JonG

How is your metering set? I know you can set the meters to Peak or VU, which means the the VU will often give you an RMS reading, and not show you where you are actually peaking. Just a thought.

There are a lot of great options available on a budget, especially in the used/pre owned category. You get what you pay for with audio equipment, so if something retails at a bargain price, the usual rule of thumb is that it's a bargain for a reason. Why people take something called "zoom" seriously is beyond me, as even the name its self suggests that it is a toy like Mr. The Senator Mike pointed out. With some of the latest releases and announcements by major equipment manufacturers, there is an influx of quality used equipment available at never before seen prices. I suggest saving your money, or getting your parents credit cards, and go out and get the good stuff. It will give you better quality, and have a more useful and longer life, unlike any camera you may wish to spend money on, which will go obsolete within a couple of years when everyone decides that the new HD is something else.

I am trying to see if there happens to be some sort of AD converters of high quality (like Apogee for example) that accept line in, and output in spdif or adat optical without having to actually connect it to a computer to set up the output settings. The purpose for this is quite simple really: I have a great computer recording system with great mic pres and converters, but a studio I am doing a lot of work at needs to run their own system, but the converters are taking the life out of the sound, even when I bring my mic pres along with me. Their interface has spdif and adat optical, but their computer is super out of date, and I would like to be able to bring along a small "interface" or A/D converter that will accept line inputs from my mic pres, and put out digital audio that I can connect to their interface without having to actually plug the device into the computer and worry about drivers and software for a computer that is more than likely not supported by anything. I know that Apogee had a product called the Mini Me that seems to be pretty much what I am looking for, but I do not remember if it requires being connected to a computer to set it up or run it. Any thoughts? fyi this is for music, which is why I say that the converters are "taking the life out of the sound". There is a noticeable difference in the sound when using the same instrument through the "high z" input of my interface vs theirs for example, and I am really trying to keep some sort of sonic continuity throughout the recordings that we are doing.

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lol I used a cos-11 on one. Worked fine. I also boomed it, and ran a line from their stereo to get the music as it was happening since there really was no other option. Everything turned out great.

It was a lot of fun, and great meeting the people behind the magic in person!

Ive been working on a Blues documentary for a while, and although the style of music isnt the same, the principal is. It is difficult to handle both the music and the docu sound since they are entirely different kinds of recordings, and require different equipment. I would say that your ENG kit is suitable for the docu sound, but for the music I would really suggest that your production tried to raise more funds to bring someone who can dedicate their time to recording the music, and who has the proper equipment. I am obviously not set up to record concerts, even with a 788T and a bunch of lectros. I can take sub groups out of a sound board, or direct outs if there is only 8 channels. Regardless, I suggest that if it is possible, to get a feed from the PA system as well as set up stereo mics at the back of the concert room. Trust me, that will add a lot to your final mix. If you have to go in and do everything yourself, I think you need to talk to the production and spell out reality for them, so they can rent an additional multi-track recorder, mics, stands, cables, etc. Because ENG kits just dont cut it for music recording.

I agree with many of you here. The limiters on the 788 are no good, and if they are ever engaged on a take, that take is useless. I have disabled all limiters on mine because if for whatever reason I clip on a take, that take still sounds better than if they hit a limiter. Like many of you, would love the fixed limiters of the other SD products.

I always use them when the low profile isnt necessary, not just to protect the tx, but also to shield its heat so they dont get uncomfortable or burn the talent.

I had some pretty bad goo from gaff tape on some cables and was able to effortlessly clean it off with 99% alcohol, which of course I keep around for doing things like cleaning tape heads and old electronics

I was out there earlier this year and my comteks worked fine, no problems at all. Actually I also did scans at all the locations we were at in blocks 21, 22, and 25, and there was almost no RF use detected anywhere. Couldnt believe it!

Well I know everyone always wants to chime in when the French are mentioned. I used to live there and got my start in film there, and I have to say, the one thing I took away from that experience was that the French tend to do whatever it is they are doing very well, and the sound people I knew out there could practically talk you through an algorithm without needing a calculator or pen and paper. So my guess is that those carts are probably some of the best in the world, and yes, they are going to be expensive. Also, we would have wine during our lunch break on set. No question about it!

OK I cant believe that Im the only person to bring this up, but your tape measurer is awesome and I want one!

Or save up and get a more reliable recorder

I will attest to their greatness. I own two aluminum poles and a graphite one as well. Ive even purchased a couple of other k-tek poles as gifts to sound friends. My original pole was working with no problems until a month or so ago when a TSA agent managed to get it snapped in half, but this just goes to show you how great the company is. K-tek had me send it in and repaired it and shipped it back for free. I couldnt believe it! I think that with such a great product, and such amazing service, at this point I have no need to look into other poles, because I will definitely be a customer for life.

