Fred Salles

+1 Very important because information like "5 pin Lemo" can be misleading as they have several sizes

Hello, I do not know for sure about the legal ones. The gear rental company in Tel Aviv almost use exclusively blocks 21 and 26 Lectrosonics. I also had sony and sennheiser systems from my assistant in both 21&26. It might be also a question of import choices since taxes are uge. Anyway I was able to find clean frequencies wherever I worked (Haifa, Jerusalem and some villages in the west.) Block 21 seemed the cleaner. The app really helped being fast selecting all freq and a mind relief.

Some would clone the SM58, you could clone Alicia Keys! ask 10x more... 😅

Hello all, some evening thoughts here. This year is the 20th anniversary of my faithful SQN 4S IVe. I bought it new directly from SQN that made a special feature on my request at no charge (remote pot for ch4). As I realize I am still using it quite regularly and it had never ever failed me and I am about to buy a Sound Devices 888 that no one can tell if it will be obsolete in 5 years or not, I wonder if the era when we used to buy gear as an investment for decades is pretty much gone for good. Yet the prices are still far from affordable for professional gear. There might be still some mikes that we can trust to last and be fully top of the game in 10 years but with digital machines and the ever faster evolution of processor based recorders who knows if in 10 years from now the fantastic Scorpio or 888 will lack some features that everybody needs and will no longer be upgraded? Every <30y old young sound recordists out there say my 744T is a dinosaur... And indeed I can no longer use it for many of my jobs although it is still working fine. I use it on some documentaries and for wilds but I have had to rent newer recorders for a while now for fiction shoot and bigger documentary. Yet I have a Nagra 4.2 that is close to my age and still working fine (I bought it 2d hand and it has been serviced by Nagra few years ago) and still very beautiful to hear, and look at. I do not use it much but when I do people don't laugh, in fact most stand in awe for it. Its price when it came out could be a comparable investment as the price of a Scorpio. I am 100% sure a new Scorpio will no longer be working in 50 years nor be able to be fixed and if it does, there would probably be nothing interesting about it. I hope I am wrong 😉

Thank you Patrick, Aaron does not have but Gotham actually answered me that they now do rent the 8 series, it just does not appear on their website 😉

I think TA3 (mini XLR) have been all male whether for inputs or outputs since the 7 series of Sound Devices as far as I remember. I always though it is both for space saving and ease of contacts cleaning, just like the male XLR for mike inputs on the early Nagras.

Hello, For a french documentary shoot in NY we are considering renting locally rather than me bringing my kit from France. Surprisingly Gotham audio does not provide the Sound devices 8 series on rental. Any idea where I could rent a documentary kit based around an 833 in New York city? The production is french so they must get an invoice without vat (not applicable). by kit I mean something like that: 833+SL2+ 1 double rx like lectro SRc+2tx like smdb (smqv i think in the USA) or LT +dpa4060 /6060 or cos11. Schoeps mini Cmit +cinela Cosi, boom vdb L or equivalent Ktek. Shoeps cmc6+mk41+osix. A small stereo set like schoeps ccm8+ccm4 or equivalent. 1ifb tx+2rx. Batteries and power distrib. Quite urgent, shoot will start on Monday 13th. Thanks for your inputs Fred

What an amazing pristine condition! I think I’ve never saw a Nagra 2 working in real life. Very moving it must be.

Hi everyone, If shooting (with proper clearance) in the UN building in New York is there any unusual RF issues to expect? or anything to be aware of before bringing gear in there? Thanks in advance, Fred

You're right the quality of the preamps might not be used often but in case a camera mike is required at least I'll know it will be a bit better than the usuals. It happens for example on some documentary scenes shot in a crowd or a location with many characters, it can be useful to have a good mike mounted on the cam to get the occasional passers by while I am booming main characters. Also B cam going to shoot B rolls without sound guy, mounting a good small ms setup on top of the cam might save time in post, if the cam team knows how to shut up 😀 Sometimes you might try to ask the guys not to shoot any sync stuff or at least let you know if they do, but you end up having post asking "where is the sound of the car we see passing in THAT shot" you never heard about... Anyway you don't need a list of situations where you would put a mike on a cam I am sure. Also I agree with IronFilm here: It just feels naively good to get some kind of consideration for sound from cam manufacturers, even for guide track 🙂

Great news this collab with Sonosax! I guess that could well be the best on cam mike preamps ever. At least they give TA3 inputs and that is a relief after the painful Lemo 6pin on mini LF/5 pin on mini...

