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bcopenhagen

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Everything posted by bcopenhagen

  1. To add to Phil's (now dated) request, I think it would be quite nice to separate the false-starts from the other recordings somehow. Sometime I remember you talking about putting them in a separate folder, Take. Another possibility would be to simply append a character at the beginning of the recording. I believe the DV824 places a ~ before an aborted file. You could follow that example, and post folks might actually have some small bit of continuity between different recorders. Or you could make Boom Recorder unique, and give your own false-start character. Maybe a ◊ , or » , or •, or even ∞. I believe this helps to prevent filename conflict, and it would place the file at the beginning of any alphabetized list. -Brian
  2. I once recorded a scene in a car in which we used 7 microphones. There was an approach from outdoors (boom), followed by a page+ of dialog in which BOTH actors turned their heads toward the side windows at some point AND an affectionate hug at the end. I think it was 2 Schoeps MK41s down low + overhead lavs favoring the sides on each of them + one more in the center for the hug at the end. Maybe just 6 mics...but it sounded very nice, albeit seemingly overkill. We were lucky that it was a drive-up and then sit there, so much less complicated than a moving car. I think there is no single technique that you can employ every time, but I think overhead lavs might be as effective as a BLM, in many cases. Definitely make sure you put enough windscreenage. -Brian
  3. Cart signal flow (and components): I'm using Boom Recorder 7.22 as my primary recorder, running a PD-4 DAT as a backup. (When $ permits, I'll probably head for a SoundDevices recorder, but I'd sure like to see more than 4 tracks from them....) My computer system is a Mac Mini 1.25 GHz, with AcomData external firewire hard drives. The console is a Sonosax SX-S10. The main outputs (L/R) go to the interface, a MOTU Traveler, channels 1 & 2, which are the Mix.L and Mix.R tracks. Additional main outputs (via the film module) feed a Waves L2 Ultramaximizer, which feeds the DAT via AES. I use the 2 mix tracks in Boom Recorder (as opposed to a mono mix track) because I want the first two tracks to be identical to what is going to the DAT. Direct outs from Sonosax channels 1-5 are sent to Traveler ch's 3-7, for ISOs. TC source is the PD-4, split and sent to Traveler ch. 8, and to a 1/4" plug for jamming slates. Here's a recent (sort of) photo. http://soundfacility.com/location-sound/the-sound-cart-rock-solid-2/39 Boom Recorder Preferences: -Time source: LTC SMPTE/EBU -Filename: sc%s-tk%2t_%f_%c which generates a filename like: sc100-tk01_1_poly.wav The "2" in the %2t defines a two-digit take number, so a leading zero is automatically included for single-digit take numbers. The %f is the file number, and the %c is the channel name. The channel name is only really relevant if you record mono files, in which case your channel name will appear in the filename (ie, MIX, BOOM, etc.) For polyphonic recordings, Boom Recorder converts the channel name parameter to "poly". Delivery: If possible, I like to turn in hard drives. If audio is going to telecine for sync, I burn a DVD-R. My customized PDF report is included on the Toast-burned UDF DVD-R; and I email the report to editing later. I am also keeping hand-written reports to accompany the DATs, which go to production. Lessons learned: (1) According to Take, the file number (%f) MUST be somewhere in the filename. If you don't include it in your filename, it will default to being at the end. I made the mistake of using %c (channel name) before the file number (%f), while recording mono files (so the channel name actually appeared in the filename). The tracks showed up in the Mac Finder and in the editing system (FCP) in alphabetical order, not TRACK order, which meant that instead of: Track 1 / Mix.L Track 2 / Mix.R Track 3 / Boom Track 4 / 2ndBoom the order, as it appeared in Final Cut Pro was: Track 1 / 2ndBoom Track 2 / Boom Track 3 / Mix.L Track 4 / Mix.R And if a different channel name was introduced, it might end up between the Boom and Mix tracks, depending on what the channel's first letter was! So, if you record mono files, make sure you define the file number %f, is EARLIER in the filename than