+1. I dont want to have to spend money on things like this if I am not being compensated for it. I have been on films where they just expected me to have them, as well as a smart slate, even though those things were not discussed in pre production (even with non TC cameras!). I avoided owning a smart slate for a long time because of this, and the simple fact that Ive had to replace my dumb slate too many times to trust an AC. But the younger crown is starting to expect these sorts of things, like they expect X amount of wireless, hops, etc. as part of your basic kit, instead of letting us, the department head, make the call on how we want to mic a scene. The future looks grim, as the "digital revolution" and general devolution of educational systems like film schools have become, churning out students for profit rather providing a real world education. I still get approached by these clowns expecting me to provide my kit along with some low rate and no rental. It's frustrating to say the least.

Pro-Tools recommends 7200, not 5400. Ive tried recording 8 tracks on a 5400 drive, and it started crapping out about four minutes in. Four tracks worked well for about an hour and a half session with no problems. I would try to return them if possible for piece of mind if nothing else.

ok, so I got to location (an exec screening room seeing little use in one of Los Angeles' major studios...), and they did not set me up with any way to drive up to the location to unload gear, and the production company that hired me said it was just a tech day to make sure that I can interface with the illusive machine. So I just grabbed my sound bag and a small bag of cables with various xlr-rca type things going on, went in and checked it out. Met up with the in house tech who worked with me on making sure things were good. Turns out that the input is super sensitive, so I had to take my output gain down to -45dB. The people presenting were really fighting me on using lavs, but it was either that or setting up mics on stands and running miles of cable, and this was deemed "impossible because it wouldnt look nice", so lavs it was. The client however, whom did not send ANY information on the gig at all, expected a full on run through rehearsal, including the video conference portion. Naturally I told them this wouldnt really work since they insisted that I leave all my equipment in the parking garage, so I had to pause everything to go and get it. Basically the production company that hired me had not been informed by the client what was actually going on, so once again, another simple case of no information given, problems arise because of it. Aside from that though, we got the devil box working with my 788t pretty easily, and could have been in and out in less than 20 min, until they decided to do a run through. Thats when they realized that the presenters were misinformed on their subject matter and ill prepared to give a speech. So they have to practice all weekend and the beginning of next week until the actual date of the presentation/conference. I have a feeling that they will soon find out that they can't do run throughs without me, and I dont do half day rates

They *should* be providing the breakout cables for this headache in a box. The way I described how I am to do the job is how they want it to be done for whatever reason. Oddly enough, they do not want me to use lavs, but rather two microphones on stands at either side of the small stage where the presenter will be, and then a wireless handheld mic for audience participation. I have no idea what this is about, but it will be a challenge to say the least. I am going to do my best to convince them to let me use lavs, but I still need to feed this devil box my audio, as well as record it's incoming audio from beyond. I have a feeling that the conference intercom thingy will not be available, since it would appear that we are in some sort of theatre. In any case, I'll let you know what I come up with. Fortunately this is a tech day, and I am happy to report that they ok-ed full pay for the day, and even took my "some big number" that I threw out there as my rate without haggling!

Anyone ever work with one of these? The pdf is a bit vague and doesnt mention much in the way of I/Os for audio. Ive got a tech day tomorrow (yes they just sent me over this info!) and I am supposed to take live audio (mics and such), record it, while putting it through my 788t to this machine, so that the person at the other end can hear, and take a feed back from the machine to record that person's dialogue simultaneously. The best I can make out is that it outputs are RCA, but the inputs seem to just be a picture of a desk intercom of some sort, so I am not sure if I am going to be able to plug in a line level RCA cable, or an XLR, or what have you. Any notes/advice will be helpful. Thanks guys!

I use a similar setup, except that I have a dedicated np battery for the 788t, and a separate one on a bds system for the rest. With careful diligence regarding power consumption, I can usually make this setup last all day, sometimes having to replace the 788t's battery near the end of the day. I know having two np batteries in your bag can get bulky/heavy, but it is better than having to constantly replace your single np every couple of hours, or having to worry about running out of power at all for that matter. I usually just sick a spare np in my back pocket just in case, and if my 788t's batt runs out, I can quickly swap it out since it just switches automatically to the L-mount battery underneath without interrupting anything.

