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Alex Riordan

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About Alex Riordan

  • Birthday 01/01/1

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  • Location
    Chicago, IL
  • About
    Production sound mixer. Features, television, commercials.
  • Interested in Sound for Picture
    Yes

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  1. Alex Riordan

    scorpio!

    Thanks Geoff for your impressions. Really good info.
  2. I just rsvp'd. Last minute decision to attend NAB. I look forward to seeing everyone.
  3. Hey Jim, I just rsvp'd. Sorry it's so late. Last minute decision to go to NAB this year. I look forward to seeing everybody!
  4. Please allow me to tell you a little about Steve "Boom Shaka Laka" LaFayette. Steve was the sweetest, warmest, most open hearted and easy going guy you'd ever meet. He never had anything negative to say about anyone and would do whatever he could to help someone else out. He had this soft spoken Texas thing going on. He had a great smile and an infectious laugh. He loved music and English football (soccer). He was engaged to be married to his long time love Theresa. Steve was dealt a bad hand. He had been battling a genetic liver disorder for a very long time. And even though he had to deal with health insurance issues, public health care (Cook County Hospital), expensive medication and the inability to get on a donor list, his demeanor was always bright and positive. He used to have smiley face stickers on his headphones. Steve was my boom operator in the beginning of my freelance career. We started out doing independent shorts. One of the firsts we were paid $75 a day and slept on the floor of the producer's parents house out of town. We did a bunch of independent features together. Our corporate and commercial jobs allowed us the freedom to work on independent "art" films. We enjoyed the camaraderie of working on small shoots with good people and the feeling you get when everyone on the crew is working together for something. We often worked with many of the same people. They were family. After many independents we finally got our union cards. When I got asked to mix my first union feature, Steve was my first call. The next year we were fortunate to have two features at Sundance, an independent and our first union picture. We worked together for so long we were like an old married couple. Too often I was the grumpy old man yelling at Steve for no good reason. For this I'm eternally sorry. Steve eventually moved to DC and I was not good about keeping in touch. The seriousness of his health problems and his passing came as a shock. As I prepare for the biggest and longest job of my professional career, I can't help but reflect back on the beginning with Steve. How much we learned together about production sound and filmmaking. Things they don't teach you in school and there were no internet forums back then. Set etiquette, working with other departments and actors, plant mics, how to be humble and pick your battles, travel, etc. the list goes on and on. These things you can only learn by doing the work. Many of the relationships we started back then have grown over the years to lead to bigger and better things for me. I've been very fortunate the last few years and I owe a great deal of that success to Steve LaFayette. I'm sorry I didn't tell him that. So Stevo, thank you buddy and know you will be missed but not forgotten!
  5. I just realized I posted in old thread. I'm coming and replied at link. Thanks John. Alex
  6. I've decided I'm coming. It's been a long time since I've attended NAB and the party. At least 8 years. It was just RAMPS then, pre JWSound. I look forward to seeing a lot of folks I haven't seen in a while, meeting some new and checking out the gear to come. Alex
  7. I'm just hoping for a mix bus link. Hopefully in & out. Maybe a ta5. There's probably not much room for more. I'd like the ability to link this to another mixer or two of them together. My 442 has a ta3 mix in and my 208 has db-9(?) mix in but it's 4 busses.
  8. Oh my bad, you probably mean the drawers. They are made by Iris. They are an older style but still available at some stores. I got them at OfficeMax, Depot or Staples. One of the stores has their own name brand now and are not as sturdy in my opinion.
  9. Thanks guys. The funny thing is, I built this in a hurry two years ago for a tv show I didn't expect to get and it's worked great ever since. I knew I wanted to have as much gear w/ us as possible. I had no time to do a 8020 or custom welded cart (there are some awesome carts on this site!). I came close to building a senior magliner but decided that would be too long so I took my old aux cart and went up. It's a junior magliner 24x36 (Backstage). I bought a senior handle and a 40" nose. I tried a bunch of different drawer combinations till I decided on this height. It is extremely light and can hold a ton of gear. The only down side is now it's too tall to roll into my Dodge cargo van built. So the cart gets folded up and strapped to my shelf in the van. The drawers are light enough even fully stocked to be picked up by one person. I did build it using quick release pins so it comes apart pretty quickly and easily. While I mainly use this when I'm on a show / camera truck I have used it day playing on 2nd unit. I generally don't bother with it on commercials.
  10. This is very cool! I've been wanting a small mixer for remote locations, back-up, second unit etc. for a long time. Kudos to Ron and Pascal. This is a great example of an end user and manufacturer coming together to make a much needed product. I think you'll sell a lot of these. A couple of suggestions if it's not too late. Please consider putting a mix bus in/out link connector on the back. Hopefully there is room. More often these days 8 tracks is not enough for some scenes. Being able to link 2 of these together would be awesome. I'm very glad you've added another input. I can see how many would want 48v phantom on 2 inputs but I'm almost always wireless these days. For the way I work it would be great not to have to adjust the outputs of receivers going into channels 1 & 2. I always have more receivers than mixer inputs. We constantly are wiring ahead for the next scene and I use the back of my receivers like a patch panel plugging into whatever board input makes sense to me. Having different output levels on different receivers would get hairy in the heat of the moment and not good. Would it be possible to have a switch on input 1 & 2 to take out the mic pre and have the same amount of trim as inputs 3-8? Thanks, Alex
  11. This is my latest drawer solution for my aux cart. For a long time I had toyed with other options. Metal tool chests were too heavy. I tried rack cases w/ SKB drawers but felt they were a waste of space. I have been using these plastic office drawers in my shop and decided to give them a try and they have been great. Lightweight, nice size drawers, good use of space and surprisingly durable. Not all plastic drawers are created equal!
  12. Hey Jeff, I finally made a long overdue donation. Thanks so much for the great site. I've been a lurker since the beginning here and was a long time lurker and rare poster on RAMPS. We are all so very fortunate that you have taken the reigns and made this site way better than RAMPS could ever have been.
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