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hemmerlinj

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Posts posted by hemmerlinj

  1. Not sure the DB's ever had it.  I know the SMQV's and SMV's do.  If you press and hold the aud, freq, and down arrow buttons at the same time you might see a menu that could have this option in it.  Not sure though.

  2. With the go pro you're going to have rigging.  I would get some cheap zoom and use those along with trying to get the wireless to your rig.  Cheaper than trying to go with Zax wireless when you're already full up on Lectro gear.  Might need to buy some extra lavs to do this.  Or recommend production get different cams that can actually get a good audio signal.  Sony makes some small cams with XLR inputs that would be perfect.  They have night vision as well.  Those would work perfectly.  You just need to clap for sync.

     

    And explain to them that just because the GO Pros make things easier and cheaper for camera it doesn't have the same affect on the Sound Dept.  I hate to say I kinda agree with the let if fall apart scenario.  You did warn them.  Just don't look like you you didn't try to prevent it when it starts to happen.  

     

    Good luck.

  3. I play my Bass, and just got into Eurorack Modular Synths (Stay away from this unless you want to blow serious amounts of money really fast).  And I've been building RC cars for the past few years.  This I find the most relaxing.  Painting and redesigning bodies in particular.  It makes one hell of a mess though.  I make RC drifting cars and I have a Rock Crawler as well.  I almost never get a chance to run them though.

  4. Download the freq finder app.  It'll save your ass with the wireless freqs.  For the car stuff you'll need to have a recorder in each car if they do it at the same time.  If it's 1 at a time then that's pretty simple.  The 8 people at once is easy once you get everyone mic'd up. The mix is less important for reality if they have the iso's, but giving a mix will still help post. Just remember that you are only one person and cannot be at 2 places at once.  So if people go in different directions and cameras follow you only can go with one camera.  Pick one from the start, generally whomever A cam is and stay with them.  Make sure the producers know this.  Assume that they are all idiots and don't know what the hell they're doing (do this nicely).  

     

    And be stern but fair, especially with talent (you'll want to punch atleast one of them before the day is over).  

     

    Don't get bullied into anything.  

     

    Nicely tell camera ops to do their job and you'll do yours.  They like to think they know about audio.

     

    Remain professional and nothing personaly it's just a job.

     

    Most important.  Your gear rate.  If you are getting the gear, you're looking at about 750 a day just for the wireless and recorder alone.  Do not forget this.  Gear is not free and you should not be giving it away.  I can't stress this enough. 

     

     

    Figured I'd get in all of the things that are less technical as that has been covered.

     

    Cheers

  5. I was just talking to somebody about this earlier in the week, and wondering if it was still in the works. 

    I have not tried it, but if you velcro an ERXTC to a Denecke, and have userbits click up per take, it would show that on the slate, right? Hardly Scene/Take, but it is something that could help on those narrative projects where the slate is often inaccurate. 

    I did this on a behind the scenes for a photo shoot.  5D shoot, very small crew.  I kept my TSC plugged in to my Nomad and set to read.  Had User bits set to increment.  The person who was going to sync it up was there so I just explained it to him what the numbers meant.  At the clap it would show the date on the first 6 digits and the last 2 would be the segment number.  It worked great as tey would start and stop alot and I would just continue recording for a while.

  6. Marc,

     

    I know that you can route different inputs and what not to it, but those inputs are all being recorded already.  I guess it can give you a bit of redundancy.  Can you route some hidden 9th and 10th input into it that I never knew existed on the 788?  I have a Nomad 12, which has 10 possible analog inputs that I can route each to their individual cards tracks pre of post fader, and I have 2 more tracks for a mix.  That I can't really do that on the 788 (as far as I know, correct me if I'm wrong) just seems like a waste.

     

    Cheers,

     

    J Hemmerlin

  7. Mark,

     

    I believe the clock source that Peter is referring to is the Sample Clock not the TC although I would be feeding it external TC anyway.  Using a Denecke SB-3 or Ambient equivalent would get the job done.  Although one would hope that if you were using this on a job that  it would warrant a solid master clock system that was feeding everything in the house for all sync needs.

