JoshuaT

I have used it since it came out. I increased my gear rental by $50 and include it for every shoot (I only use it if I believe it will help). I have made over $10000 from using it. It is definitely worth it.

Using multiple sources for sync is a great way to make sure there is at least one fail safe. I’ve been on shoots where camera can’t or inconsistently can’t take tc, sometimes ac’s unplug xlr’s if you’re feeding camera. Having a smart slate is another point editors can sync from.

Also smart slates are the most photographed piece of production gear by clients. If you get one and charge $75/day for it (a lot of us do) you’ll make your money back in no time.

I use the SD NR and it does fine work at -3dB. I’ve read that people who got cedar didn’t feel that the cost to performance ratio was worth it even though it was able to remove more/other background sounds better than SD NR.

Be aware that the Delkin cards are approved only for the 6-series. There are no Delkin cards approved for the 8-series.

Second City Sound in Chicago might be able to help with the tuning

8 minutes ago, codyman said:

I wonder what the plan is in terms of the 8 series product lifespan?  Are they going to sell the current lineup for the next say 10 years?  Because it would be a bummer to buy say an 888 and load it up with thousands of dollars of plugins only to find out that something totally new comes out to replace it a year later and it's now EOL.  At least with hardware it usually holds some sort of value but you can't "unregister" the software plugin to sell third party to someone else if you don't want it anymore.

I expect the 8-series to last around 10 years. People are still using the 788 if that is any indication.

If you charge appropriately for using any of the plug-ins purchased there should be no concern about selling when the recorder’s lifespan ends. You will have profited very nicely.

6 hours ago, Trey LaCroix said:

It's always depressing to see all those "no"s.

 

In reality it's a little better depending on where you are, but not much.

Chicago isn’t much better unfortunately.

My only comment is that there shouldn’t be a decent sound mixer that will want to use your kit to augment their kit as we put a lot of thought, money, and preparation into how our kits work with each piece of gear complementing each other piece.

If we don’t know how well the piece of gear is taken care of, if it has all the necessary accessories, and if it is within spec, we can’t guarantee a professional result with it and we won’t ruin our reputation using it.

The appearance of having better suited gear for larger projects could lead to larger/better gigs. Also learning a machine that is a step up will help when the time comes to upgrade.

Tell him to rent a higher level mixer/recorder for the shoot.

9 hours ago, Csaba Major said:

Sadly it’s not a soultion for telephone calls. Iphone breaks the usb connection if you start a phone call. 
My solution is a minijack lighning Y cable, and sending a mic level mix from ProTools or a SD recorder. 

I have and use something very similar. It works great! Make sure you’re using mic level.

The 8 series can send a mix via usb to iPhone 

I’m going to stick to soap and water for lav cables, and alcohol wipes/spray for the rest. 
Theres too much speculation about uv-c at the moment to know how it’ll work on Covid-19.

9 hours ago, Philip Perkins said:

Is there really no other good sanitizer besides alcohol?  For soundies doing short jobs there will be no production to charge for the eventual destruction of

expensive mics by this chemical being used on them several times a day.   

I’m going to be charging $10/wire. If I’m on an interview shoot with four separate interviewees and they don’t want to use a mic that was previously on someone, I then will add $40 to my invoice. Plus I’m also going to be using soap+water on the lavs to clean as opposed to anything harsh and then rub with olive oil.

I LOVE my Sound Devices 888!

I just read that 600-692 is good there.

As Johnny said, select each channel (one at a time) and see if each one is at 0dB. If any are less, turn them up with the select knob.

It’s a very simple fix. It’s a small circular watch battery. Pop the top off and replace. Maybe 5-10 minutes of work. You can find the battery at most stores. I think it’s a 2032.

I usually use Lectrosonics A1 and block 25 with no problems.

You can replace the internal battery. This should help the situation.

I just used it two days ago.