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Adam Jones

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Everything posted by Adam Jones

  1. I've been using them for a few weeks now as scratch track receivers w/ Immedion 2400 rechargeables. Similar battery life as others are reporting - roughly 4.5 hours. Very happy with the sound and build quality, less happy about the battery life in the receivers. I soldered up some Arri XLR5 and Red balanced mini-TRS cables and had good luck with both setups.
  2. I'm dealing with an interesting problem with an HD monitor right now. My main cart uses the BlackMagic Smartview Duo, which I've been very pleased with. Their customer support has been great, too. I just bought a new Delvcam SDI-7 for a third/small cart monitor, only to find that it doesn't support PsF signals - which the manufacturer only discovered this week when I was trying to sort out the issue. I'm still pursuing the issue with them, because it'd be a great little monitor - if only it supported the format that I'm most often given from video assist!
  3. I don't know the guy, but I can attest that 'Real Housewives' was trying to pay about 50% of our local market rate. Not the best business practice to undercut your market's established rates... at least not if you're interested in a long term career.
  4. Welcome Glen - I can't wait to visit! Will there be a grand opening?
  5. This is great news. Looking forward to seeing the store! Sales tax here depends on city and county, so my fingers are crossed for incorporated Dekalb county...
  6. Am I the only one who just wants the cufflinks? Jon, hook me up with a pair.... I've bought just about everything else you make.
  7. Here's some feedback on mine, Larry: Three days of solid abuse on actors who were chased, tacked, impaled, etc. So far, so good. They've performed flawlessly. Thanks, I'll be ordering 6 more when you start shipping them!
  8. As with all agreements, this is per negotiation! We've agreed (at least around here...) to a 10 hour day to level the playing field and make things easier for producers. There is one company here trying to change to an 8 hour guarantee. There's an easy answer: Say no. This has nothing to do with 'legality.' They are bound to the minimums of the union contract - we can hold a line for more than the minimums in terms of rate or 10 hour guarantee. And we have, for years now, held to a 10 hour day. This keeps us from having late call situations that make it difficult to unload, park, get in to a location, deal with camera department, and be ready to roll sound on schedule. Sorry for the rant, but lately many producers have been asking for special deals on every job, every time. If they can't budget properly, knowing our rates and 10 hour guarantees, that's their issue to work out. If we all stand together on this, it makes things much easier to deal with - for production and crew. My .02.
  9. I'm shocked that my 442 is older than Eric's - especially since it came from him: 030102085000. Now I wish I still had my MixPre from 2000. Congratulations on the anniversary & thanks for the years of great service!
  10. I drove one last week. A bit pokey, even with no payload. The CVT makes everything feel odd on acceleration. That being said, I might be trading in my trusty Element for one next month. It just seems like it'll be easier to work from.
  11. This is interesting, because I never realized that anyone would present it any other way in negotiations. Of course I'll charge for two wireless, because that's what they're asking for.
  12. I ended up using 6" pneumatics with top plates from Northern Tool. They're just attached at 3 points to t-nuts with 1/4-20 screws - no issues at all with the mounting, and they provide another cross brace for the frame. The tires were really awful and have already been replaced. I'm thinking about replacing them again with grey soft rubber ones. I'd love to use bigger casters, but I'm limited by the height of my current vehicle. If I end up in something larger, I'll definitely switch to higher quality 8". BTW, since it sounds like you went with the double anchor fasteners, you made the right decision getting them pre-bored. I machined all my own for my first cart. It took forever, and I spent $$$ on tooling that I wish I hadn't.
  13. And I thought I'd bought out the last of the black anodized aluminum! Have fun with the build, it's pretty much as easy as it seems to work with the stuff. I'm already thinking about rebuilding my 80/20 main cart with what I learned from building my follow cart last year. The next detail will be putting umbrella mounts on both carts to I can transfer the umbrella to the follow cart for smaller 'bag-on'cart' gigs. Let me know if you end up needing any last minute fasteners, I have a pretty decent supply sitting around. And McMaster Carr has a decent stock of 8020 parts available for intown pickup if you get desperate. Good luck!
  14. I'd certainly appreciate any documents that are public domain/non-proprietary that could be posted here, as long as it's kosher with the creators. I'm starting to slog through the application this week.