Hello, I guess for most of us that are over 50 of age, the domination of wireless lav mike technique is felt as a failure. As far as I am concerned, I believe our corporation/department has failed to demonstrate or convince the industry globally that the sound of a lav mike (no matter which one) is a very poor compromise that is aesthetically ugly, boring and tiring. Like always the general audience, of which from my point of view most of the movie industry actors outside the sound prod and post-prod department are part of, including producers and most directors, is not able to express with words what is perceived from the sound of a film, apart from the intelligibility of the dialogues or the coolness of the music. As a result, the differences in the texture of the reproduced sound of a voice, although definitely felt, maybe not consciously, is not considered a critical factor in the aesthetic of a film. As opposed to the picture where centuries of visual arts culture have forged a public vocabulary to described what is felt, and have probably developed a higher consciousness of the differences in artistic pictorial proposition. Probably every professional on this forum is able to say if the voice that is heard has been recorded with a lav mike, a boom mike, or a combination of both. Unfortunately we have not been able (yet!) to train/educate the public to make this discernment. For me the sound of a lav mike makes me feel like the person is talking at a very close, quasi intimate distance to my ear. Way too close. Only a whisper should be allowed to be heard from that close to the source. If you ever try to let someone speak in one of your ear, even at a normal level, for an hour or more, you will see how exhausted your ear and yourself will be at the end of the experience. We spend a good amount of our life to develop a taste for the sound of specific mikes (boom mike) and preamps. We are able to choose a mike and its position according to the sound of the voice of an actor, but also the acoustic of the room, as well as the frame and what the scene is supposed to mean. We make sure we subjectively like how the resulting recording sounds (no need to mention that we all master the technical quality of it). We have all different tastes for it and that is what makes it interesting and valuable. Most of us believe in art and our contribution to it is for a large amount in that process. It means our goal is that the texture of a voice would make the audience feel that the character is right, believable, interesting, moving or fascinating. Yet we are "forced" by the industry to systematically "wire" an actor with lav and radio tx. And unfortunately that lav is often mixed in large amount in the final mix. The way productions are run nowadays makes it impossible to avoid using them, and most other departments in the industry think that is the only thing we should need to hear the dialogue... It will take too long to described how a set is run nowadays but it is part of the issue. We have had to adapt and we know how to make best use of it so it is part of our routine now. But when I started the choice of using radio mikes was almost made by the director! It was not a technical but an artistic choice. For instance when director wanted to hear the actor closely in a very wide shot, or filming actors walking away from camera and still be heard closely, etc... As soon as it became a way to solve technical issues the boom was not able or was not given time to solve we got screwed 😀

Hello all, back from my shoot in Palestine/Israel. 6 wireless lav LT tx, 2 HMa, 3 different IFB tx (sennheiser G4, lectro LT et sony something). No SL2 but the PSC multiplexer 8x inputs and lectrosonics lpda antennas. The app really gave me confidence and saved quite some time. I followed its auto function for each set without any trouble. Only some tx could not give me easy access to the frequency suggested by the app (no time for fine tuning) so I choose the closest available in all green and changed it manually in the app. Not a single rf interference during the 10days. Quite a breeze overall! Important advice: the usb connections need to be perfect. I had a bit of gap in the female usb A connector and the sdr usb male, and that gave me lots of scans stopping not completed. I had to hold it in a way that the connection is maintained without moving for the time of the scan. Will look for better adaptor now 😉

Oh yes, checking what are the frequencies under these codifications (i saw them as new bloc) I realize they offer a wider range than traditional blocs indeed.

The IFBlue does not have multi block capability does it? They are the ones I wanna get. Actually I am not sure there is any ifb receiver with multi bloc capability. Is it?

So you confirm my feeling that the real specific only advantage of the T4 is its compatibility with other intercom protocols. I think some more recent um400 non “a” have the IFB compatibility as I recall using some with the r1a. Not 100% sure. But yes I am looking for second hand UM400a US version (at least 100mW tx capability) for when I work in various countries where i can use it. As you know in France we can only buy the 50mW version...

Thanks Cody. I was actually wondering about getting any other Lectro IFB compatible TX like the SM. I am used to the um400 😉 So what are the actual advantages of the T4 over other tx for IFB uses?

Hello, if I buy an ifb transmitter Lectrosonics T4 while on a trip in the USA with a 250mW tx power, will I be able to choose the tx power down to 100mW or 50mW ? I do not see that in the manual thanks

For the close up I would try to negotiate with sfx in pre prod that they find another solution for rain that does not involve water pump engine (also they must make sure their pipes do not have small holes like I had once, or leaks, it makes a hell of a noise!) The characters drenched in water are the only ones I would be worry for the lav because even the B6 can have some water blocking the caps. I never had that problem but I read that some use it head down to avoid that. So the advise above to have 2 lav is relevant and I would use 2 B6 and one of them head down.

Thanks for the help. I will try the German branch see if they more communicative. And also the french resellers, that's a good idea, although they might not want to disclose their tricks but some that I know well might help. The L-4E5C that I want to get is sold by 200m roll, I need a minimum of 5 rolls.

Hence why I need help... 😉 I wrote them too, so far only once and no answer.

Thanks, but my goal is to get cables in Kenya/East Africa. There are no distributors there. The one listed when you type in Kenya on their website is in the Middle East... Besides, I would used a company to import, not doing it myself. So how do they contract distributors if they do not answer their e-mails?

Hey, you definitely made the right choice picking ORTF against MS. MS is quite blurry in the rendition of space, To me it is more the feeling of a spacial soundscape than an immersive rendition. you should try as best as possible to listen before you buy. Because in your budget you can definitely be picky and choose according to your own taste. I personally prefer the good old Schoeps ortf (with 2 mk4 or wider) over any other, and not crazy about the Sennheiser 8040. Try Dpa as well, now that they make modular and short body. With these 3 you will already have a hard time choosing but it is worth it because they are all great AND all different so it really is a matter of personal taste at that level. I concur with all other advices given here regarding accessories. Add a good earphone! Again a matter of taste and a topic on its own.

Yes if I had a full day for it: add half a day to go to shop And back (traffic in Tel Aviv makes every moves take ages it seems and we are based in Haifa 2 h drive) But we’ll figure out something like that I think. Thanks for the links!

He does not have. Still looking.