Scott Smith

Must not have been using the right technique! --S

Sadly, of the 21 sound branch invitees, only two are production mixers Congrats to Tony Johnson and David Brownlow. Better invest in a big mailbox for all the DVD's that will be arriving on your doorstep! --Scott

I'll have to check to see what I have in my files. As I recall, there was never a full service manual per se (like for the IV and later series). I beleive I do have a full parts list and schematic though.

A classy lady. Had the opportunity to work with her a couple of times in the 1980's. It was always a joy to be in her presence. She brought much good into the world, sad to see her go. --S

It's certainly a changing world out there, in both production and post. More and more, producers are finding ways to circumvent the traditional post process for sound, which has had huge implications for a number of facilities. Although I'm not privey to the buyout details, my guess is that Todd-AO/Soundelux may have had some signicant debt added to their books as part of the buyouts and changes that have taken place over the years, putting them under a huge a mount of pressure. This may have been part of the reason that some of the top talent ankled to join the Foromsa Group (purely speculation on my part). This comes on the heels of the closing of Todd-AO/Sound One-New York, some major scoring stages, the closing of both Technicolor and Deluxe lab operations, and numerous other changes. Not your father's post-production business! --S

Another great issue. Many thanks to David and the rest of the staff for putting another issue put to bed. A truly thankless task, but an effort that I hope will document what we do for generations to come (as did the previous iteration of "The International Sound Technician" from the 1950's.). --S

Still standing by the AR Powered Partners. No bluetoooth, but they sure as hell can piss off the guests in the room next door. Maybe I'll get a subwoofer just to really get 'em going.. --S

A big +1 regarding Scott Bernard. One of the best things to happen to our Local... And also to Crew C's comments; It wasn't that long ago that a mixer could expect to work well into his '70s (if he wanted to). I recall more than a few guy's working at Universal, Columbia, Paramount, The Burbank Studio and other studios who weren't exactly spring chickens. OTOH, none of those guys were going to strap on a 788 with 8 wireless mics either! Still, they brought a level of professionalism to the set that is sadly lacking today. And yes, a National Contract is long overdue. --S

Have occasionally seen a little excess oxidation on older Nagra 4.2L and 4-S recorder heads. Nothing serious, usually just some minor re-lapping takes care of it. Older electrolytic caps may be a different issue though,along with pinch rollers. Other than that, I have not had any problems with the classics. --S

Have to say, this is one area where digital technology has really done us a dis-favor. So many ways to screw up a track after the fact, without having any knowledge of what is actually going on. Back in the day, all I had to do was thread up the 1/4" original and play it on a halfway decent sound system. The conversation usually ended there. Now, almost no one has a decent sound system, and are clueless about what is going on with various settings buried deep in some sub-menu. --S

Not to start a pissing match over this, but I tend to agree with Jay. I have never heard judiciously applied compression at low ratios (say 2:1 to 4:1) be terribly audible, unless you are really slamming it (or have long release times). Likewise with any issues of bringing up background noise (which only occurs if you are are in virtually constant compression). BTW: Love the UA Fairchild plug as well (which actually sounds a bit better to me than the hardware device. Sure I'll get some notes on that!). Clip Gain is also a great tool, but my guess is that many times it is implemented as a wholesale rendering, rather than tweaking it for specific areas. Also, just to clarify, I am only talking about compression in post, not production. And yes, the human hand on the fader is still the preferred approach, but given time constraints of TV (and even features), is sometimes a luxury. We live in a far from perfect world, to be sure... (FWIT: It's always been interesting to me that I almost never have to strain to understand the dialog tracks in films from the Forties and Fifties. But that was a time when actors knew how to project, or risk spending many hours on the looping stage that would be better spent tossing back a few cocktails at Musso & Frank. Compression could be a bit heavy-handed as well, but some mixers seemed to have found ways to minimize some of the more audible effects). --S

I feel fortunate to have been around long enough to have actually had the opportunity to work with actors that know how to act. Though some of them are a cranky lot, when you look at the current crop of actors, I can't blame them. These days, on the rare occasion I actually encounter an actor with the gift to project the emotion of a scene without being a mumble-mouth, I always make it a point to ask them if they have a background in theater (or at least theater training). To date, I have yet to encounter a single actor with a decent voice who hasn't spent time on the stage. Guess they don't teach that in film acting school... Another sore point: I am truly mystified by the lack of dialog compression on many TV shows. Yeah, current TV standards allow for a much greater dynamic range than the previous NTSC system, but how many people are actually listening to the average TV drama on a decent system at 85dBa? Even on a good system, I frequently find myself reaching for the volume control during quiet sequences. While I don't advocate the sort of "loudness wars" that dominate most of the music business, (where the dynamic range is about 3 dB), some judicious use of moderate compression (say 4:1 or 6:1) would go a long way towards improving overall intelligibility. (And yeah, I've worked as a re-recording mixer, so I know how compression is typically used). My rant for the day....

