pverrando

on a Nat Geo hunting show

Somewhere, I have the name of the deceased mixer who owned this gear. He was a member of Local 52 and had a couple of "hybrid" mixer/recorder/tc/boom com packages custom built into Halliburton cases, The first, also sold on ebay was in a wooden box, which bore his name on the underside of the package. The seller acquired his estate and has been liquidating it for months. Lots of Stellavox stuff.

yes, its a button combo, read the manual, its in there

another pretty cool one from the OP group, Lake Street Dive, In glorious 1 mic mono. A little reverb added. I think they've had a few...

have not seen this image before

Texas mixer Omar Milano went to Switzerland less than 5 years ago and interviewed Kudelski for his Masters thesis documentary...

I Fedex'd it to New Jersey from Dallas last night, hope it gets through the severe storms heading northeast. Zaxcom does have amazing response to field issues, as they proved last night. -pverrando

Well, the night before a shoot, my Fusion has frozen up. Screen display shows factory settings, but no response from keypad or touchscreen. Before I go into the dark night to Fedex this thing to N.J and beg for a turnaround by Saturday, any suggestions for super-secret keypad re-entry sequences? I've tried the hold 4 while power-on. I've also pulled and replaced the internal clock battery. -pverrando

Why do you need a keyboard with the 664?

Undercover has some nice youtube content as well. He occasionally does some thinning of his collection on ebay. The "zipporeels" are his own creation, a very genuine-looking reel recorder inside a zippo lighter case! I hope he'll post a picture, I don't see them in the above photos. I recently completed a restoration of a Stellavox SM5, which was born from, (or vis-versa) the Fi-Cord 1A. The SM5 could be configured with extra heads to record a pilot tone for sync sound, or operate as a basic full track mono recorder (50-12000 khz). I re-did the cigarbox wooden case in hammertone black, as the original vinyl covering was ugly, and water-damaged too. The biggest challenge was the motor. Some details of the restore and a rough video can be seen at http://dfwsoundman.blogspot.com/2012/11/stellavox-sm5-restoration-progress.html

The 8- track was for the "callers", actors who made their phone calls from a furny-pad tent in the back of this warehouse. Pilot tone recorded to track 8. Tod had just purchased the stereo Nagra prior to the start of the show, his first stereo machine, $10,000.

from left to right: Dave M. Roberts (utility), Pete Verrando (broadcast audio tech, 24 frame video), T.J. O'Mara (boom) Kim Maitland (recordist), Laura (? PA) Tod Maitland (mixer), Bill Abbott (consultant-face hidden), David A. Smith (utility).

So true- the popular music recording industry is 95% bullshit...even the most seasoned "audiophiles" - classical, jazz, whatever- still leave me scratching my head... Why do you need a $25K home playback system to listen to a recording that was produced the way all entertainment is made- within budget, as fast as possible, with whatever available tools... no magic wands or golden ears.

I have restored a few cast-off Nagras. My goal with these machines is to bring them to as close to original condition as possible, both technically and cosmetically. A few years ago, I acquired three retired Nagra III's in various states of repair, for $240 all-in. That purchase is what really got me started. Out of the three, plus one other, I created two near-perfect examples of the Kudelski Nagra III. One was sold to a audiophile in Japan for $900. The other is mine and always will be. Its fun to have. Lace a tape, plug in a microphone, and record some stuff. Play it back. Work the controls. Rack the tape. Listen to the robust, boomy sound of full-track, monophonic recording from an analog Nagra. My restorations efforts left me with a lot of parts and two Nagra III's that were shells of their former selves. Ipod popularity had gotten me and a lot of other re-purposers thinking about the Ipod Dock, that plastic affair on the shelf of Best Buy. There's so much discarded technical equipment from the days of old that can be re-upped into a Gestalt of past and present. I like to play with my old tape recorders, but I rarely have the time. With this thing, I can keep it useful, every day. It now plays music, podcasts, internet streams, with room-filling volume, and a happily bouncing modulometer. Pretty pictures here: http://dfwsoundman.b...pics-video.html

demo

I did make an ashtray out of my hhb portadat.

Selector: Automatic Record -selects external RCA stereo line inputs (may activate record feature in future) Hi-Fi Record- ipod mixed with mic input or tape head (selectable) Test- tone generator (original circuit) (when front button pushed) Stop - Power Off - Ipod charging Playback/Batt. Meter- Ipod Playback only, no mic or tapehead, battery reserve shows on meter Hi-Fi Playback - Ipod Playback, meter displays audio level (independent of speaker volume) Meter displays audio level at all positions except in Batt Meter position Other controls Line input/playback control - Speaker volume Mic input - microphone input/tape head preamplifier level Fast Forward button - activates motor for tape loop (for now) B/A button - may activate record in future Tone button - sounds reference tone Bass and treble controls/ RCA ins/outs on right side Tape/mic select and motor speed control on left side

Here's a couple of pics of this "Ipod Nagra". It's a work in progress. Was hoping to sell it for holidays this year, but I keep adding things. It actually sounds pretty good, those are Tivoli Audio speakers in the deck, sealed speaker enclosures and a class T amplifier inside. The mic input works, tone generator, tape transport, playback head, and has bass, treble controls, RCA stereo ins and outs. Runs on D cells or external power supply. All the selector positions have a specific function. Pilot flag indicates that ipod is charging. Last hurdle is to create some record capability with the tape loop, to create a short message or slapback echo gag. I've got to find or create a small enough record amplifier with bias generator. It plays the loop now. But if it can't record, its not a Nagra.

I wrote a blog entry about this back in June. A little history. If you're interested, check out http://dfwsoundman.b...l-2-please.html

Consider this: Back in 1998, I was interviewed and offered a feature shooting in Dallas. The rate: $1500/week flat for 4 or 6 weeks (I don't quite remember). That was with my equipment, and I was told I had pay to my boom operator from that amount as well. I wanted more features on my resume, but after the first 6 or 7, what's another unknown indy film on my resume anyway? I turned it down, I had a kid and a mortgage. Shame was, both the producers and I knew that someone desperate enough would accept the deal. That's why they came to Dallas. Lots on non-union crew that'll work cheap. The production company was from New York, the movie was "Boys Don't Cry", with virtually unknown Hilary Swank. She was paid $3000. She won the Oscar for best actress for that movie. Check out mixer Mack Melson's resume on IMDB before and since that movie. Of course there's no guarantee that stumbling onto the right production will establish your career. But that's typically the big promise that these producers set on the table. Even with reality pilots!

Looks like a catheter! Have a nice day.

Around 1996, a TC stereo Nagra was what, $13000? Also, using credit card for purchase was unlikely then. You typically couldn't do a well-budgeted production or commercial without TC Nagra. In non-union markets, it kept the number of players down, and defined the line between career sound mixers and the "uncommitted". Those days are long gone!

I've found that a Lectro T1 transmitter (250mw) is compatible enough with the G2 IEM receivers when I need more range. I guess any Lectro Transmitter that will do Mode 5 will perform similarly...

Deva Fusion- touchscreen enter relevant during or after a file is rolled (location, cast, scene, take, remarks), all info and track names/routing gets married to each file. It generates a spreadsheet file at end of day, and drops it in the outgoing folder. No external programs, apps or devices required. The editors rave.

Dallas Audio Post I believe uses interns. They provide location services and also rent gear. AMS Pictures uses interns, perhaps to a fault, and not exclusively in sound. Inmotion Imagery as well. All are googleable.