Philip Perkins

My story is pretty much the same, so I roll and burn backups. I acknowledge that it may be an emotional issue above all, and I FEEL better on the job when I know I'm rolling a backup. So I do. Philip Perkins

I've been having good luck w/ running a real-time DVD-RAM w/ the 702T, and of course that allows me to just eject the disk at the end of the day (esp. w/ only 2 tr) instead of starting a burn @ that point... Philip Perkins

The Deva 2 would make a great backup machine, however you can still get a good price for it used and run something much cheaper as a backup. For 2 tracks only a Tascam P2 works very well (w/ TC from your new Deva) and costs only about $900 new. An SD 702T is a great machine on it's own and is about $2500. You could get a Mac Mini, a Traveler and run Boom Recorder for under $2400 I bet. I think you could get much more than that for your Deva 2 if it is in good shape. I still hear of lots of Deva 2s being used on jobs, and they don't seem to last long on the consignment pages. Philip Perkins

There's been a lot of discussion about backups, what a real backup is, what the need for it is and how it might be recorded and delivered on this forum and on RAMPS over the years. Current recording equipment is very reliable (esp. post DAT, and that was pretty reliable for me as well), but problems can occur. You as a mixer have to decide how you want to manage the risk of not recording or losing the recording of a keeper take and act accordingly. My own opinion is that if rolling a redundant recorder is easy (ie I'm on a cart and have a boom op), then why not? In the DAT era, rolling two machines had a definite maintenance cost, and many of us rolled a cheaper non-TC DAT as the backup to save the hours on our TC machines. But in NL recording there is little or no wear involved by comparison, so why not? I freely admit that the likely need for the back up will arise due to my own error or inattention rather than an equipment problem beyond my control, but since I know that about myself I try to mitigate the risks as best I can. In your set up I would feed the FR2 from a split of the output of your 302. That will put the audio closer to being in sync to the audio the SD recorder is recording, since I believe the 744 will add some latency to the audio that is passed thru it. Also, you don't want to be feeding the backup machine from the convertors of the primary, as a digital audio problem, incorrect setting or power-down of the primary will take down the backup too. Philip Perkins

The Commercial (and etc) Cart: M6 (on 1 inch "legs" to make a place to stuff and route cables), ABS hinge gag for the SD 702T, tilted up to make the display visible when I'm standing up (as I usually am), Comtek Phase-Rite TX antenna, tan monitor switch box next to mixer; rack shelf has the Tascam P2 (one set of inputs on a split of the mixer L/R, as backup, the other for 2 of the 6 direct outs of the M6; TC and clock from the 702T), to the right of the P2 the Comtek BST75 TX, just visible above the P2 attached to the underside of the top shelf: SD DVD-RAM drive that records from the 702T in real time; on the left, w/ the orange wires: my home-made wireless RX rack (w/ DC split, RF splits and it's own battery backup); slate and Comtek cases, computer bag, @ right a Sony AC500 power supply (great shielding re RF), under it a 26 AH battery. Not visible: cable hooks and the rack for fishpoles on the other side of the top shelf, SD "CL1" remote control/keyboard port for 702T, the base station for the Denecke TB1 system (for boom op talkback), and the big camera bag w/ accs that usually hangs off the near end of the cart. For multitrack the Traveler+ drive go in where the P2 is and the laptop goes in the space on the top shelf. The Traveler takes the direct out feeds (or etc) from the M6, and TC+wordclock from the 702T. It's the same old Magliner I've taken all over the world, but a shiny new top shelf w/ new carpeting. For one-man jobs this top shelf lifts off and is replaced by a plain one. This rig rolls up ramps into my minivan. Most of the time this cart is all we have on the set--everything we need for a small job with the extras left in the van. Philip Perkins

Actually you can import video w/ OMF as well. I guess they figure that you won't get to 7 or 8 tracks very often, and that the benefit of having a single audio element for most of the project's location sound outweighs the extra hassle of having iso tracks 7/8 on a 2nd machine: overall less material for them to deal with. They may also be intending to load all your tracks into the picture edit system, so they can sound cut on that same system and then OMF out the whole stack w/o going to a conform to get to your isos in audio post. Their way, most of the time they only have to load one disc, the way most of us do this sort of work (2 tr dailies disc and separate iso disc) would mean they'd have to load and sync two discs for every shooting day. So I see their logic, but as a production mixer I would prefer to work the way we usually do--with a 2 tr. dailies mix turned in every day and the isos delivered on a separate disc, and maybe not every day (like via a HD etc). Philip Perkins

CMX and OMF refere to two very different things. When they say CMX they are probably referring to a CMX-format EDL, probably for use in conforming the original audio to the edit. OMF, as you know, refers to a way of exporting the audio+video edit from an edit system along with the consolidated media, which then opens on the target system with the file naming, cuts, track layout, handles and a few other aspects (depending on the systems in use) intact. Philip Perkins

Billy Sarokin used these units extensively on a film shot in Manhattan, and w/ some help from the assistant editor who was making up the dailies reels found a good workflow in terms of adding back in the parts of tracks that had dropped out in the master recording from the onboard TX SD cards. I too have a real issue with the "constantly rolling" thing w/ these units, and would likely not ever use them until they figure out a way to remote roll and stop them. It is true that in the early days of radio mics we used the Nagra SN ruse to get long walk and talks, but those were special situations planned in advance and everyone knew what was going on. Philip Perkins

