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James Louis

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    Brooklyn, NY
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    Climbing, Writing music, Concerts, RPGs, Improv, Spirituality
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    sound
  • Interested in Sound for Picture
    Yes

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  1. Also, I know you were being facetious, but instead of twins, just run the test again, swapping packs (with constant patching) between your pair of talent. Then take accumulated results. Yes, every body has a specific absorption rate SAR, and it’s real. Some talent are like walking plasma storms
  2. I’m enjoying this thread, however I didn’t make it to the end to see if this was redundant. I will say that I think there could be a better workflow for your usb charger “cheat” determine by the end of the evening who truly is going passed 12h, and just swap out their batteries. When other talent wraps and and you start collecting packs. Like bringing in a relief pitcher, if you catch my drift. Better still is that you use that same opportunity to swap out the last few batteries rather than do it systematically, across the board, at lunch. but I could see using that usb to “top off” the batteries for the first hours or setup time in the morning, and then disconnect them once on talent, when your glider’s in the air. I always like to claim my channels and leave things on such that others scanning will leave them alone. Your usb chargers help at this. either way, let’s hope this takes away that lurching, dreaded feeling you received from some of our fellow responders…
  3. An update: at least Gotham is carrying this next generation of items from Deity, and they have undergone their own set of tests. So time will tell!
  4. I'd be hard pressed to counter any of @Allen Williams' findings. I guess if in my situation a) I'm already steeped in the TS ecosystem b) deneke smart slates are under that price on the secondhand market c) I'm still miffed by the lack of Deity customer service from their last line of products, along with d) some of their oversights uncovered from their last generation, I would therefore remain with the trusted contenders. and perhaps e) bluetooth isn't the essential manner in which I sync or confirm my TC over the course of the day. Sometimes it's a matter of which designer's development cycle you are on-board with. Sound show rooms such as Trew and Gotham do cover bigger companies like zoom, however for many years both zoom and tascam were vying for the same prosumer market. Tascam was the trailing edge manufacturer, but IMHO it was worth holding out for their answer to the zoom releases. (Not these days, however.) TS could easily release a smart slate or other timecode systems could be developed. I realize that's speculation, but if my consultants and experts are not carrying Deity and cannot in good conscience endorse them, then I'm going on a limb when it comes time to defending my decisions if I don't have that support structure in place.
  5. Bubblebee cable savers coil one where your “safety” piece of tape would end up
  6. My issue with stacking on the backup power source is that it’s a false sense of security. First, I’m not sure if you could configure the AA’s as the backup to the hirose if they are using the same connection. Okay, I get it, it’ll keep rolling the real issue however is that the sled itself falling out entirely is your most likely point of failure
  7. Only noise I could foresee is a ground loop if you are recording to computer with other things that may not share ground, say with some guitar pedals or bus powered synths going into the mixpre as the interface or a separate port. Then a usb splitter cable makes sense to me as for usb, the entire proposition sounds so sketchy to me. Not just in fatal powerdowns and corrupted cards, but in risks to the mixpre itself. And it sounds like it ought to be a terrific, light, option, and then I consider the stress on the port, the chances of picking the cable wrong over and over again, the lack of warnings, etc… to this day, I don’t see any consensus around cables. They will be stiff, right angles are out of the question, and let’s face it, they won’t last in a bag, you are loosing a port…just not worth the grief
  8. That pad would make more sense as a typo for line-level, but those tests don’t lie. Weird. 6041’s have long been home-base for me due to the unanticipated noice of my city surroundings. And I’m rather okay with the occasions when a professional performance can actually deliver a line under their breath. Should I really be looking at the 6040’s for such gigs? In any case, I’m okay with pairing this with a better mic, that doesn’t seem particularly hypocritical as far as I understand this user case
  9. I might add that the carrying tote could be thought out a bit more. With only a loop, you cannot wear it per se. But if it had a strap sewn in, it could be over the shoulder, much like a fanny pack that is worn in that fashion. Take the design further, and you could turn it into a mesh harness belt, competing with the Orca, which I have used for a number of years now. Both are sturdy breathable material. Something to consider, K-Tek All that speculative musing out of the way, the pouch itself is a good enough stuff sack for many of the things you might have considered putting on your back. I've used it for elective items (a book, a travel game set), and it's also a good place for catch all items that you know you are either not using for the rest of the day or can safely take home now that those options have been waved off by the production (the pelican with the wired lav, the phonak kit, the stereo mic that CAM B doesn't want, etc.) Then for those who would have left the carrying tote at home, you could bring these loose items home after your first day. So for @Simon Paine and others who would use the back real estate, what could you convince me is essential back there which allows you to be self contained on set without having to bring that second bag or to load up the mixer, and without burdening yourself with more weight? Without the access to those items while they are on your back? Maybe some dumbbells would be a good thing if it kept our alignment, right? But that's what distributing the weight into the belt is for. Would you trust yourself to unload those items in their pouches once you arrived on set? Is using these additional pouches allowing you to leave that second bag at home?