OK so if anyone has followed my posts about this product here and on the freelance sound mixers page on facebook, I spoke about it a lot with my real world experience, but here is the sum of it all: I purchased the rf multi sma for a show I was about to do that required me to be far away from talent because they were shooting the show themselves with hand held cameras and go pros mounted and facing every which way (a ghost hunter type show), and we would be out in the wilderness at night most of the time, so range was a big deal for me. I tested the device at home by setting it up in my bag and mounting a dipole and a shark fin antenna on a t-mount for stereo recording at the end of a mic stand, and brought three smqv's (ucr411/211 rx) to various places around my home, outside, in the car, down the street, etc. to see what the reception looked like. Even through buildings and at great distances I got pretty good reception. I then left the whole thing running for about 24 hours because I had heard that some people had had issues with it failing. Everything worked fine. I then brought it out on location. The first day of the show was out on a lake. I was in a boat, and the talent was in another boat. This was for the first half of the day. I had the smqv's outputting at 100mw. The talent sped off into the distance beyond sight and I was still getting reception, though they would occasionally cut out. Reception was fairly stable as long as I could actually see them, so I was amazed by this product! The second part of the day was a night investigation where one of the talent was on a boat in the lake, the other on shore, and I was on another boat in the lake, between the who but off to the side, forming a triangle. They were both pretty far away. Far enough where they couldnt see me with their cameras at night. Amazing results. Then it started to rain, so I covered up. After a while ( and without getting any equipment wet), the rf multi crapped out, and the rx were franticly switching between antennae at an immeasurable speed, and producing a clicking noise. I immediately disconnected the rf multi and stuck one whip antenna on each rx, and plugged the dipole and shark fin directly into the two rx that I was using. At that point I couldnt get the range I was getting before, so I had to come in closer to the other boat to get them. I pretty much lost contact with the shore, but I only needed to get their walkie anyways, and that was being picked up just fine from the talent on the boat. This was a major bummer that the device crapped out, and it made the next few days extremely difficult due to the loss of range, though with the antennae connected directly to the rx, mounted on the t-bar up on my boom pole, I was still getting better results than with the whips alone. At this point I decided to boost the tx up to 250mw, which helped a great deal. After a few shoot days, we were sent back to Los Angeles, and I brought the rf multi into PSC for a fix, which they were happy to do and had back to me the next day. However the very same week they did a recall for a different issue, so I had it back in there again. Once again, it was back the next day, free of charge. When the show recommenced the following week, once again the device worked great for most of the first day, and then crapped out on me, and I had to resort to plugging the antennae directly into the rx. I worked the remainder of the show like this, since we were on the road and in the wilderness, and I never had an option to send it in or even visit a post office of any kind. Once back home I sent it into PSC for an exchange because I really felt like I had a lemon. They sent me a new one, quickly and free of charge (I have to say PSC has great service and are super friendly!). Unfortunately I havnt had a chance to use it again other than more home tests, which have proved outstanding like before. I was going to use it on a variety show, but it wound up not getting green lit, so we'll see what happens. I am anxious to get it back in the bag and out in the field though, I am really hoping that this one doesnt go bad. I have a feature film coming up next month, will bring it on that, since I will be working from a cart (but still out of a bag for those "get up and go" situations. I will keep everyone posted! My intention here was just to give some insight into my own experience, but not to speak negatively about PSC or the product. I have read many testimonies from people who have been using this device since it's release without any issues, and swear by it. I hope to be one of those people very soon!

I did a show last year where one female host would always wear semi transparent shirts. Using a tan lav mic made this a non issue. The tan one is the only colored lav I have though, the rest are black.

no? http://www.fostexinternational.com/docs/products/AR-4i.shtml http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/jam.php http://www.alesis.com/iodock http://tascam.com/product/iu2/ http://www.griffintechnology.com/music/studioconnect-guitar-midi-interface-for-ipad http://line6.com/midimobilizer/ http://www.mackie.com/products/dl1608/ Just to name a few...

I think that what the original poster is trying to touch upon is an interesting thought. One thing that I have also thought a lot about is the fact that all of our digital equipment works in 16 and 24 bit. But if for whatever reason 32 bit recording became standard, not only would we be replacing our recorders, but any digital wireless and mics we use as well. That would be a huge expense for all of us. I asked about this at a Zaxcom Nomad demo earlier this year, and was told that the dynamic range achieved with 24 bit recording is more than sufficient and will probably never go away. My thought is that as technology advances, maybe we will move away from the bit system, to a new form of sampling. Or maybe we discover a new way to transmit digital audio wirelessly that does not involve radio frequencies. There are any number of possibilities that we cannot conceive of because something or another has not been invented or discovered yet that enables certain kinds of technologies. Those things mentioned are obviously what could be considered a big jump in technological advancement. As for now, I see and am happy to see that since our current recorders are essentially sophisticated computers with updatable OS's, many of the advances that our manufacturers are coming up with are firmware updatable, which I really appreciate since I already dropped a bunch of money on the recorder it's self, as well as many accessories and gadgets for it. But something like having to retrofit a Zaxcom or Sound Devices product with new converters would probably not even make financial sense, as it would more than likely cost just as much to buy the newer product, kind of like how most people in the US abandoned their block 28 Lectros when the FCC annexed that part of the spectrum. I use a 788t and like it a lot. Ive also been thinking about getting a Nomad. But buying a new $10,000 recorder (I'm also counting the accessories and everything you need to make these puppies run) every couple of years would not make this a very smart business for us, especially since we spend so much of our income on all these high tech gadgets with price tags to match. As it is, I see a lot of kit rental fees disappearing, and a growing need for more wireless, camera hops, and extra goodies that do not always help us to do our jobs, but rather help out production in some way or another. But having to replace expensive equipment because it becomes obsolete is always a fear of mine, and a pain when it happens, which is one reason why I have never purchased a digital mixing board for my studio, and still use an analog one with a control surface, though my control surface recently lost support from its manufacturer (thank you tascam!). But aside from all that, I would like to see Sound Devices put in a pre programable list for take notes like they have for the sound report it's self. That would be easier than having to bring a keyboard along with me everywhere if I am working out of a bag. My current "small" bag consisting of only three wireless doesnt give me room for a CL-Wifi, camera hop, and IFB, so run and gun jobs loose detailed sound reports since they need those camera hops so bad