Wandering Ear

But how do I know if I pointed my hydro-boom in the right direction?

Regulators and breathing underwater does create a fair bit of noise. You wouldn't have to be under water during the recordings, it could be helpful to be there to position the mic, which is likely lowered from a boat or tethered to an achor or booey. Using Ambients under water housing, I suppose you could operate your recorder under water, but how do you monitor? I'm sure someone makes underwater headphones, probably for diver communication radios, but I've never seen them, as they are of little use to an infrequent recreational diver like myself.

I use them to power my bag, and I've been very happy. One bonus of their 2 slot charger is that it's simultaneous, not sequential so your batteries charge faster.

I'd like to add some silca packs to my cases to keep the moisture content down, as it tends to be wet up here in Seattle quite often. Any recomendations on where to buy them? Is there a difference between different packs? K

I think doing some underwater recording would be amazing! It takes one hell of a budget though. One of my favorite things to do when I'm diving is sit on the ocean floor looking up at the world and listen to the underwater world around me. Sound travels 4 times faster in water, and locating noises can become near impossible.

When booming I bring my boom, headphones, LectroRM, tape roll, lav bullet, coffey mug, water bottle, and a smile. Anything else I provide at mixers request.

Jack, are those stock Lectrosonics antennas, or aftermarket? The stock antennas I have are color coordinated according to block, I'm curious how you color coordinated your antennas? My average bag is 3 Lectro 411/sm cost-11 combos and a 552, I'm swapping the 552 for a nomad 8 next week. Accompanied by a schoeps cmc6 and a mkh-416

I've been wanting this for a while. Thanks for sharing.

Just want to say again, I love the app. Especially the TV station lookup. Any plans to add a feature where we can enter a zip code instead of using our current location? It would be really handy in planning for a shoot in advance. Thanks! K

The last time I had to wear a life vest for a shoot I was sitting in a boat, so left my bag in a rubber maid bin and operated from there since I didn't have to move around. That way there is also a chance your gear won't go in if you do, but really an insurance cert is what matters most if your gear falls in. I did do a shoot on top of a microwave tower where we had to wear a safety climbing harness and be roped in with my kit on. I put harness and bag on top, it was awkward, but worked out ok. Have fun!

I am expecting a nomad in a couple weeks, and my primary talent mics are block 21 411s, so this all makes me a slight bit nervous. For everyone who's testing this right now, are you testing with or without zaxnet/ifb turned on? Does it make a difference? I know it doesn't operate in the same frequency range, but I'm curious if it affects it at all.

I'be been working hard over the last two years on how to mote effectively monitize my post work, and I tend to quote a dollar amount per minute of film. I have my averages, but I won't discuss rates with a client until I've seen the project and have a good idea of how much work I need to do, and what they expect. The hard part is not coming up with a dollar figure, the hard part is watching a rough cut and accurately guessing how much time you will put into it. Once you know how much time you will spend on it, quoting for labor rates and facilities is pretty straight forward. Don't forget to factor in cost of doing business, taxes, the number of days per year that you are actually doing paid work, and the number of days a year you are working but not billing for. If you want to make $25 an hour as an engineer, you will have to charge your client $35-$50 an hour to cover all the rest of the b.s. Starting out in post, I would highly recommend you track your hours on every project until you feel comfortable estimating your time. These are some things that have helped me, hopefully they help you too. K

I made one of these for doing broadcast work when I first got my 552. I used mogami 4 change snake, and a mini hirose 10 pin push pull connector. It's about the diameter of the osc8 connectors. I didn't have any bleed issues, but in the long run the smaller hirose connector wasn't rugged enough and I had to fix it a couple times. I would do it again using the same connector in a larger diameter, but I don't want to spend the money since I plan on upgrading to a Nomad soon. I need the iso's.

Looks sweet. Add an ambient quick lock system, keep one of those on yourbag/cart, that'd be a great plug and play system.

The static line is an 11mm rope from black water. I took a length of it and folded it half twice. I then took a cheap colored nylon rope from REI (yes, I'm a Seattlite) tied a timber hitch, and wrapped the handle under tension. Tied the other end off, then using a lighter I melted the small rope ends down to help keep the knot secure, and keep them from sticking out. K

Thanks Jordan, How's L. A. these days? K

Jan, what kind of stand do you put your recievers on when you move them close to set?

i wear my bag as little as possible, so i tend to unclip from my harness and hand carry the bag when moving around. it does sit pretty well out of the way of the mixer, i'm guessing that it won't be a problem mixing with it there. it's also easy to unclip one or both sides if it's in the way. k

I've wanted a better handle for my bag for a while, so last night I made one. I took some 11mm static line, and wrapped it in nylon.

I've been on a list since July. Being told late next month.

I've read the thread about drummers, i used to be one. I also used to be a dj, and a few friends came over tonight and i dug into the crates. It's been a while, and it feels good. So i got to wondering ... How many soundies out there used to, or still do dj. Are you vinyl, or scratch? I'm all vinyl now, but i'm toying with the idea of buying scratch.

Thanks for the concise answer. Very informative. K

+1 for android

Same way I do all my bounces. It's a life saver when you discover a missing fade 45 minutes into a show.

oops, I didn't see the post about variable bits vs. constant bits. Is there any advantage to the variable bits? Thanks