Robert Bluemke

I hear a lot of complaints (mostly on the Facebook groups) about people advertising themselves as mixers without having a working knowledge of the job, yet here we are piling on someone who essentially wants to be an apprentice and learn the right way. I understand that "volunteer" maybe isn't the best term, but let's also remember that English probably isn't the OP's first language.

Elias, Vas would be a great person to connect with!

On 3/6/2020 at 3:11 PM, Olle Sjostrom said:

Quite a busy scan though.  That's the wonder of it all I guess, that it works anyway. In Sweden, even in the busiest parts, I probably would never have that much RF...

That's a pretty average scan these days in NYC. If I'm working outside of Manhattan my scans are a little bit better.

Here's mine at the moment. I'm tossing around the idea of renaming my company (aka me, myself and I) in the event that I want to start expanding my services, so I'm a little behind in updating it.

https://www.robertbluemke.com

I still don’t understand the lack of AES. DANTE is great for a cart but in the bag AES is way more efficient from both a power perspective and a flexibility perspective. It definitely looks like a great recorder but I think Sound Devices is missing a huge need in our market by ignoring AES connectivity. 

9 hours ago, JonG said:

 Logic Pro is a pain to edit in. I’m a Pro-Tools guy, but I believe there are other free programs that operate similarly to PT such as Reaper or ____? Others may chime in better here. 

 

@andrewsbaik

I agree with Jon, Logic is more suited for music production than it is for audio editing. I would definitely take a look at Reaper instead of Pro Tools for your DAW, I would only go with ProTools if you are sending mixes back and forth with others that are already using Pro Tools or if you plan on doing mixes for clients. Reaper is $60 and provides all of the DAW functionality that ProTools does.

Unfortunately this sounds like another case of inexperienced crew members put into a position where they can't even tread water. I'm noticing that a lot as well in the non union commercial pond I tend to swim in, folks moving up the ranks too quickly without a really good idea of what every department does and what they need to succeed in the whirlwind environment that we work in.  Too many AD departments that keep incessantly asking if I'm ready to wire, while employing the logic that if you wire everyone in frame (and maybe even out of frame) it will miraculously fix any sound problems that may arise. 

FWIW having watched "When They See Us" prior to reading the article, I'm in awe that you were able to capture sound as well as you did. I never felt that the sound quality took me out of the moment throughout the series. It is frustrating that a DP and a director both are willing to make a conscious decision to frame things in such a way that they know they are compromising the ability of the sound mixer to do their job properly. Kudos to you and your team Jan for making the best out of a tough situation, I hope your next gig is smooth sailing.

On 6/26/2019 at 1:34 AM, Prahlad Strickland said:

I totally agree,  but I also think small pots, or 5 medium and 3 small pots would have been a lot more flexible. The 633 has 6 faders.  

 

Love the banks,  love the flexibility with the faders, but a little more would have been awesome.

Have you ever used the three pop up faders on the 633, they're close to worthless if you have adult sized hands. I think once we get a chance to use the selectable banks it will become incredibly fast to work with the rotary encoders.

I’m using the AO-1.5 silent for my Nomad rig and I really like it. It’s at least half the weight of my Orca OR-34 or my KTek Stingray medium, but it doesn’t feel cramped. I also like the ability to add or subtract storage via Molle based bags depending on what type of work I’m doing that day. 

On 4/25/2019 at 8:01 PM, Mobilemike said:

Interesting! I vaguely remember hearing about that - was there a solution to that that you remember?

 

I have used a tentacle as a TC generator for the MixPre before I had the Zaxcom and had zero issues. 

 

-Mike

I have a Mixpre 6 with an IFB100, but instead of using the IFB100 as the master clock I use a tentacle as the master and then had Gotham Sound build me a Y cable that feeds both the 100 and the Mixpre from the tentacle. Haven’t had any issues with the Mixpre losing code and the cable was pretty cheap. 

I’m also using a full Zaxcom set up, so all of my channels are backed up by the transmitter recordings. 

I keep a MixPre 6 in my kit. If my Nomad were to go down, I can swap recorders in less than 10 minutes and be back up and running. 

The latest versions of firmware for the mini and the Amira work fine with the ERX. I’ve done shoots with both cameras this year and have had no issues at all. 

