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Benjamin Gandy

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Everything posted by Benjamin Gandy

  1. AFAIK the NTG3 is RF biased. Personal A-B, it's more directional and has more 3-4K, but is much more sensitive than a T-powered 416, no idea how they compare to P48s.
  2. It's sad that sound engineers are forced to design and implement such devices. Maybe we should make all our booms bright green until the camera department takes care of their own damn equipment.
  3. First wireless I swung with was an HM taped to the pistol grip. Heavy, but very effective. I recently borrowed someone's Audios and used a VDB 48V cable, again with them taped at the head end. I never needed to tap directly into the boom either time. I considered getting a Sennheiser plug on but need to upgrade and increase personal mic count before the boom and I just couldn't trust my main source to a Senn. If you ask me, having a boom wired onto your belt is more hassle than a wired boom. Mounting 48V and TX to the bottom end of the pole could be novel though. I've always found wireless much more necessary in one man situations, for obvious reasons.
  4. Get a red sharpie and scrawl ADR over the walls. Does ADR stand for After Dialogue with a Red? Seriously tho, mention it to director and producer (sometimes) and just explain that the camera is simply too loud. The only way to get around it is to get closer, have the cast speak up, lower the fan speed and run shorter shots, or rent a different camera.
  5. Who needs a lifetime warrantee on a fifteen foot cable?
  6. Looks like a Sony CR-4. It looks like the ring on the capsule only holds the strap, which is probably removable.
  7. Rubbery as in firm? My 302 has 'rubbery' knobs compared to cheaper mixers, which I'd call firm and smooth. Although the knobs are rubber.
  8. Let's not go there, but I agree. Do you know what this thing's called?
  9. Portabrace mixer combination bags are classic, my preference would be their organisers. At the moment I have a Petrol mainly due to availability in the UK – the 601 is a favourite for 552 and small other doodads, and is more flexible and adaptable than most Portabraces, but it depends on whether you're a messy or neat bag person. There will be somewhere in Houston where you can try a couple of bags on for size, they're cheap to get hold of and easy to shift. Remember that you may end up getting eight wirelesses and a lockit and NP-1s and distribution and maybe a recorder and you'll still want space for peripherals and accessories. I still wish I'd got a Portabrace, but their organisers are very hard to find in the wild in the UK, and are almost impossible to view before purchasing (not even the UK distro had any) so I took the safer bet and went with a Petrol, which I knew would work for me regardless of whether I liked it or not.
  10. And FAO Glenn, I'm personally not a fan of how Maxxes are more Windowsy than SDs (which are comparatively Mac-ish). It's got an advanced menu of lots of computery settings we're not allowed to fiddle with and a load of code on boot up that makes the device seem somewhat less polished and less slick than the SD units. If you can fix that and give it a routing matrix (plus an extra few dB of gain if possible, I've heard 10dB is good, but not always great), then my 633/Maxx decision will be entirely down to track count and how they feel in my hands.
  11. This thread is terrifying. If you need four isos and a stereo (with the possibility of an extra one or two in the mix if you have an A-D), get a Maxx. If you need at most eight tracks and Zaxnet, get a Nomad. If you want at least eight tracks and don't need Zaxnet then get a 664/CL-6. If you need between two and four radios and two booms, get a 633. With regards to the Maxx update, one thing I'd like to see would be a routing matrix. If they enable eight track recording then an eight to eight pre/post matrix, or otherwise an eight to four pre/post matrix. So if I had to add a mission critical extra track via the AES 1, I could sum the less important content on tracks 3 and 4 to track 3's iso and send AES 1 to 4's iso (as well as all to stereo). Currently, AFAIK, you can't sum to record tracks (other than via the stereo busses). Kind of like a four buss plus stereo. Being able to record the mono bus in addition to the others would be good, but it'd be much better if that were included in the routing matrix, rather than permanently routed to a particular record track. As for only having four faders – as great as a four fader pack would be, it requires hardware that simply doesn't exist. Ditto with the keyboard. Deal with it. Get a bigger mixer. Get a Nomad or a Fusion or a 664 or a 788 or one of the many alternate devices designed with more faders. Edit: Unless the GPI (which I assume is general purpose in) can be used for a keyboard input / 4x fader panel or whatever and retain a couple of AES inputs, that'd be cool, if the hardware can do it.
  12. I've soldered a couple of Hiroses before, but the only reason I'd buy a Hirose cable is because the connectors would make it just as costly. Other than that I solder pretty much everything. Never fixed a Lemo or a BNC, but I'd give it a go.
