ebranting

I'd like to put in a big plug for this app - its a really fantastic time (and paper) saver! Kudos on a great design!

Ah fantastic! You mentioned there was a piece of mesh between the back of the bag and the belly o' the soundie that *might* be strong enough to support a waistbelt; what if you replaced this mesh with a stiff fabric and sandwiched/sewed the waistbelt in there? It sounds like that would be a fairly easy mod, if not on a mass-produced scale then as something that us waistbelt aficionados could do ourselves. Either way, I'm buying one of your bags for sure, sir. Eric Branting

Great looking design; I can't wait to get my hands on one! Are you considering adding a waistbelt option at all? I use a waistbelt, no shoulder harness, and its the only way I can comfortably wear a bag for long periods of time. Maybe as an option? Kortwich has a great waistbelt design, but you've definitely got them beat on the bag! If only there were some way to combine...

Great stories everyone! Its so awesome to hear about and think back on these kinds of pivotal moments in our careers. I have a few moments like this, as I'm sure we all do, but first and foremost interning at Pro-Sound in NYC was a complete eye-opener. I had been working freebie craigslist jobs to gain experience (with a friend's gear consisting of an FR2 and some G3s) and essentially reinventing the wheel about how to do location sound! Being around all the experienced pros who come in and out of Pro-Sound, as well as the super knowledgable PSS crew changed my perspective entirely and made me realize the "right" way of doing a lot of things! My second moment was the first film I boomed, under a great boom op named Guillermo Pena Tapia, himself a boom op who went union immediately after the film wrapped. I thought I knew how to boom, and Guillermo kicked my ass and disabused me of that notion to put it mildly! After almost every take he would shake his head and tell me he heard handling noise, or I was off axis, or missing lines. He really had to hold my hand through basic booming technique, and after the film wrapped I continued to grow as a boom op because I knew what I needed to work on and had developed the ears to hear correct booming! So from a purely technical standpoint, I am the soundie I am today because of his patience and instruction. He taught me something even more important than booming technique though, which was a sense of my own limitations and humility. I thought I knew what I was doing when we first started working together, and I had an attitude about his criticisms because I thought he didn't know what he was talking about. But as the shoot progressed, I started listening, respecting what he was saying, and really trying. I started out arrogant and slow, and he kicked that right out of me! Taught me to hustle, to respect the hierarchy, and so so much more about narrative film sets. The last scene of the film was very tough for me, and involved I believe 5 actors and a dolly move. Needless to say I did NOT nail it and he told me after it was over that, FYI, that was a very easy scene to boom. Obviously that's pretty discouraging to hear, but I needed to hear it to know what to aspire to! Fast forward, Guillermo hooked me up with my first low-low-budget feature, and got my started on the narrative path. When I got my first feature that actually let me bring on a (fairly green) boom op, I was able to direct him because of what I learned through my experiences being put through the wringer. A few years later, that boom op is absolutely killer, and always my first call. He has also told me multiple times that I am the pickiest/most exacting mixer he works with :-) Sorry for the long story, but you really can't overstate how much a guiding hand helps out young guys and gals at the beginning of their careers! I never worked with Guillermo again, but I'm forever grateful for the ass kicking he delivered to me on that movie!

Please please please include a physical pan switch! Or, like Greg said, allow the faders to control pan!

I'm just starting on this whole process, with Bill's help. Thanks, Jeff, for making the whole process far easier and less painful! And Bill is extremely helpful - his services are worth more than he charges!

+1 to this! I'm relatively new at mixing narrative (versus recording and delivering ISOs), but the last film I did I had some great success mixing lav & boom together when both were on the same character. By no means did I have them both open all the way! I can remember a few scenarios when we were on tight shots where the actor would go from a normal speaking voice to a whisper; the normal speaking voice was captured with boom and just a hint of lav (-20dB down or more) but when he started whispering I bumped the lav up significantly. Since his tonal quality changed it helped to make the transition from boom to lav pretty smooth. I didn't find phasing to be an issue with this kind of thing either. Unless they tell you not to deliver a mix, or they are demanding you do 800 things at once, why not give as solid a mix as possible?

Still no physical switches for changing panning eh? This is my biggest complaint with using the Nomad for ENG/reality work