Fred Salles

Interesting. It seems to have solve some or all the issues that the Boom Audio Kit Cool had. Much more versatile and allowing many movements, even small adjustment. Though they have borrowed and adapted the 2 wheels system of Kit Cool for boom twisting, most movements seems more free. I look forward in trying it.

Hi. There must have been a collaboration between Nagra and Aaton when Beauviala developped the Aaton code in the 80s and more over the Aaton Origin C that was compatible with the Nagra IVS TC (from 1984).

Thank you Roland for these extensive tests. I enjoyed the bluegrass band! I wish you had included the MKH30 for comparison but intuitively it seems to me that the MKH8030 sounds slightly warmer, but that's from abstract memory. What is your opinion? Additionally, if you love fig8 for music I recommend the Beyer M130 if you do not know it. Old concept ribbon mike but beautiful along with the M160 in an MS setup. They both have a very distinctive rendition of space that I have not encountered with any other mikes.

As said earlier no one can predict what future of UHF will be, that is precisely why manufacturers are now coming up with extra wide range system like the Lectrosonics DSRx. If in the US the Wisycom symphony system (MCR54 rx and MTP60 or MTP61 tx) will give you the choice within: 470-663 and 940-960Mhz. At least it gives us the appearance of future proof investment.

Hi. I have just learnt about this company making power generator out of rechargeable batteries (a BIG portable. battery with built in AC converter basically) specially tailored for film work. Overkill for sound equipment but what it means is no more damn noisy, stinky and polluting fuel generators on set! An that is great news for us all. It is a french company but I am sure their products will spread to the rest of the world soon if not already. As a matter of fact I heard about them from a gaffer in Kenya and the company is based in my home town Marseille 😅 worth spreading the word to our gaffer and producer friends: https://pessenergy.com/en/

after a quick research on white gas and coleman fuel it does not appear to be the same thing. Essence F is a cleaner and degreaser. It is a distillation of petroleum. Not suitable as fuel nor combustible. I still have not find the equivalent in english though! not the only one trying to find out: https://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingDiscussions/topic/62654

Sorry Awaden I was referring to the photo nb 4 of the slide show on his home page (bbc india). And I did not imply you should choose an L size VDB. Merely stating that we all have different practices and that from your practice will come the choice of the length that suits you, not the other way round.

Hi. We all work differently and it of course depends on your practices and type of work but what I see on his website in photo number 4 is that his boom is too short for the way I would want to work on that shot. My advice would be to either rent or get your hands on a medium size boom and practice. In order to know what size suits your own preferences you must practice. My preference goes to the VDB size L for its versatility, working both for documentaries and feature fims (as second or backup boom along a longer one), and it fits a Pelicase Air 1615.

Is there actually such a thing as « 1/2 wave wideband whip » ? It does not sound right since by definition 1/2 wave applies to one dipole for a given center frequency and most wideband antennas are (to put it simply) made from several dipoles with various center frequencies to be able to cover a wider range. That is the case for the bowtie and all sharkfins antennas that I know. hence the lower gain compare to a single dipole. A whip antenna is a monopole with a ground plane within the receiver to « make it behave » like a dipole. It then has a single center frequency and the range is limited around it. @Borjam I do not see the Lectrosonics SNA600a As a wide band. unless I misunderstood, it is a dipole with an ajustable center frequency. So it allows to use it with a « wide range » of receivers but once set it is limited to the band around the chosen frequency, like a normal dipole.

Good writing. I read almost the 11 pages and enjoyed it! I am not sure why you considered the MKH60 a lesser choice in the industry since here in France it was the number one choice for decades for many colleagues. The Schoeps CMIT did I guess take a big place of the scene when it came out but it seems like its trend has past. Mostly for the reasons you have highlighted in your test as far as I am concerned. The “trend” now is around the MKH8060. Actually personally I still have not find a shotgun mike that would permanently replace the 416 in my kit 😅 It is not the one that has my favourite sound color but it is the one that does everything I need from a shotgun. I appreciated your mix of subjective and reasoned comments, and was not surprised your final choice would go for the MKH60.

That sounds like a great combo to me. Although I do not know the sound of the VI, several colleagues use it for music recording and are very happy with its sound. You will love the M2D2!

Hello. AETA was a great brand for preamp in France from the 90s till end of the 2ks. Their ultra portable stereo preamp PSP3 (and PSP2 before) was a must in our kits to go capture stereo ambiance in the field along with a DAT portable stereo recorder as most of them had poor sounding preamps. We were still using NAGRA tape recorders for synch dialog scene but on several of my first short films I use it in a combination with the EAA micromix portable mixer (by AETA engineers before they were called AETA) which had very beautiful sounding preamps, close to a Neve sound. So that was also my choice for acoustic music recording. I owned (still own) a SQN 4s for all my tv and documentary jobs as they were the best in ruggedness and ergonomics but the sound was not as musical (more flat than the EEA). Later on for all acoustic music related jobs I used the AETA mini-mixer MIXY and later their beautiful MIX2000 that had great AD converters embedded, mixing down to stereo and recorded to a DAT machine. They were very musical sounding machines. But... I have never used the 4MINX since when it came out I was already a Sound Devices 7 series fanatic. For more recent options I would second Sonosax recorder or preamp: Actually a pair of M2D2 in combination with any 4 track recorder with AES inputs would be great for what you are looking for. The preamp of the M2D2 are my favorite sounding preamps both for voices/dialogue and music. They sound very natural. I have now a sound devices 888 and the preamps are beautiful and I do all my film work with it with great satisfaction, but I still have a preference for the Sonosax sound. last note: forget about the Sound devices 6 series, they are the less interesting preamp of them all in term of sound. Unless you feed it with the sonosax preamps.

Hello, no RAD suspension yet so I am slightly off topic but still about RadiusWindshield: I have received my replacement fur (windjammer) they made for my AF rycote windshield (for my schoeps ortf stereo setup). It is more than 15 years old and going strong still, except the original fur. I must say I am very happy with the fur ! It is so far better than the original one on many account - I have not been trying it in a very strong wind situation yet. The Radius fur fits perfectlty and cover fully the lower part, that was a point not adressed by rycote for years. The fur hair itself feels exactly like the original, maybe slightly lighter. The inner fabric is definitely lighter yet feels strong, and it seems to me the whole windjammer has less acoustic impact in the highs than the original (feeling only since I cannot do A B comparison with a new Rycote). Also the team at Radius was impressively reactive and quick to proceed my request as AF size wasnt in their listing yet. On the total oposite of Vitecbibendum that initially said they could provide but stayed silent for more than a year after I asked for a quote… I am glad I heard of Radius here the first time some months ago and got in touch with them. An efficient human-size business like I wish there were more. I am looking forward to try their suspension, although I am a Cinela fan. But for the Piano fur I will try the Radius replacement soon!

Hi. If I understood correctly, for now the only frequencies available are the 216Mhz "band" used by Comtek tx, 10 of them. Isn't that quite limited nowadays? The Lectrosonics T4 VHF band is 174.100 to 215.750 MHz, so it seems we won't be able to use it unfortunately, for now.

Hello, I am back in Kenya for a few months. I was on a feature film shoot here in November and December 2023 as HOD location Sound recordist/mixer (details in pm if needed). Full kit for feature fiction film with me.