conleec

A few weeks ago I was in the market for a bag for my MixPre 3 recorder, and I ultimately decided upon the K-Tek Mix Pro bag as it was a perfect fit and it still had room to accommodate a USB-C battery brick as well.

Next I needed some sort of hard case to store my gear when not in use, and I just wanted to share a few pics of my new Condition 1 hard case. I don't work for them, and have no financial interest whatsoever with them, but I am pretty impressed by the quality of this US made case. It's even more impressive when you realize it's only $80. This is the 20 inch "large" case, and I was able to configure it for:

Rycote Mic Handle

MixPre 3 w/USB-C Battery

Rycote Softy

Mini Pelican SD Card Case

USB SD Card Reader

Audio Technica BP4025 Stereo Mic w/Wind Muff

Sennheiser MKH 8060 Shotgun Mic

Sennheiser HD25 Headphones

And the requisite mic cables

Not bad for $80. 

Just thought I'd share, in case anybody was looking for something similar.

8 hours ago, TVPostSound said:

You know the maker read Sound Devices Tech Notes!!

 

Port Brace didn't, hence why Im selling it here!! (Porta Brace bag)

You know that's right. I sold my Porta Brace bag too.

Can it fit upside down? The USB-C connector can go in either way, no? 

Okay, well I went to Location Sound in Los Angeles, and took my gear along with me. Ultimately the very best bag for me was the K-Tek MixPro bag. My gear fit like a glove. The pouch on the front won't really hold my Sennheiser HD-25 headphones, but I can sort of stuff the cans in and close the zippers down around it to keep it in place. Works like a treat. 

Now the only problem is that I had previously purchased a K-Tek Stingray Junior bag, which is too big. If anybody is interested in THAT bag, I've currently got it listed on eBay here.

8 hours ago, OnTheSoundSideOfLife said:

You should check out the bags from Kortwich. They look really good imo.

 

http://www.bagsfromgermany.com/de/bag-for-sound-devices1/mixpre-3-6-10

 

I would ask them if they could add an elastic sleeve on the front of the simple bag version, so you could slide in your battery. If it rains, the rain cover just goes on top of that.

 

http://www.bagsfromgermany.com/de/bag-for-sound-devices-mixpre-10t-variante-2

 

Edit: By elastic sleeves, I mean the ones you can see in this bag. But in the length of your battery.

 

http://www.bagsfromgermany.com/de/bag-for-sd-664-688-with-red-inside

 

 

Wow, those really do look good. I'm going to go to Location Sound with my gear and see what they might have too.

Yeah, I've been looking at that bag online. Looks right, but I haven't been able to find internal dimensions listed. I'm a little worried about the battery brick...

Interesting. I see that Location Sound has OR270s in store; I might try to swing by during lunch and take a look at it.

I'm wondering if maybe I should look at a smaller USB battery brick, too? The one I'me using is wonderful, but it's so tall or wide, that is extends well past the edges of the MixPre3. Any recommendations there?

6 hours ago, allistair said:

It's always a trade-off between compactness and room for accessories obviously, but I'd look at the K-Tek Mix Pro bag and the Orca OR-270 on the smaller end. The Sachtler and the OR-27 are both good choices as well though. I always find I need to go to Gotham Sound to check out any bag before I buy it to get a feel for it.

Yeah, I wish there was a place like Gotham in Los Angeles to demo all the bags. I'm driving myself crazy trying to come up with the perfect solution by internet research alone.

2 hours ago, MondoBurger said:

If you just need something simple to keep the mixer and battery snug, the Ktek Airo case does the trick, travels in a backpack, and is dirt cheap. You would just have to hang your headphones off the outside of it.

The Airo Case worries me. While it looks almost perfect, my kit is nearly 4 inches thick, with the rechargeable brick, and the specs say the bag is only 2.8 inches deep. Is it flexible enough to accommodate something slightly thicker?

Hello All,

I've got a MixPre3 with an external rechargeable battery that I connect via USB-C. I'm looking for a small field recorder bag to organize the gear and a set of Sennheiser HD-25 headphones. Does anybody have a similar setup, and what bag would your recommend? I use the recorder for field recording of sound effects and ambiences, not production work, btw. All personal stuff.

