Philip Perkins

If the levels are very low you may have to DIY your own windscreen--something with a lot of dead air inside.

Does Kortwich make mics themselves, or is this a case of badge-engineering?

I'm glad Ron paid the 3-G Welding guy for his design, that sounds like something Ron would do. Thus his cart was an imitation of 3-G's, but better in pretty much all ways.

The "Skyline" carts, or mine anyhow, were made by 3-G Welding (of Calabasas, CA), and sold through Wilcox and the old ASC. I did fold mine up and air-ship it a few times, as well as trucked it in its folded up state. It didn't hold up as well in combat as the PSC cart that imitated it, I had to have the bottom shelf (usually home to the battery or a large power amp for playback jobs) rewelded to the rest of the cart 3 times over the years when cracks appeared in the metal. But they are lighter than the PSC carts, light enough that you could easily pick up the empty cart with one hand! That Latvian cart is a good homebrew imitation (bolts instead of welding, so you'll be tightening up stuff all the time in use). Rastorder etc are whole generations farther on in all ways than these old carts. Has anyone ever developed a wider "track" set of wheels for the Zucas? They are a very cool solution but I wish they were a bit wider re: tipping when there is weight (like recorder) on the top.

Well done sez me. Several decades ago I was one of those PAs annoying the mixer about wiring talent, and the mixer (David MacMillan) told me to back off so firmly that I'm still feeling the heat. There are some sorts of production folks who believe that keeping the pressure up in that chicken-shit way will move things along faster, while putting the sound dept. in its rightful place (they think). I could be charitable and say that maybe they are getting a lot of heat from above to move fast, but I won't because anyone with any experience knows that this methodology is ultimately counter-productive, stupid, even. I sincerely hope you feel that the story you are telling is worth the trouble to tell it.

To an audio dealer or a rental house you are not "nobody" once you intro yourself (esp in person) and set up accounts. Your dollars are as green as anyone's, and helping you is good for their business.

What I did when I was working out of a small market with next to no local rentals was what was suggested above: I went to a big rental house in a major production center, and spent all day (on several occasions) there checking gear out that I'd only ever seen in pictures, asking questions, getting to know the staff and having them know me, setting up an account and so on. Made a big diff. I now had people I could call for advice who weren't total strangers, and seeing the gear in a situation where I could actually interact and listen to it was great (and WAY better than trying to do this on the exhibit floor of a tradeshow!).

To the OP--are you moving to this new location, like permanently? Or is it just for one job etc? The dance co I often work for often does shows in Europe that require large set elements--they found the best cheapest way to get a large amount of stuff overseas was by ship. Takes awhile, but it was far cheaper than sending it all by air.

Reasonable? I guess. But it never happens!

Denecke TSC?

My vote is that the Nagra was setup by prop people, and the PSM had nothing to do with it. YES! That home-brew overdub technique was how I made my earliest sound pieces. The secret? A plastic spoon over the erase head! Yes, you very much had to figure that the earlier passes were going to be dulled, but it did work in its miserable way!

Maybe they are doing old-school home overdubbing by bypassing the erase head! (Did this on purpose with my earliest mono tape decks, like Bell and Howell 350 or Wollensak T1515).

Ah. Well, I'd still look into an air-cargo container: your gear will be much more protected than it would be just on a pallet. FWIW, Rocket screwed up a couple of international shipments big time, for me. It might be best to start with a freight-forwarder to see what's available for how much, first off?

Isn't the production shipping a lot of stuff to the location too? Like the whole camera, production, HMU, wardrobe, props and so on depts? Maybe you could get onto the cargo flight for that stuff. If the airline has cargo containers then you wouldn't have to palletize and could pack the container yourself.

When I was over on the "camera side", long before I got into sound, my friends and I decided that a reticence to discuss technical details either meant that the person in question didn't really have any or that what they knew or were doing wasn't really very interesting.