Mike Borlace

ESPN is an offiicial broadcaster of the Pan Am games this summer in Toronto. Was on the ESPN website and didn't see anything specifically for the Pan Am games, Have signed up for job alerts. Does anyone know if they wil be needing any local sound people in Toronto? Will they be posting these jobs on their website? Anyone have contact information for ESPN's Pan Am production group? Thanks.

When I went to England, one thing that helped me was to rent the same car that I had in Canada. I think that having the same car with just the steering wheel in a different place is much better than renting something totally new.

So.....I tried my CF card on a friends MAC and he sees the files. These are the results, so far. Client MAC: does't see CF card my Tascam: sees CF card My PC: sees CF card My laptop: sees CF card Friend's MAC sees CF card Since I have only had 2 different MAC's that couldn't read my cards in 10 years, I am guessing it is a problem with the specific MAC laptops.

You don't even have to abuse lithium batteries to have bad things happen. I worked on a documentary about UPS flight 6 that had a cargo of lithium batteries in the hold. They started a heat buildup, caught fire and created smoke in the plane and cockpit. The pilot's oxygen mask stopped working, the co pilot lost flight control and the plane crashed, killing both pilots.

Hi Glen, that sounds like a plan. I assumed that as the Tascam is formatting the card in a Fat 32 format (Fat 32 is read by both PC & Mac) and it reads in a PC, then it would work in a Mac.

Hi Glen, while I could format my cards on a computer, I believe it is always better to format media on the device it is being used in. Hi Tom, I don't know details on the two Macs that I had problems with and don't have access to them. But now that I am in troubleshooting mode, will look into the Mac more next time, The Apple operating system doesn't see the card on their desktop, so it wouldn't be at the stage of opening Quicktime or any other player program. (Perhaps a player program on that Mac can find my cards when the operating system can't?)

I have a 4 GB and a 8 GB Sandisk card. I formatted both in the HD P2. I used "Reformat Media" in the "Media Management" menu. It doesn't look like I have a choice of how the HD P2 formats the cards. I'm guessing that since the cards work perfectly in my PC computer and the HD P2, it was something in those 2 Mac's that just didn't like my cards.

The last two times I have done a job with my Tascam HD P2 (Nov 14, 2014 & Jan 21, 2015) the Mac I was trying to send my files to wouldn't read my Compact Flash card. I think an icon pops up but it can't be opened or any files read. In each case, I used 2 different Compact Flash card readers. Yet, when I get home my PC computer reads the CF card perfectly. I am using the Fat 32 file system so my files should read on both Mac's and PC's. I am using the Tascam v1.06 operating software. I have had the Tascam since July 2006 and it has always worked before. Any ideas?

Thanks for all the information. If I use Youtube for my videos, will youtube put commercials before my videos like they do with their videos?

I'm in the middle of setting up my website (www.michaelborlace.com) and everything put up is working well except the video clips. 2 clips play audio lower than the master. 1 other starts a little out of sync and then gets worse (master is fine). 2 others take 30 seconds to load before they will play. I am using quicktime files ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Am working with Wordpress software and Hostgator server. I looked at 22 other sound recordist websites and over half don't have video clips. For those who have websites, was it easy or hard to put up video clips? How are you displaying the clips? As I understand it, one can use Wordpress, Youtube or Vimeo to play video clips on websites.

If you feed audio to the camera, both Project FPS and Sensor FPS have to be the same rate or you will get the unhelpful error message "audio is disabled".

On Tuesday March 24, 2009 the Toronto Chapter of the Audio Engineering Society will have Chris Lyons from Shure Inc. talk on "White Spaces: Wireless Microphones" This meeting will be open to the public and starts at 7:00 P.M. It will take place in the Eaton Theatre of Ryerson University (RCC 204, Rogers Communications Building) 80 Gould Street, Toronto, Ontario. For more information, click on the link below: http://www.vex.net/torontoaes/ Michael Borlace (905) 891-0402 mborlace@sympatico.ca

Hello, I am doing an audio transcription onto a Tascam HD P2 recorder as a WAV file with audio on channel 1 and time code on channel 2. If the client asks for an MP3 file, can I convert a WAV file to a MP 3 file without time code being corrupted in the conversion process? thanks

Tascam came out with the v1.05 update for the HD-P2 audio recorder. They don't mention on their web site what is in the update and I emailed Tascam a week ago about it and haven't heard back from them. I have v1.04 right now. What is in v1.05, is it worth upgrading, is there any problems with v1.05? thanks

I had listed in both my sound reports and on a verbal head slate ID that the files were 24 bit, 48 kHz, 30 fps, NDF, time of day time code (and this was a film project). I assumed that post did the correct pull down and set Final Cut Pro at the right frame rate for this project. They seem to be slow in replying to my emails but I will check these possibilities next time I talk to them. Thanks for all the replies.

