Toy Robot

Awesome video. I love How It's Made.

Exact same thing I do. Rotate cards as well. Also, every time production buys my media or it's sent off for post, the brand new card becomes my Primary CF in Nomad. This way I always have a very new card as Primary since that card gets written to the most. If I sell media to clients more than once every 3 months, I leave the already very new mirror card in and swap a secondary card. It's all quite simple, and ensures that I am constantly using new, approved cards, hopefully minimizing chances of card failure. My backup routine is something I've posted about here before. Super simple, but by the end of each production day my sound files are in no less than 4 places, and by the end of 24 hours the files are backed up forever with a little help from DropBox's Pack Rat feature. It has saved me (read: my clients) more than once.

I think awesome.

I use Logic Pro. Agree with many of the points above. Use what works, no one will know except you.

I stick to 32GB cards and I'm very glad that I do. I would not want less capacity with current multi-channel tracking capabilities.

Adam, first I thank you for asking for input like this. That's really excellent, and you've got my attention for consideration during the next round of bags I purchase. The four biggest problems I have with bags are as follows: Lack of easy access to side cabling. It amazes me how many times I have to access the sides of my mixer / recorder, even when my bag is generally set up correctly. I hate that it is difficult with my current bag. Lack of easy access to the bottom of my mixer / recorder. I know that not every bag will work with every mixer / recorder, but for mixers which require access to the bottom of the units, there should be a very easy way to access the unit. It should not be a 'fight' once all of the cabling is in place in the bag. BDS access / storage. I can't tell you how many bags I've seen that have ZERO place for a BDS. We wind up just having to figure it out and it's never elegant. In my current bag my BDS eats up the space of one receiver. And if there is a designated space for it, it's as though the manufacturer has never actually plugged cables into a BDS and routed them correctly in the bag. Many of us use them, and they take up a significant footprint, particularly in a bag like the one you've shown which is full of receivers. My suggestion is to actually set a BDS up, complete with cabling for power distribution to all the components of the bag and then determine how it could be placed by a sound mixer, used long term and the cabling kept protected. NP-1 Storage and hot-swap changes. My current bag is not designed well for this at all. Hot-swaps should be fast and seamless when running and gunning. The battery should be protected and secure enough to actually run in the bag, while still be accessible enough to swap out quickly. There will never be the 'perfect' bag. But so many bags that I have seen on the market seem to be simply put together without cabling or actual use, as though the designers have never actually set the bags up and tested them in the field with a real sound mixer before sale. P.S. I didn't see Nomad on your list. Please consider releasing a bag for Nomads.

Happy birthday Crew!

Awesome. Great work.

I met the creator as well, and tried this in person at AES last year. I was very impressed all things considered, and it blows the sE Reflexion filter I used to own out of the water.

One of the best indeed.

Cory, no disrespect intended, but if you're still stuck hauling gear in the subway and not charging clients transportation so you can carry the appropriate gear and take a car service, that's on you. It is unreasonable for a client to expect you to magically transport gear to and from location. Start charging for transportation, and you'll kick yourself for not doing it sooner. Second, it's not unreasonable to say that carrying a SD 302 or equivalent in your kit is both small and effective for an emergency situation. Even if you multi-track, that single unit could save you for many projects, much of the time. I carried a 302 as backup in my kit before I got a car, but I was having clients reimburse me for transportation as well so I wasn't stuck riding the subway. Also, I still carry the backup, but I leave it in my car. I regularly carry backups of all cabling, a completely new, unused BDS (Remote Audio BDSv4u) and other essentials like a backup boom pole, shock mount etc., and I did all that without a car, because I charged production for transportation costs. More than once I have saved another mixer with this gear, and more than once myself. You can skip backups only at your own peril in my opinion.

This.

Don't assume this is their professional line of equipment. They will not forget our needs. Most likely another rev to the pro gear (SM / 411 / SRb) stuff coming soon. This would just be top-notch prosumer gear that most likely puts the Sennheiser and Sony stuff to shame. All this assuming it's a valid leak and not simply a false rumor.

Useful, and with excellent intent. Thank you.

Very nice José.

