RPSharman

I never liked the idea of renting, unless it is for specialty equipment or "extra" equipment I know I'll only use once or once in a while. If it's something you know you want and will need eventually, then i suggest buying it. The best thing to do is figure out what it will cost you to rent it (including vehicle mileage and time to pick it up) and what it will cost you in interest to own it. Even at an ridiculous interest rate of 24%, it only costs $50/month to own a SD442 $2500. It is tax deductible and in your house and only used gently by you. It's also there if you didn't think you'd need it, but suddently do. That said, I have rented a SD442 on a couple of occasions, but it is rarely needed by me and I also have a friend who owns one and lends it to me if I need it. But if I knew I was starting a show with a lot of car work, I'd probably buy one before renting again. Renting gear only increases the cost of something you will eventually buy anyway. Sorry, Frank.

I can only speak for the matte screen, but even with that there are visibility issues due to reflection and lack of brightness in strong daylight. I keep a piece of duvetine over the keyboard of my white iBook. It serves as a dust cover and eliminates reflections from the keyboard. My laptop is above eye level, so with the screen tilted down, the keyboard reflection was a big issue. The new MacBook has a brighter screen and is available in black, so maybe good to do that. Robert

Take, I love the simplicity of BR. If it becomes too over engineered, it'll be just like everything else out there. Please keep the the sound and the sound/video assist versions separate and continue to support each. It's bad enough we have to listen to the actors. I don't want to have to look at them too! :-) R

14 across...monaural. No wonder you started this thread! I love to mix a mono track with the ISO back-up. It allows me to be aggressive with my mix, sometimes taking chances for a better mix which I might not "go for" without a safety net. Especially as one of the new guys, it creates confidence and comfort, which really helps me concentrate on listening without any fear of making a critical error. When I was providing a two track mix, I found myself worrying more about wether or not I should split the tracks and what I should put on each track. Listening to different things in each ear was distracting to me. Now that I mix mono, I enjoy the job a lot more, I know what they will hear in dailies, and so far (from what I can tell) they use my mix almost all the time. And as others have pointed out, editors and post audio crews would much rather not have to worry about the dialog track, and unless there is something wrong with it, they probably aren't going to use your ISO tracks anyway. Robert

I am all for doing favors for people moving up. If I'm available, what good is my gear doing sitting in my garage? Within reason, of course. It's my understanding this thread was about producers of "standard" shoots offering obnoxious rates for ridiculous days and acting as if they are doing US the favor by hiring us. It's great to hear your story, Mick. It doesn't always happen, but I have heard of several stories like yours. I know I am very loyal to boom guys that suffer with me through cheap jobs, showing up capable and competent and with a positive attitude.

I think that was John's point. Anyone can submit to Sundance, but they all seem to think that their's will get in for sure, which is why you'll want to work on it for little or no money.

I was called for a "documentary" about sushi being produced by a French company for release in France. This might be the same people. They wanted a couple of lavs and perhaps a boom. Rate for two "short" days was $250/day including gear. I declined, stating I would do two short days for $500/day. It was insulting that a company would come from France and offer what is the equivalent of about 150 Euros/day. I doubt that's the going rate in France or anywhere else in Europe. That's 125 Pounds/day for those in the U.K., and I doubt very much they could even rent the gear for that. I hope nobody accepted this offer.

Back in Los Angeles tonight. Call me if you hear of anything coming up. Thanks. Robert (818) 304-3066

As my friend Tom Curley knows, Current TV has a studio in the heart of Hollywood, and continues to be a non-union network. Shame on Al Gore.

Thanks to you too, Frank. The checks in the mail.

Very kind words, Richard. Thank you. Really nice to put a face to the name. And thanks to the other DC mixers for contacting me. I'll call you this weekend. Robert

I'll be in Washington DC for the next week or so staying at the Renaissance M Street Hotel. Any locals want to meet and talk sound geek stuff? And does anyone know who is mixing "Body of Lies?" Also looking for nice, but reasonably priced restaurant or restaurant/bar near the hotel in which to have my after work dinner. Any suggestions from locals or folks having recently worked or stayed in the area? Thanks, Robert Sharman (818) 304-3066

The engineers at Comtek and Denecke are very friendly and knowledgable. I would call them both and get some suggestions for the build. I would expect that 2 x 9v would certainly run a slate and a PR216 all day. Probably one would do it too, or at least until lunch. I use the iPower rechargeables. They last longer than alkalines, and one would probably go all day.

Somehow I thought the party was this weekend. Too bad the card I received a while ago reads the dates and not the days. I was working the last two days, but could have stopped in this morning on the way to CBS Radford (10:30 call) and perhaps won the iPhone or other goodies. Hope it was fun for those who went.

I was making a deal on one movie for a "weekly" rate but the UPM mentioned "that's XXX per day." I let it go. When the show changed to six day weeks before production started, my invoices read "Sound Package at $XXX per day, six days - TOTAL $XXX." I billed the extra day, was given the money with no problem. They were added days, so must have been budgeted for rental, but the UPM didn't try to get them for free. I have worked on shows with the same UPM since, and it was never an issue. That's rare, I know. Since we own the gear, it's seen as personal "kit" and not gear as if rented from a rental house. Not sure how that happened. Regarding 2nd units, of which I do a lot, I usually say that my rental is the 1st unit weekly rental divided by five plus $100 for the daily. I have had no problems, except with FOX, who always pays me $350/day regardless of what I bill them. They pay $1750 per week or $350 per day. That's it. There's a message on my machine today questioning my $450 invoice. Usually they just send the $350 without saying anything.