On my last project there seems to be an offset between my timecode values and what Post is reading for their timecode. This happened on both my test DVD and location audio production DVD's. I am using a Tascam HD P2 recorder and the timecode for each take (in my sound reports) match the timecode on the smartslate. However, Post is using Final Cut Pro version 5.1.4 and their time code for a take is anywhere from 50 seconds to 1 minute and 10 seconds earlier than my timecode values. Post wasn't using timecode to sync up the footage and haven't had time to look into this. There doesn't seem to be any other issues or problems with the audio. I am wondering if anyone knows why this might be happening?

I was doing a test recording before starting a short film and noticed that different pieces of equipment read different sizes for the same file, the smaller the file, the smaller the change. This was happening to all my files, even though I wasn't making any changes to them. As an example, a stereo BWF file 11 minutes and 15 secs was: -194 MB on my Tascam HD P2 recorder -185 MB on my PC computer after a firewire transfer from the HD P2 -189 MB on a DVD-R after being burned on my computer -190 MB on Protools v.7.3.1 at the post house -185 MB on Final Cut Pro v.5.1.4. at the post house Again, there was no editing or processing of the file inbetween readings, equipment seemed to be giving a different file size to the same file. Has anyone else noticed this? Is there an explaination for what is happening?

I have 2 questions about yesterday's Super Bowl. 1) Prince's concert at half time was in the rain with no roof or protection over the stage. With all the electrical sound and lighting equipment on stage, would that not have been a huge safety issue? 2) The TV cameras had rain on the lenses throughout the game. I have seen in a rental house a motorized spinning disk to go in front of a camera lens to protect it from water. Don't these devices work and why wouldn't they have been used on such a huge show?

This will not help to get out of a contract but you may have a government organization that can help you on a dangerous set. In Canada, the Canada labour code gives workers the right to refuse dangerous work. After notifying the employer, the worker remains at a safe location or can do other work while the compliant is handled. If the employer takes action against the employee for refusing dangerous work, the employee can make a complaint to the Canada labour Relations Board. In Ontario there is the Ministry of Labor that requires an investigation of all accidents and the shutdown of a set during the investigation. There are fines and imprisonment for supervisors and the company if the MoL is not notified of an accident, if a set is not shut down after an accident, or it was determined that the set was not safe. The unions in Ontario have a health and safety symposium every year and I think they would take a complaint about a unsafe set very seriously.

Have read the Deva manual and have a couple of questions. 1) there is a time code reference button with 2 choices: XTAL or AES. The 2004 manual gives a description of each choice. However, the 2006 manual gives the same description and then says the button has no effect and always use the XTAL position. I'm left wondering why you are given a choice that you can't use. Can anyone explain these choices? 2) With all the functions that the Deva can do, is it possible to run low or run out of resources when recording? Would you get an warning message similar to what happens with a computer? Could the recorder create errors in the files recording or stop recording?

I saw a photo from Scott Farr where he had 8 wireless mic receivers, 2 transmitters to camera and a IFB transmitter in a bag. Never having worked with such a large system, I am wondering how this would work without the RF energy of all the receivers and transmitters interfering with each other.

I was looking at some photos taken on set in the photo section and remembered that in Toronto, the camera union IATSE 667 has a rule forbidding all still cameras on a film set except those of the set photographer. Does any other camera union have such a ruling on union shoots?

There are situations where a Sound Recordist on small or independent stuff will be a Boom Operator on large or union productions. Mainly, Sound Recordists are Sound Recordists. But it is the same with any department. I would be surprised if a DOP was an operator on a shoot, a Director was a Assistant Director on a shoot, or a Producer was a Production Manager on a shoot. There is also the "confusion" factor as mentioned earlier. If you say you do 2 or 3 different things, people will not think you are serious or not know where to place you. If people don't know you and you say you are a Sound Recordist and a Boom operator, the ywill consider you as the lessor position.

I would recommend recording in 24 bit as a way to "future proof" the production recordings. At some point all picture and sound systems will be able to work at 24 bit and then 16 bit recordings will be a liability. It's like the producers who shoot their productions in Hi-Def even though they may only be releasing them today in standard def. These productions will have a longer "shelf life" as in the future they will have a value when standard def productions become the equalivent of black and white or silent productions.

Hi Jeff, I am curious about your reasons for starting a new sound discussion group when there is RAMPS, CAS forum and the Recording Arts Forum. Are you allowing your "enemies" jand people know for flaming to join? Will you still post on RAMPS in the future now that you have your discussion group? I joined up as I have followed your comments on RAMPS and have found them to be very informative. I hope this group works out well for you. Mike Borlace