Dominique, it's an excellent question, however I reject the premise that you have to have been doing this for longer than 10 years to have any business sense or possible viewpoint on the matter, so here goes... A few things I believe regarding owning equipment vs. renting (and I'm touching on points both from the OP and some related responses): My investment horizon is longer than one year. I am in this industry to stay unless something major happens and I come into a lot of money in another way. Therefore, I do not have the need to pay off a piece of gear within a limited time frame (say one year). What timeframe I consider reasonable to pay off a piece of equipment and have that equipment yield positive ROI is a personal choice, and there is no single number for all pieces of gear. Some earn more than others, and at different rates to boot. Some I continue to rent, others I buy outright for many of the reasons people have listed above. Each person will have a different investment timeline to consider based on their own set of circumstances. And to the original question about taxes, remember that each gear purchase, when filed correctly on your tax return has the potential to limit your yearly tax liability. The gear that we use every day is made with extremely high quality in mind, and most of it is serviceable and will last many years. That fact, plus the consideration that I personally have no problem at all buying used gear means that I can freely make gear purchases of used quality equipment and simply decide to re-sell the gear at or near the exact cost that I paid for it should I decide that I need either immediate cash flow for different gear, or simply do not want to keep it anymore for any myriad of reasons. This equals little or no net loss upon sale (usually minus some S&H costs and a small percentage of depreciation in value over time - what the market will bear). Every location will have different rental costs. Here in NYC I consider my personal rental costs to be very high to me directly, even when fully reimbursed for equipment rental by production (as always). I consider my time to travel to a location sound house valuable, and I live in Brooklyn so the drive or subway time is not less than 45 minutes each way. Then I must pay either gas and parking ($20 average) or subway ($2.50 each way), plus my time at the rental store, and I must then check and integrate the gear into my kit for the immediate project at hand which costs me even more time, and then I must undo all of that effort after the project and reverse my rental by dropping off said gear (which is often extremely difficult since I work multiple days in a row during my busy season). All of this adds up to costs and inconveniences which to me are not without consideration. Simply put, it's a pain in the ass. In addition to the above, renting gear limits my cash flow usage for purposes which I deem necessary. Anytime you have outlaid your liquid capital and don't have the potential for an immediate ROI, you have introduced the possibility that you are losing out on having your own money earn you more money. More than once I have rented gear, and then immediately seen those same pieces of gear for sale within a few days used, at a cost that would have been ideal had I not just outlaid the money for a large rental of the exact same equipment and given my liquid capital to someone else (rental house) while I wait for a production to pay me back what is owed to me (by which time the deal on the used gear is gone). It's a mistake I don't intend to repeat often. Better to employ my capital to build my business effective immediately, and have at very least the potential for a net return upon the delivery of equipment for use on any given job which I may employ it. More oriented to the original question (sorry for derailing too much): You simply have to do what you can afford to do and what you are comfortable with. On the most basic level, the equipment we use are the tools of the trade which allows us to earn our money. Increased toolset equals potentially increased day rates and complexity of projects we can accept. And finally Dominique, if I read your calculations on your OP correctly one can deduce the following: You made more than you spent for both total revenue and rental revenue - also that your rentals alone are paying for both new gear and the upkeep of existing gear. You reduced your tax liability. You have new gear which potentially in your market allows you to do new jobs and earn a higher day rate. You have increased your knowledge base for the purposes of using said new gear. You are smart enough to want to know if you are growing your business properly. I see this as a total WIN for you on every level.

Excellent all around. Thank you for this thread!

Great thread. I often have people try to tell me things they do are 100% factually correct and the only way to go, but how does it sound? I also routinely work with seasoned mixers who do things differently than I would, based on a number of factors, and yet we are all working professionally and getting great results in our own way. We are happy as well as the clients and post. There are indeed certain requirements to do the job correctly and professionally, I'm not arguing that one bit, but once you learn the things you must, you have earned the right in my opinion to think for yourself and get results the best way you possibly can for the situation at hand. Seems like I may have even read that somewhere before...

I'm very much looking forward to working with one.

Hahah, yes! Spot on indeed.

Just TC. SBTs are technically 'gear overkill' since we aren't using their tri-level capability. An SB-3 or in my opinion the internal Ambient clock would be excellent as well, but this workflow makes post smile and the full time crew loves the setup.

I have worked multiple times on a show now where we leave two Alexa's constantly jammed via dual SBTs. We have not had any issues with the cameras when doing this, and the mixer who is full time on the show has been doing this a very long time and post is always happy. However, it's important to note that when setting the Alexa to receive External TC, the Alexa may show 23.976 for example in the TC menu and all appears well, however the camera may not allow the user to switch the camera to an External TC source and will reject TC if the Project Settings of the camera are incorrect for the frame rate. If this happens to you and you verify that all your cables are properly plugged in, power is good to your lock box and that it's jammed properly, etc., then you may want to request that your camera operator check their Project Settings. Today we had this very issue and a simple verification that both cameras were running proper TC settings in both camera's Project Settings revealed that they were set differently than they were supposed to be. This can happen easily during changing of frame rates for a different shoot or multiple crews working on the same camera, etc. A couple of quick menu settings later and both cameras accepted TC from the SBTs per the usual workflow. My hope is that this is one of those odd tidbits that you store in the back of your brain in case you are stumped about the Alexa not accepting EXT TC. Hope you are all having an awesome new year.

"...Let the sound guy give ya the money, cause he's gonna have a lawsuit he's never seen in his life." I literally laughed out loud. Love this. So funny!

With these...

Remember that to many non-sound professionals this stuff sounds just fine. Doing their video edits on iPod earbuds and MacBook Pro speakers and all... It's horrifying to us to be subjected to such bad sound, but some people just don't get it. And worse, many of them don't care to get it - ever.