  15. On the other side of the thread: Gotta love the attitude! In most of my experience, when the camera starts making a horrible noise, the producer doesn't look first at the operator, they look right at the mixer and say "Can we live with that?" Once that question is raised, it's then treated as a sound issue. On the good side, a lot of my Red owning clients aren't idiots, so I've got that going for me.
  16. While I certainly understand the temptation to do that, as I bet everyone else here does, it generally doesn't further the negotiation or end in a job! I think the question - relevant to the thread topic - that comes up for some of us here in the hinterlands is "Are people in major markets really dropping rates to the point where it's not a profitable business anymore?" That isn't snark, by the way - it's a legitimate question. W/R/T lowballing vs. payment difficulties - I wonder why they bother as well.
  17. Minor aside regarding something Rich said : Just last week I was negotiating a rate for a small part of a well funded documentary shoot happening here in Georgia. I quoted the going rate for mixers here and was told, yet again - "I can get a mixer for half that in NYC!" This may be a [poor] negotiating strategy from their side, but it's consistent. Either it is just a strategy, or we're doing a better job standing up for our rates around here than I realized. I hear this constantly from producers from New York and Los Angeles. I always point out the going rate for key positions in other departments, usually eliciting [feigned?] horror. In the past year I've had more than one producer be aghast that I wanted as much as the DIT was getting. In this race to the bottom, I've noticed one thing consistently: the more I'm beaten down about rate, the more trouble I'll have getting paid at all. The only 2 outstanding invoices I have from last year are from companies that wanted major discounts. Anyway, not intending to nitpick; I can't agree enough with all of Rich's points! Thanks for the valuable discussion about this, -A.
  18. Here's an update on my CMIT 5U's issue: I spoke with the product rep at Redding Audio. He said they'd heard ground hums with the mic before if the 4 Torx T6 screws near the XLR mount. I tightened them up & can't reproduce the issue right now, so hopefully this fixed it & my mic can avoid a German vacation. I was told that at some point in the manufacturing run the factory started using LocTite on these screws because of this. [Margus & Jan - This is definitely a ground hum problem, at least with my mic.]
  19. This is very interesting - I just developed the exact same symptoms described with my CMIT this week. It's intermittent, but i appears when most inconvenient. I changed out everything in the signal path, but it's exhibiting the same behavior with any of several preamps/power supplies. -Adam
  20. I am not in the least surprised to find other British car fans here - is it just the love of soldering? And, timely enough, I had to get help pushing my TR-6 out of a busy intersection just this week because of (of course) a failed Lucas spark plug wire. That doesn't even count as unusual or problematic any more, since I've learned to keep most of a spare electrical system in the boot. Al - great pics from Amelia. Any nice Morgans this year?
  21. Edit: The client wants to 'buy' a C=Wooden camera adapter box, not 'but' one.
  22. Hesitant to dive in, but here goes: I've been working with Epics since last summer, here's what I've learned. I wired up a couple of XLR to TRS balanced adapter cables per the Red manual wiring scheme cited above and have had success. Unbalanced signal to the camera have given me very mixed results - sometimes a channel drops out, noise, etc. FYI, the first Epics that shipped didn't turn off Phantom power to the TRS inputs, even when it was switched off in the menu. This meant that the first time you unplugged the TRS while the camera was plugged in, poof - input fried. Re: Wooden Camera thing. This just looks like a passive adapter cable pair with chassis mount XLR-Fs. For $200. I have a client wanting to but one. Does anyone have further info? The manufacturer's website is mum on the electronics... Good luck. Until Red changes something in a month and we have to go through all this again.
  23. Agreed - I just started using mine & think it's a great improvement. Thanks again Larry!
  24. So - I guess this is part of why I get more calls from 'reality' producers every year demanding a work style that's downright unsafe, especially in the long run. Is there a way to pay attention to how things actually sound when you're dragging around half of a studio? Or do the producers even care? I've repeatedly gotten called to "mix" a 'reality' show that the producer describes as "Easy" - 10 to 12 wireless, one man audio dept, multiple cameras, no boom op or A2. She can't understand why I keep turning it down. What's next? Will you be expected to mount a 12K on your hat & a steadicam on the front of your bag? Sorry for the rant, but I, for one, don't want to be bedridden by age 60. I know too many camera ops that have debilitating back issues & I don't want to join them.
  25. The 7D runs at either 23.976 or 29.97. -Adam Jones
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