Spencer Moore

Chase I take my cues from Ron Swanson "Be a man."

In the bag I use it by itself, and on a cart I front it with the M6. 8 lbs in a bag isn't crazy (have you seen peoples reality bags!), yes its on the upper end of the scale but thats about what a Cantar or Deva weights. Plus I only try to carry 2 wireless with me if I can help it.

There are a few US dealers, but their products are not usually stocked like most European mixers and recorders.

I've had the NP (externally) run out on the P82 while working on a doc, and it switches too the internal battery (AA NP sled), but it seems to be a little dicey interms of the record quality at that moment. I got some pops and noise. However I'd generally avoid that happening, and thats a much better outcome then the machine powering off unannounced and ruining the file like my old Fostex FR-2TC.

I've been using the Tascam for a month now, and I love it. when you use it for bag work it almost feels like you're working with a DAW instead of a field recorder, but when I have it on cart I front it with a panel mixer that has direct outputs (modified PSC M6 Retro). The pre amps are crystal clear with loads of headroom, and the touch screen makes naming and organization a breeze. In terms of build quality the machine has a very substantial metal chassis. I've been using Portabrace's new Flex-4 bag with it since its the same size as the purpose built bag for it and features more flexibility in terms of configuration. Also I love the glowing Rec button!

THe 815/16 probably has the grilles on one side because of structural reasons I suppose, but generally I have the grille facing left because of the way the cable and connector go. However it makes no difference which way the grilles face from y experience. If you have to be OCD about symmetry then point them up or down .

Even though they're big and dorky I have a pair of Beyer DT-100s that I wear around the house, and they are F*cking bulletproof. Can't break them if you tried. Anyways +1 for HD-25s.

The 4minX has been around for awhile (before Nomad), but like many items it never shines past the marketing corona of SD and Zax. They also make the Mixy which is a 3 channel digital mixer, and I've always thought their products were pretty spiffy.

I've always wondered about the two capsule solution to M/S. Most standalone fig 8 mics use one diaphragm which would mean that the two sides would always be 180 degrees apart, but the two capsules in something like an octava would fluctuate in the degrees of phase.

It does! But not in the S series.

Love my Emesser!

Thanks for the info Senator! I'm thinking about buying one coming up sometime soon. I'm also looking at the new Fostex. Right now I have a DR-100 as my backup handy recorder, and its nothing to sneeze at but a Nagra would be tops. I've played with the new Nagra pre at PSS and it sounds amazing, but the digital features seemed a bit oddball to me. I think its conversion is at 44.1khz unless I'm mistaken. I remember fondly speaking to the Nagra folks back at Aes and they were more then helpful about showing me around the product line. THey even told me that they still have the parts to make 4.2 recorders!

I'm not that old, but I know about the history of broadcast video. What Sound Devices is doing isn't necessarily a new idea. In the early 80's Nagra made a portable 1" C format recorder called the VPR-5 in a partnership with Ampex. Holy crap was it beautiful. Aaton, a camera company maybe cared about audio in the early days more then any other camera company. Instead of wrapping the camera in a blimp they reworked the actual mechanism to be inherently quiet, and then decades later they released a sound recorder themselves! I don't think sound devices will have any trouble going forward. Sound and picture has been converging and diverging for years, diversity and development is never a bad thing imo.

You're thinking about the past when a camera head and a VTR were two separate objects, but now we have one... Wait... Whats going on?

I'm intrigued with the design, and it almost looks like a mac mini with a lens on it, but there is a lot to be said for ergonomics. You would need at leas another grand worth of widgets to make it sit on your shoulder nicely for long doc takes.

I always thought that the custom was to push for a kill fee if the production cuts you 24 hours or less prior to the shoot. I've had books cut from good clients a couple days before the shoot for legitimate circumstances, and only once was cut because the producer told me through email less then a day before the shoot "the director is going with a different crew." I tried to get my money for that one. However like John said, most people are just trying to do their jobs under difficult conditions just like us.

Those connectors will make it real easy to run away from set when you don't like the job since they're non locking .

I think I've only done something like that once on one of those sit down interview shows. Single cam, 3 subjects and no boom in play. 1 lav on Ch. 1 and the other 2 on Ch. 2 I know for sure that in 99% of the broadcast work I do the audio goes to one place and thats the tape, card or disc in the camera, and then straight into the segment producers hands for an edit. I think post is very inflexible in the broadcast world since there are strong time constraints and most of the shows have the post production workflows set in stone.

Hey Derek, I'm happy to see someone else using the big Sennheiser wireless systems. I have one with an sk250 that I'm reserving for wireless boom right now because of its insatiable appetite for expensive lithium AAs. However its easily the best sounding wireless I have.

Are we talking about narrative, or non narrative work here? I feel that the venue would certainly affect the decision to use effects like compression or more advanced equalization.

I'd be interested to see if Rode comes up with an affordable blimp for the mic. In my case that was a big issue when I purchased my used 815. I'm still not wowed with the way Rode has for lack of a better word 'knocked off' Sennheisers designs.

The Professional. My god that movie can waste the day.

I love my 815, what a mic! But I think that list is pretty old, and part of PSS's old website. Probably made after the 816 P48 was discontinued and before the Sanken.

This is my AKS case so nothing crazy was inside. I don't know where the original crack came from but it chipped off and became what you see. My other big pelican has a cracked off rib on the back. That happened on a cross country trip. I'm just a little disappointed with the newer Pelican cases. My older ones have no problems and are still 'taking it'. Something tells me that the formula they have been using for the foam the case is made of has been getting softer. Senator I know ATA is a type not a brand. I've been looking at Hybrid cases out of Long Island. I'd like to get the ATA cases with the Fiberglassed panels.

I have a big pad of triplicate 'carbon copy' style sound reports from PSS that work like a charm. I have the sound report writer app too but even that can be too fiddly when you're a one man band.