JonG

Most radio shows use the RE20 or SM7b. If they use anything different then it is probably for show.

Min worked well the first day but then stopped working. Sent it in to psc twice and it was working well for a couple of day but then it stopped wiki g again. Thinking I got a lemon.

Use block 28

Since the model number was PRS72, my thought was that it was a Personal Receiver System on the 72Hz band. Just going off of how Lectro tends to name its products...

+1

I have a similar setup that I mount on a boom pole when I need range but no boom

Basically taking off the pistol grip and moving the clamp with the boom screw down a bit. Gives you a few more inches on your boom as well. I also super glued where the neck connects to the zeps under part because at extreme winds or accidental knocks from a jib will make it loosen up. I would imagine it is possible to customize it further with your own suspension, but like I mentioned before, in the hands of a capable Boom Op, the handling noise isnt a problem. I think it works better than a Rode blimp, and it is incredibly light weight.

Had mine sent in via Coffey Sound and got it back a couple of days later in perfect working order. Thanks for the great customer service and speedy repair!

My friend had one and said that it was pretty ineffective, and felt kind of slapped together. Not solid by any means. Another friend came across the Soft Zep II by Reinhardt: http://www.reinhardt.tv/Soft-Zep.php (scroll down to get to the II) And although it may require a small amount of modifications on your own part, is very light weight, pretty inexpensive, and very wind resistant. I inherited it from him when he passed away, and brought it with me on all kinds of extreme shoots out in high winds and it worked very well. The one issue I would say is handling noise, but in the hands of a capable boom op, it no longer becomes an issue.

I use it as a single system mixer as well, but I always record backup ISOs. Ive run into many situations where the camera a production chose to use was cheap and had issues that affected the audio, and of course the company gets back to me several months later asking if I happened to record the audio and still have it. So it has saved many a production. I have both 411s and 211s and can say that they are both fantastic Rx's. If you need to save money, using a 211 is a good way to go. I would advise against getting a 201 or 401 since those seem to be used primarily as camera hops, have fixed antennae, and do not have front end tracking. I see a lot of um200/ucr211 combos selling at very reasonable rates on ebay and this forum, and think that they are a good way to go if you want to jump into getting Lectros on a budget.

I think the 788t is an amazing machine, and if you have the chance to get one I suggest you do. If you do a lot of reality, a lot of clients will hire you based on the fact that you have a 788t, even if other equipment is perfectly adequate. I have a strong foothold in a local production company and they continually tell me that Im their number one guy, and that all started happening as soon as I got a 788T and Lectros. On the other hand, that big of a rig is often times unnecessary and I find myself more and more removing the CL-8, and putting the 788t in a smaller bag with only three Lectro rx, in an effort to be more portable and not kill my back. So it is a toss up, but if you already have a 744t, and Nomad, a 788t would be a happy welcome into that family! I know Im planning on getting a Nomad at some point...!

A little of topic but can you point me to someone I can talk to about continuing support for the fw-1884? I like the machine a lot but it won't work with current Mac computers in 64 bit mode, which kind of defeats the purpose if you want to use it for its faders in a heavy mix session. I don't want to get rid of it as it has served me well for many years, and would hate to get rid of it just because support was abruptly halted.

It has been a god send for reality work for mix down tracks and ifb sends. I try not to use it when doing narrative work unless the scene has a high number of talent miked. Very useful tool, I'm glad they implemented it into the unit!

Yeah I've got a pair of older cubs. I just remind the talent to keep their phones in airplane mode, and they're usually pretty apologetic and willing to comply.