  13. I keep seeing Audio Devs. on ebay and just wish I didn't also need a bag.
  14. Forgive me, I've never been tethered to a camera via a breakaway – I'm assuming 2x bal and 1 stereo unbal is a standard cable, so why would you use any more than seven pins/cores? Just to split the grounds of the sends and returns?Just because Hiroses are cooler than XLRs?
  15. Five and a half ounces is a lot when you're working at 16 feet.
  16. I started with the Rode as well; the creaking was a major influence in my move to better pole.
  17. I've done this with a 680 and a 302 – radios into 3 and 4, direct outs into the 302 and sent to 2, boom straight to 302 and into 1. It was just too much gain staging to think about, and I'm sure it induced extra noise on the radios because of the A-D-A-D and two 680 line amps (which aren't great). Biggest problem was recording one radio, because the direct outputs only enabled when the track was armed, so it'd be recorded twice. Having isos for only two radios simply wasn't worth the extra hassle, noise and weight of cables. If you're talking, say a 788 and a line mixer (a summing mixer, for instance), it'd end up very high quality, but for the price of a good summing mixer you'd just get a CL-9/8 or a real mixer.
  18. Fresh from Rycote: The rings from the pre-Modular & Modular use different materials, the earlier pre-Modular using a rigid ABS and the Modular a plastic called Hytrel. The rigid ABS is more predictable to glue, using either a cyanoacrylic (super glue in the UK or Crazy glue in the States) or contact adhesive. Originally the pre-Modular adhesive we used was from Bostik, and it's reference was "Bostik 1782". Please note that once a ring breaks, getting a permanent glue joint can become very difficult - by the fact that it's round. Also, avoid getting too much glue near the netting if you can help it. The netting is a polyethylene, and so doesn't stick to very well to anything - and therefore crackles (not good). On the Modular rings, the flexible plastic will make it very tricky to repair. However, we have used a 2-part epoxy Plastic Adhesive, with success. In the UK we've used UniBond "Repair Power Epoxy Plastic 2 Component Epoxy Adhesive", which is a Henkel line of products. The instructions say sets in 5 minutes - we'd recommend nothing less than 24 hours though.
  19. At £250 I'll take a rain check. Prior to right now I've not heard of these, but I've read some basic literature about them since. I assume some king of phase cancellation thing is going on – but I don't really see the point. Then again, I've never seen a reason to reduce the comforting drone of jet engines. I suppose they're nicer than DT100s.
  20. We ask because why should the cam op/DOP get an assistant but we shouldn't?
  21. I concur – but you wouldn't get massive phase issues with shotguns in such a setup. I'd be more worried about the mics not being on axis if either actor moves a little or turns their head. Plenty of people have done it before though. A single cardioid (or hyper, depending on the distance between the talent) might fare better, depending on how wide the shot is. Alternately you could set up such that you can manipulate one or both of the stands whilst watching the action, moving them to accommodate for actor movement. Or you could consider personal microphones, but if you've no budget for a boom operator then I'll assume you haven't the budget for wireless, although wired personal mics might be an option. Or you could one man band it and boom it yourself (if you can swing a boom) – at least you can respond to movements if needed. I've done that on a boat with an NTG3 at 3 ish feet between three people sitting opposite each other and produced fine results (aesthetically as well – I'm a fan of that wide sound).
  22. I'd use a two part epoxy. I use epoxy for gluing basically everything.
  23. You could just have your IFBs sitting in a box with fresh batteries and neatly kept headphones. Or put out some sort of hat stand.
  24. I've only done a couple of unscripted things (and I'm not a fan), and I've always just gone with it unless the dialogue becomes unintelligible, unless the mono-dia-tria-logue can be easily repeated, like a vox pop or an improvised piece. If there's some noise that's of note but not of major concern then I'll make a note and point it out after to the director/dir/DOP/anyone who cares. If it's something diabolical I'll usually point it out there and then, because the track's ruined anyway. I'm also firmly of the school that it's their dialogue, not mine. I have used that as a way of taming some inconsiderate dingbat on set as well – it's their dialogue as much as it is the director's. I think giving as many people IEMs as possible is a very powerful tool – people are much more considerate when they can hear the hum that I'm trying to stop, or that sludge factory across the river that's causing my hair to fall out. When people watch a scene they listen in stereo so can more easily discern voice from noise because of its location, but if everyone listens to an IEM they hear it how you hear it, how it's being recorded, and ultimately how the audience will hear it, ergo they're much more receptive to you suggesting another take, and they're more likely to look your way when they hear a plane, just to see if you're concerned.
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