I've been looking at options online, and it SEEMS like the best two options for my particular setup might be the Sachtler Small, or the Orca-27.

I've attached the battery to the back/bottom of the recorder with Velcro, and it's almost 4 inches, stacked. You can sort of see it in the attached image.

Any thoughts? Thanks a million in advance.

Chris

Wow. Great interview. And I didn't think Neil Young seemed that far out there at all, actually. I totally got his analogy about pushing as far as you want into analog and always having something new to explore, whereas in digital, once you've gotten to the individual sample, you're done. There ain't no more. Both visual AND aural. Very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing!

It's pretty common workflow, at least with Media Composer, to only cut with a single mix track. The subsequent AAF, when imported to Pro Tools, can be expanded to include all the available tracks, so long as proper metadata was captured and maintained through the process.

Yeah, I've worked with directors who will move heaven and earth to use the production track, if at all possible. We all know, ADR is hard to get right, especially when it's emotional and the performances are really good.

I've used Melda's Dynamic EQ to do this. It has a matching feature, and I use it to help get ADR in the pocket.

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MAutoDynamicEq

The issue with opening up to 2.8 is that you'd have much shallower depth of field, which you may or may not want. Some people like the look, but it's a creative choice, like anything else.

Yes of course. But as I mentioned, it was all the light we had, and I really had no choice under the circumstances if I wanted a balanced exposure (which I foolishly assumed the prior DP had done as well). I don't know what those kids had learned in film school, but it wasn't what I learned, I can tell you that.

Chris

I don't claim to know everything, gosh if I did I be resting on my own island somewhere. Anyway I just finished up

9 days with a couple of so called film school people. Shooting with 2 exact cameras , AF 100, I have done my fair share of shooting and make it a habit of getting the camera manual on my IPad before the shoot.Listening to their conversations I was curious why they were having such big discussions and differences with their fstops.

I look at cam A's screen and see a ISO of 400 with a ND 2 on, on cam B I see a ISO of 1600 with ND#2 on. Both cameras were on tripods and the OIS is engaged on both cameras.

That reminds me of a similar experience years ago. I was asked to fill in as DP on a small feature for a single day, because the regular DP was off doing something else. We were doing a breakfast scene in a rented trailer in a parking lot somewhere and we had only a few lights and a consumer generator with some stingers run in from 50 yards away or so. Not a lot of light, but I opened things up and was confident it would look nice (shooting film, btw). The director asked what F-stop I was using and I told him 2.8. He cringed and said something to the effect of: "Our DP always shoots at 5.6."

I shrugged and said, well, with the amount of light I have, we need to shoot at 2.8. He didn't seem confident, but we did it anyway. Well, long story short, I should have listened to what he was saying because when I saw the finished film I realized that the DP had indeed shined light directly on faces to get a 5.6 reading, but the backgrounds had all fallen to nearly complete darkness, whereas my scene was properly and evenly exposed. I'm not saying I'm Haskell Wexler or anthing, but compared to the other guy's footage, well...

The director asked me what happened, and surprisingly I had to explain to him that a piece of film of a given sensitivity requires x amount of light to be properly exposed. If you have more light, you have to close down the iris, if you have less light, you have to open up the iris. In either case, the same amount of light is hitting the film and exposing it. Of course other physical changes occur depending on the size of your iris, etc, but the principle of exposure seemed to elude him (and the DP too, seemingly).

Another head scratcher.

Flux HEar is a plugin which does a credible job of presenting surround sound in stereo headphones. It was recently upgraded to AAX 64bit too, so it works great in PT11.

