José

I believe that this technique may be very unaffordable on a real set. I did this years ago in some low budget indie film. In our blocking, I noticed that the actress did not turn her head and remained on a one-sided silhouette for an entire shot. She was wearing a very crinkly dress. That being the case, I simply routed the cable in the open and hooked the lav around her ear to the side away from the camera. That was the most rustle free audio I ever heard from a lav. But of course my lav placement choice didn't come without some questioning from the director. Oh well!

Very true! And I always take my time in finding ways to improve upon this very technique. LOL! And kidding of course!

Who was the genius audio supervisor to this project that proposed this idea? What a fool!

Anybody know of a great AC for hire local in the Atlantic City area? A couple days of work. Gig will be about two weeks from now. PM I am speaking with has more information. Anyway, if so, send me the AC's info via email. Thanks!

I wish I could make a dollar for every time I've heard that line. That could accumulate to a nice yearly salary.

Unfortunately Geoff, Your plan of attack has been pretty much my plan of attack as well in response to the multitrack pricing issue going on. I settle for jobs that are simple with 2 to 4 wireless lavs, shotgun, mixer, and ENG cable for the most part. And I will get my $650 to $700 for the day. Downside is that I find myself working less. I still do issue my quotes for bigger jobs, but again, I have been beaten out everytime after pricing the 788T recorder at an additional $150/day. The problem could stem from the whole reaity TV genre. I believe the trend of low ball pricing could have started here. When it comes to the current demands of big reality shows, there are many sound mixers that are undercutting legit commercial mixers with their 788T by throwing it in practically for free. While there are few mixers out there that are able to get their day rate plus $600 in kit fee for their reality mule bags, they are outweighed by the many that undercut and price their day rate and the same amount of gear for around $600-$650 total. And then you have to throw in VER rental house. They align themselves completely on the producer side in giving them the cheapest deals that many mixers can't compete with pricewise. They maintain private corporate accounts with their producer clients. And they do not associate themselves with mixers in making deals. Just producers. And they do give these reality shows the best of the best in gear. They go out of their way to provide an embarrassment of riches in audio gear to make their client happy. One reality show I know of and (which I admit) worked on for some episodes had four 788T recorders, over forty 411A wireless kit sets, 4 or 5 Sennheiser 416 shotgun mikes, 12 IFBs, and still more stuff that is too much to mention. VER is a big presence on many big reality shows. And BTW, VER is in every major city across the US. You are not missing anything Geoff, we are getting lowballed from all angles. All you can do is stick to your fair-pricing guns.

Here are my Block 23 scan results from work this morning in Time Square.

I worked with the EPIC for the first time yesterday. And I do have to say that the timecode was accurate all day at 23.97. I actually jammed the 788T as the slave to the camera believe it or not instead of the other way around. And yeah, the line level settings are not properly calibrated on the EPIC. When the camera was moved physically closer near the talent, the fan noise I learned was a major issue. It sounded probably as loud as a 16mm film camera. For shits and giggles, I asked camera crew if they had a barney jacket for the camera. I got the classic look of me having three heads. Anyway, first Epic shoot. I'm sure it won't be the last and probably many to come.

Quotes from a filmmaker that was looking to hire on deferred payment a few months back: "If you are doing Sound just for the money, then you are in the wrong business. Indies are all about jumping on projects with scripts that you can truly believe in. If you had a passion for this business, then you'd understand."

Just getting back to this thread to say thanks to Eric for a wonderful job in fixing my G2. The distortion issue with the female connector is now completely gone.

Hey Cory! I only bought one thus far. I may buy a second set should I decide on choosing block 23 as my HOPs. I only did one job in the field with it last week. And I don't get to pick up my kit for work again until next week. But from that one job, I had many available clean frequencies to choose from walking around 39th St. between 8th and 9th and then 52nd St. between again 8th and 9th.

Thanks for the heads up about 1888TV Crews. 120 days to pay? I will definitely stay away.

Hey Rob! I just bought a UCR411a/UM400a block 23 system just three weeks ago and I love it. Unfortunately, I really can't satisfy your question since I do not have a total of 6. But the next time I am out on shoots here in New York, I'll take a pic or record a video of the autoscan at congested locations like Time Square. Hopefully sometime early next week.

