graham

I'm not saying this is the case for you, but it is not always errors or technical issues on our side. On a recent show, we had 3 Alexas with sbt boxes on board jammed from a gr2 which also fed timecode to the recorder at 23.987. Continually we would be told of timecode issues off by as much as 8 frames and varying from take to take. No consistent offsets and after manually syncing by slate, there was no drift. After much hair pulling, an assistant editor casually mentioned that sound timecode was set to 30p. I asked for them to re-sync some takes with sound ingested at 23.98. Surprisingly there were no further issues or emails after that...

I know Gotham made one last year. It might be worth a call to Peter or Alex for the wiring schematic. Edit: just re-read and saw its for tomorrow. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful

For power cables specs for the bds, read their website http://www.remoteaudio.com/bds_v4/ Check the zoom specs to make sure it can handle the voltage from the battery. Stick with the zoom? Are you getting what you need with it? If yes, stick with it. If not, determine what's missing for you and your post workflow and find a recorder that would satisfy those needs. What are you missing? It depends on your needs. If it was my project, I would forgo buying the equipment and hire someone who has experience. I've been in bands and have recorded in studios. They are 2 different worlds with different skill sets.

"In the beginning, God SAID..."

Break down the actor's rate into a daily amount and pay that to the crew who must strip down. Actors take themselves to uncomfortable places internally and sometimes physically. Its part of the job. I'm all for making them comfortable and being respectful within limits. I actually don't know how I would respond to this unless I was in this situation.

Is this dialogue with music? Typically in square dance there is a "caller" that directs the dancers

2 things most likely to burn you are input and output routing. Make sure you are recording pre fade and sending post fade. Make sure your pre fade tracks are isolated to the channels(A-H) and you are not recording more than one input per channel. If your new and the equipment is new to you there are to many possible ways to get burnt for any of us to address. Keep it simple. I think auto mix is the icing on the cake at this point and your in for a bellyache as it is. You will also be contending with bleed from the PA system as well as feedback. Get some kind of outboard EQ or a feedback destroyer which will be another challenge if you have never dealt with this before. Keep the speakers away from your discussion panel and keep the volume as low as possible through the PA. I am passingly familiar with doing events like this and if you are new and one manning it, I am sorry for the stress and sphincter tightening you will experience. PS. Get a mixer as others have suggested or at least a cl8. If you leave all the mics open you will have a collasal disaster

I disagree. I do not work for free and will not donate my time to a for profit venture. If they do not have the budget for sound to be part of the scout( after arguing for it), I would do my best in problem locations. If there is an hvac that can not be shut off, so be it.

I would say a solid 50+% comes from other mixers. I always ask a production if they want recommendations if I'm not available. Production appreciates it and sometimes remember and those I recommend do the same for me

Here is an opportunity to learn without even being on set. Humility can be a great eye opener. Think before answering or reacting. You will be part of a team. Sometimes you will work with people whom you despise and you've either got to eat it or quit. Often times, issues stem from poor communication or someone's ego getting in the way. Take a step back and reassess. Johns post, the way I read it in no way disrespected you. In fact, you could learn quite a bit from what he posted. 70% of our job is politics. Who you know, your demeanor and how you relate to others is more important than the quality of your work or how much you know. Your sales pitch of yourself occurs to him like so many others he has received. Take on a different strategy for getting onto sets and you might be more successful. Also, do what you can to not burn bridges( ie your post to John, calling a potential employer rude)

"Newbie" questions often spark great discussions. There's not really a need for a new section. If there was one, however, I'm sure the first post would be "search the forum/ search the web/ contact the manufactures" followed by something about midieval weapons and archers or some such thing.

I find myself being sensitive around criticism for established manufacturers in our market that continue to expand and support their products. Therefore I ask you to please read the following with a grain of salt. Unlike many other branches in electronics and sound, production sound specific brands for film and video have very few customers and among those, there are varying needs. Every year there is a new iPhone or droid device. I don't expect that from niche manufacturers. I expect forethought to possible expansion, reliability and durability. Honestly, I expect my investment to hold its value and seviceability for some time. I've read quite a few posts about X-brand X-model killers. When will X-company come out with a new product that will destroy the competition The first thought that comes to mind is "grow up". These companies do not have the R&D budget of Apple or IBM. They do the best that they can at a given time and thankfully stand behind and support their products. I bought a 442 mixer 7 years ago. It retains close to 2/3 of its value as does my Lectrosonics. My 7 year old car that cost 5 times more is valued for less. They pay attention to our needs and look ahead. I've said this in another thread: if one of these companies annually put out products that drastically devalued previous generations, I would not invest my money in that companies products. I am for innovation. Manufacturers in our market plan to support and upgrade existing products with firmware/ software and occasionally hardware. I salute them for this. With regards to Sound Devices, I know I can rely on them. It's a company called SOUND Devices. Good for them for exploring other options. As a sound mixer, boom operator and utility, the more understanding I have of other departments, the better I am at my job. If anything, I hope they profit enough to invest more into R&D for their sound products.