Just got one of these bags and took it for a test run on an out of town gig. Lately I havnt needed to bring a whole cart's worth of gear on the jobs I have booked, so I thought I would make travelling a bit easier on myself as well as taking the daily grind down to a minimum, especially for my back. I was rocking the pegz603 with 788T, cl-8, all lectros, NP battery on a BDS system for the lectro rx's and another NP battery for the 788T, along with cl-wifi, and all the trimmings. The bag was a beast, super heavy, and my gigs have been making me hike through the forrest and desert for hours, but Im not mixing anything, just recording ISOs, and only using three wireless, so it only makes sense for me to bring what I need. As you can see from the photo above, everything fits in there pretty snug. Sorry for the low light photo, but you can see that I have my NP battery powering my BDS in there, along with a couple of accessories. Theres also room for my tx. My other NP powering the 788T has room to sit alongside it on the other end. Excess cabling fits nicely under the "floor boards" so it doesnt get in the way. And in the spare compartment I keep the lav mic pouch Heres another shot of the BDS at work. This was a little tricky to mount, but I found a spare velcro divider for a pelican case lying around and stuck it in there for the RM2 to clip onto. That way I can see it while Im working and keep track of how much juice Ive got left on the BDS. Complete with iPhone cable for charging There is obviously less storage, but thats what we give up for a more compact and lighter rig. I am still getting used to having to reach my hand inside the side to manipulate the toggle wheel on the 788T, but overall the accessibility to the various parts of the machine are better than in the pegz bag with the cl-8 mounted on the bottom. Im still a little worried about the BDS cables where they connect to the distributor because I feel like there could be a little pressure on them, but there really wasnt a better place to put it unless it was lying down in the pouch facing upwards, which of course would give me less storage space. The side holder thingies are fine for a tx to cam and a comtek tx, but to carry a spare NP battery is a bit much. I can feel it wobbling around as Im hiking around location, so spares are finding their ways into the back pockets of my pants. As for cables coming out of the side for headphones and comteks, I find that if I have them leading out of the zipper and keep it closed at the top they tend to stay in place, which is actually a better option than I had before, where my headphone cable extension would often come unplugged. Now my question is: if I were to get one of those new PSC RF Multi's, where could I fit it?

+1. I own a few TL 40s and the best thing to do is just order them straight from OST pre wired for whatever wireless system you have.

My gig for the month got pushed to next month after I already turned down a bunch of work, so Im scrambling to pick something up. I have: SD 788T SSD 5 Lectro sets 6 Sennheiser sets 2 Sennheiser mkh-416 p48 2 Comtek rx etc...

Ive got a Gemeni Jr and am very happy with it. I use it for my main cart. It wasnt cheap, I purchased a used one that was modified by Location Sound, still ran me about $1k, but it had everything I needed included in it. So far it has managed to take a lot of abuse, including transport abuse by PAs and other crew members loading it into vans and not properly locking the wheels down. It is heavy, but very sturdy, and it folds up small enough to fit in my Prius along with my 1650 Pelican case with room to spare for my bag and other goodies. I suggest keeping your eyes open for a good deal and doing more research, and soon enough you'll find exactly what youre looking for at a price you are willing to pay. That tends to always be the case for me anyway. Good luck!

It is my understanding that the DR-680 runs off of 12V, and for that, powering it from an NP/IDX system will overload it, at least this is what I was told. My friends that use that recorder use these batteries: http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-6800mAh-Super-Rechargeable-Lithium-ion-Battery-/220741912973?pt=US_Batteries&hash=item33653e498d#ht_3655wt_930 They last all day, and are inexpensive. The only catch is that they take a long time to charge. But in theory if you had two or three of them, swapping them out and charging shouldnt be too big of a deal.

Im a fan of the 416 as many others here are. The Rode NTG-3 is also a great mic, but I have found one issue with it: It doesnt seem to take high SPL levels that well. I also have a pair of Oktava 012s that I use for a variety of things, and I have used them for music recording as well. There actually is a technique for miking the snare drum using a shotgun mic overhead the drum set. Though I havnt tried it personally, I know many people who have and have said that they got very good results. I believe one of the desired effects of this technique is that it reduced bleed from the hi-hat. Like others here have mentioned, trying out different shotgun mics is probably going to be your best bet. I swear by my 416, but some cats here swear by their Sanken mics, etc. It does come down to taste and practicality. I know that one day down the line Ill probably have at least one of each, but then again I am kind of a gear nut!

