Philip Perkins

I hate that to be the solution but can see that it might be.

I'm cool with the card door, but what I really want is to be able to use a keyboard the way I did in the 7xx days. IE I could be working solo, wearing the machine w/o the keyboard, but occasionally walking over to my cart, hooking up the keyboard and entering some notes and making corrections, then unplugging to go back to recording, all without rebooting etc the machine. This all is not possible with my 633, anyhow.

I spent some more shop-time with this issue. I did re-up (the same) firmware, no change. After some thought I realized that if I boot with the keybd connected and leave it alone it generally keeps working (but not always). What I absolutely can not do is unplug the keyboard and then repatch it. Getting it working again after doing that requires a hard-reset (with TC setting nuked). This problem has come up when I needed to pull a card from the 633 because a client wanted some interview etc audio uploaded right away, while we recorded the next subject. If I turned the machine off, unplugged the keybd (so I could get the "card door" open) pulled the card and then reversed this process, when I reboot the 633 the keyboard is now dead. On to a hard reset, and TC rejam. So, yes, I could roll with the "card door" open, so I could pull cards w/o unplugging the keyboard, or I could roll the 633 with an external TC generator jammed to my slate and camera boxes, so its loss of TC wasn't an issue. But I think this ought to work--a manifestly "bag" type recorder should be able to have its keybd come and go as needed, since a "bag wearing" recordist is unlikely to want the keyboard connected all the time. Yes, I understand that Wingman does some of the same stuff, but I hate typing on my phone.

Excellent.

Will do. So far SD support claims ignorance of the issue.

The prob is that the keyboard will not keep working, even if the machine is on and idling and not being touched. Resetting all the TC stuff every time I need to use the keyboard won't fly. I was wondering if anyone who has had this issue on any 6xx machine sent their recorder in and had a fix done by SD, and what was it? When I had a 664 a few years back this would happen, but a reboot wold return the keybd (with correct TC). The only way to get the keybd back on this 633 is the hard reset, with the loss of TC.

After a long period of working well, my 633 has "keyboard disease" again. A USB keybd will work when the machine is first booted up for the day (after being off for several hours), but shortly after becomes unresponsive to the keybd. I can make this happen by unplugging and replugging the keybd from the 633 USB socket, this causes the keyboard interface to fail every time. After the keyboard has stopped working there seems to be no way to bring it back: rebooting the 633, repatching the keybd etc no avail. I have tried various USB keyboards and USB adapters--all of them behave exactly the same, as above. What is going on? How can it work at first and then stop? The rest of the 633 seems to be fine. I found an old post recommending shutting the machine down and hitting the MENU button until the screen flashes, ie disable Quickboot, which does bring the keybd back after a reboot. But now my TC has been blown to Mars. This is on 633 firm 4.51. Is this a hardware problem?

I worked on a job with a vfx guy who had one of these, pulled by an crewcab pickup. It had the amenities of an RV, but also a low ramp for him to roll all his carts in very easily, and work from inside if he wanted. It was one of those very low-height trailers so no winch was needed even for very heavy carts. The guy mostly did large long projects (like movies with big FX) so he said that he was living in that thing as much as he was @ home or in hotels. I was very impressed.

Your sig says you are in LA. Lots, like unbelievable amounts, of used gear is available in LA--watch for something that will work for you that's by a maker that has parts and service avail at the consignment depts of Trew and LSC etc etc or here or in the Recycler etc. Remember that as a location soundie the mic pole is the thing that you and/or your boomist will actually have in your hands a lot of the time; it and the mic you put on it are really your "axe". Get the best you can and take care of it.

The little ridge to catch the G3 clip is a nice touch. Here are two pieces that I'm sure at least started out as 3D printing projects (bought from Wilkinson Sound). On the left is a virtually weightless ORTF stereo bar for SDCs, and on the right a solution to the perennial Senn. MD421 mic clip issue (their part is the little tube + flat piece that is bolted into the mic body).

Do those 2 operators somehow have more than 2 hands each? QX5 wireless is pretty cool.

Look on the bright side--your gear wasn't ruined, so you aren't scrambling for rental replacements and having to fight with the show over loss and damage while getting it fixed. Yes, you should have help. Probably all of the departments are feeling overwhelmed and ill-used at this point. But all you can do is A: tough it out (while being glad that it is VER that is having all the equipment issues) or B: say you won't continue without a boom op, and be ready to walk if they say no. You say this is a union job. Was the show's deal with the union that they get to have a one-person sound dept even with all that gear?

I've recorded in a club that has that Bose "stick" PA. Wretched, and not enough beef for a movie outdoors. Think much bigger for that many people, for audio that isn't clipped.

PMed you

2 CS3e, 1 KMR82i, 1 RSM 190i, 1 416 and 2 MK41. But the air is so bad in the SF area that the show was postponed, being outdoors and all, these will have to stay in their nest a bit longer.