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Back in the day, I loved using the old green Frogpole with a Schoeps head and Collette. It was the hot setup for docs.

I do commercials and roll through everything and explain that because they are going to do 100 takes, by the end of the day they will have plenty of good stuff for the editor to find.

I find a km 184 with lots of wind protection mounted with a Cardilini works well. I generally multitrack. A mic for exhaust, tires, interior and engine compartment. Unfortunately most modern cars sound pretty wimpy. If you remove the air cleaner, you can get some nice induction noise.

I like the km 82. Sometimes booming from below helps as the actor's body serves as a sound break. Tell the DP to tilt down and zoom in. A loud actor is a good actor.

Hi Jeff, Loved your shot of Bruce's panel. I almost bought it from him, but went with Andy's CS 208 instead. I guess I'm just old school, but to quote Ron Judkins from an article years ago; "I think of myself as a mixer, not a collector of tracks." Not that I would ever consider myself in his league, but I learned a lot from him.

Hi Jeff, Do I need a license for each radio? I currently have 16 Audio LTD's. How are they going to catch us? Will they have monitoring vans ala BBC, or just send Federales to set? Hope you are well. Happy New Year!

I hate it when wardrobe insists on burying the necktie mic even though the actor is 100 yards away and 3 pixels tall. I have given up on trying to explain to directors that we could save a lot of time by declaring the shot MOS. The younger they get, the less they know.

Back in my doc days, I would travel with a box of Hefty lawn and leaf bags and stuff my whole rig in one when we were traveling on Zodiacs.

I know a lot of people bitch about Cantars, but I have an X1 and an X2. Fabulous preamps and unmatched limiters. It is the perfect over the shoulder recorder. Expensive, but you get what you pay for. Mike Paul is my Guru.

357 magnum works great.

Fixed wing and helicopters have different systems. Back in my doc days, I modified a cable the pilot gave me. With it, I was able to plug into my Nagra and monitor all the chatter, and it had a PTT switch so I could talk to anyone wearing headsets in the chopper.

When I'm on a foggy set, I usually put a fuzzy windjammer on the mic in hope that it will help protect the mic somewhat.

Having listened to everything out there, I still think the Audio LTD's sound the best. I have two 2000 quads, a 2020 rk2, and bought an rk6 2040 last year. They sound amazing. I also have 2 vdb 48v wireless adaptors that work great. Kish just sent me a pair of the new Yagis that I fly from an old vdb pole and the range is amazing. With the rk6, the freq scan and walk test functions are a big asset. Expensive, yes, but worth every penny. I have my units serviced by Evan Mater at Vark, and he is amazing. He even arranged for a personal tour by Kish of the factory last time I was in Old Blighty.

The beauty of the 184 is that if you have a fairly tight shot with 2 or more actors in a tight group, you can just park it in the sweet spot and get a very nice mix. That said, I generally use my 185's inside. If the space is large enough and the DP is high, wide and stupid, the km 81 is often useful.

I have been using Neumanns for years. Used to be a Schoeps guy, but got tired of dealing with humidity problems. Bruce Bisenz gave me a pair of 150's and told me to use them for two weeks, then go back to my Schoeps. I did, and sold all my Schoeps. Currently I have 2 each 184, 185, km81, km82. For the short mics, the Cinela mount is the only mount that actually works, IMHO.

If memory serves me, NEVER record with resolver connected to Nagra playback will be jittery

At least two of everything. Nobody seems to mind when we have to wait 2 hours to have a new camera body delivered, but the 4 minutes it takes me to switch out my recorder is a disaster.

Very rarely partake, but whenever I do, I do something stupid like make three or four sammiches and pig out.

I NEVER use anything but my own gear. Every once in a while I get a call from WB and I relish telling them that they are greedy for robbing sound mixers of half of their income and no thank you I won't do your steenking show.

Years ago, Bruce Bisenz told me to always ground the shell.