I notice (let me know if I'm wrong) that the HS-P82 unit does not provide output gain control. It only has Left and Right set at line level. When working from the bag, are you able to match up the tone levels OK to Lectro transmitters for HOPs? And when in bag, what has been your solution for sending IFBs while simultaneously sending HOPs from your only two line outs? I'm already sold on the mirroring. It's awesome to hear that the mirroring function for the unit works real well.

Thanks Nicole! Thanks Spencer! Your reviews put a lot of concerns to bed atleast for me especially concerns with timecode accuracy and mirroring of the CF cards.

Yeah, Senator! I too received a great presentation from another one of their engineers that worked full time on the unit. Should power failure occur with the unit, he claimed it was capable of saving active recording files with no more than 10 seconds of audio loss. And when connected to the controller, the trim control can be moved from the pots from the recorder over to the ones on the controller and viceversa. Doesn't matter if both cards are different from one another in brand, type and size, mirroring will work. Interesting!

Unfortunately, they have a ways to go. The unit is not stealthy. It is not securely built. It's housing is as insecure as an old VCR box. You don't feel any resistance in turning the faders. The faders are as loose as slapping a hockey puck on ice. In terms of interfacing with the unit, you had to dig in deep into the menu options for something as simple as reference tone. In their product demo, the unit was never connected to any wirelesses whatsoever; Just shotgun mikes with different microphone patterns. That was pretty odd. Hopefully, they come back with very dramatic improvements next year. My take on the unit: Very disappointing.

I am at the THAT corporation website and it is very cool that they sell DEMO boards to test their products. http://www.thatcorp....on_Boards.shtml They mentioned that their 1606 line drivers are purposely designed to replace your TI DRV135 chips. Sorry, but now this has got my head wandering about other electronic possibilities. I am wondering if they sell any balanced line drivers that could be implementable to my Sennheiser G2 receiver output (which is unbalanced). In regards to the HS-P82 I was very impressed, but only on the showfloor. The preamps sounded very clean. And they took into account their mistake of only designing one pair of Line Outs for the HS-P82. They now offer two L-R line outputs with a return via its HS-P82 controller (model: RC-F82). The price point for unit and controller is $3500 + $1200. How sweet is that? In terms of bag work with the HS-P82, I was thinking if I did invest in the unit, I would implement and connect it to something like this splitter feed called the Peter Engh Splitmon 3. http://www.peterengh...f/splitmon3.pdf The splitter would take care of distributing signals for HOPs and IFBs. But still! I am trying to learn about the HS-P82's field performance. Does the timecode remain accurate during shutoff periods? Any freezing cases with this unit? Any mirroring or CF card incompability issues with this recorder? How many hours can it go on a Lithium NP1 battery? etc.

I saw it at NAB. Plastic.

I learned about yet another multitrack recorder in the location sound market called the 4Minx. It was showcased this year at NAB. I thought I'd share its link with everyone here at JWSound. In terms of review, I don't know what to say other than it will leave you speechless. Anyway! Check it out for yourselves.

The engineer to the Nagra 6 gave me an overview presentation at his booth at NAB. I do have to say that the menu interface is very slick and very straight forward. That is pretty cool also that you have the option to either work with their proprietary battery or through the DC 4 pin XLR input for another power source like an NP1. But the driver output issue to the Nagra 6 I am sure is a pain. My Alphamix mixer does feature isolated transformers and it's been very stellar for years sending audio to camera When a DVR135a chip blows inside your unit, how much to replace it? And do you solder and replace it yourself? That problem sounds like it sucks. And what kind of socketed adapter did you have in mind to remedy the recorder's driver output issues?

I have read the good and the bad regarding the 788T and Nomad. But how 'bout the less popular recorders. In particular: The Nagra 6 and Tascam HS-P82. How have they been performing for their owner/operators? How reliable has the mirroring function been on the HS-P82? And any freeze cases for any of these two recorders? Etc!

Interested! Sent U a message. Field mixer.

If it was just one wireless, did you check and see if the power supply switch at the preamp was changed accidentally to T power or 48V?

No Tim! It's a Nonunion show.