I was in the Alternative Audio shop when he his first O1V96 on the bench for the mod. He was having a very tough time, since there were separate supplies for various part of the board which needed to be fed independently. I don't know how many he did after that, but it was an expensive mod from what he told me. His mods are quite successful. He modified my 1402VLZ for DC as well as external mic to separate switches routed to aux1 and aux 2 to allow talking to either Comtek feed of the track, and one switch routing to the master for a slate mic. Now he is at Coffey, I understand his overwhelming workload prohibits him from doing these mods. I wanted him to make an adjustment to my mod, and he said he was weeks behind! And the last time I spoke to him, he has decided not to do the Mackie mods any more. Not sure why. Just remember, the O1V96 has extraordinary power requirements. 90 Watts at 120v is 900w at 12vDC, which is almost 10amps. Not sure what the real world or continuous power consumption is (anyone?), but a 60amp marine battery wouldn't run it for a day with those numbers. I'm thinking a quality UPS for kickouts is probably lighter and more cost effective. I'd be curious to know from any engineers out there if AC mixers are generally rated for maximum consumption or average consumption, and do they use less power when certain features are turned off.

Yes, I can jam BR. I just like the idea of constant TC feed. Also, I need to figure out the additional inputs anyway. Too hot in my garage now. I'll get back to you all in a few days.

I have rebooted, etc. There is signal, I can see it in the Total Mix and hear it through the headphone jack. BR recognizes the interface, and displays all IO options as per normal. There is just no signal to the BR software.

The fact that there is no partial layout is why I am so confused. BR sees all the IO options of the FF800. BR sees that inputs 9 & 10 exist (as well as all the other input options), and I know there is audio going into these inputs, since I can hear it via the headphone jack on the FF800, but for some reason it does not register on the BR meters. If I put the TC signal into input 8, I can see it and route it to any or all of the 9 tracks I have active. I'll review the FF800 manual and play with it again today. Thanks, Robert

Thanks, Richard. This is good to know. I was nervous seeing the TC not match, but glad to know it was okay. It seems the 48048 in the file menu has no actual effect other than marking the file as 48048 and making the TC readout not match. But it does add some confidence to the post guys to see the 48048 sample rate in the file info. Robert

BR routing matrix shows ALL inputs, including digital. It shows analog 9, but does not register the signal as it does through inputs 1-8. I also tried plugging into 10 on the front, and that had the same result as input 9. There is a choice on the FF800 settings to assign inputs front or rear for inputs 1, 7 & 8 (both on front and back of unit), but inputs 8 & 10 are ONLY on the front.

I hear "Oklahoma is OK" - Way to capitalize on your postal code and strive for mediocrity in your slogan! Come film in Oklahoma, we're OK. But seriously, everyone realizes the positive impact of bringing film production to a region. Unfortunately, the California general public has forgotten the negative impact of losing it. Remember the big slow down around 2000, and how empty it was in restaurants, clothing stores, specialty shops, and all over Los Angeles? People forget how a slow down in the earning of the middle class (most of us working in the film business) can impact the entire economy of a region.

Richard, I remember this posting, but when I set the BR interface for file sample rate at 48.048, the TC readout was inaccurate and did not match the slate or the 744T. As Take mentioned, the TC calculation is samples since midnight. Perhaps with file sample set for 48.048 it reads input TC as a relationship of time since midnight and then calculates samples creating a new TC. The TC is "later" than the input TC. Perhaps I will turn on my machines now, later, then in the morning and see if the relationship changes with time from midnight. Maybe I will also try setting 27.79 and 48.048 on BR with TC input 30 and FF800 at 48.048. Robert Robert

Typically I run a mono mix, six pre-fade outputs, and TC into the 8 analog inputs on the back of the Fireface 800. In Boom Recorder, I display 9 tracks and assign time code to track 9, just in case I want to throw a 7th mic in there for some CRAZY reason. All is good. But yesterday I decide to send (L)® into two inputs and the six pre-fade into the others. A show I covered for last week wanted a stereo mix + iso tracks. I never used more than 2 mics, so was not much of an issue that day. Yesterday I thought I'd set up my cart that way as a test while I was waiting for an actor to come to our unit. I ran (L)® out of the board into 1 & 2, and the pre-fades into 3 - 8 on the FF800. I ran the TC into the #9 analog input on the front of the Fireface, then assigned analog input 9 to track 9 in Boom Recorder. But BR could not see the audio/TC. The TC signal was in the FF800. I could listed to it routed to the headphones, and see it on the FF800 mix display. But BR was not seeing it. I rebooted and powered down and all that good stuff a few times. No luck. It was still happy getting the TC into the rear inputs, but was not seeing a signal (TC or audio) on analog input 9. I went through all the FF800 settings, but as I stated, the signal was there. It was BR that was not seeing it. Anyone have this issue and the answer to what I am doing wrong? Robert

Just to let you guys know. Regarding 30ND 48.048 and Boom Recorder. The configuration I found that works for me is the following... I set my 744T for 30ND 40.048 - Fireface 800 is set for 48.048 - Boom Recorder is set for 30ND (receiving TC from 744T into audio channel) - Sample and File settings are both 48k - I tried setting File for 48.048, as it is an option, but then the TC does not match the 744T or the slate. Not sure why. Perhaps Take can shed some light on what the 48048 setting does which affects the TC. But clicking on the TC readout in Boom Recorder, you can see the sample rate is 48048 when setting are both 48k, and I have had no complaints from post on a couple of different shows this season, so this seems to work. Robert