Chris Conlee

Hello Everybody,

The good folks at reseller Don't Crack Software are raising money to help Bernie Torelli, Grammy Nominated engineer and plugin developer, who has been diagnosed with cancer. They're offering his excellent plugins at a HUGE discount and sending the money to help pay his medical expenses. I picked up his Magnetics bundle and it's really, really good.

http://forums.dontcrack.com/index.php?showtopic=142219

Chris Conlee

Now the question is does Avid expect audio manufacturers to fit around them, or will they change their code to accommodate more recording devices? Obviously it should be the latter, but all we can do is raise the profile of the problem in their forums and make them realise that it is a real problem which needs to be solved. 

While I would like to get this resolved too, I'm not exactly sure how we can jump to the conclusion that "obviously" it's an Avid problem. Near as I can tell, Avid predates these digital recorders and given that Zaxcom is the only brand with issues, perhaps, in fact, it's Zaxcom's problem to fix. I'm just glad it seems there's a dialog going on between the two companies now.

Chris

I think what avid is doing is the grittiest, meanest and darkest side of capitalism. And it makes me sick. I hope adobe and final cut get their 5hit together to open up the market. And every other software maker of course.

This kind of comment annoys me, sorry. You do realize that "capitalism" is the driving force behind the innovation we all love, correct? Even your own comment negates itself: Adobe and Apple wouldn't get their "5hit together" and offer us a competing product with features we wanted unless they could make money at it. They're not in the business for charity. Do you charge for the work you do? Just curious.

Regarding PT11, I'm looking forward to upgrading my CPTK to 11HD as soon as it's released. Looks like a nice upgrade with new functionality that I can use today.

Chris

Mark gives good advice above! Sadly, often the rule in de bidness is: give the client what you want, especially if they can't afford the time or money to do it better. All that's expected is for you to do the best you can under the circumstances.

It is a vicious circle though: in a perfect world you want your current work to be of sufficient quality to help you ascend to the next level. That said, Mark and Marc are right. Get the job done, make the client happy, and keep looking for an opportunity to leap to the next rung.

Chris

Having never used Avid MC, is it worth 4 times the price of Premiere Pro?

Absolutely. Every last cent.

Media Composer is a different beast, but it covers all the required bases for broadcast and motion picture editing. No surprises. Full support for dual system sound. Proper ability to turn over audio to sound. Full EDL and film cut list generation. EXCELLENT shared project workflow with Unity. And once you get used to it, it's simply the fastest editor out there.

I was an NDA'd user of Premier Pro CS6 and there's a lot to like. But when it came to deliverables for a feature film, it wasn't ready for prime time. At least not in the sense that most folks in Hollywood would find acceptable. It couldn't do a proper AAF export of a dual system show, for instance. These are things I'm sure Adobe is working on, but as of right now, for certain things it's just not there.

Having said that, if those are things you're not interested in, or don't need, then it becomes harder to justify the price difference.

Chris

Well, back to the OP's original question: Tracktion 4 has just been announced an NAMM. For those looking to get started, it's a pretty cool app. Completely revamped for modern OSs. And at $60 for a full license, you're not going to get hurt too bad if you decide that audio mixing isn't your bag.

http://www.tracktion.com/

Chris

Loving mine that I purchased for $500. And I thought that I did good. $300 is definitely a steal.

Chris

Well, I bought my wife a nice new hi-tech Singer sewing machine, which she's loving, and I bought myself a matched pair of Beyerdynamic MC930 mics for stereo field recording. We're both having fun with our respective new toys.

Chris

I would really appreciate some feedback from those principally concerned with good audio as to what you want.

What we have in mind is:---

a) Analyse any difference between a previously done AAT conv to any of the dest formats we can do & a new revised conversion to the same destination format.

move prev content & add new content to match changes.

John L

Hey John,

As a picture editor who dabbles in post audio as well, this sounds like a FANTASTIC solution. Anything that helps take a prior session and conform it to a changed session would be TREMENDOUSLY useful, and you could count me among your early supporters. Particularly if your price is as reasonable as your translation tool! Awesome and thanks for your consideration!

Chris Conlee

Just an FYI, most changed sessions (fresh from picture editorial) wouldn't have as many tracks and wouldn't have the same audio many times, because the post audio guys will likely have added to the session and may have even matched back to the original field recorder's audio files. Presumably you've got a strategy for dealing with that?