Philip Perkins

Perhaps he just means that shows shot in Vancouver haven't gone this way before. It would be true here in SF too. Philip Perkins

That IS the best arguement, but unfortunately it is not a small expense to post sync audio, and the larger the project the more this is true. (Remember, they'd be going from NO post-sync expense--audio on camera tapes--to whatever the cost of the method in use is.) There are considerable metadata issues involved, and the whole work flow must be tested before the job starts. Producers who try to do a lot of post syncing w/o having the bugs worked out of the whole system will often be the ones who give up on this and vow not to do it again. I've had some success w/ getting even low-end video jobs to post sync my audio, but I did A LOT of handholding before during and after the shoot. Even with these successes, those producers still use the camera audio as their default mode. Of course, probably the best way to get post syncing to happen is to enlist the camera dept in the idea of either less or no wires going to the camera.... Philip Perkins

The comment about knowing the workflow of your job is very important. If, like most smaller video-based shoots, the audio that will be used in the final show is going to pass thru the FCP or Avid (and be OMFed out to audio from there or finished in the picture system) and the audio from your recorder is there to backup and supplement the camera sound, then using 16 bit is a good way to go. I haven't been happy with how these systems truncate 24 bit files into 16 bit, and if the editor is actually paying attention to bit-width of the audio files doing this may result in some confusion and unnecessary phone calls. If the show is of a scale where they will take the trouble to REPLACE the camera audio (16/48) with your recorder audio (24/48) then the increase in audio fidelity is dramatic, mostly due to how much better a recorder your SD box is than ANY video camera at any bit-width. (I do this heartbreaker on every video job: while rolling, switch back and forth between the return from the video camera and the return from your audio recorder.....) The issue is really one of time and committment in post production--nothing to do with production sound. Conforming original audio to an EDL is complex time consuming work, and if there are any problems at all then there is a great temptation to chuck all the double system sound and go with the camera audio. (This has happened on several indie features mixed by my friends and I, despite early good intentions.) The latest version of ProTools (7.3.1) has some interesting new abilities to do this kind of work, but everyone has to be in concert about how metadata is done, there are some issues involved if the dailies-mix is being recorded on a separate machine from the isos (sharing only TC) and some other wrinkles that are being hashed out on the DUC as we speak. Philip Perkins

I saw some lit about these: SWM 7000, working in the 2.7 GH band. They are pretty cheap--about $2200 for a 2 channel (AC powered, rack mount RX) system. They claim immunity from the problems we have in the UHF band. Anyone heard these? Seems liek they are being marketed to sound reinforcement companies. Philip Perkins

I've been using Lectros in 3 different blocks for years, mostly to make sure I had at least a couple working as move around the Northern California area. The results of this spreading of the risk have been mixed. One one hand, I've usually been able to get a couple of radios clear no matter what, but on the other it has made avoiding intermod issues more complex. It turns out that there aren't that many configs of these blocks that both work together AND avoid the growing minefield of interference sources. And yes, we're going to lose some the blocks that have worked the best around here. Most other folks around here pick a block and get all the radios in that one zone. Philip Perkins

Usually it's my knees creaking, quietly, and me gasping in pain, not so quietly. Philip Perkins

There are some companies that spec their audio that way all the time. It's a pain to deal with and makes things very confusing, but it's what they want for whatever reason. I've done shows in which a handful of mics were routed to 6 VTRs all in different splits and mix minuses. Why? Because they could I guess. Anymore I try to persuade them that it will be simpler for everyone if we record a straight 2 track dailies mix to all cameras/VTRs and I give them a BWF poly of all the splits. But I don't do ENG work, and this wouldn't work for everyone. Philip Perkins

Wow--I'd never heard of a Cooper mixer failing in the field--that's a first (and an ugly one). I've always felt that part of what they pay us for is to run way far down a list of "what-ifs" before each job, although losing a big mixer is probably the toughest thing that can happen (a spare 208?). Good on you for being ready for even this once-in-a-lifetime problem. Philip Perkins

So the Mx12 compares with all the things that a Cameo can do (incl delays etc)? That IS pretty amazing. Philip Perkins

Do you think the freeze-up is related to having the Mix12 connected? Philip Perkins

This is not WHOLLY unexpected--they are still Microsoft. However some big news around my studio is that the folks @ Sadie (in the UK) have the latest Sadie software running on Macs now, via BootCamp, and it's working quite well. A few hardware issues to solve, and I might be able to return to being an all-Mac operation again (after 13 yrs of having both PC and Macs running to get all the apps I wanted). Philip Perkins

A fairly perceptive doco shooter was telling me about a job where he had to do sound and shoot, and which, fortunately for him, had pretty straightforward audio requirements. He opined that anyone can do sound when it's easy. Fairly true anymore. I find that my experience mostly plays is situations in which I guess right about what the filmmaker either wants or is about to do, and being ready. That's not a film school or a talent thing, that's experience. Most producers pick up on this concept after a few jobs. Some of them develop a respect for it to the degree that they will pay for it, and some who understand the situation just as well just figure that they want the best deal they can get no matter what the outcome. The point about estimating 1/4" tape needs is well taken--I did a lot of overseas jobs where there was going to be no possibility of getting more stock--and we were rolling @ 15 ips! Estimating was made a bit easier by being able to call up the camera assistant and ask him how many rolls of film for how many cameras he was bringing. With video as the camera medium that is made a lot more difficult--one has to really over-estimate disk/CF space to a much greater extent to be safe. Philip Perkins

