The Documentary Sound Guy

I'm curious too ... seems like a good question for testing the knowledge of your gaffer...

I think you're thinking of the 4017? The 2017 just came out I think...

It depends on your source track and how consistent a beat it has. Sometimes you can get away with just using the original track if it has a consistent bassline. If it doesn't, the next step is to lay it down on a beatgrid in a DAW and tinker with the tempo until it matches. If production doesn't plan to shoot the whole track start-to-finish, you can probably get away with minor drift. If they do need a start-to-finish shot, you need to be precise and make sure the beat matches throughout. This works for modern tracks that have been produced to a click track that doesn't vary, but doesn't work for older, or non-pop / hip-hop genres where the beat isn't consistent, or ramps up and down a lot. Your next tactic is to manually create a beatgrid for the whole track by tapping out the tempo in time to the music and converting those taps into a custom beatgrid. I've done this in Reaper but no other DAWs, and the process was to create a marker at the downbeat of each bar (by pressing 'm' in time with the music), and then converting those markers to a beatgrid (Reaper has a command to do this). I did this for a 45-minute modern opera with frequent time signature changes and very inconsistent tempo. I needed a copy of the score to make sure I counted it correctly. Every time signature change required a manual change to the beatgrid to keep the count correct. Technically, it worked great, but we ended up not using it much because the complex and inconsistent timing was more confusing to the actors than than memorizing the tempo beforehand shot-by-shot. Often, they wanted the beatgrid for count-ins, and frequently, the count would change immediately prior to the music cue, so sometimes I "faked" a count-in by extending the cue tempo backwards in time even if it didn't match the music prior to the cue. Last step: Enable the metronome in the DAW and make sure it follows the downbeat on your beatgrid. Optionally, you can use a custom sample (e.g. pre-filtered below 50Hz) for each beat, and set a different sample to identify the downbeat. Hope that works as a high-level overview. It doesn't have to be that involved, but I think it's fairly track- and production-specific.

I have to admit, I don't have enough experience with your scenario to distinguish artefacts from intentional sounds. Mostly, I hear what sounds like something moving around in the background and creating vibration that the Geophone is picking up, not anything I would consider a recording artefact. Can you describe what you are hearing (and aren't supposed to be hearing) a bit better? I would test AES3 using your regular analogue cables. No, they won't be AES spec, but they'll work just fine at short lengths (<50'), and with digital, they will either work or not — there's no chance of cables adding noise.

I've noticed that my Mogami cable is quite sensitive to handling noise when unplugged. It gets much better (though not perfect) when fully connected. My guess (and it is a guess) is this probably has to do with induced capacitance in the shield when the cable is moved. Does your problem improve when the cables are connected at both ends? Separately, every M-S cable I've ever built has been much more sensitive to handling noise than regular mono cable. What helped the most was switching to a Cinela Piano windshield from a Rycote Cyclone. Not sure why this helped, but I think the mechanical separation / shock mount for the cable is better on the Cinela.

Ah, ok, I guess I misunderstood.

Nice setup! I'd imagine the weight of the Neumann head helps a lot. It turns out Styrofoam is a really terrible material for sound; it conducts vibration like crazy. I had the head mounted on a mic stand in a wheat field, and the wheat stalks gently blowing against the pole of the mic stand produced handling noise that was louder than the recorded audio. Am I understanding correctly that there's a shock mount I could get that would mount between the monopod and the stereo bar? I haven't encountered anything like that ... what does it look like?

I like the Leo Ball trick. I haven't used the Neumann head, but I built my own head out of Styrofoam and tucked two lavs in the ears. Worked great, but like you said, wind noise was doozy. I used a knit tube neckwarmer over the head to cut down on wind, but I bet the Leo Ball trick is more effective and more transparent. How does that mounting do for shock protection? The other issue I had was how incredibly sensitive to handling noise the head was... One of these days I'll get around to custom-building something, but I'm looking for ideas...

Looks nice and compact.

I used an app called Sound Report Writer that was fairly good. It's still on my phone, but seems to have disappeared from the Google store. Based on this thread, it was too much trouble to stay up-to-date with the constantly shifting OS updates and store requirements: You can probably find an old APK if you know where to look.

I've gone through three pairs, same issue. The socket makes electrical contact with a spring in the socket, and I believe the issue is that the spring gets fatigue and stops making good contact after a while. Replacing the cable doesn't help. Replacing the earpiece probably would, but it's not very cost-effective. After the third pair I've been on the hunt for a better monitoring headphone. I've been through Sony MDR-7506s (gives me listening fatigue, and the cable drives me nuts), Audio Technical ATH-M70x (breaks at the earpiece), and I'm now using very expensive Beyerdynamic 1770s, which seem to be durable enough for regular use, but which I hope I won't have to replace every three years. I suspect AT ATH-M50x may be a decent choice; it has a more robust earpiece swivel than the M70x, but I didn't like the bass bump compared the higher end model. It's probably pretty comparable to the bass on the HD-25 though. I suspect the AKG 371 could be a good choice, but I haven't found them to be readily available, and I didn't want to buy them sight unseen. Long story short, I'm also curious if anyone has fixed the HD-25 issue permanently, or, failing that, if there's a reasonably priced alternative that is durable, reasonably flat, blocks noise, and doesn't break the bank.

Not right off the bat. Be polite, but definitely do follow up. I've had a late fee listed on my invoice for years ("overdue invoices will be charged 5% per month"). But I've never actually charged it, even on late invoices. It's there for truly egregious cases, and I've never had any that were truly egregious. My preferred way to approach this is to send them an e-mail that assumes they've already sent payment on time and that the cheque has been lost in the mail. This gives them a graceful way of owning up to the fact that they haven't paid yet, and also makes the point that payment is late and expected.

How reliable is the Aria with the Nomad for you?

In a word ... no. Yes, we have rack-mount carts, but we are kind of past carting around massive racks of equipment. Plus, everything is wireless, so the pre-amps are all built into the transmitters anyway. The pre-amps on the standard recorders are just fine if you want to stay wired. Get a Sonosax if you want really high quality pre-amps. The only reason to use an out-board pre-amp is if you run out of analogue inputs, and if you do, there are smaller, DC-powered options that fit an on-set workflow much better. For post ... what are you doing running the pre-recorded audio through a pre-amp anyway? I'd believe there are post mixers out there who do this so they can run up the bill and make their clients believe they are getting "richer" audio. I wouldn't take them seriously though. Seriously. If you happen to need a rack-mounted pre-amp, I'm sure the Neve is great. Pricey, but they have a reputation. But it's not a practical piece of equipment on set, and there's zero reason to use it just for the name.

Probably not ... these are all the different wirings that are possible: https://lectrosonics.com/uhf-transmitter-5-pin-input-jack-wiring/ You'd have to know exactly how your mics are wired, and there may or may not be other pins shorted or resisters in the mix. It wouldn't necessarily be straightforward. But, perhaps you could do it if you knew exactly what was on the servo side. It's probably easier just to re-terminate all your mics to non-servo, and then they would work in everything. I can't speak for the UM400, since I don't have one, but usually noise floor is a combination of the mic+pre-amp along with the supply voltage. In theory, that's what servo wiring is supposed to improve (it prevents voltage sag, which is good for the noise floor of mics that need more voltage). So, on the basis of servo-compatibility, I would guess that an SMQV is quieter with a wider range of mics. But it depends on exactly what mic combination you are using.