Parker Brown

Solved. My cables were wired incorrectly. Nothing like a nice day of deductive trouble shooting.

I've confirmed the QRXs are outputing digital audio as I can hear the signal through the analog inputs when I turn AEs on. I think it's the 833/XL-AES that's not hearing the signal.

Hi everyone, I've been tapped for a last minute job and am trying to send AES digital channels from two QRX200s through the XL-AES into my 833. The XL-AES is installed and the expansion port on the 833 is turned on. Each channel allows me to select 1-8 XL-AES inputs. The QRXs have AES digital enabled on 1/2 and 3/4. AES output rate is Normal. AES outputs are set to Normal (split) and each of the two ta5 connectors is plugged into a ta3 on the XL-AES. I'm getting nothing. Test tone from the QRXs appears on none of the selected XL-AES inputs and neither does audio from a transmitter. The 833 is version 6.1. Any help would be hugely appreciated. Parker

Hey everyone, I hate these kind of posts, but here I am in a Mexican hotel room with a camera that's not co-operating. Panasonic EVA-1 is shooting PAL, is in 25fps (on speed and recording audio), but is locked in record run and won't take a timecode jam from my tentacle. The menu item that allows you to switch from free run to rec run is greyed out and un-selectable. Anyone used this camera before? I've been through every menu setting and nothing has allowed me access to freerun. Thoughts? Thanks in advance. Parker Got it! Turns out the below setting must be OFF. Camera settings/fps/vfr sw - OFF/ON Hope this can save someone else a massive PITA. Pb

Hey guys, Maybe I can piggyback on this thread... I've got a director asking about the DVX200. I saw the BNC TC I/O and thought, 'Great, that should work with a TC sync box'. Then dug further and saw a review state: Another BNC handles timecode I/O for jam-syncing between cameras: you can set the camera’s timecode generator to generate or to match a reference, but the camera itself doesn’t genlock to a master clock nor does it follow external timecode continuously. This reminds me of the old firewire sync ports on HVX's. Can anyone explain exactly how this works? The camera will 'hear' the timecode from an external source like a sync box and then run off on it's own, drifting even if the sync box is left plugged in? Looks like it's not going to work for us if it can't stay frame accurate to my Betso Box or Tentacle... Parker

Thanks again everyone, I tend to agree with Tom that stereo specialization is likely to take a back seat to providing a clean track and I wonder how much I should be looking to mic the room (mics back where it sounds nice to the audience/FOH) versus just trying to get the mics ( or even just a mono mic) past the audience near the PA (on pads) and let post fill in ambience with camera mic and Zoom. I'm a little wary of leaving the venue and all of it's noise and chaos to hear tracks that sound suddenly way to noisy and chaotic because the mics were back in the room. That said I've never mic'd a band's PA in this situation. Is putting the mics up there a mistake?

Thanks guys, It's going to be a beast, but I can do some footwork before hand. The bands play in showcases from noon to 6 and 8 to 2am, each for 30 min before the next band gets 15 min to set up for their 30 min etc. Half of them are outdoors and half of them are not real places, just made up venues for the week (I once saw a full sponsored showcase in a residential backyard). I really appreciate your responses, all good advice. I hadn't heard of the sescoms, they're on their way. My friend pedals a cycle cab and makes $4k in 5 days...wonder which of us will work harder... Pb

Hey everyone, hope life is good, Just a quick favor if I may. I'm up for a gig during the SxSW music festival for a documentary in which we'll be following a band all about town and recording and filming their various live performances. SxSW is chaotic to say the least (read tons of live music performances in a crazy number of wildly variable venues). I'm confident I've got the 4 band members under control (so to speak), but I wanted to ask if anyone had any suggestions for recording the live performances. I've asked for advance notice of the venues so that I might have a chat with the managers and hopefully their sound guys, but I've done this a couple of times before and the reception can be all over the place. My plan at the moment is to take a feed from the board and bring a pair of 8040's on high stands to mic the PA. Basically I'm nervous about what I might get from the board and I'm looking for tips to maximize my chances of decent tracks in what I expect will be 30 min set ups in packed bars. Everything comes to my 788 with no real worry about the camera (maybe a scratch track). Obviously there's no better time to say "it depends", but any help would, ya know, help. Thanks to all, Parker

Hi everyone, Quick question. I have a Lectrosonics WM waterproof Tx that I've just noticed works very poorly with PowerEx NiMH AAs. I rarely use the WM and when I do it's usually with lithium AAs, which have always worked fine. I recently popped in the NiMH batteries with a full charge and the power LED is immediately flashing between green and red, the RM works unreliably with it and battery life is very short. I called Lectrosonics about it thinking that maybe my unit might have a problem and they said that there are most likely differences in the design that require the WM to use only lithium AAs. Has anyone else experienced this? What batteries work well in your WMs? Thanks, Parker

So I think <cap> means "Call Deneke". Good call. Charlie at Deneke said what Glen said, and also that what I proposed was correct for the TS-2 and TS-3. Once the numbers are rolling the 1/4 inch TC input becomes an outout for those slates but not the TS-C. I'll think a little harder next time.

I'm starting a commercial shoot with an Alexa this weekend and I want to try using a TS-C as the timecode source for jamming the camera (or at least have the option). I know the 1/4 inch input on the slate is tc tip, ground sleeve, but is the slate outputing tc on this same jack? My tc cables are of the bi-directional xlr to lemo type. Is it simply a matter of adapting the 1/4 inch to xlr male and running to camera? I'll rent the slate the night before and give it a go, but I thought I'd check in here as well. Thanks and good luck out there.

Here's an earlier thread about mic'ing a gasmask.

