soundmanjohn

I've heard the Ultrasone PRO750s are pretty good. Foldable, too, which is handy. John

Last summer, I recorded at the base of Niagara Falls, using an MKH30/40 MS pair in a Rycote, with just a Wimdjammer as extra protection. No problems until I hit the so-called Hurricane Platform, which is pretty wet. Mics stayed dry, but moisture got into the XLR connection and big nasty crackles resulted. On getting to a dry place and dismantling the kit, I wrung the WJ out, hung it on a fence in the sunshine for about ten minutes and dried out the XLR connection. The mics were bone dry and I had the 788 in my back-pack, under a rain poncho, but that spray gets blown everywhere, so a degree of dampness was in evidence. By the time I'd finished, I was wet through and water was dripping from the end of the Rycote, but I was astonished at how quickly it dried. A quick going over with the collapsible brush and all was well.

Chap on another list was asking about something like this. I put one together this afternoon from bits and pieces. Black Rapid Fasten R-3, thread converter (1/4" to 3/8") and a snap-hook. I know a length of shot-cord is cheaper, but this seemed like an elegant solution. Best wishes, John

Just a quick note to say best wishes to all for the New Year, but also to say thanks for maintaining one of the nicest and most informative forums I've come across. Even though I'm outside the main body of work that you guys do and that I primarily joined for the classifieds (sorry!) I've stayed and lurked because of the huge body of knowledge contained here and the willingness of the members to share and to help. I occasional post on another general recording-based site, where smugness, condescension and insults seem to be the norm and it's always a pleasure to come here for the straight dope. I look forward to lurking (and sometimes posting, where I think I can add to a thread) for a long time. Regards, John

"I want to clear up one thing about me watching his meters as opposed to listening to my levels...he was sending me post-fade signals as opposed to pre-fade because he didn't know how or if he even could switch them to pre-fade." At that point, alarm bells should have started to ring very loudly. As someone who has worked both as a mixer providing feeds and as a recordist using direct outs, I always give and always ask for pre-fade sends. There's no way in world I'm going to rely on someone else to be awake enough not to miss a mic cue, or to knock a fader and equally, there's no way that I'm going to be the person responsible for screwing up your feed if I make a mistake. As a mixer, I would expect you to make contact with me well before the event with a list of requirements: I would assume that you would be in the building well before the event started, so that any trouble-shooting could be done and that between us we would have sorted out the necessary interconnects so that there's no embarrassing air-gap. And I would know how to set up my desk so that the direct outs were pre-fade. As the recordist, I would want to know what desk I was connecting to and make sure I had some basic knowledge of that desk before-hand, even if it's only a PDF of the manual on my laptop. I would also ensure that I had the necessary interconnects with me, even if the in-house guy assures me that all is well. If I couldn't get a pre-fade feed, I would do a line check with mics open before the event started: all the mixer has to do is pull back the master faders to the PA system and run the input faders up one by one for you to check if you have signal. You should ask him to do this and he should be happy to do it for you. On major shows where house PA and broadcast/recording is being handled separately, a mic split is best. That way, you're each responsible for your own foul-ups, unless a mic goes bad, in which case your A2 had better be on the case fast! Remember that 6P acronym - Perfect Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. Regards, John

And Karel Reisz, here in the UK.

Looks similar to the Soundfield SPS200-SB set-up to me. I have this system and am very pleased with it. The Zephyx suspension is ingenious and effective. Regards, John

Beware the Sony MDR-7506HD and 7509HDs on Ebay from China at a very low price: suspecting that these were fakes, I bought a pair for a ridiculously low price from some chap in China and although they arrived promptly and were in a convincing box, once unpacked, it became rapidly apparent that these were indeed knock-offs. Terrible sound, left and right reversed, strange coiled cable, slightly out of kilter labels, no carrying bag, no warranty card and, once opened to correct the L/R swap, wrong drivers (genuine Sony drivers have three solder pads, these had two, poorly soldered, with the common wire floating around and insulated with a piece of masking tape.) After a short argument and opening a dispute with the vendor, I got a full refund, but the guy has so far failed to provide a return address, so I still have them. I suspect that people are buying these and then selling them on in the UK and the USA as genuine, so follow the old adage, if it looks too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.

You might want to join this group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/micbuilders/ Plenty of helpful info from folks who have been there and done that. Regards, John

Hey, I'm pretty sure I was in Tussauds that day; I was wandering around checking levels and I came across the shoot: I did the original sound design for the entire system there some ten years ago and was back in the city to try and restore ten years of neglect (they weren't that great on maintenance there - better now) and to add some stuff to a new area. Going back in a couple of months to see how it's all going. It's usually only possible to work at night in Tussauds and it's really rather weird wandering around those figures. I swear that sometimes they move... Regards, John