Malcolm Cromie

I'm having a clean out of surplus gear and have for sale the following: 1 x Audio Developments 6 Channel into 2, AD245 Pico Mixer Professionally modified with 6 Pre Fade / EQ outputs via D25 to enable iso track recording. Also professionally modified with continuous sweep input trim pots: £1250 (negotiable) 2 x Sennheiser MKH 60 microphones £700 (negotiable) each Both in excellent condition 1 x Rycote Modular Windshield Kit 4 size for an MKH 60 with full circle hoop mounts. £200 2 x Lectrosonics ALP 650 Sharks Fin Antennas £250 (negotiable) each I am the original owner of all these items, they are all in excellent working condition. All items are in London so pick up is free, otherwise freight and Paypal fees on you. Cheers, Malcolm

Jeremy, by agreeing in the first place to try this method and persevering with it has all but cemented the practice into the now and future of the genre. All you can hope is for a catastrophic failure of the practice to get your producers to think again.

I've had my pair of MKH50s for about 14 years and the still perform as they did the day I bought them. In about 2001 or 2 I encountered the gentle RF frying sound that Brengun mentioned. This was discussed by many at the time and IIRC there were two popular solutions. 1) Send it back to the factory for new parts and a service or 2) Replace or tighten the screw for the XLR connector as it was thought if it came loose or was fractionally too short it was not earthing properly to the shell of the Mic. I'm not 100% sure of the validity of this explanation but I went with the #2 approach replaced the screw and keep it tight and to this day the problem has not returned. My 02c - Hope this helps, Cheers, Malcolm

We had it easy John, Nagra rigs were lighter than today's: 'Everyone Must Be Wired' in case they Brain Fart and say something ... rigs.

Oh FFS John, ManUP!! It wasn't that bad, we were all in he same boat. 20lbs over shoulder. Not the 40lbs of today's bullshit TV with everyone wired in case they have a brain fart and say something...

I Like reading books, sky diving, riding horses and hope for world peace!

Perhaps your budget is half what it should be ... You pay for what you get!

Here's my trusty bag cart built in 1996, still in regular use today. I had a welder simply cut about 12 inches from the height of a standard $30 hand or sack cart so it would fit in the trunk of my car. He fabricated a hinged frame that drops down and sits level, which I filled with plywood and closed cell foam to create the bag shelf. He added a box bar so my plastic bin would be spaced out from the frame so the lid can be taken on and off. The bin is simply secured by a bungee which also serves to hold the shelf up against the frame for storage or the ability to use it as a hand truck. I have fashioned pieces of plastic plumbing pipe with an end stopper and a threaded cap for storage and transportation of my short boom pole and to rest the boom with the mic on it on set. I also added a hook for cables. All up a cost of about $100 with a repaint every couple of years, it has and still serves me well for stand up bag days with a very small footprint.

Hi Diego, Just seen this one hour documentary, wonderful work and very interesting to see the work of a 'DJ Guru Producer' using real sound. Well worth a look. Cheers and kind regards, Malcolm

Grammar: The difference between knowing your shit and knowing you're shit!

Seriously distorted recording cannot be helped in the mix.

"No matter where you go ... There you are" Gyro Captain in Mad Max 2 (aka Road Warrior) Dumb vehicle inspector checking turn signal indicators: "Now it's working, now it's not. Now it's working, now it's not. Now it's working, now it's not. Now it's working, now it's not. Now it's working, now it's not. Now it's working, now it's not. Now it's working, now it's not. Now it's working, now it's not ...."

"No matter where you go ... There you are" Gyro Captain in Mad Max 2 (aka Road Warrior) Dumb vehicle inspector checking turn signal indicators: "Now it's working, now its not. Now it's working, now its not. Now it's working, now its not. Now it's working, now its not. Now it's working, now its not. Now it's working, now its not. Now it's working, now its not. Now it's working, now its not ...."

Rockport is an excellent brand - great inner sole support - strong built, comfortable and sturdy. I have many pairs of different styles from gortex lined boots, dress shoes to sneaker types-. A little pricier than most but you get what you pay for and they always last the distance. Great for all day on concrete studio floors and tarmac with no foot fatigue, jungles, mountains, swamps. Cheers, Malcolm

Yep, they've had new cables a couple of times and Il like to fit the felt ear pads for winter and the leatherette ones for summer wear. To tell the truth I have 2 pairs - Bought in 1995 and 2000. The only way I can tell them apart are the 1995 ones are slightly looser and have a small amount of paint spray from an onset incident.

