guntis

Thanks everyone, The shoot is going well here in tokyo and ive used block 24 and now block 27, neither of which are perfect but scraping through. Of course technically the wires are illegal but in the end there is little choice, the local wireless systems are not worth the effort it seems. Strange situation for a country which makes quite a lot of films. There doesnt seem to be any governing film body, so maybe thats part of the explanation.

I use it a lot, but i bought the Alesis I dock to put it in, which has all sorts of outputs. Makes it easy, just about anybapp will play fine this way.

Hi wveryone and thanks for all your posts. Honestly i was looking for anecdotal evidence from soundies who had worked in japan, because after extensive research i was still a little nervous about what might happen when i push the faders up in tokyo on day one. We do have people on the ground but they dont seem very sure of what the situation is either. Little by little though we are getting there. There does seem to be a 10mw output restriction in japan, but my belief is that i can purchase some sort of a special licence to go above and beyond that. Cheers, guntis

Calling all mixers with japan experience, especially with wireless issues. Any information helpful as i head over there with feature film for a few weeks. Especially in regards to wireless frequencies in tokyo, but also interested in general conditions, power issues etc. Appreciate any and all help. Thanks in advance,guntis

I just got onto this thread, a little late but have a shoot comingup with some surfing scenes. Is the WM ready to go yet?

I've been there, admittedly many years ago,but loved the place. people are amazing and far more than i thought spoke english well. I'd be surprised if you had trouble with frequencies as there wouldnt be a lot of activity on the airwaves. Your problems might be mainly with dust and quite likely unreliable power supply, especially if you're out of the city. have fun. guntis

on the subject of 48048, i use the apogee Big Ben as my master clock, mainly because i'm starting to stack up the digital devices. This works like a dream and has the facility to slave the rosetta to 48048.

apart from using the best equipment in terms of bit rates,sample rates, AD conversion etc., which all helps in the end, what you should be listening to is 'intelligibility'.In other words, do you understand what they are saying.I find that sometimes, actually often, a whisper is easier to understand than a low level voice. There are many things that affect intelligibility and only one of them is level . things like reverb time and the accoustics of the place will all affect how things sound and really, because the equation is so complicated and there are so many parameters, only you can judge with your ears. learning how to do this and to trust your judgement takes time and experience and a lot of listening with and without the pictures. The other issue is of course whether the level is going to fit the picture so i often ask for level changes with regard to how i imagine someone would really talk in a given situation rather than asking for more level. on another note, isn't it weird how actor's levels drop as the camera gets closer!

Interesting subject this one and i believe the key to it is other people's perceptions.It's the same with any product and it's called branding. The sooner you can brand yourself as a top line soundie chargeing top line rates, the better. The most difficult road to success is the one paved with deals and counter deals, because each time you do a deal you re brand yourself as something other than what you want to be. I tell young soundies this all the time..start out as you mean to finish, don't compromise and the market will take care of itself. The typical pattern for this is that you will lose those cheaper jobs that want to screw you and you may do it tough for a while, but as your genuine clientele grows and your network begins to recognise your skills and value, you'll pick up speed and overtake others who were happy to do deals. Not only that, but you'll be comfortable with yourself and your career, not bitter and twisted. I think that this issue is common across many fields of endeavour and is how capitalism works for better or for worse. Understanding your intrinsic value and how others perceive that is the most crucial thing you can ever learn...and it's not easy.

I run boomrecorder on a laptop and have put it through hell recently. very high temperatures, dust storms, rain...you name it. It's been running almost perfectly now for 146 long shooting days. Rest easy about the reliability of computer recording, it works. I do agree though , that clocking and timecode need to be done properly and running boomrecorder with a traveler alone is not going to cut it, close, but no cigar!

for what it's worth i have a slightly different system, i have a firewire drive for each day of the week so on Mondays i use the monday drive etc. , create a new folder for the date on it ,at the end of the day that drive goes to editorial and is copied then returned to me for use again. Usually the turnaround is fine unless we are somewhere very remote. As to the filenames, i just ask the editing people what they prefer and do that. I record one polyphonic file and arm tracks as needed, but the first 2 tracks are always for picture edit, i actually call them edit left and edit right.This allows me to do an old fashioned 2 track mix for the picture editor straight out of my mixer's balanced outputs and also means they just load up the first 2 tracks for their use and pass the rest down to sound edit for later. Every channel also goes to it's own ISO track. I agree that the traveler's timecode and clock are perhaps not that great, so my code comes from the 744 (which is also my backup) but my clock comes from a dedicated unit, Big Ben. hope this helps as well. cheers guntis

Thanks Noah, had thought of that but having the traveler is still pretty handy.for example, i sometimes plug my soundfield surround mic straight into the first four inputs of the traveler and also use it's inputs/outputs for playback. as a routing system it's hard to beat.

reading with interest, though somewhat belatedly about the traveler/boomrecorder and other interface questions. i opted to come straight out of the cooper into an apogee rosetta 800 because i sensed that the AD conversion of the traveler wasn't up to scratch. The difference is immediately obvious and the soft limit button is unbelievable. Out of the rosetta i run an optical line to the traveler which is my software interface.I use boomrecorder which is very stable and straightforward. It is important to note though that i also recently added an apogee Big Ben Clock to my system, and again, the difference is audible straight away.