Frogpole

In the 80's I did the sound for a Nat Geo film called "Air Boss". We were on the JFK in the Med for about a week using film and Nagra. Picture was no problem, but sound was tough. I used VHF Microns wireless and Schoeps with various capsules. Everything had to be wrapped in tin foil all the time. However, there was a spot on the ship near the Navy's video camera that is shielded pretty well from the Aegis radar sweeps. Since every take-off and landing is taped by the Navy, I could get clean ambient near their video nest. On today's ship....who knows where it is. I had a wire on the Air Boss in the tower which worked pretty well except for the intermittent buzz from the radar sweep. We got beaten up falling up and down the endless metal stairs from deck to deck (at least twelve decks). So, I would bring some knee and elbow pads for protection. If you film from the waist skirt launch deck, stay close to the ship because if a jet wobbles a little as it goes by on take-off, you can get a little burned. I'd love to do another one of these adventures, but now I'm just too old. I'm flat out jealous. Congrats....You're going to have a great time. Ciao, Sully

Johnny Winter passed away. There is an article and music clip in the Telegraph Uk site. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/10973371/Johnny-Winter-blues-guitarist-dies-aged-70.html I thought he was great. Sad loss. Sully

Nagra IV

I got an email from Kortwich today that they had finished the boards for the VCP-M4. The units are about two weeks off from production. Good news for us Nomad fans. Ciao, Sully

Thanks Jim, for wringing out the M3. I agree with everything you wrote. Ironically, I will be using the M3 on my Nomand 12 to fill up Ch. 7,8,9, with mike preamps. I'll just leave it rigged with the Nomad, so, I won't have to fiddle with it every time I need it. The SD 633 set-up with the Sonosax M2 and bloop slate are working well for most small jobs. So, leaving the VCP-M3 with the Nomad for larger music venues will be just fine. I got a note from Pro Sound, NYC about pricing.....$750 for VCP-M3 with a two week lead time to order from Kortwich. Ciao, Sully

Sean is correct. Stay in the Nashville area and get your foot in the door. For example, go beat on Trew Audio's doors until they give you a job doing anything. At Trew, you can learn about the good people in the business. You can learn about the equipment from pros. And eventually buy good used equipment for your own videos. Your own videos??? Of course! Find like minded friends who want to make videos about music or interesting documentaries. Go to your strengths. You live in a great area for gospel, blue grass, country, and pop music. There are even classical music groups in Nashville. Your day job might be checking out audio rentals, but your professional goals should be learning about how to do live recording and post production finishing. Meet other young people who want to do their own film/videos, but try and find a job at a small media venue where you can learn the ropes from people already working in the business. On the week ends you head out to the hills and find great unknown, unrecorded artists for your videos. Once you have a pro track record, you can move to a bigger venue like.....Atlanta.... Charlotte, NC.....Miami.... Or.... If you must....NCY or LA. Sara, I wish you the best... But reiterating what Sean said....Do what you want to do. Don't get sucked into the maw of reality shows with incompetent producers. Ciao, Sully

Jez, I'm using a little blue box I got at Guitar Center about a hundred years ago. It is a cable tester and tone generator. Tone is line level +4, -10, and -50db. I sometimes use a pad on the -10db to get it down to -35 or -40. But the -50db is usually good for most stuff. It is powered by two AA Batteries. And the best thing about it is that it will test cable continuity. There are other boxes out there similar to this unit, so, I don't know if this is the best one now. Here is a link to B&H for the unit. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=181570&gclid=CNbC4ajf7b4CFSQaOgodNTUAIw&Q=&is=REG&A=details If you google "Ebtech Swiss Army", there are a more choices. Ciao, Sully

Mike, I'm not "mixing" the show. I'm recording 10 Line Outs from the main board into a Nomad with the M3 and sending a mono mix to the main camera. A student is doing the board mix (F0H and the recorder feed). She did a great job for a complex show (17 talent wireless, 3 instrument settings, and pre-recorded efxs). She gave me good enough iso feeds that I could handle with the Nomad/M3 combo. Having the M3 gave me the quick fader control to match the other six faders on the Nomad. Ideally, I would have used the new Zaxcom fader for the Nomad, but I don't have one yet. I'm not so sure I would refer to the Nomad as a "bag mixer". In this case it was used as a recorder. And I'm sure you know a few people who use Nomads and SD 644s as recorders taking feeds from boards on their sound carts. I think the term "mixer" is often used out of habit, even when a producer means "mixer-recorder". I make this mistake myself all the time....But I'm old. Now, all the producers assume you have a mixer/recorder combo. Evan, The M3 faders were ahead of the Nomad virtual presets. So, they acted as pre-fader for the Nomad card tracks. I could still go into the Nomad virtual settings for adjustments to the card, if I had to, (which I didn't need to do). The M3 handled all the signals just fine. I used several different attenuators (25 to 35db) between the board and the M3. J. Gilchrist is wringing the unit out on his SD 644 this week. He immediately thought it would be nice for Kortwich to build a bigger box that would do six channels for the 644. Although power consumption by the M3 on my job was fine, we thought it might prove a problem with six pots, all at 48v. Nevertheless, we hope Kortwich will look into this possibility. My dealings with them for cases and modifications has always been great. Since the M3 is a new piece of gear for us, we would love to hear about it from other users....durability?....bugs???...etc. Ciao, Sully

