bperlman

I'm powering direct from the 788T FW I/O. I'll try powering seperately, maybe that will help. The burner, FW cable, etc. work perfectly recording to HD, CF and EXT on my 744T, so I'm fairly sure that they're not the culprits. It's a royal pain in the arse because if I'm not watching carefully I don't know when the EXT recording stopped. If it happened during a take then the file looks like it is complete but isn't. For now I'm back to copying at lunch and during any breaks. Grrrrr! Paul at SD is on the case and I'll post any findings that may affect others. Thanks for the input. Happy New Year. Bruce Perlman

I've been having a consistent problem with recording to an external burner since I got my 788T back from the hardware upgrade. Before I send the machine in for repair, I thought I'd check to see if anyone else is having a similar issue or whether I'm doing something wrong. After a seemingly normal start-up (finding and formatting the DVD-RAM), the recorder will randomly lose it's connection to the burner. I sometimes get error notices - I/O error or something to that effect - and sometimes nothing. The EXT is just gone. No light, no comfirmation on the screen. I have replaced both the burner and the firewire cable. I use 5x Maxell DVDs and usually recording only 2 or 3 tracks. Also, this does not occur when I burn after recording - i.e. copy from CF to EXT. It seems to only happen when I'm recording to all three media, HD, CF and EXT. This has happened with both OS 1.51 and 1.60, but never prior to the hardware upgrade. Thanks for any input. __________________ Bruce

For those of us interested in the Nagra story, here's a link to their own version. Boy, I forgot about some of their machines (I once owned several SNs, but that's another story), and did not know about Nagra's ventures in the world of audiophile amps. That excludes, of course, my 2 aging DHs which still sound great. Bruce http://www.nagraaudio.com/pro/pages/informationHistory.php Some good pix: http://megascoop.com/nagra/nagra_lineup.html

Eric, Yes, I am very sensitive, and reactive, about anything I perceive to be an ethnic slur. I apparently misunderstood your post. I take you at your word and offer my apology for having offended you. Bruce

I think political discussion and even a little contention is a good thing, but I find that comment both offensive and racist. Eric, I don't really know nor care what your political convictions are but in my opinion that crossed the line and I've got to call you out for it. Bruce

My two Nagra STCs and my cherry old Nagra III (you had to hold a button down to monitor direct) sit packed away in my shop. I guess I wasn't smart enough to unload them before they were obsolete or perhaps I just never believed that something so elegant and utilitarian would ever be relegated to the trash heap. Occasionally, I have the thought that someday some young hot shot mixers will find it cool to add some genius analog to their recording stacks. Just dreaming... Bruce

Like many other mixers I was never a boomer, although I did years of documentaries at a time when radio mics were rarely used. That experience taught me a lot about where to put microphones and helped me develop an ear for what works and what doesn't. I do, however, think that my learning experience was somewhat more difficult having not worked with other mixers. One important trick I did learn when I moved to Los Angeles and began mixing movies, televsion and commercials was to hire the most experienced boompeople I could find. With out a doubt they allowed me to pretend like I knew what I was doing and saved my novice ass more times than I'd like to admit. Bruce

Congratulations JW. I stepped across that line a few years ago. Took me a while to get used to the "G" word, but now I love it. Man, it's fun to spoil them and hand them back. Hmm, what's that smell? Bruce

All good suggestions. I favor Crew's thoughts about a directional (Senn 816) being your best chance mic wise and Jeff's about where the bikes are in relationship to the process truck's noise. I would add, that you should address you concern's ( not about which mic to use, but rather the sound of the tow vehicle) to the director and make sure he/she is wearing a good set of cans. Also, be mindful that vehicle sound vary greatly depending on what their doing. Starting off or pulling up-hill is much noisier than 20mph cruising. It's a noisy world out there, but someone's got to mic it. Good luck. Bruce

Jeff, it wasn't any better on Swope. The mixer who began the film was my friend and mentor Michael Scott. He had me cover for him whenever he couldn't work (read - he got a better paying gig, we were shooting all night, his back hurt or he just didn't feel like it). We had no assistants, boom people, cable people - nada. Radio mics weren't a viable tool yet especially on such a low budget production. I think I had 2 Sennheiser 404s (one for the boom and one to plant) and an 804 for exteriors, all directly into my mono Nagra 4L. How we did it is all a bit of a blur now but somehow we muddled through, although in all honesty the sound does pretty much suck. On top of all this Bob looped Arnold's voice (he hated it) himself and was hoarse for months after. For the conference room scene we had Chase Manhattan Bank's main executive conference room for one weekend and shot something like 48 straight hours. But we sure laughed a lot and lifetime friendships were forged. Somethings never change. Bruce

I actually saw Greaser's Palace at a screening in NY shortly after it was finished. What a wonderfully crazy piece of work. I wonder if it's possible to find it now, I'd love to see it again. Jeff, you must have had a crazy time; improv, live music, and creating on the fly. You did a great job; maybe the most professional part of the film. I knew many folks on the production and got lot's of war stories. I would love to hear some of yours. Pablo Ferro (Oh Seema, oh seema, oh seema!) lived below me in the East Village filled us with tales from this off-beat experience. I must say that it did put me off of Mariachi music for a while. Bruce

