David Terry

1.The original Waffle House is in Avondale Estates (East Atlanta). 2. My college friend Allison had no problem paying tuition. Her dad owned those Waffle Houses... 3. (on a job) Julio Jones told me that his nickname is Waffle House. I did not get it... Matt Ryan saw the puzzlement on my face and explained "He's always open." 4. In the Waffle House scene in "Due Date", Jonathan Fuh boomed Downey, and I boomed Galifianakis. The poles were so short we could have used hand mics.

Has anyone posted photos of the back sides of Deva 32 and Oasis?

I threw my Cameo mixer into the dumpster last year. (It died in 2009) There were no repair parts from Zaxcom. I hope that the Fusion12 Mix 12 combination that I now use and like will not end up in the dumpster when they require a new board. A recorder should last more than 10 years.

Glen, Welcome to Atlanta. Given the great service I've gotten from Nashville with 1 day UPS ground, I've considered Trew my neighborhood sound shop for years. I hope you'll locate in town where the cool kids live.

I got my first PC in 1988, and bought my first Mac two years ago just to run Metacorder. I liked the iBook so much that I ended up using it for everything and ignoring my PCs on the network at home. I just liked the iBook better. Go figure. Last month I bought a 24 inch iMac and this morning I bought a Mac Book for my sister. (I wish I had a brother like myself :>) I still have not figured out why I so prefer the Macs. To some degree it is fit and finish. I know that I was never so well organized in PC land as I seem to be today. My data backups, syncing between machines, and keeping track of stuff just works better now. I'm a command line type of guy who can't quite figure out how I got converted. David Terry

And there is the Spars Timecode book: http://www.spars.com/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=69 -David Terry

Philip, I sent you a private message describing some of the production problems. I don't wish to embarrass the folks who sign my checks while seeking solutions to problems that I hope are temporary. I have seen the new Phonaks, and the DP nixed them. It looks like our post department is going to fly in a Laugh Box person from LA to improve our laugh track in post. I am doing everything that I can to persuade my director to stop using the laugh files on the PA. I am curious if there are portable ADR specialist. We might need someone like that to fly in and loop several episodes. David

Phillip, I am familiar with these earbugs. They were deemed too visible for our shoot. David

Phillip, I am hoping that the actors will object and that the director will then stop spoiling the production sound track. Some of our post folks are part of the problem. The avid folks are playing rough cuts to the director in very noisy rooms and not pointing out how bad the tracks are. Intimidation. The producers do not want to cross the director either. The editors are present at the ADR session and watch the takes as we lay them down. Granted there is no way for them to check playback to see if the takes are dead on. Don't the ear-bugs have small antennae? We have several nearly shaved-headed actors. We only are shooting 720P, but the antennae would be all too visible. Thanks, David

Our Avid folks create the picture tapes that have countdown beeps. The clip repeats several times. The beeps are not in any particular tempo as one might expect on music playback. I'm not sure what the best practice is... David T.

Jeff, I use Metacorder and will check out ADR Studio. Our sound crew generally averages a 8 hour day on a contract for a guaranteed 12. Also we often have one or two dark days per week that I would like to fill since I have three good boom ops who planned on 5 day weeks that all too often have become 3 day weeks. However, my primary concern is not to increase our work days, but to fix my production sound track. I'm on a sitcom that should have 98% useable audio, yet MOST of our tracks are being spoiled by a tool that the director feels that he needs. Yikes! Hence the query about proper ADR. Much thanks, David

Could someone please describe how first rate ADR setups operate? How do I say this without a two-page tirade? The show that I’m on has numerous sound issues. The director’s latest idea will cause most of the lines to be looped. The show is a sitcom on sound stage where director plays laugh track from sampler over the PA-- loudly. (He thinks this helps the actors…) It seems to me that my poor-man’s looping setup will not be able to keep up with the large amount of looping that will soon be required. Our system is primitive. Post makes tapes with the three o duplicate clips of the take that we need to loop. We play the clip back from a tape deck in the control room, the actor on the stage watches the clip on a monitor, and hears the audio from the videotape via a Comtek. I record the new track and the old track (Metacorder) and send the DVD to post with appropriate logs. The looping setup that I have here seems OK for looping the occasional line that we missed due to wide shots, but not for replacing entire episodes. I have no idea how much time is should take to loop say, 20 minutes of each show. There is a house in Atlanta that does ADR and I would prefer to send this huge amount of work to them and get it off my plate. I am curious how the pros do ADR and how much more efficient the big boys are than my home made system. What I am hoping is that the studio here that does ADR will have a quality “Hollywood” workflow. The catch is that thus far, I don’t know what quality ADR is. Thanks, David Terry

My old preference was to be far enough away from the set that tape delay was not a problem, but close enough for one section of boom cable and RF mics to be easily within range. (Around 80 feet.) Tape delay is a thing of the past, yet I still prefer to be a room or two away. Success is not having to move all day, away from crew traffic (not in their way), and far from the endless chatter of V village. The cart has a small footprint, yet is densely packed. This has been a bad year for cart parking. The closet (some call it a control room) that I have been working in since February is 250 feet of boom cable away from the stage (times three booms). My room is right by the street and the walls so thin that I can hear what folks are playing on their car stereos. The TD is so loud that I must use Trew Audio High Noise headphones. I added a third monitor to my cart. (so that I can always see at least one ultra wide shot) It took several episodes before I could get a spy cam so that I could see the booms. (Sitcom, almost no rehearsals, tons of adlibs) The producer fought me for weeks about the spy cam (under $400). He said, “The mixer was showing off and trying to do things a certain way only because Hollywood guys do it that way” They still do not understand that their show has a when the mixer can neither see nor hear. The 2007 version of Production 101 is to put sound anywhere (“nowhere “is preferable) and then ask the impossible:) I’ve a few days off from the sitcom but just turned down a shoot because during the last commercial I worked for that company, I could not bring my cart inside the restaurant where they were shooting. No boom op, difficult to hear cues, or director’s constant changes, six person camera department, sound on every take, “The director needs to hear the fizz in the soda when it is poured—on wide shots” at least 12 different folks speaking during the day, 15 headsets, adlibs, they wanted to roll 20 minutes after my call time, G & E had been there for hours. David Terry

(Jeff, I tried to post this earlier and somehow the message did not seem to upload. Hopefully the message will not appear twice.) Some of you may recall that my entire (uninsured) sound package was stolen last August. This morning 99% of that gear is spread out on my living room floor. It may be a while before I can comment about details of how the prodigal package returned to its home, but I will post that info as soon I can. I keep thinking of so many people within our sound community who have been supportive during the past few months. Much of the support originated in Jeff's site. I will write more on that topic soon, but for now I repeat my deep appreciation of the good will that has come my way. The stolen package sits by the new replacement gear. It's a beautiful, messy pile of stuff. Time to sort and clean, before today's call at noon. There are some enviable problems to solve…like can anyone get me on a bunch of commercials where I can rent 28 client headsets? To say that I’m euphoric is to understate the case. Best wishes to all, David Terry

And I thought that it was just the Atlanta crews that had developed lousy set manners. I don't recall other threads here or on RAMPS about rude crews making noise. I don't know whether to be happy that I am not alone, or saddened that the problem is industry wide. Our crews do everything that you can imagine. Hair and makeup, when they come to set have to talk during the takes. They are not as loud as G & E. Video village is a party. Over the years I have damaged my ears, turning up the headphones so that I can identify who is the worst offender. My ears will never recover. Now I keep the headphone level down but politely let folks know that my gear is so clean and has so much dynamic range, that everyone who makes the slightest sound is guaranteed to be recorded. David Terry