Johnny Karlsson

If I'm not mistaken, this was always the rules, even though some productions were trying to get away with calling crew "independent contractors". By definition, it fails the test right off the bat. Independent contractors are the people that do construction etc. - They put in a bid on a project, if they "win"/ get the contract, they then decide how, by whom and when the jobs gets done. Tools and building materials etc. is included in the original bid. We have a definite call time and are under direction of those above us in the food chain until we get dismissed (wrapped). We can't leave and come back later to finish the job, so... Anyway, I actually think this whole thing is to protect us from abuse - those "producers" who try to get us to agree to an "all in" deal. Then demand 14 or 16 hours of labor + get you to "throw in" whatever gear is needed. They want to get around workers comp. insurance etc. The labor part of our rate should be subject to OT etc. - so, yes, we are in fact employees for the job, even if just for one day. Also yes, the gear should be separate and 1099, since your equipment rental income shouldn't be subject to pay FICA, Social Security etc. - As always, feel free to correct me if I'm missing something.

Tjena Freddan, If you want to spend the money - get a pair of MKH40, or Schoeps CMC64(1). You can always use them for other things in a variety of situations (interior dialog, interviews, acoustic guitar etc). I would avoid shotguns with interference tube for this purpose. On a side note: - A few years ago, I was helping out recording my son's Christmas pageant at school. Since it wasn't a paid job, and not super critical (video shot on prosumer cameras), I didn't want to spend a bunch of money, but still felt that a pair of mics to pick up the applause/audience noise would be nice to have. Around the same time, some guys were doing a mic shootout (can't remeber where.. GearSlutz maybe?) - and had included these really cheap mono-price mics: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=600700 Those guys were going on and on about how crazy it was that these mics sounded quite decent, even compared to some high priced ones. I ended up ordering a pair and used them for that audience recording. It actually sounded pretty good. For the price, even if you only use them once.... I have since then accumulated a number of really nice mics, and I wouldn't bring these mono-price ones out on a paid gig, but just sayin' - it may be an option to check out (just put gaff tape over the logo LOL).

The Are We Still Rolling Stones?

I can now confirm that X1-X2 indeed do reset to "off" after the blue light stopped blinking.

If I had to take a guess, I would say it probably will reset to off, since that would essentially be the same thing as holding the menu button, letting go of TC and quick-start. But hey, why not - I will try that now. I‘ll wait until the blue light stops blinking, then check and report back here.

I'm disappointed to report that X1 / X2 still reset themselves to "off", when auto-mute is engaged, and thus will not pass any audio while rolling. This reset happens after power cycling the 633 (seems to hold fine while Quickstart is still keeping the blue TC light blinking, but not if holding the Menu button for 6 sec to shut down completely). The workaround is to go to the AUX screen and use the select knob to turn it back up... but the next time you boot up or load a preset with Auto Mute, you have to remember to go in and manually turn them back up. - I did start from factory settings. I actually loaded factory settings before running the firmware update. Even set all four presets to factory defaults before loading the firmware - a second time. Then tested again with all factory default settings, except setting AUX 1 + 2 to L + R and Auto Mute.

Got the email from Sound Devices this morning. I will install tonight when I get home. No details other than "performance improvements". Keeping my fingers crossed that the AUX mute thing has been fixed.

Ok, so a quick check on the Pelican website shows the interior dimensions: == 1535 Air: Interior: 20.4" × 11.2" × 7.2" = 26.957638 liters == 1510 Protector: Interior: 19.8" × 11" × 7.6" = 27.1251793 liters Not exactly a huge difference, but the way I felt looking at the 1510, it has more flat bottom surface. In the Air case, the bottom has the luggage handle channel on the inside, so that's why it "felt" to me like it's smaller. And the numbers indicate that it actually is a tiny bit smaller interior.

Yes, that is a good case. The regular (non Air) Pelican 1510 is a also a good choice imo (I have two). The "air" case is slightly lighter weight, but I think it sacrifices a tiny bit of internal space(?) I could be wrong about this, so check the actual internal dimensions online.

As you can see, there are as many opinions as there are sound mixers and choices of equipment and combinations of all the above. Since an opinion is a viewpoint often based on absolutely nothing, or at best something based on the situation of the person giving you their opinion - you‘ll still have to figure out what will work best for yourself by trying the different suggestions here.... or elsewhere. I know you will probably say that there is neither room, nor budget to hire a dedicated sound person, but if the end result - and your time, efforts, money spent on this project matters to you, then it might be worth stepping back and try raising some funds first. In stressful situations, especially in documentary settings, where you can’t do re-takes, you may end up missing “that golden moment” because you’re distracted/ have too many things to keep track of.... Just my $0.02.

Me too Thank you again!

Hey Patrick, I deleted that part about not being able to log back in. That was pilot error.

Thanks, Patrick. "sudo adduser $USER dialout" did autopopulate with my user name. Yeah! "sudo adduser $USER serial" followed by logging out and back in resulted in RF Explorer connecting automagically when launched. Yeah!!! Success. BIG Thank all of you guys!!

And borjam is correct - once RF Explorer is disconnected, the line of code + password has to be entered in terminal again. If there’s a line of code that can keep the USB port open permanently, that would be even better, but I’ll take this for now.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Yes, this worked. - I didn’t mean for this to become my personal tech support lol, but it’s really fantastic to have this knowledge shared. Hopefully this can help others who are attempting to do the same thing, too.