Has anyone been able to connect Sound Report Writer to their Tentacle Sync E? I’m trying via Bluetooth and by hardwiring it to my phone but the app is not recognizing the Tentacle. I’ve emailed the app developer over the weekend, still waiting to hear back from them. 

On 1/31/2019 at 9:37 AM, afewmoreyears said:

Much of the time the DP OWNS the camera as opposed to grabbing a camera from rental... He or she would like to of course use their camera and get their rental for it...  Much of the time this drives the camera choice...

At this point, the only time I run into a Red on set is because the DP owns the package. Thankfully most of the DP's I work with have ditched their Red's and bought an Alexa Mini.

One thing you can do is have them calibrate the sensor (black shade) to run at a higher average temp. This may help a little, but if you're running longer than a half hour per take then this may be all for naught.

2 hours ago, Constantin said:

 

Do you know where in the chain the hpf is located in the ZMT? Could be before the A/D converter...

According to the FCC papers for the TRX900 the high pass is implemented in the digital realm. If the signal flow has changed since then I haven’t been able to find documentation showing it. 

1 hour ago, John Blankenship said:

 

The ZMT has its own high pass filter you can use -- with selectable frequencies.  It's in the extended menu within the AUDIO sub-menu. 

I like to cut the lows before they hit the A/D converter if I can, but I have been using the high pass built into the ZMT. 

17 hours ago, Vincent R. said:

Really, what are the issues? I just worked with it once and didn't had issues.

From my personal experience, I had rf interference issues with my Tac!t cable when I used it with my DPA 4017C. It’s a bummer, I really like having a low cut in line before the signal hits my ZMT Phantom with the 4017C. 

7 hours ago, newzhack said:

I used this mixer for a couple of interviews yesterday and found using the headphone volume for naming tracks to be near impossible with the bag I have. I got this small keyboard that I use with my 664 and it works fine with the mixer. I don's see any keyboard layout info inside the manual. Does anyone have that info? 

Why not use the Wingman app for track naming?

I’ve used the baseball with the furry overcover on my MKH50 in light breeze and it’s been ok. Anything stronger than a breeze and I will use my baby ball. 

24 minutes ago, Ben B said:

They want to avoid using a clap... The whole film will be half improvised half scripted and they think that the clap brakes the authenticity. I understand their thought process but i think shooting film without clap is risky. No backup solution in case the TC ended up being out of sync for any reason, TC being the only syncing possibility since i can't send audio to the cam. Anyway we are still in discussion on if it is at all possible thus my question.

But you mean that, in theorie, my workflow of leaving a Tentacle on the Arriflex 416 should work? I can't see why not but i just wanted to make sure.

 

Tail slating isn’t an option?

5 minutes ago, Matthias Richter said:

Good customer service indeed!! (after an initial shock).

 

The housing is identical to the V1 and there is no lable saying V2. Just the phantom power menu tells the story.

Don’t let this info out on the Zaxcom Facebook page, you might have a posse of disgruntled sound mixers at your door with pitchforks and torches. 

16 hours ago, IronFilm said:

What was it about the OR-32 that meant you couldn't use your Stingray harness before?

I didn’t like the way the Stingray fit with the Orca bag, and I also found that it was taking more time to get into the harness. 

It was just personal preference, I see quite a few mixers using the Stingray/Orca combo and they seem to make it work for them. 

I recently switched from the Orca OR-32 to the Porta Brace AO 1.5 silent. Really liking this set up, I shed at least three pounds of bag weight and I get to use my Stingray harness again. 

I once had a Junior Agency Producer ask me why he could hear himself in the background on the Comtek during a take. Thankfully I had a 1st AD on set that had no qualms about telling him in the nicest way possible how big of an idiot he was.

I use this all the time, it creates a pdf with all of the clip metadata and three thumbnail photos of the beginning, middle and end of the clip.

http://mikasky.free.fr/foolcolor/foolcat.html

On 9/8/2017 at 11:03 AM, Jim Feeley said:

How does  the 4017 handle the weather, humidity, etc? 

 

On 9/8/2017 at 8:37 PM, ramallo said:

-Is perfect in humidity ambients, close to the MKH's. I used a 4017 in Amazon forrest with great results.

 

I second Ramallo's sentiments about DPA's ability to resist humidity. I used a 4017B for a week in a half in Sri Lanka during the rainy season and the mic preformed flawlessly.