--I still haven't had time to send my Traveler in to BL. Sounds good from what I've heard. The clock mod won't help us w/ sync issues. --I passed on the Ultralite, the Traveler wasn't that much bigger and it does more stuff. --I have used the WC out from an HHB DAT to drive the WC in of the Traveler (also using the HHB as the TC generator). Worked fine. Ditto w/ Denecke SB2 and SD recorders, as well as TC coming from video cameras or a TC generator in a multicam setup. --I did some hour plus takes w/o word clock on the Traveler and they were out of sync by the end. You have to clock it for long sync takes--no getting around it. For short takes, like on a commercial etc, I had no problem. --I got a portable bus-powered DVDRAM drive for my SD recorder--I plan to try it with the MOTU / Metacorder set up as well. W/ the SD recorder it is a real-time deal (they require 5x DVDRAMs however.) W/ Metacorder it's actually a "mirror-drive" deal as in Deva, so not really "real time", more "between-time". Philip Perkins

The Motu boxes will clock themselves to incoming TC on an audio input, but they don't do this automatically. You have to choose the clock source for the interface in "firewire console", an app that comes with the Motu boxes. The recording software can then also be told which audio channel the TC is on and use that for time stamping. As Take and others have said in other posts, this is the only way to make sure that there is no latency between the TC generated time and the TC stamp as applied to the audio, since both audio and TC are coming thru the same interface and convertors. Philip Perkins

For Mr. Wang's sensitivities about sound you should thank Curtis Choy, who mixed his first several features done in SF. Wayne asked Curtis about production sound and what he needed, and Curtis told him, back on "Chan Is Missing" etc.. Philip Perkins

Part of the reason that the producers seem somewhat unconcerned about the ambient noise is that they have gotten away with it many times before. The reason they got away with it is that (possibly) someone in post cleaned up the audio, perhaps with as simple a tool as an expander, on up thru Cedar type NR. The only comfort I can offer is that you should remember that you are part of a sound team, even if the other members (editor, sound editor, mixer) aren't there when you do your work. For the tough situations it takes everyone's efforts to make the track work--no one person is going to do it all. This is true at all levels of motion picture sound. Philip Perkins

What software? Philip Perkins

On Lynn Fuston's 3DB forum I think everyone is a "valued contributor" until you get over 1000 posts up. It seems counter productive to me to have any sort of status conferred by number of posts--it seems like it encourages pointless posts (like this one perhaps). Philip Perkins

695 should make the seminars available on the web free w/o a password. Local 16 (SF) does this with all kinds of material relevant to the work of its members. Unless 695 already has a system set up to sell merchandise (like DVDs) and people on board to do the fulfilliment, then making and selling the DVDs will be more trouble than it is worth. Philip Perkins

I've seen these mostly as TX antennae for wireless in-ear monitor rigs @ concerts. I'd be interested in a shoot out w/ log periodic and yagi antennas for body-pack TX work w/ actors on location. Philip Perkins

I've often taken the TC out of a Varicam (29.97 fps actually even when the camera is in 23.976 mode) and used it as ext TC on a Tascam P2, this has worked very well, mostly in record run mode w/"triggered record". SD recorders had a problem w/ recording inaccurate code stamps w/ TC from Panasonic camcorders, but this has been fixed in v 2.03. Philip Perkins

On many commercials I work on the scene changes and roll/cuts are coming at us so fast that I have reverted to using paper reports and having each piece of audio have a unique ascending file number. Since most of what I do goes to telecine and then to post via OMF, my efforts are mostly to help the telecine guy. So I too still voice slate the sc. + take when I roll. I can easily update the changes to the paper report, and there is less confusion caused by mislabelling audio files and false starts and after-the-cut- name changes. I realize this won't work for folks doing movies or episodics but it's working great for us on small jobs. Philip Perkins

The best thing that's happened to my car rigs lately has been the Sanken CUB-1. Small, easy to hide, and they sound great in a closed car, better than any lav mic for me. Philip Perkins

The main thing for an analyzer for location dialog use would be to have most of the visible scale cover the area from about 60 Hz to about 5K. Many of the computer-app RTAs have displays that cover lots of detail in the high frequency area, which isn't of much interest to us, with the voice range squished down to a small area at the left of the scale. Philip Perkins

I saw that too. Gotta love that Steve S. No wireless! Have to get the boom(s) in! I feel young again! Think of it: "perspective" for every shot! I DID see that pic of Steve S watching a flat screen monitor, so I guess they had video assist....nothing's perfect. Philip Perkins

Yes, for dialog I like prefade, for music, post fade. Philip Perkins

One improvement has been the availability of wifi on stages. Now instead of talking all the time because they are bored, they are all on their laptops working on their websites. Philip Perkins

Alternative Audio in Burbank does a nice DC mod for the Yamahas, but, as you said, it is expensive. However when you factor in the expense, hassle, noise and RF issues of big invertors, not to mention the extra DC hit they make on batteries then it starts to seem worth it. In the past I had AA make a DC mod for a mixer, and true to form the mod cost more than the mixer did. But it really allowed the mixer to work in a way more suited to fast-moving location production w/ a small sound crew. Philip Perkins