I thought it would be great to showcase our DIY parts and accessories. I find threads like this tend to inspire and spread knowledge. If you haven't had the opportunity or inclination to post past projects in this forum, please do so, be it power distribution, carts, specialty cables, gear modifications, antenna distribution, etc. I saw one mixer that cut up plastic one liter soda bottles to keep his rycote softies protected. Simple, elegant and effective. I made these for these boxes for my boom ops. I send them full signal and I included a potentiometer to cut the volume to a level that works for them( Wyatt Tuzo was my electronics guru on this project).

Are you listening to playback on your headphones? It's very different through speakers. As for stress and anxiety, I say good. It will help drive home the mistakes/ assumptions you've made about yourself and your work( you could be too critical about yourself or you see where you are lacking). With poor sound due to constraints of location, there's a point where it comes to, it is what it is. See if you can watch/ listen to the dailies.

The folks at Lectrosonics are simply amazing. Congratulations!

I would have liked to. However, taking my kids camping for the first time trumps all else

I've never tried this and would appreciate thoughts from those that have. What about a figure 8? I would think with good placement you'd get both sides even and full.

I'm confused. Your link shows 2 inputs that can be A/B to one output. Isn't that what you want?

It's fairly simple to make an A/B box. I think you'd be better off with the A/B feeding the Mixpre return so you could amplify the sound since camera return can be low sometimes. If you want volume on the box, you'd need an amplifier and power source. Otherwise a potentiometer in line would only be able to lower the volume.

Between the Ladies

I think the "issue" is not the preamp so much as it is the Lectrosonics smartNR. Its designed to eliminate the "hiss" sound. If you want to compare apples(although it would be fuji vs a gala) compare the nomad pre to the wireless system with smartNR off. Although the hiss might get knocked down with the wireless system, the characteristic of the sound is different than hard line. Be sure to calibrate your levels while testing so your ear doesn't get fooled by different amplitudes

I used to use the vt506. Sounded similar to a tram from what I remember( more of a "closed" sound than a sanken). It's durable and the cable is thinner. Depending how you mount lavs it's a little different. It has a rectangular head and a round opening on one side and no opening near the top like trams have

You can contact Geffel directly and let them know you'd like to demo the m210. They will put you in touch with a distributor. Basically you buy the mic and have a month to decide if you want to keep it or return it for full refund.

I had one and thought it was decent. It had a lot of low end. I ended up selling it and got mkh435 which is similar, without the abundance of low end. The 435 is cardioid as well and sounds similar to a 416 from what I remember. I haven't taken them out in a few years. Also they have tuchel connectors. I don't recall them having more self noise than a 416

For all you that seem so let down in Sound Devices, what viable innovative and new ideas do you have for them? What is their current line missing that you need so bad? What's the dealmaker, game changer, competition killer in a box that would make you so great that you would win all those shiny gold stars from production and your peers. Would you prefer them to come out with a new product every year to improve upon and replace last years model? Frankly, i'd be a bit disappointed if they did. I would take that to mean a product that wasn't properly beta tested and thought out. Beta tested? Who needs that? Crank out any old box, make a bunch of promises you cant deliver and burn your customer base. Perhaps some of you who have been in the game longer can tell us how many overhauls the Nagra had since its inception(over how many years before non linear). I bought Lectrosonics SMA transmitters and 411a receivers in 2004. 8 years later, they are still being used and stand up to the current product line(as you know, the 411a is still the current model). Metric Halo put out the 2882 in 2001 that is totally upgradeable to be current with todays model and technology. These are just 2 examples of many well planned out products. If sound devices put out a recorder every year or every other year, I'd quite honestly be upset that my $XXX investment is now valued at $X. I could understand being let down that there's no new toy, but bagging on a company that's taken care of many of us for so long is obnoxious and immature. Maybe next year we can all flame Zaxcom if they don't come out with Nomad v2.0. Let's flame them now because they don't offer a 5 channel version.