Izen Ears

I'm a artist who uses technology to get my product. The fact that we all go about our jobs with our own slightly different methods, gear, and preferences is an indicator that we all make creative decisions! Just because you can't "see" the creative decisions doesn't make them not exist. Craftsmen are artists. Dan Izen

Naw some sound dude who heard it from some other dude some time y'know how it is. Obviously it's bad for reception - I guess I was wondering if it was bad for the 411 to be on and to have no antennas attached. Wasn't a big enough deal to "CTM" but since it came up naturally I posed the damn question for the sake of convenience and conversation! Dan Izen

I stole the helicals-on-the-van thing from Paul Ledford who was also the first person I ever saw using helicals - shout out to Paul L! Dan Izen

I have done exactly what you're talking about with both sharkfins and helical antennas. We had a whole night up on the roof of a tall building and there was no way my cart could get up there (narrow staircase, hot pipes to avoid etc) so I had to go "in a bag" for the night. I took the Deva and seven 411a receivers of various blocks. I also brought two sharkfins just in case one of the rx needed a little help. Well all the characters tx received great with the whips, but my background plant (to get clean traffic / ambient etc) had to be around the roof a ways away. I took off a whip and connected a PW sharkfin (used a NOGA arm with a mini cardelini clasped to a sturdy part of my bag), I used a 2' 50-ohm Lectro 2xright angle BNC cable. It rocked! My signal jumped from the barest whisper of an RF signal rife with RFI, to a steady half-mast RF signal with no hits. I did not know the 411a mixed both signals together, but it didn't seem to affect that background plant mic. If I'da known that I mighta pulled off the whip and left one antenna disconnected. (Tho I heard that was bad for the rx, to have it powered on with no antenna connected - is that true?) Oh yeah! I also did this on a different job last year where I was in a follow van and they were shooting out the door of the van, two actors riding bikes talking to each other for a few blocks in the French Quarter. I put one helical on each rx (whips on the other rx's connector), then mounted the two helicals on the roof of the passenger van - it picked them up like 4 blocks away with no hits! Dan Izen

Oh boy. AC! I worked through the entire New Orleans Summer, it's a swamp! Your clothes become a swamp in about 2 or maybe 4 seconds upon stepping outside. The heat was mainly a *picture* problem because the actors' costume kept getting soaked! Cameras fogged up when they left the 85-degree camera truck. Turning off the AC would have meant sweat-soaked actor faces in under 5 seconds. In short, I had to record with a portable (but huge) AC compressor (the kind with big long ET-style tubes pumping the air in) AND its accompanying genny ALL DAY! I knew there was no way we could exist period without the AC running all day - people would faint. I emailed post. I tried to get them to at least move the compressor & genny around a corner but of course the noise came right through the tube. I emailed post. They sent a sound file from day 1 to their post sound dept. The response was that the dialog was clear over the noise, and that they'll be able to make it work. Then I saw dailies (which will inspire me to start a new thread about that soon!) and you know what? It wasn't so bad. Bad, but not NG. I watched the dailies at home on some bigger speakers, where of course I had the AC running in my house. Most theaters have some sort of AC running that you can hear at the quiet moments, it blends right in! ha ha But seriously, you can relax about it as long as you've tried your best and informed the right people. Yes I have gotten entire locations scrapped on tech scouts because of some "utility room" with noise that would obscure dialog. All I did was go the line producer and say "Hey I'd like to let you know if you shoot this scene here you will have to replace all the sound" and he abruptly put everyone back on the bus! Your project sounds perhaps like one that might not have a whole post sound dept. who can employ fancy filters and take time to pull words out, which would make your sound the final sound. Oh well. It's not your fault, even though they might look at you that way on the day when you say it's a problem. Hey if you can hear the words you can't really say it's NG right? If it's truly NG, where you cannot make out the words, THEN I would speak to the most "top" person I could and say their product will not be usable at all, then continue on to record NG tracks! Dan Izen

Wow and wow. George Grove. I cannot imagine having this sort of cooperation across the departments to get a wireless concealed! Humbling. All people recording sound today should read these kinds of articles! Ya-heard me!? Hey Jeff W - how about a new category "Historical Perspectives" or something where one could find all these amazing historical sound threads in one place? "Required Reading For All Sound Technicians" could be another title! Dan Izen