I finally had my listening test to A-B the Beyer DT1350 vs Senn HD25ii headphones and was surprised. My test was judging voice and location ambience quality and did not involve any music apart from the radio playing in an adjacent office. I used my familiar rig of MKH50 into Zaxcom Fusion and swapped headphones to compare: 1) Isolation - unplugged removal of background noise - fairly similar but the Senn HD25ii win by a perceived 2 or 3 db. 2) Clarity and definition of voice, highs and bass of location - Senn HD25ii wins hands down. The DT1350s were mushy and undefined in the lower frequencies and severely lacking in definition in the highs. I know that this is a purely subjective test but I was hoping a brand new pair of Beyer headphones would put up a better fight against my 12 year old Senn HD25iis - (Should have taken my DT48s to use as another bench mark) Cheers, Malcolm

My experiences using Movie Slate with an iPhone 4: I managed to get Movie Slate to perform automatic roll and stop by setting my Fusion Timecode Out to Disk and and following syncing instructions. This worked well BUT every time it stopped the take and file numbers that I'd set to auto increment did so but always incremented by 2 numbers instead of 1. From my observation - on Stop there seemed to be a momentary burst of timecode output by the Fusion that Movie Slate saw as another take. This perhaps could be level or cable based? Given that the cable I'm using has no attenuation and is the one I built for the Ambient Ap. In Movie Slate I'm getting a solid green 100% when I test the cable. At this stage my option is to run Movie Slate manually which is fine for my purposes and I've observed the iPhone jammed to my Fusion code holds an approximately 2 - 3 frame offset for about 3 hours (I observed a 7 - 10 frame drift overnight) so for using the Timcode for logging purposes is fine and at the expense of an extra couple of button pushes per take provides a brilliant and well thought out Sound Log. I played with it over the weekend and kept finding new things. I am blown away by the audio note system that means you can send verbal comments, notes and identifications to the editor that automatically includes reference to the file you are commenting on or identifying. Takes me back to pre file based days when you could do your ID and explanatory verbal notes after the recording and the editor will find them ... A very elegant piece of work, Cliff, keep up the great work, and if you could shed any light for a fix for the double increment problem I mentioned earlier that would be greater still. Cheers, Malcolm

Hi Eric, What year was the first R.A.M.P.S party?

So so sorry, I committed the ultimate sin of using an emoticon - I honestly don't know how that happened! Cheers, Malcolm ; = )

You are right Chris, of course personal preference comes into it. I have have been using Senn HD25s almost exclusively for the last 16 years and over the 17 years prior to that a mixture of Sony 75-- series, Beyer DT48s and before that Pioneer SE - I forget the model number. I'm just wondering if anyone has experienced the newer Beyer DT1350s and can offer their opinion on how they compare for our work.

Has anyone A-B'd the Beyer DT1350 vs Senn HD25ii vs Sony 7506 headphones for the purposes of our work particularly voice recording. What are your opinions? I'm wondering how the DT1350's stack up against our common favorites. I'm having to wait a week or so to do my own test while the NZ Beyer agent gets some in for me to try. Cheers, Malcolm

Great stuff, thank you Glenn, Cheers, Malcolm

Very informative, thanks for the update Wolf, I've been a fan of Studio Six's FFT for a while now being able to see problematic sounds generated by the lighting departments. Finding whistles from lamp heads and hums from generators, cicadas and the like and being able to make notes for post. Confirming this with the amazing sweepable notch filtering on the Fusion is fun ... now if only the Fusion could simply EQ my chosen mix track and leave my ISO tracks un touched!!! Cheers, Malcolm

I usually ask the director and producer what they are looking for and then based on their expectations and the script create a list of required recordings and proceed to accomplish this with the least hindrance to the shoot. I enjoy this process which allows me to go off and record stereo atmopheres and effects. I always try to have a discussion with the producer, director and or agency person who is responsible for the soundtrack in post and explain my recordings and their uses and if any, short comings and ideas for possible remedies. Sometimes I record 'wild as shot' for every slate where I think there may be a useful sound element and sometimes I work totally away from the shoot. The trick is to read the script and come up with the requirements for the soundtrack. If you need the help of an AD ask for it, if they won't allow that, do the best you can. If it means you work at lunch time ask the caterers to hold you a plate. Your job is to provide the audio requirements for the shoot. In the word of the shoe company 'Just Do It'

He puts on his HAT appoints himself as group policeman and tries to dictate his idea of the discussion rules for everyone else. Occasionally offering brilliant insight from his wealth of experience, but more often than not halting free discussion of ideas. So what if things have been covered before, problems and situation may appear similar and have been covered in the past but can change over time and others may have new ideas on old subjects or missed the opportunity to contribute. I'm just tired of the SM Slam on every thread! Sorry for my rant ... my 2c... Cheers, Malcolm