Still like my old AR Powered Partners. Had them for at least 20 years now. Solid construction, and no bullshit. Just don't drop one on your foot! --S

Yeah, and I really love it when I get a call from editorial complaining about some issue with sound. When I ask them what sort of monitoring system they are using, half the time they don't even know. When I tell them they should listen to the tracks in question on a real monitor system, their feathers all get ruffled. Funny though, after they actually go and listen to the material on a decent system, I never hear back from them.

And what the hell does he mean by sound being made "more complicated" with the "proliferation of different types of television" that "affects a whole range of the population"? Voice of the Listener & Viewer conference Jamaica Inn: BBC strategy chief apologises, but blames varying TV types James Purnell follows drama controller in saying sorry, but says sound has become 'more complicated' due to changing viewing Jamaica Inn: BBC strategy chief James Purnell has apologised over sound problems. Photograph: Robert Viglasky/BBC/Origin Pictures The BBC's strategy director has apologised over complaints about inaudible dialogue in BBC1 drama Jamaica Inn but said that sound on productions has become "more complicated" with so many TV set-makers in the market. The "mumbling on the moors" issue in the BBC's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's novel led to almost 2,200 complaints. James Purnell said it was a "very interesting issue" as the sound on television productions has been made "more complicated" with the "proliferation of different types of television" that "affects a whole range of the population". He said the corporation felt it had "made real progress" on it over the past few years with Danny Cohen, director of television, having delivered a report about it to the BBC Trust and by changing production guidelines and "changing the way sound is done in post production". Speaking at the Voice of the Listener & Viewer annual conference in London, Purnell said that was why "I think everybody found this particularly upsetting for the BBC to have got it wrong so we want to apologise for that and we want to make sure we learn the lessons from it." Ben Stephenson, the BBC's controller, drama commissioning, apologised last week admitting: "If no one can understand what they're saying, then there's a problem." The corporation blamed a "range of factors" for the inaudible dialogue. BBC chiefs apologised for what they described as "sound issues" which affected the first episode. But despite attempts to rectify the fault many viewers still had problems understanding some of the characters' broad West Country accents and the complaints continued to mount. Meanwhile, Purnell said that director general Tony Hall met new culture secretary Sajid Javid this week for introductory meetings. Speaking about the run up the review of the BBC's charter – which ends in 2016 – Purnell said that in light of the forthcoming general election next year, the timetable is for the government to set out but "they want to take it out of the political cycle" and the BBC "shares that goal."

I have been using Adobe Audition for playback for a number of years with good results. Typically, I don't want or need all the bloated stuff that comes along with PT (unless we are doing some very complicated playbacks). I have been staying with older versions to avoid paying the fee, which I agree is quite annoying. A real mistake on Adobe's part if they hope to gain any more traction in the marketplace. Most of the playbacks I do are 8 channels or less in output spread, which is easily accomodted by a number of interfaces. The system has typically been very solid, and if the track count is low I can run it off a Windows laptop. I've also used the Red Rover remote with the system, which gives some handy hardware control. --S

Yeah, not a job for the faint of heart. FwIW, I did manage to mod the FR-2 to work with a remote, but not sure I'd want to have to do it again... -S

The choke is part of the XLR connector assembly on the input. Newer Comtek input cables have a nice little inline splice box. I have the schematic at the shop. can look it up if needed. However, this does not address any possible RF current flowing through the power connection. It only helps reduce RF from getting back-fed to the audio source. (And even with that, there is still some leakage). --S

One other possible issue is RF current getting reflected back through the power connection into the BDS. I don't think there are any isolation chokes in either the BDS ver 1 or 2. Also, I don't know if negative battery ground ts at the same potential as the sleeve on the micro-jack input (Comtek doesn't make schematics available for their current products). Might be creating more grief than it's worth... --S

Yeah, if you put it to them in terms they understand (like you won't get re-elected to office!), then maybe they'll sit up and take notice. Although we have been seeing some activity in the 700 mHz band in the Chicago Metro area, it is only a small fraction of the total available bandwidth. I think the companies who want to buy up this bandspace should be required to actually utilize before ripping a chunk out of the 600 mHz band. -S

Yes, a big +1 to David W. for the article on Jim Webb. Very nicely done- a great reminder on how it got done "back in the day". Despite the bleak situation that 695 is currently facing, that issues on set that matter to us on a daily basis continue on.... (Nice cover photo too!) --S

First question: what cameras are they using? Also, are you using an external TC generator to feed the Roland? Which one? Are you also feeding the Zoom with TC? FYI: Even with the time code recorded to both the camera and recorder, it is ultimately the word clock that determines the speed (and subsequent drift). The Roland is not well-reknowned for a stable clock. --S

+1 on that. Not very often that inventors get a mention.

Then again, there's always the trusty Nagra SN....

Also, be aware that Andy tended to change various aspects of his mixer designs over the years. Some are documented, others not so well...