I will chime in here and say that purchasing quality (read: expensive) gear has paid off well for me. If you are serious about a career in sound I would advise you to just take the dive, go into debt, get a loan, borrow from your parents, wife, you get the idea. (Of course I only got out of debt this Summer, but that could have happened sooner if I didn't have my comic-buying lifestyle that I wouldn't compromise on!) I'm surprised no one has mentioned buying used gear from one of the usual suspects, there are often great, fantastic deals on last year's tech. For example you could outfit yourself with two or three Lectro 211s for under $2k I bet - and they sound a LOT better than 195s or Senny G2s, and you get better range. I got a Denecke TS-2b timecode slate (the B-cam slate from that show"Rescue Me") used from Pro Sound for $600. Got the mod to include 23.98FPS from Denecke for under $100, the thing has worked great! I got another tc slate from PSS, a TS-3 and that was like $800 or something. Dan Izen

These pictures are amazing thank you! And wowzers to hear from the esteemed author himself, well it's a privilege to have this dialog. I think this piece, when it is completed, should be compiled into a single publication, like a small press kind of thing; and everyone here should read it! Mr. Smith your efforts are greatly appreciated by me I think your findings should make it into all sound-related film school curriculums! Reading the installments really made me feel like a part of a greater tradition, a movement to get sound to match the moving pictures. And boy am I glad I came in when I did, the digital age is just so much damn easier than optical, Nagra (having only 11 minutes and then having to re-string up another roll!), and DAT... I would DIE if I had a roll out... I'm interested in production vs. ADR sound, or is this going to be discussed in future installments? I realize I'm flaunting my ignorance but is it possible that production sound was used on all those old B & W movies like Casablanca and Singing in the Rain and stuff? I know actors spoke much clearer and projected and most of movies were shot on lots where background noise wasn't a huge problem. Seems like it's possible bu then there's all those 60s movies that seem clearly ADR-ed? Dan Izen

Bob - did I start you on this whole Oleg-speak thing on the PD6 next life thread? It is hilarious and makes me laugh out loud I must admit. I also like that Oleg is such a fanatic and consider his posts pure entertainment with the occasional bit of cool info. I live nowhere near Hollywood so I can't contribute to this discussion other than to say I have also shopped at all of em from afar and none of them gave me any problems. Dan Izen

Okay so I just got to flipping through my issues of the 695 Quarterly (usually I read comics or golden age sci-fi, not periodicals) and got to this series. For those of you have not read this fine publication, this is a series of articles written by Scott D. Smith currently at installment #6, providing an amazing and fact-filled historical narrative regarding sound recording technology as it relates to motion pictures. The people you never heard of who devoted portions of their lives figuring out how to reproduce sound. HOLY CRAPTATORS! WHATTA GREAT READ! I had no idea what a hassle the whole optical sound process was, not even an inkling really. My first sound recording gigs were during the last days of DATs, I didn't even get to use a 1/4" Nagra. (I do have a Tascam 38 1/2" reel deck for music recording so I had an idea of what a hassle reel recoding could be, but no clue how y'all did on set.) I use a digital deck and from the little I know about the post process it's all pretty easy now. In fact it's a cakewalk compared to the whole optical sound thing. I only have installments #3 and up, but thanks to modern marvelous tech we can all go here and catch up: http://www.695.com/html/magazine.html I know 1927's Jazz Singer was the talkie that changed the whole movie thing, but does anyone know when actual production sound became the standard? Isn't it true that for a long time after talkies all dialog was ADR-ed? Dan Izen

Hey Paul - if I understand correctly, the sticky side is facing out which would put the air towards the chest, have you found a difference in sound versus a lav placed with the air facing out? I once had my utility cut a tiny hole in a sticky, pop just the COS11 head through, and then put the overcover towards the chest, and it was a very good sounding rig. I feel this whole topic depends heavily on how conductive the fabric is. If it's a bare hairy chest against some loud starchy fabric I find the lav picks up noise from simply from the hair rubbing against the shirt not against the lav. Usually only when they swing their arms up or walk briskly, but it's still NG... Only save is for them to wear some kind of undershirt. On a quiet shirt we had amazingly natural and "non-lavvy" sound from straight up transpore in the center of the chest right on the hair! Every day when the actor would de-rig he'd go "Ah!" and laugh, and we had wonderful sound each day... Dan Izen

