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Doug Beatty

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Everything posted by Doug Beatty

  1. This battery lays nice and flat in my Pegz bag. Had a wire made up to connect to my BDS and it powers my Nomad, RX900s and Zoom H4n (via 5v USB connector on the battery!) for 4.5h. Nomad only runs for 6h. If you need more juice, there is an adapter that lets you stack a second ($80 'plus' model) on top. 120wh for about $200 and you don't have to spring for a charger because they also have a built in DC input. I found the Tekkeons to be extremely versatile because they come with interchangeable DC connectors and the voltage is user selectable. They were designed for powering and charging cell phones and laptops, but I built my bag around them and am very happy with them so far.
  2. I use the 40cm blimp w/ deadcat and it gets the job done. They are lightweight because they are entirely plastic, but they have taken their fair share of abuse and held up very well in windy environments. They color the sound as any other blimp or deadcat would. Biggest negatives are the shock mounts and the cable/locking mechanism. The shock mounts are suspended on plastic bands that break almost immediately- I swapped mine out with orthodontic bands that are tighter and more durable. The blimp twists together and locks, but the levers that crimp and caddy the XLR don't lock down tight at all. Inadvertant tugs on the XLR will lower them, so you have to keep an eye on them when you change the boom length.
  3. Obviously not for everyone- but Nomad owners could velcro an ERX1TCD to a slate enclosure to be frame accurate all day long. Or better yet, could Movie Slate possibly play nice with Zaxnet?
  4. +1 Zack- I am mixing a pilot and 1v was enough for Scarlet.
  5. Posted in the other Epic thread, but a new build is out that allows you to control when the limiter kicks in (as well as adding phantom power). EDIT: This is for the Beta 3.2.8 release and not the official 3.0.7 release.
  6. FYI - The latest camera build was released yesterday and adds phantom power for balanced inputs and controls over the gain/limiter. EDIT: This is for the Beta 3.2.8 release and not the official 3.0.7 release.
  7. Then I imagine all the DITs and AEs would have to find even more ways to look busy!
  8. Is there a way to have Nomad alert you if an ERX is low on power? I like the way the RX900's pacifier page lets you check in on the TRX battery level. I always check for the green LED when I can- maybe it can blink red when it needs a change?
  9. Actually, I've had success with buyer protection in the past on 2 laptops that had bad USB3 ports. Filed a claim and got a full refund when the seller refused upon return of the items. Paypal's fee schedule is quite ridiculous, though.
  10. Make sure you request to disengage the audio limiter, it's rather aggressive. And as stated before, if you are running a return feed from the headphone jack make sure the levels are all the way up. Also, there is a delay in the return that can't be adjusted- another gotcha. We just finished a weekend shoot with Scarlet and we had zero sound issues snaked to camera via Wooden Camera's XLR adapter box. If you ever get a chance to bill out for one of these I highly recommend having it on Epic/Scarlet shoots.
  11. I feel like this thread should be a sticky. I'm amazed at how many 'aha' moments I have had reading through all of the thoughtful responses to the topic. It's really enlightening, especially for someone like myself that is slowly working their way up the production sound game. My hat is off to everyone who has posted (except the Senator- for him, I put on a second 'compliments' hat)
  12. Audio playback is not enabled yet. There's a firmware update for Epic/Scarlet Red has been hinting will come out soon, but no details on what exactly will be enabled when it is released.
  13. It's included w/ rental of my Scarlet package along with the BNC breakout cable. I just pull it and use it as part of my sound kit when I'm brought on for audio on outside projects. I lump the cost into my day rate. Had one instance where after lunch the camera wasn't getting levels, but you have to unplug and re-plug and everything was working fine again.
  14. Epic and Scarlet have the same audio inputs and form factor, so everything that has been said for Epic is the same for Scarlet. I have an A-Box and it's an essential part of my kit for those cameras. I got my lemo to BNC breakout cable wired up within 2 hours of calling it in to Wilcox Sound in Burbank. Didn't have to explain the pinout, they knew right away what I needed and didn't charge me a rush fee. I recommend them to everybody that asks. I'm having them wire me up some ERX1TCD y-cables now. Thanks for the diagrams and pictures, Rado.
  15. I own the A-Box and you are right- it is just a passive adapter pair with a chassis mount. It would be great if there was built in phantom power, but it will pass through once Red enables this on camera...which will not be soon. Other than that, I'm really happy with it because the chassis comes with a 15mm bushing that you can securely mount to the side of the camera's top plate and the XLRs lock in place. You can't see the actual A-box in the attached photo, but I mount my G2 hop to a hot shoe that I rigged up on the top handle and run the locking TRS to XLR cable to the upward facing box. Nice and clean and out of the cam-op's way. You can see the A-Box cables plugged into the audio inputs on the front of the camera. The bushing screws in on the side of the top plate, second 1/4 20 hole down. Everything is screwed in, snapped closed and tight. Just look out for any stray flares because they are hot and will burn your hands.
  16. I will need to make a couple of these cables as well. I'm curious to see how far (if at all) you need to pad the signal from the ERX.