I was once on a shoot in New York where the entire crew was arrested. It was 1969 and we were in the last days of a Bob Downey (father of Robert Downey Jr.) underground (the indie films of that time) comedy called Putney Swope. In an empty concrete lobby of an old mid-town office building we had a tall plexiglas box (10'x3'x3') into which the actors were throwing large bags of money. A terrorist tosses in a molotov coctail... you get the picture. Well, our inept special effect guys couldn't get the paper to burn so they poured in some gasoline. This stuff you can't make up. Well, roll cameras, toss the molotov and boom! A fireball roars through the set (It stopped about a few inches from my cart). The fire extinguishers were the high pressure type and immediately the air is filled with burning paper. The building's fire hose leaked everywhere it had been folded for the last 60 years. Fortunately there was not much to burn and no one was hurt, but... The NYFD rolls in, somehow with lots of big brass, and they start screaming FELONIOUS ARSON - TEN TO TWENTY YEARS - YOU'RE ALL GOING UP THE RIVER - BLAH, BLAH, BLAH. Someone had even turned off the lobby sprinklers which was great for us but made the chiefs even more red faced. Well, the NYPD show's up and they think this is all hilarious. They try to calm the FD but they're not having it. So the PD loads about 30 people into squad cars and they take us to the station. Remember, this is 1969. We basically take over the place. We use their phones, order pizza and generally create good natured mayhem until the cops tell us we can leave... please. You've got to love this biz. Bruce

This is an oldie but it never fails to make me laugh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsAfgMUHApU

Hey Crew, I've shot there as well. Man, the walls just drip history. When I walked outside I expected it to be 1957. Are the engineers there freaked about the proposed construction next door? It would be horrible if it messed up their studios. Ain't nothin' sacred? Bruce

I would imagine that we all share your pain. Watching channels come and go throughout the day is worse than watching the stock market. At least with the market you don't have a director and 20 clients listening. One of the wisest thing I ever did was to hold on to my Lectrosonic VHS quad box system. I pull them out at the first sign of trouble - like shooting in Pasadena with the antennas of Mt. Wilson towering above. They sound fine and always work. Bruce

I recently picked up a pair of Alesis M1 Active 320 USB speakers (internally amped, not USB powered) and for $99 they are a great way to monitor your laptop without having to use the headphone jack or an seperate audio interface. Also, with both RCA, 1/8" and 1/4" inputs they make pretty decent cart speakers. http://www.alesis.com/m1active320usb Bruce

The Lot (where Crew began this thread) has had a number of incarnations including Warner Hollywood, Goldwyn (Sam, not to be confused with MGM, and long time home to Aaron Spelling and his TV reign) and at one time Howard Hughes. On Santa Monica Blvd. (between Poinsetta and Formosa) there is still an old garage door in the studio wall. Legend has it that this was Mr. Hughes' private entrance and that he rarely used the main gate. That way no one on the lot knew if he was there or not. I wonder if anyone uses it now? Bruce

I've been on film sets since I was nine years old and a mixer for over forty years and I still believe in the magic, especially on a stage. You arrive in the morning and there is just a big empty box. Soon it becomes another world and at the end of the day it's once again an empty space. Oh, if those walls could talk! Or how about the idea of a group of virtual strangers coming together to perform an extremely complex technical and creative ballet, and packing it up when we're done? Maybe what we create isn't art but how we create it is pretty damn close to magic. Bruce

Is that the same video monkey I saw broken down in Pasadena with smoke pouring out of his cockpit?

Since there's no way the disc was spinning backwards the anomally may have been in the DA converter or maybe it was a flashback. Most of us old 1/4" jockeys remember "we cough" at slate time. Come on by, Crew. I don't think I'll be able to leave the set until lunch. Don't worry about the red light, come on in. Bruce

No, I'm still running 2.34. I know I need to up grade but even so, after countless hours of recording (I've had the 744T since it first came out) I've never seen anything this crazy and I have no idea of how to replicate it. The only unique thing was that I was rolling almost non stop for many hours and the machine was quite warm.

Yesterday, after hours of nearly non-stop recording (HD) on my 744T, the headphone disc monitoring was suddenly backwards. Actually, backwards, as if it were tape being played in reverse. Direct headphone monitoring was normal but in A,Bm mode everything was crazy. I checked playback and everything was cool. It didn't happen on the next take but what possibly could make the audio be backwards. Perplexed, Bruce

Hi Scott, Which charger did you get from their site? There are a few choices. Bruce

I don't mean to sound like a luddite and I'm well aware that this new technology is upon us, however I can't help but wonder...hmm. If we can get the shows for free online and we can skip the commercials, who's going to be supporting television? Someone has to pay for production. Will the shows themselves just become longform commercials. Product placement is insidious enough, but it won't pay our salaries... or the actors. Just wondering what the new paradigm will be. Bruce

A hundred years ago, when I was just getting started in this biz, I watched, amazed at the chaos, as the crew scrambled to get that one last shot before the sun set. An old timer turned to me and said, "Remember, kid, in this business you're only as good your last fifteen minutes".