other parameters you include in the filename, because each of your files will be incrementally numbered. (2) Also related to file ordering issues... Not too long ago, telecine called to complain that the audio files on the DVD-Rs were not in shooting order; it was taking them much longer to sync than they anticipated, because they had to find each recording individually, finding the shooting order on the sound report. The issue: the files were sorted by Name in the Finder, not by Date Modified. So when I dragged the files into Toast, they were in alphabetical order by filename. The remedy: I re-sorted the files, appended an incremental number to the beginning of each filename, and re-burned 15 DVDs worth of audio. (Faced with a telecine house that was threatening to begin charging by the hour instead of by the film foot, the producer agreed to pay $300 for the half-day that it took me.) That wouldn't have been possible in the big-budget world, but it worked for this show. So, if you're not using the Wexler/Perkins "anti-metadata" method of an incremental recording number, and your filenames are scene/take, make sure they get burned in shooting order. It'll make the telecine operator happy. I'll cut this off now, lest I begin to put everyone to sleep... -Brian -the PS section- Aha! Someone else found the Carnetix P1900 for mini power...I recently posted about that little gem on my site. http://soundfacility.com/ That's genius. Eliminate the firewire variable from your primary audio drive... The issue I have to solve is drive noise leakage into the audio. I discovered that when I turned off the external hard drive, the faint whine disappeared. And powering it on, I could hear the drive clicking and spinning to life. It's down around -85 dBFS, lower than your average shooting noise floor, but it's there and I want to get rid of it.
  4. What would your TC source be? Are you thinking to use a software SMPTE generator, such as MOTU supplies with their interfaces? That would likely be pretty inaccurate, as it would depend on the interface clock. It's fairly widely known that the Traveler has a very unstable clock and can't be used as a clock source for TC. Your best bet using Boom Recorder is to have a constant TC source from which Boom Recorder reads its TC for time-stamping files, and which Boom Recorder uses as a clock source to create sample-accurate recordings. Something like a Denecke GR-1, or an Ambient clock are both good TC sources (without a recorder). In a case like that, you would simply split the TC out, one going into your interface/Boom Recorder; the other would be somewhere accessible for jamming your slate. -Brian
  5. Take- I tried the same process you did (open BWF file in QT 7.1, enable TC track, export as QT movie) and then imported into FCP 5.0.4. No luck. Brian
  6. I'll be doing some relevant testing regarding BWF/FCP workflows. I'll keep you all informed of how that goes. I've just installed FCP 5.0.4 + Quicktime 7.1 via Software Update. So, yes, QT 7.1 is available. I also have about 11 GB worth of monophonic BWF files I recorded (using Boom Recorder) for a short film that will need to be synced in FCP. One potential problem for me will be video/audio frame rates. Here's the details: 1. Shot 35mm film at 24 FPS 2. Telecine to HDCAM at 23.98 FPS, which will be the editing timebase. 3. Audio was recorded at 30 FPS. My spider-sense says that the audio should be pulled down to 29.97 to line up to the video 23.98 rate. The audio won't be synced in telecine, it will be imported directly into FCP (after jumping over the BWF hurdles). Question: How can I pull down the audio files for syncing in FCP? I'm sure someone has figured out a workflow or a workaround for this, but I haven't dived deep into the forums to find it yet. Any ideas here? Cheers, Brian
  7. I don't know how they've handled the FCP compatibility. One possibility is that Gallery has borrowed some code from itself: they have a program called XMLPro which handles BWF to FCP to audio post-production, utilizing XML. It seems likely that they could have included some features of that software in Metacorder. But, as we're beginning to see, Gallery is getting screwed up by Quicktime 7.1. -Brian
  8. For me, the lack of timing features in the Ultralite made me get a Traveler recently. Ultralite = no AES, no word clock = no sample-accurate timing Brian
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