Ive had mine for several months now and I completely agree. I almost dont remember what life was like before being able to power my phone or other USB devices in my bag! And since I, like many others, use my phone for so many work related tasks (CL-Wifi, Lectro RM, etc), I need it to be charged throughout the day. I also really like the remote with the readout on it. I no longer have to reach into the bowels of my bag to find the on/off switch, and I get a readout on the voltage of my NP1 so I dont have to guess when its about to die. Very handy! On a side note, to get even more power out of my iphone, I got a Mophie case which has an additional battery in it, so when my phone runs low I just flip the switch on the case and it begins to charge my phone. It holds a full charge, and has a USB port on it to charge from, so you dont need a special iphone cable everywhere you go.

I dont know of any chart, but from my personal experience just scanning the block seems to indicate that the lower end is usually more free.

These kinds of shoots are the pain of my existence! It seems Im always doing them. The last show I worked on was a car tv show about stunts and stuff, and the talent would often have segments where they are talking to the camera while driving some sports car fast on a track, often doing doughnuts and other kinds of stunts. The production didnt ever tell me anything in advance, so every day I was winging it, and never once had the time to wire a car with plant mics. So all I would do was leave the talent laved up, or sometimes I would clip an SMQV onto the visor. Since they were going so fast and relatively far away I couldnt get good reception, being outside the car, and there was no room in the cars for me. So I began setting my bag in the car and monitoring via comteks. I got decent results, but the rf catchup sounds and gaps would still happen. Im going out on a new show pretty soon, and have managed to talk production into letting me wire the cars because there will be a lot of driving and talking. Ive done this sort of thing on films where I have time to set things up, and have gotten great results. Ive used cos11s, Oktava 012s, and now just got a pair of CUBs for the job. I definitely think a hard wired plant mic is your best option. You dont have to worry about seatbelts or rf problems.

I tell the production that they need to have the wardrobe ok'ed by me in advance otherwise I cant mic them. If camera and lighting dont want to play ball and I cant boom, then theres nothing I can do. If they dont want to do that then they can start looking into an ADR budget. We can do this the right way or the wrong way.

I enjoy reading these types of discussions because it really shows me a lot about what types of jobs and payments other people are getting. In my experience, coming from a freelance indie film perspective (then growing into television and features) is that on the indie side of things, people will just say "This is the rate we will pay, we need you to be able to handle everything and bring all your own equipment" with no prep time, communication with wardrobe or knowing the script or locations. Of course the rate is usually insulting (even if it is more than anyone else on set), and since sound is usually hired near last on these types of productions, the whole step involving being able to quote a rate that will pay for what is needed to get the job done is skipped over by production, and rates get lower and lower as expectations become higher and higher. Then theres reality style shooting on television shows and such, which many people refer to as ENG. I have worked on a number of shows of all different kinds, with production companies from all over. They all seem to want a minimum of two wireless mics, a wireless send to camera (mono or stereo, sometimes multi-cam), and sometimes want a mixdown recorded and/or ISOs. They also usually want comteks, and sometimes a mono mp3 recording for transcription, as well as other odds and ends. In all of these scenarios I usually only see rates they vary almost not at all, and it tends to be in the $150 area. For that kind of a kit rental, I can see the use of a 302, two lavs, and a camera hop. But then I get gigs where Im required to lav up 8 people, record ISOs, send to camera, provide comteks, all for the same kit rental fee. This is always dictated by the production company, and if you ask for more and do a great job of explaining costs and rental rates and such, they will simply say "if you dont want the job someone else will take it". And that right there is where most of the jobs Ive encountered lie. If you dont want the job, someone else will take it. What do we do when this is the only option out there? Get unions involved in reality tv? call a general strike?