The four inputs for the Nomad 12 (7,8,9, and 10 are line level-in with a virtual menu to set the gain levels. A straight line level to those imputes can be adjusted easily with the menu system--- if you have time. If the signal coming into that setting is correctly adjusted, then you really don't have to deal with the virtual setting again. But if the levels to the virtual channels changes quickly (wild high school play), you need to move faster than the virtual fader system can deliver. Enter the M3. Attaching the the M3 faders "ahead" of the virtual fader setting gives you control of the signal coming off the main mix board. The virtual settings of the Nomad become a "sort of" trim setting and the M3 is the fader for the trim setting. The M3 has two settings for the mike preamps....48v and dynamic. It does not have a line setting input. It only outputs line level. The board signal I am taking is line level "Out". I used the dynamic input setting of the M3, and put in-line pads, to bring the line level "Outs" of the main board down to a level the M3 could accept. Now, the wildly erratic signals coming off the main board could be faded by the M3 to the correct levels for the virtual settings of the Nomad. I didn't have to readjust the Nomad settings. I could keep a lid on everything with the M3 faders. I could see the settings for the channels 7,8,9 on the Nomad "Card" menu screen. This system worked pretty well. As Mike knows (he has lots of earnest students), you have to roll with the punches on these jobs. The Nomad and the M3 saved my bacon on this one. Luckily, I remembered to bring the Swiss Army Knife tone generator along to set levels out of the board. That has to be the greatest piece of gear since Velcro. I gave the my the M3 to Jim Gilchrist, so, he can ring out the preamps on his SD 644. Look for some analysis from him later on. Ciao, Sully

M3 goes to work.....The Job--High School Musical recording. Three shows.... two hours in length (one on Friday night, and two on Saturday).... I thought it would involve flying a bunch of Schoeps from the overhead grid, but this approached was nixed...time and costs. So, plan "B"...Main mix feed and 9 iso outs from large Allen & Heath board in sound booth. Every actor was miked with a wireless (17 in all). The director picked only 9 "must have" students for isos. The rest would come from the main mix channel. The mixer on the board was a young lady who was only a sophomore. But she did a really great job on a very difficult show. Bad news--I couldn't use the M3 as a mike preamp. Good news--As a line impute (with pads) from the main board, it saved my bacon. If you have time, you can adjust the impute levels of the Nomad, channels 7, 8, 9, and 10 with no trouble. But with quick level tweaking needed for a fast moving show, the M3 really helped speed up my reactions to sudden changes. With out the 48v preamps switched on, the Nomad (recording all 12 tracks) and M3 ran smoothly for over 2 hours on one NP1 battery. There was very little heat coming out of the M3. I will probably get the Zaxcom fader unit when it is available, but I'm keeping the M3. Ironically, I got it for the SD 633 and ended up using it for the Nomad. I'll try and use it some more with the 48v system to ring out the preamps. The M3 seems to pull a lot of power with 48v, so, I'm still a little worried about how long an SD 633 or a Nomad will last with one NP1 powering everything. If anybody else gets the M3, please let us all know how it performs. Ciao, Sully

Constantin, I tried the M3 with a SD 633 and it sounded just fine. Hopefully, it will sound just as good for the Nomad. I'm using 48v phantom, but the mikes are powered by a 12v NP1 battery. I sorry for the confusing explanation. With phantom power on, it pulls about 250ma, which is a lot, I think. Anyway, I will let you know Monday how it went. Ciao, Sully

Friday, May 30, 2014 is maiden voyage for the M3 tied into a Nomad 12. I got cables made just in time for a job on Friday and Saturday. I can get 9 mike pres and one line IN (10 record channels) for the Nomad. The M3 seems to need a lot of juice to run (about 250 Ma with phantom power on at 12v). The SN level does't look that good on the scopes, but it sounds just fine. I have to crank an extra 10db gain above 0db into the line level settings for the Nomad and keep the HP volume up. But the actual sound tests seem to work out just fine. The numbers for this machine don't look that good, but it sure sounds good. And remember, I am using it for a Nomad, not the purpose (SD 633) the M3 was intended. So, here we go. I hope the M3 does not drain my NP1s down too quickly. I am using the loop through right now. But I could go to a direct M3 power with another NP1 if it draws too much power from the main set-up. I'll report back Monday (Sunday is recovery day with a nice Bordeaux). Ciao, Sully

Sorry, But I won't be able to get the M3 in for Nomad 12 cable build until next week. Forty some years ago, I tried to solder a cable. It turned out looking like a Giacometti statue. So,I gave up and left soldering to the Professionals at Vark Audio...... Wise decision on my part. Ciao, Sully

