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rcoronado

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Everything posted by rcoronado

  1. I have an sfx recording session coming this weekend at a kitesurfing waterpark. There's no dialogue to be captured - only sfx, and I'm primarily just running shotgun rigs, but I'd LOVE to be able to get a mic actually onto the wakeboards to capture some up close water movements. I do have a lectro SMQV bodypack and a countryman b6 that can be used, I just need to be sure to get my mounting and waterproofing 100% correct on that rig before I attempt it. anyone have any experience or advice on this? thanks in advance!
  2. pretty wild tech. I wonder if there's any non first party writing on this yet? I'd love an objective look at this. the sound solution seems....complex.
  3. if it were me, the two primary things I'd be figuring out are drafting placement and exhaust. Also, if you have a second rig, another person holding a boom for passbys, ins and aways and tire noise will be worth its weight in gold. If the exhaust is in the rear, as is typical, I'd cover that with both the MKH50, and the COS11. You really can't cover the exhaust thoroughly enough. I'd place the other COS11 in the engine compartment. I've had excellent results in the past by taping PZM and cub mics to the rear bumper with little to no wind protection, because the vehicle itself acts as the wind barrier while it is in motion. The COS11 should be easy to mount as close to the exhaust as possible while still using the vehicle for drafting. The MKH50 will be trickier, but if the car is going to exceed about 30mph, I'd just mount that one on the bumper or rear wall directly as well. You may get results by hanging a boom over the back of the vehicle and keeping the mic tight, but you'll likely end up with boom pole bumps in that scenario, so I much prefer to just mount directly to the vehicle if possible. In the engine compartment, you'll want to find the air intake, and place the other COS11 in a place that captures that without being in direct contact with the wind. Remember, even in enclosed engine compartments there's considerable air flow, and wind protection isn't the answer there - placement for drafting is. The other major thing I'd be concerned with is mounting technique. dont mess up that paint job! Test your tape, use torn up t shirts as padding where needed, and mount and secure everything very well before the car goes into motion. have fun and good luck!
  4. Really cool podcast. Check out ep 003 with Jimmy Siekza. crazy stories inside. I'm not affiliated, just a fan. http://locationsoundpodcast.libsyn.com/
  5. my theory on this (not only on set, but in post and other situations as well) is because sound is abstract enough that folks outside of the discipline just have their eyes glaze over when they attempt to think about it. you can't show anyone sound on set, and so everyone just kind of puts it out of their minds. Further, most non audio folks don't really know how to trust their ears, or even really what to be listening for. This type of mental distance can quickly lead to a dismissive attitude. I honestly think that (at least in the context of production sound) if we'd communicate more in the context of speech rather than sound, we'd have an easier time getting people onto the same page. IOW, no one really cares if you've got a problem with the sound, but they may care greatly if they've busted the recording of the dialogue. Its really all a matter of framing the work into a context that they higher ups actually care about. An example: "hey there, we caught a noise about 30 seconds into that take" vs "hey there, a cell phone ringing busted our actor's second line in that take" imagine if people took 'noise on the take' as seriously as 'boom in the shot' - I could probably happen if it was more like 'noise over the actor's line' in their heads.
  6. from a post perspective, wild lines are always welcome - especially if you KNOW your production sound was cut in challenging situations. the hardest part is generally just getting access to the actors for long enough to do the actual recording, but if you can do that you'll very likely save someone's ass down the line. that said, best practice is to NOT cut wild lines in a dramatically different environment from the set. IOW, if they're outside but near the sea, move over to a different spot far enough away from the surf noise that the takes are going to be usable and cut the lines there. the point is not to get a 'booth' sound, but instead to get a sound that can be intercut seamlessly with actual production sound.
  7. My .02 - I deleted facebook years ago and have reaped great personal rewards from that decision despite the fact that I clearly do miss out on some useful conversations that go on in that forum. While I broadly agree with the sentiment that facebook is at a minimum negligent with its use of data and is malicious in its collection of it, I recognize that this argument isn't salient to manufacturers as they seek to engage with users and potential customers. So, to the manufacturers I'd argue that you still reap greater rewards by being your own platform because you cede control of a lot of very important aspects of your brand and interactions when you outsource those interactions to ANY third party (inclusive of this site). Specifically, you cede control of the url, the look, the other things on the page simultaneously, the presence and content of competitive advertising, and the user data and info itself. Given how easy and inexpensive it is to build a robust forum and chat interface into any site, thats a LOT to be giving up. This isn't to say you shouldn't or couldn't have a presence on third party platforms, but rather to say that this presence should generally be geared towards directing users and potential customers to the web interactions that your company designs and controls. If a user hits you up on facebook or twitter with a support question, IMO you should immediately be replying with a link that pulls them OFF of that platform and into your own ecosystem. Sure this takes more resources, but in the context of tracking and responding to things on social media as the alternative, its not that much more. for a good case study in this approach, check out asoundeffect.com. Asbjoern really does a good job of building a running a pretty big platform with a clear vision and a toolbox of off the shelf software tools.