The Varicam runs @ the same frame rate all the time: 60 fps. It uses a system of frame-flagging to tell the system which frames to play back, and there are a number of other settings that affect the apparent frame rate as well, including shutter (and these decisions can be changed in post). On a film shoot everyone would assume that audio recorded during a shot that was cranked @ "other-than-sound-speed" would be a wild track--on video I'd go ahead and work as you normally do and the editors can retrieve the sound from that shot if they want it. Philip Perkins

D Subs to a Yamaha mixer? To Deva? Philip Perkins

This is a good idea, if only to save wear on the mixer's connectors--hard to fix, those. Do you end up repatching a lot on location? I guess with a big multi-multitrack rig you might well do so... Philip Perkins

Couldn't resist--the discussion of "cart-names" came up in the "Nicole Kidman Insert Car Injury" thread, so I thought I'd give it its own home. My cart's name: "The Ship Of Love", or, more intimately: the "Carte d'Amore". Philip Perkins

So...was that rig a limo interior or a spaceship or what? thanks Philip Perkins

Nicely done, lots of flexibility in a small space. I hope you had a seatbelt on that camera car rig! What do you do for tape returns and for monitor audio distribution? My AD145 had a single mono tape return (for which I made an extenal switch box) and a single mono output of everything (L+R) besides the stereo outs. (No aux sends etc.) I had a similar experience to yours re: your AD145 being fuse protected from over-voltage power--a very solid, simple design! Philip Perkins

I can't help you w/ the S corp stuff, but what your accountant did is very normal, since the gov. allows you to write off up to $15k of stuff in the year you bought it, rather than stringing the deductions out over several years. (It may be more than $15k/yr now.) I guess the accountant could have asked you about it, but what they did is pretty standard, and what I've done for the past many years. Most people want the maximum cut in their tax liability for the year at hand, and it also makes the year to year bookkeeping much simpler. Philip Perkins

Just a note to say that what held me back from joining the Sound Devices recorder crowd was the whole busines of burning DVDs etc @ days end, for all the reasons the OP mentioned. When they came out with the new software and attachments to allow the recorders to burn DVDRAMs in real time, I signed up and it has worked very well in exactly that scenario. The only caveat is that many computers cannot read DVDRAM disks in their onboard drives, although all the machines used for telecine playback can. However, in my world, the audio for those jobs that require disks to be readable by a desktop computer is usually a backup (for video), and can be delivered later, as opposed to being needed immediately for dailies, for which the DVDRAM is fine. There is no reason why I couldn't sub in a Firewire drive for the DVDRAM drive and be mirroring in real time with much greater capacity as well. Philip Perkins

Way cool, thanks. Philip Perkins

Sorry, but who is "we"? Do you work @ a rental house? Which one? Philip Perkins

Telecine, as it is practiced in the USA in telecine bays where pix and sound are synced and transferred together, is possible w/o TC slates or Aaton code, but no one wants to do it that way. The telecine facility, upon seeing no visible TC slates, will blow off the bid they made and go to time-and-materials and the producer will be unhappy. Nowadays everything is scheduled so tightly that they really count on the speed of having visble TC on slates and NL files w/ no transport issues or unaccountable aborts as w/ DAT or 1/4 inch. However, if the telecine is MOS and the sound is being synced in an NL editing system, then you are free to invent whatever system suits everyone involved--there are a lot of ways to skin that cat, incl. no TC slates. In this scenario good notes are important, actually naming the files w/ scene + take numbers is much more important than it is in traditional telecine, and you have to work out when, how and if pulldown will be done to the audio. Philip Perkins

AD mixers a very solid, sound great and are very well supported by Audio Developments. They've never had the acceptance of other mixers in the US, but are definitely worth a listen. They now make a low-priced line of mixers without transformers--details are on their website. I used an AD mixer (AD145) all over the world in all sorts of conditions for nearly 18 years with great success, and would definitely consider another one if I had the need. At least with my old AD panel, I never had a service need that couldn't be met by a local tech armed with AD's excellent documentation. The mixer also was very modifiable--plenty of room inside and modular construction. Philip Perkins

I think it says that the filmmakers don't understand the sound aspects of filmmaking either because they never have been taught or don't think they are important. In these cases I'm just talking about production dialog only--nothing extra, but their dialog is distractingly bad in many ways, often at the same time. I wonder if someone was even wearing headphones during some of the recordings. They do not want to ADR--the actors aren't available even if they did. In some cases it is obvious from the pictures that something simple could have been done that would have saved the production sound for a scene--as simple say as using a zepplin on a boom mic outdoors, or not recording closeups with radically different mic placement or choice than that used in the master. We can fix a lot of these things in post, but to my ears the results are never as interesting or germane to the drama as the original production sound, and, having made these many fixes, we've spent a lot of time that is now not available for making the film better--longer mix, more considered sound design etc.. Philip Perkins