  17. Awesome- thanks for all the input, guys. I need to cable out of my RX900S to Nomad in my bag- I was thinking I could pick up a 6" DMX XLR5->XLR3 patch cable since they are cheap and readily available, but I'll wire something up. Remote audio makes them but I'm having so much fun soldering. I'm pretty new to it, but these 2nd degree burns on my hands add a lot of character, as in "What kind of idiot character burns himself with molten metal?" <holding up two burned thumbs> This guy!
  18. I did some searching and couldn't find a definitive answer on this: Is there any danger in using DMX cables vs. XLR cables in your bag? I'm looking for an XLR5F -> XLR3M patch cable and everything I have seen is branded DMX. Any helpful info on this would be appreciated.
  19. The cable has a proprietary tip that allows you to swap DC connectors of all sizes. It's VERY handy.
  20. Yesterday I got around to wiring up a power connector using a Tekkeon MyPowerAll right angle connector (which works great, by the way) and found that I had to wire the + and - opposite of what was listed in the Nomad manual on p. 69 From the solder side, red (+) went to pin 1 and the black and white (-) wires shorted, as instructed by Tekkeon support, went to pin 4: 4 I 1 O O O O 3 2 According to the Nomad manual on p.69, it should be the other way around. I don't know why, but it works the way I did it. I tested Nomad with my buddy's NP-1 distro and his SD 4-pin hirose cable and everything was fine. Methinks Tekkeon literally has their wires crossed. After a few burns and a lot of swearing I got things working. The myPower All batteries are great because they have an additional 5V USB port for my H4n that I wired to fit in the power connector. Now, I'm running my mix out of my Nomad 6 to the H4n (for mp3 transcription/backup) and using the built in H4n mic as a slate mic. I can power my bag all day with two of these batteries.
  21. Could you point me in the direction of those reports? I just bought a TRX/RX pair in block 21 and am curious about the performance difference and why it is happening.
  22. I agree completely. I'm pretty sure with CS6s impending release at NAB 2012, they'll have this worked out. At least I hope they do because it is possible to get audio playback with this hack involving files from Lightroom 4: ok guys...I GOT AUDIO TO WORK IN PREMIERE PRO CS5.5!!!!... but it takes a specific weird trick that you have to do in a specific order for it to work (not sure why but I am posting exactly what worked for me). This is on a window machine. But I believe it should work on a MAC.... Here are the steps: (please follow them precisely) 1) download and install LightRoom 4 2) move C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5\Plug-ins\Common\ImporterRED.prmto new backup folder of your choice 3) move C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5\32\ImporterREDServer.exeto new backup folder of your choice 4) now copy C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4\Support\DynamicLinkMediaServer\dynamiclinkmedias erver\1.0\Plug-ins\Common\ImporterRED.prm to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5\Plug-ins\Common 5) Copy C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4\Support\DynamicLinkMediaServer\dynamiclinkmedias erver\1.0\ImporterREDServer.exe to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5\32 6) launch Premiere Cs 5.5...you will now notice that NONE of your R3d are loading anymore....don't panic! Close Premiere and follow the next step 7) copy ONLY the original ImporterRED.prm that you copied initially to a backup folder and replace the existing (broken) one. launch Premiere you can load your Epic file with audio support! I have not tested its stability enough yet...but I have been editing for an hour and I have had no Problems. THANKS David McGavran for the hint!!!! I don't want to start a new thread on this until other people confirm that it is working for them or until David says it's ok to advertise this. Keep in mind this is UNSUPORTED BY ADOBE!
  23. Playback for Epic/Scarlet is available in camera now, but not for audio. You have to load the clips into Redcine-X app to preview the audio embedded in the R3D files. RED says this is on the horizon, but I'm not holding my breath that it will be ready soon. I had a shoot with Epic this past weekend and so say there were a few quirks is an understatement. It's an amazing cinema camera, for sure. However, like any cinema camera, you'll need to record second system. Epic/Scarlet shoots are no exception. I was lucky enough to have access to the camera before rolling so I could enable unbalanced analog audio in (balanced signal in isn't supported yet..also, phantom power isn't available either *sigh*) and fed a mono line level mix out to one of the 3.5mm TRS mic inputs. I found around 24-30db gain on Epic to be the sweet spot, anything higher than that and the noise was pretty bad in camera. At least, I think it was because the headphone amp on Epic is TERRIBLE. You have to crank output all the way up to -1db to get a good HP signal. I recorded as close to -6db as I could on the mix which gave me about 12db of headroom on camera. I wanted to be sure there was no clipping, but I think that was slightly low in the end. Good enough for a scratch track, I suppose. No complaints from the client so I'm fine with that. I stayed tethered to camera the whole time and didn't have a need for TC, but soon I will be experimenting with my Zaxnet via my Nomad to ERX1TCDs on a Scarlet. I think that's the best, most lightweight time code and scratch track solution available for these cameras right now. Overall, Epic never once shut down or locked up. I think once I get comfortable with the (lack of) sound options on Epic/Scarlet everything will work out fine. Just a whole new set of hurdles and workarounds I'll have to incorporate into my bag of tricks. Nothing new in that regard, I suppose.
  24. I agree, Derek. An option to write file names with Scene Take info only on the mirror card would be great.
  25. The simulator is Windows only, but the machine is Linux based IIRC.
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