/recording foley would be the fastest and the best way to get good, convincing results. Instead of spending time auditioning stuff or fiddling with a virtual instrument, you can just do it. Of course, you're gonna need pits and props, but I haven't come across a better way of getting things to sound right than performing the sounds.
  5. Looks great! I'm probably going to a couple of these in my life at some point.
  6. Attach water on your body with a method of your choosing. I kinda like bottle clips, they're lightweight, don't get in the way and they're easy to attach to whatever. At least in europe, standard plastic bottles that water/soda is sold don't leak very often. Mineral water is better in the heat than just plain water, since you also lose salt (sodium) when you sweat. Merino wool is really nice for both warm/humid and cold/windy conditions, a lightweight long sleeve shirt is good for a pretty wide range of weathers as a base layer.
  7. Thank you so much for JWSound. I've learned a lot from here and it's been great to be able to read about how other people do things and why. The best thing here is the atmosphere, though. Thanks to everyone here, contributors and lurkers alike!
  8. Even though I like the Kashmir-preamps, I don't like the MixPre-limiters even on dialogue. Personally, I'd go for a 7-series recorder for pure FX work. Don't get me wrong, the MixPres are perfectly workable machines, I just personally prefer the 6-series and the 7-series limiters. I've heard the 7-series pres are better than 6-series, but can't confirm personally since I haven't compared them. I've hardly ever used 7-series machines. 2 good pres will get you really, really far. Unless you're planning on very thorough multi-mic sessions, it's likely you can get a lot of really good material on a pair of pres, I've gotten useable stuff on my iPhone.
  9. Dugan automix is also available as a hardware unit. You could run outputs from tracks into the Dugan unit and record the output, kinda like using the 633, but as a more permanent, mains-powered solution. https://www.dandugan.com/products/
  10. They will fit G3s, but it's a tight fit, especially on a new strap. I've mostly put 2000s in Ursa straps, but they're the same form factor. The material is really stretchy, don't be afraid to give it a pull. It's the stretchiness that keeps the pack in the pouch. Get the clip off and it'll be easier to get them in there. If you really want to keep the clip on, you can.
  11. I try to keep my RMS level between -10dBU and 0dBU, which would be -30dBFS to -20dBFS on my 633. My peaks will be around -12dBFS most of the time, the limiters catch anything higher well enough without sounding bad at all. I haven't done proper post on my own tracks, but I've occasionally given them a listen and tried out how they'd deal with processing, sounds all good to my ear. I don't often get asked for a mix track, but I'm starting to feel more like I should provide one anyway, I could/should keep my ISOs a bit lower in that case. I'm currently debating whether to use the line inputs or the mic inputs on the 633 for my wires. The line inputs don't have analogue limiters, which would mean that I should be a little bit more conservative with levels.
  12. I would love to give the CS-M1 a listen or even a swing, but to my best knowledge, Sanken don't have a dealer in Finland, which is where I operate. The fine people who are the local dealers for both Sennheiser and DPA are based a walking distance from my apartment. I should visit.
  13. I feel a more powerful need to replace my Oktava MK012 for indoor boom use. It's been doing well enough most of the time, but yesterday I ended up on a shoot with multiple cameras and really quiet talent. My wires worked really well, but the MK012 didn't cut it at distances as low as ~60cm (about 2 feet). I started hearing the self-noise of the mic (or perhaps preamp noise since I had to really crank it). Nothing overpowering, but enough to be quite annoying. I've been thinking about the upgrade for quite a while. I've got a 416 as my outdoor shotgun for now and I'm running DPA Core 4060s with A10s for wires. I'm pretty sure the 50 would match well with everything, but I really like how small and light the 4018C seems, not to mention that I've become a huge fan of the DPA sound by using the lavs and the 4017B. I still have a huge soft spot for the MKH50 though, it's a mic that I know and love, but it does color the sound quite a bit, the lows can be a bit much from time to time. Buying new, I could get the 4018C a bit cheaper, but a used 50 could be hard to find since they're really solid and people like them. What do you guys think? How do the two mics compare in your opinion?
  14. Having a cardioid in the kit has saved my butt a couple of times in nasty sounding rooms. No rear lobe, less reflections. You won't get a very good result for wides, but the coverage will sound better and the wides would probably be on wires anyway in a really reflective room. A pair of these could be nice for ambience recordings, since they're small and quiet. Maybe even plants on occasion, who knows? The low cuts are available at the right frequencies for dialogue use in my opinion.