  10. That's really cool how you put stuff on the back of the harness. I've taken a more paired back approach. I decided on and Entity Utility Pouch Large on my left shoulder and a Medium Rollypoly dump bag on the right shoulder. https://www.maxpedition.com/collections/entity-series/products/entity-utility-pouch-large?variant=446540414993 https://www.maxpedition.com/collections/pouches/products/mini-rollypoly-folding-dump-pouch?variant=27910305617 May they both remain empty under most circumstances. The utility pouch can second as a phone holder. This is real business if you are using it via bluetooth as a transport or notation app, syncing tentacles etc. I ordered the Long version at first, but that's really thin. Would expand to an iPhone 12 mini or first version SE. The large is better than buying a pouch specific to a samsung or a plus. I may even use it as my backup with a DPA MMA-A and a stereo microdot cable. And I guess you could transfer your battery to this location. The Dump Pouch is as you described a great way to collect mics and comteks and that trace of tape backing and trail mix. You could go for the larger size for this purpose, but I thought coupled with my makeshift phone pouch on the other side, this dumping pouch is also the exact size for a 32oz nalgene water bottle, which I am known to carry on set. Again, more versatile than buying the dedicated 32oz water bottle holder. Let's all try to turn down the poland spring sample bottles, please. It's a moral imperative! I know we work in the most important business in the world, but the world might have additional priorities. Finally, I bought two Viviana hooks for over shoulder and under shoulder to one side. Save yourself a buck from replacing the full set. That way, I have a quick escape from the bag, without hoisting, and I have a quick fastening to put it on, without missing. They hook on to the current carabineer. It makes all the difference, particularly when you don't have a bar-top surface to keep things lined up. https://www.gothamsound.com/product/viviana-hook
  11. @DanieldHYes, let’s show some love for android; my shorthand for “mobile app” did not serve… My conclusions were based on the observable results that I conducted. I’ll definitely have to confirm or leverage the distinguishing capabilities that you mentioned. Cool beans
  12. Not sure if this was ever clarified, it’s a long thread, so I believe there’s some benefit in updating a few points: *the Track E does not transmit timecode. Neither hardwired NOR via Bluetooth. You can receive timecode from other systems or cameras or anything you like, via the mic jack, if not via Bluetooth…If I’m not mistaken, this is not just a time stamp or a jam, this is an updated periodic connection when the units are in range of the master TC. But there’s no signal coming OUT of the output jack aside from mic monitoring, much less an LTC signal, and if you think about it, that’s self evident… * there was a blog update specifying that phone monitoring would be available for these units with an update to the iOS app this last quarter of 2021. We know it’s in the making. Don’t expect 0 latency. Don’t expect continual range. I imagine this is a confidence check that your mic dressing was successful or that it’s still in place and not bobbing around by their belly. * 32-bit is indeed a goody. I’m still confused as to why there is an input gain adjustment in 32-bit mode, but TS assures me it is still best practices to manage your input gain as you formally would. Some NLE’s don’t handle 32-bit, and will bring those files in at 24-bit, so that initial decision is crucial. and even if they did natively handle 32-bit, you would want still want to offer your editors a guide value for playback, which can indeed clip on an output bus. That said, if you have a number of units, I propose to choose a lowest common denominator for input gain, offsetting for the insulation of any hidden techniques, such that the ambient noise levels match across any mics that are open. Said differently, take the input level to the channel that you are being the most conservative with input gain, the one most attenuated for the source, and