Philip Perkins

From CA Franchise Tax Board website: ABC Under the ABC test, a worker is considered an employee and not an independent contractor, unless the hiring entity satisfies all three of the following conditions: A. The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact; B. The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and C. The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed. So, for now, nearly all of us are employees. In CA there is already a lot of pushback, esp in the arts and entertainment biz, so we'll see what shakes out.

Resolve is worth watching. I use it a lot for making video conversions, am very impressed so far.

Now that AB5 is in effect in CA, I'd like to start a thread about how sound folks will cope with the changes it will bring. I am far from fully informed about it all, but notice that that seems to be the case all around here. The sort of small production companies that hire freelance crew people for short jobs (1-3 days maybe) are kind of in a panic about this, since on paper it adds 15% to the cost of hiring someone like me, who has to be payrolled + W42ed as an employee if what I do is "germane to the core business of the employer), which it is since they are filmmakers. No 1099s (they say). There are also changes afoot with the IRS that seem to affect how much equipment+expenses we might be able to deduct from our tax liabilities if much of our income is via W2. Any insights appreciated, especially if this all is actually that much of a change from the current "TV commercial " model of payment, where our labor is payrolled and we send in an invoice for gear rental and sound expendables only?

There's nothing wrong with Audition, it's a very powerful system with some real advantages if you are working on productions being edited in Premiere. I tried very hard to make it work for me a few years ago as a DAW for long form mostly doco post, and eventually came to the conclusion that it was great for doing a lot of work to a short piece of audio in many different versions, and a lot less great for long form where I need to work in much long spans. Much of my hassle with it had to do with how they designed their screens and windows and exactly how it edited clips and organized them. I asked around to users on forums and at trade shows and found that many of the daily drivers of Audition were game audio folks--hence the "short clip a million ways" kind of work. The reigning paradigm in long form is ProTools. The other DAWs that get used for more film-style work more or less follow that paradigm. I encourage you to get online and look at how PT, Reaper, Cubase etc etc operate--you'll see a similarity. As to exactly which to choose--the terrible truth is that you have to get demo versions and test drive them with the sort of project you want to do. This can be a long process, but choosing a DAW is a pretty deep commitment of time and energy, and CHANGING your DAW is very disruptive of your business, so choose carefully.

I would not scrimp on this unless you have to. Nice clear smooth spacious non-harsh applause audio is a hallmark of a really good live recording.

Ready to record the voice parts for Lydia Ourahmne's SOLAR CRY installation @ the Wattis Institute (SF). Note analog 2-track @ center...Lydia is a big fan of analog, so...Thanks to Nikola, Diego and Calan! Thanks too to the crew of the Chase commercial shooting (and parking trucks) just outside--just more free sound for our sound piece!

Yep. Feel you. (Their loss.) Only advice: "wind-down", don't shut off all the lights at once. (PM'ed you)

If your G+E has a truck's worth of gear at their disposal then asking for a "big black" etc to be put up to calm a space down is ok as long as you understand that you may be refused for many reasons. Having your own pads is a really good idea (yes, I call them "furniture pads" because that's what they are). If you have access to a location before a shoot (like a on a scout) you have a better opportunity to negotiate for what you need. If you have the crew and the vehicle to bring them, fabric coated rubber mats are great for calming down footsteps and softening floors. Some of the mixers I worked for back in the day had a stock of 3' x or 4' x 4' plywood pieces with egg-crate acoustifoam glued to them--used to block noisy dimmers, HMI ballasts, hazers etc.. But the basic building block of any location acoustic treatment is the furni pad.

Judicious w/ furniture pads, yes. Having "black-white" sided pads is a huge plus if you want to use them anywhere near talent or the camera--it is an astute political move to be able to ask the DP if they prefer white or black on the floor or a wall on the set (with the implication that you intend it to be one or the other, ie not "none"). Many pads that might be available from the grip dept are the standard blue-colored type, these are not what a soundie should invest in. On smaller urban shoots these days with very reduced G+E packages I'm finding that I can't really count on G+E for anything--they just don't have room in their down-sized vehicles and carts for anything extra, so I need to bring my own stands and furni pads. As far as placement: what ever you can get away with. Especially hard walls facing windows, big hard table tops, hard floors, acute-angled corners near talent. With so many shoots, even small ones, using mutliple cameras there are a lot fewer places to put a furni pad that is both not in a shot and doing you any good.

Sorry for your troubles. My recommendation to you is to have your lavs fixed by the manufacturers who made them, not an independent shop. I've had quite a few B6s successfully fixed by Countryman over the years, they were pretty fast and reasonably priced. The B6 is a tiny strange beast, and very difficult to work on.

Opens @ the Kennedy Center in DC March 13 '20!

If the applause is at all present trying to remove it using any off the shelf NR app will result in audio you won't like much, especially if the content is orchestral or marching band instrumental music. Jay had a good idea: Shazam or MusicID the tune to get its title, and go look for a clean recording of it online. At a big event like a Tattoo I doubt the bands are playing anything so esoteric that you would not be able to find it that way. If it is important to your friend/client that the music they use be THAT particular recording they might have to live with the applause, since the NR cure will probably be worse than the disease.

No, sorry. Nagra III machines are almost impossible to get serviced professionally anymore, let alone modified. For more info you could try: lightningsoundrepair@gmail.com

This is the wrong subforum for a sales question, sorry. You should move this to "buy and sell" if you want to sell it to someone here. For a consignment sales store in location sound the 3 biggies are Trew, Location Sound Corp and Gotham.

This is a noble cause...did you ask SD support about it? I don't expect them to help (would rather sell you an 888 etc), but they'd be sympathetic and might know a 3rd party etc...?