soundmanjohn

Audio weighting networks, telephone network improvements, moving coil disc cutting stylus, stereo recording, high definition (comparatively) television in the 1930s, 45 degree lateral stereo groove for disc reproduction, H2S airborne radar: these are just a few of the things that went through Alan Dower Blumlein's mind, before his untimely death in a plane crash in 1942, whilst working on the radar.

In my time as a stand-in projectionist, before Xenon lamps became common, arcs were the only light source. I first met them as hand-adjusted versions in the follow-spots in the big theatre in my home town and then again in the projection room of the first arts centre I worked in as a jack of all trades. Those projectors used a system called auto-arc, where an opto switch supposedly checked that the gap was correct and fed the carbon in when it got too large. They never really worked properly, so one had to keep a constant lookout for the picture colour balance. Too blue or too yellow and the arc needed adjusting by hand. Mind you, the early Xenon lamps chucked Ozone out at an alarming rate and were a bit of a pain to change when they failed, with protective gloves and eye-protection needed.

Sometime though, it can work to your advantage: I was working on a charity gig and the compere, a brilliant U.K comedian and writer by the name of Barry Cryer, left the theatre at the end of the show still wearing his transmitter. As soon as I realised he'd gone, I monitored his mic channel and was relieved to find that he was in the pub next door, ordering a pint of liquid refreshment. Actually, with his well-known reputation for liking a drink, I could probably have gone there directly, without checking his mic. John

I have a pair of KM184D mics, the DMI-2 portable unit and a KK120 Fig.8 capsule. Simon also has a pair of the KM184Ds as we bought them from the same company, who'd bought a load from Sennheiser under the mistaken impression that they could connect them directly to a digital mixing desk, and consequently sold them off cheap. I bought two sets to do IRT cross surround recordings and found a couple of DMI-2s in stores where no-one knew what they were, so sold them to me for very little money. Following the IRT cross experiment, which was impressive, but impractical for outdoor work, I sold on one pair and the DMI and bought the KK120 so I could do fully digital M/S recording. For me, the most useful part of the system is the programming software which allows you to configure the microphone for different sample rates, (happy to reconfigure our Swiss friend's Sennheiser if he wants to send it over), LF roll-off, limiter, etc. The M/S set-up works very nicely and is pretty much noise free, so very happy with that. If I could afford it, I'd buy a couple of the KK133 capsules for purist music recording, but at their current price, I think I'll stick with my Schoeps. I did initially have a problem with the direct connection to my 788T with the breakout cable that came with it and, thanks to information here, was able to determine that the breakout cable I had was an early version and didn't provide the necessary power to the mics. Sound Devices sent over a new cable to me in the UK on a Friday, which arrived from the USA the following Monday - no charge. Superb service. All the best, John P.S. Neumann updated software and firmware for all ther digital microphone systems earlier this year.

Well, there's a free chat program made by my friend Scott George at Autograph Sound here in the UK, which gets used for comms between a wireless rack and the FOH mix position. I don't think it can be pre-programmed, though. Might be worth a look anyway. Just noticed that is has a Macro facility: that might help. It's here: http://www.signatureseries.biz/products/asrchat.html John

I suspect that many of you have come across Howard Kaufman in his role as New York's Lectrosonic tech expert and will have benefited from his expertise and generosity over the years: Howie is now desperately ill with a Stage 4 Glioblastoma and his family are fundraising via a GoFundMe page to help with his care. If you can spare a few bucks, please go here and donate. https://www.gofundme.com/f/howie039s-recovery?fbclid=IwAR31xyj2yFKYh4b7EUz5h4LZRfiVdA8PytZO257JqyUlHNbFIY_KFMOzy6c Thanks, John

I was one of the people who crowdfunded this movie, so good to see it getting some international recognition.

Sound Effects sale. www.asoundeffect.com has a sale on, and most of my libraries are in it, including the latest, Bells & Doors of a Victorian House. Find my collections here: https://www.asoundeffect.com/sounddesigner/immersive-fx/ Thanks, John

Totally coincidental, I should think: Martin's a West Country chap here in the U.K. I agree it's pretty odd that the two names should be so similar, though. John

Just a warning that there's some guy pretending to have one of these for sale in Germany for a good price, but he's a scammer. He suggests using an escrow service of Deutsche Post that doesn't exist and when challenged on it just disappears. For those of us with not so much money, a less costly dummy head that uses DPA4060s has just been announced by this chap: https://www.inariaudio.com It looks nicely made and is about a third the price of the KU100 John

Did my first shoot with a Tentacle Sync E, a Canon EOS 7D Mk 1 and a Sound Devices 10T. All went well until the import of the video and audio files into Tentacle Sync Studio. The software checks that the timecode is correct and shows that the audio and video are in sync. Except that they're not: the video lags the audio track, on which the LTC is recorded by, according to some research that I did on the internet, "1-2 frames" and you can correct for that that in the Tentacle software. However, clips from later takes still looked to be out of sync and needed 4-5 frames of correction. As this was a quick and dirty session, there was no slate (I don't normally do this kind of thing and there was no money to rent one) so it was pretty much suck it and see, but all now seems to be OK after some trial and error. Is this sort of thing normal with DSLR cameras? John

Aha, that'll be it, then. I'd totally forgotten there was a USB drive connected, as it's one of the tiny ones. Thanks for the problem solving. All the best. John