Working with another famous Justin (JT to his fans) he commented on some promo contest where fans had to have their hands on a truck longer than the others in order to get front row seats (like the doc Hands on a Hardbody [which always reminded me of Stephen King's story "The Long Walk"]): "People are so STUPID!" I guess his childhood is long behind him... Dan Izen

Hey dude can you make me a 4-pin XLR cable that goes from 12-volt M and ends up 9-volt F? I would love that for my new UHF tuner box! ha ha But seriously, that is amazing that box you made, it looks super pro with the lights and switches. Can you tell I have no clue how to do this shit? Man I need to take some electronics course somewhere... Dan Izen

Just wanted to give an update - I did end up getting the Sony XTV8 tuner from ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380174919511&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT) and it works! This thing is pretty darn small, about the size of a 744 but thinner. It fit great velcro-ed vertically on one the side of the rack case. It comes with all this unnecessary crap, extra cables and a filter box - all of which I cut off and just left the video out, the hot and the ground. Connected the hot & ground wires to a 4-pin coming off the Powermax Ultra @ 12 volts (even though the power spec said 9-volt), connected a sharkfin to the coax out and voila, received the modulus. I only tested it for a few minutes and it did get hot, perhaps because of the 12 volt thing. I'm hoping it just runs hot and won't overheat when I leave it on for a while in the Louisiana Summer (which lasts til October!). The shipping was more than the unit but it was still way less than anything else I could find. I got a couple in case I can't find another one since they're only $10 + $13 shipping... It looks like it's from the 80s, the metal is tarnished out of the box but the unit itself is fine! Dan Izen

Congrats for sure! I don't want to start shit but I heard there was a super hack mixer who had every line ADR-ed, but the post team was so good the show won an award for sound (I don't know if it was an Emmy) and the hack mixer got the award! Could this really happen? Dan Izen

Seems like it would be supercool but the link don't work! This kind of thing is awesome though, just the thought of it. I once heard an audio recording on WZBC college radio where these dudes used this weird super sensitive mics to record insects in the ground. It sounded like cool experimental music! Maybe these are the same dudes? There was a whole section where they explained what they used and how it worked and it was cool to hear them talk about it. Dan Izen

Ok so I recently purchased a pair of MK21 capsules and CMR cables to use for car scenes. (it's a collette to TA5 - http://www.schoeps.de/en/products/cmr). I used one with an SMQVa tx and it sounded weird. Boxy and phasey and with a distinct hiss, similar to a mis-wired lav on a servo bias tx. We tested it and found that if the antenna was touching the cable the hiss appeared (it wasn't quiet enough on set to hear if it sounded boxy also). However if the cable was held a certain way the capsule sounded wonderful. Sucks because I wanted to use the rig as a compact Schoeps plant, but now I'm gonna have to worry about proper position of the freakin cable? Reading, the USA Schoeps dealer has never heard of this issue. Apparently hardly anyone in the US has these cables. I feel like it's a power thing. The tx was set to 1/4 watt, so perhaps that was the culprit I haven't had any downtime to properly test it again at 100mw. Has anyone else had this happen or have any insight? Perhaps there's a better wiring for servo bias txs? Thanks, Dan Izen

This thread is cool; I love reading people's opinions here. Here's mine: As an "incentive state" mixer I don't mind at all when I lose a job to a more qualified, more experienced mixer. (Hacks are another story of which there are several in my area.) I understand I have to pay my dues and I am glad to! For the record I do completely support myself by recording sound and have for over 7 years, but then again I don't have a nice house and nice furniture to brag about. I love that RVD works for cheap and has a good attitude about it (we've had this discussion before here), and I am also someone who supports GOOD people who want to tell a story in film. What I mean is I will gladly work for free or cheap on a good project if I can afford it, and if the producer makes it through MY interview of them and how they are going to shoot their project. (I often demand a full explanation of locations and schedule and judge for myself if the show is worth it and I've gotten pretty good at spotting the "morons" and avoiding shitshows.) I wish I weren't so busy these days and could help some of my pals here for free. Right now my main boom op Betsy is taking a full week off the "real" movie I'm mixing to work on a micro budget feature that she's mixing if you can believe that! She believes in it and to be honest I do too and if I weren't working I woulda done it for free. Someday I may need favors too! Dan Izen

