Barton Hewett

Hi, I'm working for a documentary company that is doing a show on Chinese food and they will be requiring me a sound mixer with doc experience for a shoot in San Francisco Oct. 07 -12. Rate is $600.00 a day (which I know is a bit low, but you'll be fed well!). PM me if interested. Thanks, Barton Hewett

This seems like a really good deal! Am I missing something? http://www.trewaudio.com/store/WisyCom-NAB-US-Intro-Special.html

Not in our industry!

I have a Crown on loan from Trew and will test it this week, hopefully. Cheap: $75.00. If it works, I may buy a few more.

We don't have enough wireless to mic all the students, nor the number of inputs in the recorder. I'm going to try either Crown's or the AKG suggested above. Lots of Crown's available on Trew's used list.

but you guys are right - it is difficult. Last night, I was wishing I had a parabolic mic...

Thanks for the replies. The problem I am having is that no matter how much you try to remind them, the Profs forget to repeat the question. The best success was last year when I had to cover a graduate seminar. There were a group of students sitting at a long table with the Prof at one end. I could get the student's who were close to the Prof off his COS-11; for the students at the other end of that table, I planted another COS-11 and most of the audio was usable (surprising how good those little lavs are!). The rooms I am in now are bigger. I am going to give the AKG boundary mic suggested by ramello a try. Thanks, Barton

Hi Rich, In the larger auditorium, we have 4 SM57s set up on stands and it works great but it's not practical in the small classrooms as it interrupts the flow of the class. I tried using a hand held stick mic and having the students pass it around but that didn't work either as what happens in the classrooms is discussion and having to wait for the mic proved a hindrance. To do these recordings, we have to be a transparent as possible; even pointing a shotgun would be too much. So, it's a problem. Anyway, thanks for the input.

I feel silly asking this, but I sometimes work for a college where we record lectures in smallish rooms where the professor is miced (wireless) but the room is not. When students ask questions, they don't get picked up on the wire well enough to use and we have to devote lots of time to re-voicing the questions. I'm wondering if anyone out there can recommend a good inexpensive mic that could be placed on a stand that could pick up the students questions reasonably well. This audio doesn't have to be broadcast quality but legible and usable. This has to be a simple setup as some of the recorders aren't professional sound techs but students with limited training. thanks, Barton

Thanks Greg for the link. Some very useful info there. But if I hadn't posted this, I wouldn't have got such a nice response from Larry. Thanks Larry. You convinced me to keep a few as there have been a few situations in the last year where I have used my cos-11s in situations where I didn't want to (i.e. water). These could work well. Guess I'll get out the soldering iron...

Hey, I just came into a bunch of these. I think they are Lectro lavs (M152s?). I seem to recall using these in my news days and they were adequate at best. Is there any reason to use them or are my set of cos-11, trams, and Countryman c6s going to survive without their addition?

We did a workflow test and it turns out it is a bit tricky if you don't know what you are doing. The Blade defaults to a setting that assumes that you are sending audio via the stereo mini connector on the side of the unit, the analogue input; or at least the unit that we were using did. To make matters worse, it will still read the audio coming in via the SDI cable so you could think that all is good. What one needs to do is access the audio settings (touching the meters in the lower left corner of the screen) and specifically arm the tracks that correspond to what is going into the camera (e.g. CH 1 & 2). It will record 12 tracks if you can supply that but only after specifically arming the individual pairs of tracks. The shoot went well. The only glitch was when the camera guy discovered that he had forgot to put the SSD in the Blade after the first 20 minutes of shooting... Luckily we had it "backed up" on tape!

Thanks for the answer. I do know how to get good audio to the camera, so I'll be OK there. In talking with the producer, she said "We had problems with the audio last time and want to make sure it doesn't happen again" so I'm guessing the last audio guy (not me) screwed something up and the Blade got blamed, if you get my drift. Anyway, I'm off to the rentals store to get a how to on using it which can't hurt. Hopefully more knowledge will mean more work!

Hey, I have an EPK booked next week and they want too use The Blade, an "external hard drive we hook up to the HDX 900 and record to tape and the Blade." Anyone have any experience with this?

NO, I'm not that into working for $15.00 a day...

It's an exceptional book and Rick was an exceptional guy. I still have a boom pole that I bought off him years ago as well as a custom cable he rigged up. He was a true gentleman and one of the finest people I have ever met. Glad you went the distance and got proper permission.

I tried to donate and got an error message when I clicked on the link...

Turns out the 702 is at fault. Had a long talk with tech at Sound Devices and he suggested that I go back to the dealer and try it with a Sound Devices (or not PSC) mixer and I did and the problem persisted. The 702 is being sent back for checking and repair. I'm glad it wasn't the mixer as I really like that Alpha Mix. thanks for your replies everyone!

I have a 702T that I am interfacing with a PSC alpha mix. When I output line level from the mixer into the 702 (with the 702 set to line as well, naturally) I have very little lower adjustment. So, setting the 702 at -20 puts me at just above 0 on the pots on the 702. If I turn the pots all the way down it only brings the signal down to about -25 on the recorder. Now, if I change the mixer/recorder output/input to mic level I have lots of bottom and top and have to attenuate the pots up quite considerably to get to -20. When I record in line/line my recording are, to my mind too thin. When I record in mic/mic the recordings (and the waverforms) are nice and fat. Weird, as I have always used line when interfacing with cameras. I suspect that I am doing something wrong in the set up of the 702 but do not know what it is. Any ideas? Thanks.