apply that value with the remainder of your deployed units, adjusting in your case if some mics are more buried than others (or have a different make/model.) I would maintain sound perspective, in other words, I would not factor in back-towards-traffic vs facing-traffic. One is supposed to sound noisier than the other. Base it on how much you attenuated for that individual’s performance. Their perspective. Camera perspective. Not perspective of traffic. (Unless camera is rolling by in traffic. Then, yes, you base the conversation on continual traffic.) Blocking and camera movement are all dynamic decisions and why you really need a mixer and boom op the fellow I bought them from keeps them at maximum input gain, but he knows he’s the one editing, and he also knows he can use TS conversion utility. I suspect he does this because it’s easy to slide a dial all the way up and know that you have the same setting for all your units. I also think monitoring levels often get confused with these decisions, and he was trying to anticipate a noise floor which he could already hear. Well intended, that’s not really what goes behind a good listening environment, auditing a location or choosing an SPL. if you read this far, I have a further installment on gun violence on the tele, and there is no way I’m wearing my cans on a tactical firing range. My 24-bit recordings sound absolutely awesome. Now I have a 32-bit option that can track an interview with a live firearm, side coaching, direct signal and reflections, all on-mic. I haven’t been able to get my hands on a mixpre 3ii, so I was happy to make an intermediate decision and welcome the Track E into my Tentacle family.
  13. @borjamyet another reason why I think the mma-a got squeezed out. You pay about as much as a mixpre3, and if you get the 3ii there’s 32-bit, noise assist, recording, backup, routing etc… i will say this, it’s very tiny. About the size of 3-4 poker chips in a stack. It can drive their little mics, and you could handle everything on a pole. That and genuinely good AD converters.
  14. Anyhow, I’m guilty of hijacking this thread, so I’ll look out for you in the city… I’m off the Bedford-Nostrand G in Brooklyn…
  15. These are all very worthwhile contingencies @Ian Berman I enjoy being of service to smaller projects. Say a sketch team wants to try their luck with a youtube channel, or a community producer on the public access channel has a really good pitch on a local hero. It could be pro bono for a non-profit or an upcoming director who can't afford me, but in my case was already invited to enter Sundance next year. It only means that among anyone who breaks out of our collective talent, they'll know that I was there on the ground floor with them. Thanks for mentioning that they are 32-bit. That's a big plus. I've never clipped on a job, kanuhura. Always thought that was a coloring-book-for-adults kind of selling point. But I just came out of a firing range on Saturday, and I believe there will be further coverage requiring the location. Wouldn't it be neat if any of my plant mics were neither set up for dialog or gun shots, but rather both? It's so cool to see a waveform seemingly clipped and as tall as a footstool get brought down with every peak intact. That's certainly a confidence in these unmonitored situations. Do you think for the price of 2, I'd be better off getting a mixpre 3ii? I may be able to pickup a pair today for $600, still in the box and registration card. They are difficult to come by, but still. Plus I'm still waiting to try Noise Assist. Problem is, I don't see how mixpre's can route input signal to 2 different input channels. I couldn't even do something as rudimentary as bracketing my gain on the boom when I had that firing range shoot this weekend (earplugs--not buds--AND earmuffs and no monitoring, thank you very much) They can link channels, but that means something different in this circumstance. You're either applying the plugin to a particular mic or you're not. You'd have to put the single instance of the plugin on a Bus L or R track if you wanted to give a client the bypassed version.
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