Wow thanks! This tuner looks like The One. I was in a time pinch and I ended up just getting a $79 3.5" Radio Shack monitor that runs off 4x AAs with its own tuner. Super small and light I velcro it to the rack in place of the Marshalls. Doesn't have an EXT antenna in tho- Found the ones Robert's talking about on ebay for $9.99 and I might "take the plunge." Thank you AlphaFlyingMonkey this looks like just what I was looking for and at a fraction of the price I was thinking it would be! That huge 1041 does looks cool but it's a bit large to fit into my space-deprived rack... Dan Izen

Yes but alas I have no electronics background and no idea how to assemble the cable you speak of - is it easy? Is there some layman's electronics website that has instructions that don't look like alien language? I can soldier good enough, and I even did a resistor in a couple TA5s that are still working! I do have a little standalone 3.5" monitor that has an antenna so I can use that whilst I figure out this tuner business. Dan Izen

Apologies if this has been recently discussed, but I'm looking for a tuner to receive standard def modulus video. I've got an external antenna that receives UHF, so I just need a small 12-volt tuner. In my searches I came across the beastly Sony TU-1041U (way too big), and the cheap and small Boss BV TS4 (has mixed reviews). The Boss is cheap enough to try out, but takes 7.5 volts so I'd always have to be plugged into power in order to use the wall wart. (Or I could spend $200 and get a juicer from Remote Audio I know!) Just checking to see if there was a model out there that everyone uses. I don't care so much about resolution or HD or digital or any of that, 480 res is fine. I know if I got different monitors I could get some with tuners, but I prefer my little 2RU 3-banger Marshall (even if it doesn't look so crispy). Thanks! Dan Izen

At the risk of being inflammatory - where the fuck is a Sennheiser rep on this group?!! Dan Izen

I love this, another unanswerable (but not at all stupid!) question with no real answer. The episodic tv series "Memphis Beat" I just did, 10 episodes, used 99.9% production sound, EXCEPT for a bunch of "added dialog" lines. (These would be lines of dialog that had to be inserted to explain stuff the editors weren't able to explain otherwise, to be used mostly off-screen or when the head was turned away from camera) The .01% was a single line of true ADR that was necessary due to background noise. Yay! Incredible. But then again there's tons of sappy bknd music to cover little things like background noises and fabric noise. And I must admit when I saw the final product I heard some less-than-perfect sound; not unusable but not great, like a buried tie mic or a muddy lav that I had no other choice. (This reminds me that I have to call them up and have a chat about it all!) One thing they didn't do which I was so bummed about, was for the music performances I had PB coming out of speakers and over the boom mic that shit sounded really cool and live even though it was tape, but then for the final scenes they just dropped in the PB track and it sounds like a totally canned recording. It woulda been GREAT and live sounding if they'd used my production track, or even just added some echo chamber stuff. It's tv so I think their schedule didn't allow them to really properly post the dialog. I think they easily could have made it all perfect if they had a few weeks of intense dialog editing (taking single words or syllables from other takes, EQ-ing lavs to match booms 'n shit). But whatever, I'm outta debt and back in featureland... Dan Izen

This is a very delicate discussion to have publicly but I applaud your boldness! These companies should be held accountable and it should be public when they screw over a loyal customer. Way I see it you've tested the matched pair before the warranty expired and found a defective matched pair. Whoever sold them to you (hopefully a "usual suspect") should take them back as damaged and replace them with the same exact models. If this is impossible and you're forced to deal with the company directly, well you may be screwed. Keep asking to speak to a supervisor, then their supervisor, and explain your case. Include the same info you put in your first post, and you might also want to mention projects you're working on. People do listen - I recently had a triumph where the company went from 3 - 5 weeks and $460 charge, to a free loaner for 6 weeks and a $60 charge. He'd seen a commercial for the stupid show I was working on and got friendly after that; you know, maybe you're working with some actor that this supervisor loves or something. Squeaky wheel gets the grease! Dan Izen

I just got one of these and it's cool for indoors but I'm looking for something for higher wind. Considering the basket with the double pop filter, the B20S. Anyone use that outdoors in gusty conditions? Or what about in a car with open windows? The baby ball gag is way too big for the rigging I want to do in cars... Or also the W20 or W20R1, but those look as large as the baby ball gag. That case is awesome! Gonna get one... Dan Izen P.S. you can check out these windscreens here: http://www.schoeps.de/en/products/categories/bascet_screen