  8. seems like that would take some degree of machine - learning to get it actually happening. IOW, the algorithm would have to be able to identify on-mic vs incidental by some combination of loudness, reverberation and frequency content, but it would clearly not be as simple as just setting thresholds because it would require context to discern what's what. I know iZotope has some machine learning programmed into their dialogue isolate and de-rustle modules these days. Seems like it could eventually be do-able, but it also seems like technologically its a pretty tough nut to crack.
  9. Hey Mike, i'd love to hear some specific feedback about the tech and challenges you face that I can send back in their direction. I'm of the opinion that we don't get to have enough cross-discipline conversations, and we'd all benefit from knowing more about what's happening both upstream and downstream in the production process.
  10. Hi all, We recently recorded a dialogue editing episode of our podcast, tonebenders, with some pretty big names in the biz. We talk a bit about what these editors wish the production sound folks knew about their workflows, and got into the weeds with what happens with your tracks once they come to the edit room. I figured that would be of interest here. tonebenders ep 75 thanks! -Rene
  11. I've heard of a few voicover projects where 96k was specified specifically because the plan was to do sound design style processing and pitch shifting to several of the characters as a whole. That seems like the only reason to run 96k on set as well.
  12. dude, that's pretty impressive! how did you go about implementation in the mix?
  13. @RadoStefanov its the fact that you edited the post above that makes it so great.
  14. So, has 3d printing come to the point yet where we can design and create entire shock mounted and wind protection rigs with various multi mic configurations? I saw a thread a while back that had a person custom 3D printing various mic clips, and it seems like the next step would be to modify the designs that Rycote and Cinela put out to adapt to some more esoteric or compact designs that incorporate both wind protection AND shockmounting. I'm thinking of things like ORTF mounts for longer mics that have shock mounting built in and enough room for cables to attach internally quad rigs rigs with attachment ports for TWO mic stands that can support heavier mics collapsible rigs (rigs that fold down flat and then pop back out into boxes or other shapes) rycote ball gag competitors dual MS rigs etc. The tricky part for all of that stuff tends to be the physical construction of the cage. Once that's designed and produced, its just a matter of wrapping it in an appropriate fabric and implementing the rubber bands for the shock mount. Seems doable. right?
  15. so the shoot was yesterday and it was super challenging, but also great fun. The hero mics of the day ended up being my crown PZMs - simple to mount, and the hemispherical pattern really allowed them to capture my screamer's voices super cleanly. On the ground the Schoeps dual omni rig and the 416 handheld shone through as well. park safety was there with me checking everything over before any of the rides went out. Zip ties and gaffer tape for the win. I'll do a podcast about it in the near future. Thanks all for the advice and encouragement!
  16. scout session completed. Lots of challenges, and my equipment list is definitely refined as a result. Onboard are going to have to be easy to mount and super low pro because of the limited availability of mount points and the intense G forces in play. Plan is now to go with a pair of crown PZMs for screamers, some Sunken CUBs for track friction, and maybe one MKH50 for meat and definition. Also, these things are LOUD so I'm going to have to really be careful with levels and shock mounting. Its going to be a huge challenge, but it should be fun!
  17. I've had the same experience regarding surround. Also, in the time since this post has gone up the nature of the project has changed and become more limited - now I'm creating a library to be used exclusively for productions related to this park. That means it doesn't go in my library and it doesn't go up for sale. I just need to package up some good sounds and hand them to the video editor. Bummer for me, but still an interesting challenge.
  18. I've developed a visual analogy for almost all audio related things over the years. Really helps certain people understand things. an example - I was doing post on a production that had lavs in it that were low on batteries and getting super hissy. I struck an ok balance between cleanup and not making it worse with artifacts, but the source audio was pretty busted and the end result was imperfect. Client (who was also the picture editor) asked me if there was anything more I could do to clean them up. I explain that my situation is a lot like when you capture an image through a smudged dirty lens. Sure, there are things you can do to help, but after a certain point you only making things different, and not really better. The problem is that the source image was never captured pristinely, and you can't create it from nothing. The client was super happy with that explanation since I spoke in his laguage, and we moved on from there. -- Anther little rule of thumb is that if people aren't listening on cans but they hear something extraneous and ask if I heard it, I just about always say "if you can hear it, my mics can too" this is easy to understand for people and tends to strike an okay balance on what to let go and what to re-do. -- The other little part of diplomacy is to never be negative, and never assign blame. Its not "You changed the lighting and ruined my boom placement", its "the lighting moved and forced a boom placement change" I've even noticed in VO sessions, I'll include myself in an actor's mishaps. An actor will substitute an incorrect word on a script, and after the take on the talkback I'll say something to the effect of "cool, lets do it again because we said 'he' instead of 'she'" obviously without emphasizing the word "we" but still using that word. It just helps me avoid saying something to the effect of "you fucked up, now we have to do it again." It doesn't hang that baggage on the actor and allows the next take to proceed unimpeded.
  19. good point on that. It was in my initial list, but I failed to mention it. Follow bys and whip bys will definitely be recorded.
  20. The surround thing is pretty tricky due to wind drafting limitations for the onboards. What specific surround perspective seems most useful? My experience has shown that there's not a big market for surround recordings. Much preferred tends to be well recorded stereo and mono sources that can be used to build surround soundscapes. I'm willing to be persuaded though.
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