Having updated to Firmware V3.01 on my 10T, I had the rather strange experience this morning of not being able to turn the thing off. I was doing test recordings of my OctoMic/Cyclone combination, powering an AudioRoot BDS and Remote Audio Hi-Q battery, with a fully charged set of Eneloop AAs in the battery sled as back-up, and when I'd finished recording, I went to power down and the switch was totally inactive. Disconnected the BDS, still nothing. I'd had WIngman running on my iPad and wondered if that was something to do with it, so turned Bluetooth off, and initially that didn't seem to make any difference. Eventually, after a fair bit of head scratching and switch clicking, the unit decided it did want to turn off after all. I can't replicate it at the moment, but will persevere. John

I probably have something or can find something: depends on what exactly you need and when you need it. John

That's very sad; he was helpful and constructive when I started producing effects libraries and I use his material all the time. A great loss.

And now the BBC is selling off Maida Vale studios, so that's another piece of history down the drain, probably to be replace by an apartment block with apartments at prices only affordable by the very rich. In another odd twist, the BBC also sold off the old Television Centre, but three of the studios that the building contained have now been reclaimed and re-fitted as - yes, T.V. studios. It's an odd world. John

My lectures are very odd indeed! Actually, Niles put his Companion hat on top of the hat he was already wearing and still managed to look cool: an extremely nice chap, I thought. (We did have to give the gowns and hats back after the ceremony, though, so they can use them again next time,) Thanks for the congrats, folks. John

Receiving a Companionship at the Liverpool Institute Of Performing Arts last month. Sir Paul turns up every year and greets every graduate personally: 250+ this year. I got this honorary thing for still being alive, still working and giving the odd lecture to the students. A fun couple of days, although being platform-bound for nearly three hours whilst 250 graduates filed past was a tad taxing, but at least I didn't have to kiss/shake hands with them all, like he did. Oh, and the psychedelic sneakers bottom left belong to Nile Rodgers, who got his award at the same ceremony. John

James Corden isn't the only one who gets to muck about with Paul McCartney in Liverpool. And I got to wear a silly hat.

I'm not a huge fan of the Ambeo, for various reasons, but there's no doubt that the combination of ease of use, price and hyperbole has made it the go-to mic of choice for a lot of VR work. A Rycote BBG works well with it and for more severe weather, there's a Rycote Cyclone with a mount to fit. The SPS200 also fits the bill, but is pricier, although once the Rode version appears, I suspect that the SPS may quietly disappear. However, you should note that both these microphones use a generic A-B conversion program and the Ambeo version is not that accurate, in my view. Len Moskowitz's TetraMic comes with individual calibration files for each microphone and is, to my ears, more accurate in terms of imaging and much better in terms of frequency response, although this can cause problems with location work as the mic is sensitive to cable and handling noise. This has been addressed with the new OctoMic, which uses a much more robust connector for the microphone. Both mics use an Ethernet Balun (like the InstaSnake stuff) for providing power and signal over long distances. The OctoMic produces pesudo second-order Ambisonic signals post processing (2nd Order horizontal, 1st Order vertical) and requires eight channels of matched, low-noise preamps: the Zoom F8n and the Sound Devices MixPre 10T are perfect matches. I can fit all the bits and pieces that I need into a small Sachtler bag, with an AudioRoot BDS and two Remote Audio MEON 98Wh batteries and work all day.

I had an ST250 that Soundfield modded for me with a polycarbonate array holder as an experiment to see if the effects of extreme temperatures on the different metals of the capsule and the clamps could be negated. (Mine used to go out of alignment from time to time and this was an effort to stop that happening.) It seemed to work quite well and all was good until an officious security chap at an airport refused to let me take it on board as hand luggage with the rationale that it could be used as an offensive weapon. Despite very careful packing in my checked baggage, it arrived in New Orleans in a tangled masss of broken polycarb and capsule cables. As it was a one-off, it had to revert back to the usual holder, but with a modified cable that could provide a 12v supply to the heaters whenI wasn’t running on mains power. My SPS200SB got some reasonably heavy-handed treatment, but the built-in Cinela Zephyx coped well with that. So far, my ST450 has behaved well under duress and both my TetraMic and OctoMic from Core Sound have been pretty much bomb-proof. For long-haul, mics travel in protective cases; easier with the Core Sound mics, because they’re tiny. While I had the Ambeo on loan from Senneheiser, it didn’t strike me as being particularly fragile and was being passed around to various testers in a simple plastic case with a bit of foam for shock protection. Anything else I can help with? John

Hello Allen, long time no see! Exciting times in the Metric Halo world at the moment; just waiting for the software to emerge from B.J.'s brain. Also a MixPre-6 user, so looking forward to hearing your ideas. All the best, John

And, joy of joys, Len Moskowitz has announced the OctoMic - a second order Ambisonic mic with eight capsules (the ninth channel is derived in software) which will make life even more complicated, but the audio will be better with a larger sweet-spot and better localisation. I'll be getting mine in the spring of next year, along with an SD MixPre-10.

Latest firmware (1.2) allows four channel linking for the MixPre-6, so FOA people (like me) are happy! Thanks for listening SD. John

SoundPro is a very small show in London, but aimed pretty squarely at sound recordists. Lots of nice people to chat to, gear for sale and on demo, the odd lecture or two. On October 7th, free to get in, just register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/soundpro-2017-tickets-36857450627 John