I'll try and get some cables made for the Nomad 12 this coming week. I could, at the same time, try and get some "metrics" out of this unit. But really, I don't care what the numbers are. I use the Duke Ellington approach to technical data, "If it sounds good, it is good." So far, this M3 sounds pretty good. Hopefully, the DC loop system works well. I agree that XLR connectors would be nice, but this box is small. The TAs are light and tiny. And frankly, I never seem to have trouble with TAs, as long as I don't have to change them on the fly. Permanent TA connections work well for me. Having a TA pig-tail input is a good idea because (say 18 inch) the XLR-F connectors will allow me to keep the XLRs easily accessible somewhere in the bag. To change a connection quickly, I don't have to crawl around in the bag (usually in the dark) to find a buried XLR-IN. The "plan" is to use the M-3 to fill up virtual channels 7, 8, 9, and use 10 for an XLR input, whatever that might be. In effect the M-3 faders turn the Nomad virtual faders into semi-trim knobs. This gives me a fighting chance to quell an unruly signal much faster than the virtual search for correct level. Ciao, Sully

Evan, Yes, this is the unit. I have not made the cables for the Nomad yet. But I don't see a big problem. Right now, I use a Sonosax two pot preamp with the Nomad. Now, I will be able to use the VCP-M3 and the Sonosax together to fill up all those line impute TAs on the Nomad. If you get one of these unites, please, let us all know how it holds up. I hate buying new gear without trying it out first. This time I had to do it because of a job. Ciao, Sully

I just received a new mike preamp for the SD 633 from Kortwich ( Pro Sound, NYC). I hooked up two Schoeps and a Neaumann, ran them in a quiet room for a half hour. Everything sounded just fine. The fader pots felt good. And they are much easier to use then the native 633 knobs. More abuse will give the final verdict, but so far, so good. We'll just have to beat it up a little more to see if it can stand bag work on the road. The unit has three mike/48v imputes (XLR to TA3) and three TA3 outs to the TA3s on the 633. It has a pass through Hirose DC in/out to power the 633. The unit is light enough to velcro to the 633. If I get some different out-put cables, I think I can use this on a Nomad 12. I Would like to hear from anybody else using this unit. Ciao, Sully

What's old is new! In the past few years (DSLR, no TC, multi camera jobs), I have resurrected two bloop slates for use with my Nomad 12 and SD 633. I had Vark Audio build a couple of tone generators that are triggered by the bloop slate. The tone is fed into one of audio channels on the recorder for synch in post. So far, this system works well because the cameraman I work with the most comes from film days. He is use to looking for a head or tail slate. If the camera operator is under thirty years old, we have to go through a little "training exercise" because they have never seen this system in use, shooting or editing. But they grow to like it because, now, I don't have to send a guide tracks to the little cameras. It's just more bother for the operator with extra cables and receivers. Instead of giving quick slates (film days) we now use much longer slate times (4 to 6 seconds) so, the editors can see and hear data more easily as the clips whip by. In film days there were lot's of stop/starts. But with video we just "let it roll", so, there are surprisingly fewer stop/starts to synch up. I must admit I really like this old way of sound recording (think Nagra). After more than forty five years I'm back to where I started. Happy Birthday, Crew C. I hope you still have a few of your old bloop slates lying around for work with the younger set. Ciao, Sully

Perhaps, it would be a good idea to point out to our congressmen and women that many of them were elected using the 600MHz band width in their campaign videos. Ciao, Sully

Evan at Vark Audio Service (301-229-0288) knows Nagra inside and out. They might have parts stockpiled. Ciao, Sully

Jim, Sounds like a great idea. The three features I was going to do in Russia and China seem to be on hold, so, let's do lunch and talk trash about equipment. Ciao, Sully

Started with DT-48 (great sound, flat, wide dynamic range, but painful to wear)..... brief interlude with Sony 7 series (too much base)..... moved to DT-250 (flat, comfy, durable)..... Now, settled on Ultrazone Pro 750 (flat, wide dynamic range, not fatiguing to wear all day, good isolation, and solid fit). Happy Holidays, Sully

Vark Audio 301-229-0288

Started with Beyer DT 48 (still use for nostalgic reasons), many years with Beyer 250s, and now use Ultrasone Pro 750. Ciao, Sully

Take your time. You can not rush through this place. Slowly, walk through the magnificent cathedral, looking up at the beautiful lines of the spires as they blend into each other. Every place you stand in the interior of the cathedral will show a different picture.... give you a different feeling. No photograph or motion picture will ever give you the beauty of that great structure. You don't have to have any religious affiliation to appreciate this place. Only your personal walk will give you the spectacular feeling, the brilliant vision of truly great architecture. Your memories of this place will last forever. ....Ok, ok,.... I was knocked out when I first experienced the cathedral twenty five years ago. But to this day, I can never get over the tremendous impact it had on me. And no, I did not have any Kirschwasser before the walk. I was totally sober. Ciao, Sully

Vark Audio in Washngton, D.C. (301-229-0288) area makes them. I have been using them for years. They work just fine. I think the tubes will only fit the 19mm size mikes (Shoeps). Ciao, Sully