  15. In the third example, they seem to also be fighting a noisy location, so they really need to squeeze the intelligibilty out of the tracks. Also, I'm definitely hearing data compression, that's not a streaming quality example, there's definite degradation in there. None of the examples sound bad to my ear, I think the first example sounds the best because it "breathes" the most. You get a feel for the room and the nuance of the performance. I feel like the more compressed tracks get "croaky", especially with vocal fry, but that's at least in part due to performance. The quieter lines sound less natural.
  16. If you really want a keyboard, using one with a phone or a pad with Wingman could even be less flakey? Don't know since I haven't tried, though.
  17. That does not look like a very good boom pole.
  18. Could also be gelatin in the plastic, apparently that's what's going on with some bags. Our other cat chews on certain types of bags, but not all of them, and she's quite healthy for her age.
  19. The recording option is accessible both on the transmitters and via app. As far as I know, it keeps going until it needs to stop for some reason, like the battery running out or the card getting full. I think one of the reasons they're using a proprietary compressed format is precisely so that one could record all day. The manual says the recording caps at six hours, after which it should start a new file with a sample-accurate split. Looking at what I've recorded, the .mic format compresses to about 1/3 of the output .wav's size. 6hrs would be about 2.9Gb, so I guess it would compress to about 1Gb, which means a 16Gb card would take you pretty far. I've ordered some Sandisk Ultra Class 10 16Gb Micro SD cards that should work well according to info I found on Facebook, the person who mentioned them said that Audio Limited had vouched for those cards when asked about what would be good and they're cheap enough for me to try them out.
  20. I got 2 channels of A10. Did some preliminary tests and I'm happy for now. I have only tested the bluetooth on transmitters I've worn myself, but as soon as I get someone to help me out, I'll be trying changing the settings in more real-world conditions, unless I get on a job first. The app feels like it benefits from the occasional reset. I'm using an iPhone SE. I did a couple of short range walks in my apartment and I was totally fine anywhere with medium power, the transmitter placed on a strap on my lower back. Also tried a front pocket placement I often use. Indoors, I got a few dropouts when there were more than 2 walls between the TX and the RX, but that just makes sense. Outside, on a single transmitter, I got about 60m (~200ft) max reliable feeling range, line of sight on whips, high power, the TX antenna in a free field. The receiver was in a bag with an angled antenna and a straight antenna. Did the test by leaving the transmitter on a concrete planter and moving with my bag and the receiver in it, left my phone next to the TX playing music. On low power, I got as much as 30m (~100ft). I should try again with more realistic conditions. On short distances inside, the 400kHz spacing seems to work fine, but when I tried to go further away from the transmitters on the walk test outside, I got dropouts at about 10m. Gave them more spacing, got 60m again but with two transmitters. I didn't scan outside before running the test, so I'm not sure if I was on totally clean frequencies. Since I'm in Europe, the recording works. Easy to activate via Bluetooth. Haven't managed to give the timecode stability a proper run yet, but converting .mic files to .wav files is relatively painless and jamming is not a huge chore. For the time being, I feel like I'd rather only engage recording when I'm pretty sure there are going to be dropouts. I feel like I'd also have to make a note about it to remember to empty and convert the cards later. The preamps sound great with Core 4060s. The TX pack is nice and rounded, so it doesn't feel as uncomfortable worn as a G3/2000 Sennheiser, for example. Haven't managed to get the belt clips on, but haven't given it the total effort yet because I generally prefer straps and I got URSA Pouches as well. I've hidden clunkier packs without issue, I think they should be about the same to hide as SMQVs / SMDBs.
  21. I'm a bit curious about what phones people have been using to change settings via Bluetooth. I've understood there may be differences between devices.
  22. Wave Agent will do a nice, clean split from poly to mono files as a batch process.
  23. The tests Rycote have done seem convincing, so I'm interested in the PCS. I looked at the product at an online vendor I use, but it looks like only one tip is included with the boom connector. I like the price I'm seeing, but I'd be happy to pay a bit more if another threaded tip were to be included with the connector. The whole point is to be able to switch between mic assemblies quickly, right? Wouldn't it make sense to sell two tips with the connector?
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