  8. One issue is Zaxcom and its products often gets bashed, and in most of those cases, unfairly by people who have never used the product. So like any good parent Glenn is just defending his children.

    Yes, this is very true.  I've been seeing a high amount of posts about people having problems with the 664 and very little trashing of it for these problems.  Unlike the Nomad where it seemed as though everyone had to get their opinion in on what ever matter was at hand.

     

    I own a Nomad and have one of the early Production units #34 and I've had almost no issues with it.  It has been a rock solid machine.  It sounds much better than any SD gear I've used which is just about everything minus the 664, and I've given the 664 a listen and thought nothing more about it than I do the 552.  (I'm not bashing either).  

     

    When it comes to features the Nomad blows everything out of the water.  I have 6 XLR ins over the 4 of a 788 without the need of different cables.  And I can make better use of the track count on my Nomad than a 788.  I still don't understand the x1 and x2 tracks on the 788.  Seems like a waste if I can't route 2 other additional inputs to them for for something like 10 iso tracks if needed.  I can do this with the Nomad and have a faders for it, be it Virtual but it gets the job done.

     

    The 664 is more comparable to the Nomad in it's input capabilities, but I don't have to take up extra bag real estate to get extra faders and tracks.  And with the many outputs of the 664 better routing options would be nice.  I can route like a bad ass mother with my Nomad and I can do it on the fly much easier than 788 for sure and 664 I believe.  Something that can come in handy sometimes.  

     

    All in all these machines are all great.  788 is ready to go for a couple of days of rolling right out of the box pretty much before you have to think about uploading your files.  Nomad and 664 are ready to mix out of the box and are easy to get recording with throwing in a cf card.  Nomad is guaranteed to have your files if you lose power up until the point of power loss, and has rock solid pres on the inputs, and is uber light.  Zaxnet takes the work out of keeping things in sync(not that there is that much work,although sometimes its a nightmare).  664 gives you the highest track count(with an additional piece of gear) than other field recorders.

     

    The weight, price, and flexibility of the Nomad was what worked best for me.  Although, if the 664 was available when I bought my Nomad I may very well would have purchased a 664 instead having been an owner of SD gear.  Nomad was my first Zaxcom purchase.  And for what it's worth the Nomad has a much better menu system than both machines in my opinion.  I'm sure others will disagree.  When I have to use a 788 and I need to make changes via the menu I want to shoot myself.  

     

    Think about what you'll really need out the gear and buy accordingly.  Take into account where you want to go as far as the type of work you'll be doing.  A 664 may not be a good choice if you think you'll be doing more cart based work and want to have linear faders over rotary faders, but may be the perfect choice for high track count bag work (although your back won't thank you).

     

    my .02

     

    cheers.

  9. They use this on Chopped, but only as a backup.  Metacorder is the main recorder.  I believe the only complaint was the lack of the resolution with the meters, but I think there is a display menu for better meters.  Not sure though.

  10. I installed 5.0 and set everything up.  Left the machine on for several hours and let it record non stop for about 5 segments.  Never froze up.  Had a mic plugged in as well.  Haven't listened to the files to see if there were any issues.

     

    I had 4.42 on there prior and it would on occasion freeze up if left completely idle, meaning not touching anything at all.  



    Formatting the Primary took just over a minute.  That's a huge difference.

  11. I met a guy here in NYC that used a Blackhawk flak vest with the MOLLE system.  His theory was that it had a quick release, and he had been working on some shoots on a boat or dock a bunch.  If he went into the water he could drop the rig quick rather than get dragged under.  He got the idea from the steadicam guy.

  12. thanks for the link, I just ordered. I had a case that didn't have a clear front, but offered some protection and a belt clip. I have blown minds a few times when I handed one to the note taker that needs to see TC but doesn't want to cram behind the camera to share the little monitor with the interviewing producer (reality TV formal interviews). 

    I just did that on a commercial shoot yesterday,  Scripty was so use to not having something like that she kept forgetting about, then realizing oh wait,  it's right here in front of me.

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