I've jacked into the scarlet and it worked fine. It seems like the pro i/o tc input is either turned off or set to output. I've given up on it and I'm using the 4 pin, which means I have to leave the scarlet on its own clock. A couple of side notes on the pro i/o. It allows you to use a line input but unchecks the box, reverting to Mic, when the camera cycles power. This will obviously screw you. Also the ch3/4 level controls did not work for me. I lined up tone by decreasing the output gain on the 788t.

I'm on set feeding an epic tc through a hardline from my 788T into the 5 pin lemo on the Pro i/o. I've set the epic to external tc but its not picking up the tc. We've taken it off external and manually set it to time of day. I then checked my 788 and discovered it's receiving tc from the epic back through my tc cable's tc out on xlr. I'm jammed up but confused as to what I'm missing. I'll have to do the same with a scarlet in a few hours. The AC is no help. Thanks, Parker

Job done. With the approval of the higher ups and our cave guide, who had seen it done before, I punched a tiny hole in the side of the mask, ran a mic cable through, sealed the hole with silicon and placed it inside the innermost breathing chamber just above nostril level. I tried a B6 and a COS-11s. The B6 sounded horrible, lots of reverberant buzzing. The COS-11 sounded very nice. Just Darth Vader'y enough to sound cool, but perfectly intelligible. Here are a couple of pics I took in a rush as I was taking it apart on the pavement at the airport. The first pic you can just make out the fuzzy inside and the cable by my thumb. The second pic is after I had razor bladed the silicon off. The second best solution would have been to jam a mic up the respirator exhaust with a wind muff. Not as good, but would do in a pinch. Thanks for all the input, especially the reminder to keep the liability in order. On a brief side note, the only problem in the cave was that in a certain chamber one of my wireless hop (SR) channel's levels started rising and falling very regularly, like a sine wave, roughly 30dbu. In the heat of it I couldn't work it out, but when we left the cave and the problem vanished I figured the cave shape was causing phasing of the signal, strengthening it and weakening it in a regular pattern. I think if I had changed the channel I could have solved my problem. Maybe worth a re-post. You think that was the issue? Anyone seen this before?

It's worth noting that the WM is larger than the SMQV, more like a UM. If you're used to the SMQV then the WM looks a bit like a caricature when sitting next to it. Also, for the sake of thoroughness, the button layout is flipped 180 degrees. Here's a pic. SMQV - WM - UM200C. If you need ultra fast battery changes the WM takes 4 times as long.

Ya, they're just non-lubricated condoms. http://www.sheatheswireless.com/ Keeps out sweat, dirt, grime, etc. Hoping someone had already taken the Senator's advice. LSC it is.

Hey guys, I just got a call from the folks over at Sheathing Technologies Inc about ordering body pack covers from them for my smqv's. What it came down to was, I have to order 2 boxes of 100 pieces minimum at $39ea. They're going to charge me $5 to ship to a residential address They want $22 to ship to my house in Austin Good on them for doing what they've gotta do, but I'm really only looking for around 50, so I thought it'd see if anyone out there had a supply they wouldn't mind selling from. Interested? Thanks, Parker

Well, it turns out we're definately going with the full face rubber mask, and unfortunately Brent, we'll all be wearing them. Something about enough ammonia to kill you in 20 minutes. They've sent me a mask to fuss with and it looks like I might have to bore a hole in it, place the mic inside and seal it with some silicon or something. Maybe someone has an idea? I can't comprimise the seal of the mask and I'm not sure but it's possible that even the cable of my B6 could do that if I run it out of the side. Much experimenting. I'll post with what I think works best in the end.

Thanks for the info JohnPaul. I'd never considered the potential differences in the camera pots. Always assumed it was an amp, hence them being the source of my anxiety. Turned out everything sounded good on playback (although all I had was the camera output) so I ran the hop and kept backups in case. Good shoot minus the 105F. Thanks!

I've just realized that with my sr at +5 level output being fed by smqv's at audio 18 (a number that has given me good dynamic range) out of my 788t at full up line out, the level I'm getting out of the sr is 6-8db lower than a hard line from the same outputs. If I turn the transmitters up limiting starts pushing dynamic range down. The only reason I'm seeing this as a possible problem is that on the Sony f330 I'm working with this means I have to turn the camera pots nearly all by the way up. This makes me nervous, as on the hard line the camera pots are at about 2 o'clock. However, I'm not sure I need to be nervous. Everything looks and sounds fine with the pots way up, it just feels wrong. Do you guys worry when you have to crank up a camera? I'll confidence check it in the morning and run the hard line if it doesn't sound perfect. Thanks, Parker

Thanks Larry, This mean that R1a's only work with 400 series transmitters? Parker

Hello all, A quick question. I have a Lectro UCR195/UM195 fixed frequency system that I'd like to relegate to IFB duty. The UCR works well in video village and I'd like to add some R1a's to the mix. The system is tuned to 494.35MHz and I'd like to know if R1a's in Block 19 tuned to 494.3 (4F) or 494.4 (50) will work with the UM Tx. Does the half a tenth of a MHz matter? Any potential issues with this idea? Thanks, Parker

Hey folks, I'm working a presenter led show in a couple of weeks, and one of the shoots is in a bat cave. Everyone, including the presenter, will be wearing some kind of mask to prevent histoplasmosis. The two options are 1) a 3M paper/cloth mask with a filter that looks like a surgical mask or 2) a respirator that covers the whole face with a clear shield and an inner rubber mask over the nose and mouth (pics attached). I've worked with the paper mask before (animal autopsy) and it's intelligible but sounds like a hand over the mouth, but I'm curious as to whether anyone has any tips/tricks/advice about this situation. Feels like a long shot to me, if he's wearing a mask it's going to sound like he's wearing a mask, but maybe someone in the interwebs has an idea. Thanks, Parker