nickreich

Line Audio OM-1s and CM-3s are some of my favourite mics for Classical recording and live sound regardless of their price (and I have Sennheiser, Schoeps et al), but for the specific purpose the OP is asking about, they have plusses and minuses. The thing that makes them so good as a classical music 'spot' or close mic is a certain mellowness to their transient response that makes them sound a touch less "too close" then they physically are to an instrument. This can be very useful for spot SFX with nasty metallic transients that would be overpowering if recorded with a similar Sennheiser 80x0 series mic. Vehicle recording, for example . Their downside for very quiet nature ambiences is their really low output compared to similar mics. As Jacob said above, you need a fair bit more preamp gain on them (though their self-noise isn't that bad) and so need something with really good preamps in that situation.

I've used it a few times at 32ch and it worked fine. What's more curious about Wave Agent is that Sound Devices make the only machines I know of that can record 64 track Polys (070 and PIX270i) but haven't updated Wave Agent to deal with them. I wouldn't use a 64 track Poly format by choice (doesn't fit the workflows of the Post people I work with - including myself), but with the 270i when recording video as well, Mono .wav format isn't supported.

In the mid 1980s I was working as a Press Photographer in Australia (the sound thing was a sideline that took over a couple years later) and we were still using wire photo machines that involved printing an 8x10 black and white print (using chemicals, in the hotel bathroom), and wrapping it around the drum of the wire photo transmitter often while it was still wet. You'd unscrew the had set of the hotel phone, clip the leads from the Wire machine onto the mic terminals, and dial London or Paris. The chap at the other end would tell you to go ahead, and you'd start the machine rolling. It had a little lamp and LDR that scrolled along a threaded rod from one side to the other as the drum rotated, transmitting a varying analog frequency describing the reflected brightness of that bit of photo. You had to put a pillow over the handset so ambient sounds didn't add anything to the picture. At the other end, their machine was identical, except it was in a darkroom, with unexposed photo paper on it, and the matching globe exposed it as it rotated. It took 15mins per 8x10. Normal Fax machines had long existed, but this throwback method was still capable of better results and lasted until digital cameras took over the news scene in the mid 80s.

you might be able to buy the right-angle caps direct from efksound in spain when he gets back from holidays in September - I'm keeping an eye on his FB page as I want some too

Get this all the time in Theatre on sweaty dancers - nothing to do with G3s specifically. If the TX antenna is pressed against a sweat-soaked undergarment or skin, it can soak up RF quite noticeably. If the end-cap's missing of the antenna and the bare wire is visible, even more so as it 'shorts' to the conductive sweat. The Theatre trick is to surround the antenna in something like foam to space it off the costume or body by a couple of millimetres. We use white cylindrical foam about 1cm in diameter that's used in the construction industry for some sort of sealing around door frames. The key is that material doesn't absorb liquid itself. You cut it the same length as the antenna, and poke a metal skewer up the middle to make a hole for the antenna, slide it over and keep it there with a little bit of tape. It can be visible under the costume in a film situation, but it certainly helps. In an emergency, you can roll up a tiny bit of thin bubble wrap to do the job.

Kenson - yes, the ground path is the shield of the STP cat-5e or better (you need to use the proper shielded RJ45s of course - which themselves connect to the Ethercon shells if you use them). The nice thing is that if you are just running line level, you can use normal UTP cat-5e cable - still get four floating pairs. Unless you are running through a power substation you'll be fine with the twisted pairs at line level. Malcolm - sure a bigger cable gland will fit in a D-type hole, but the rectangular Neutrik shell I build these into are exactly the size of a D-type shell inside, so allowing for the nut part of the gland, the ones I show are the largest stock size that will fit easily without complex engineering. If you use the BNC D-type shell I show above (seems to have the widest internal opening diameter) and completely cut off the back with it's smaller hole for the BNC, you get a 20mm hole, and I have on other projects epoxy'd one of the 20mm Glands into that hole. A normal female D-type XLR also has 20mm ID, but current designs are offset and have cut-outs in the side.

702s and 722s are the same re pin 2&3 required for charging. Don't know about 788.

Beautiful work. What's the dual monitor on a tablet you are running?

Hi all. Can anyone who's fed audio into the minijack in on a Apollo or Odyssey 7 fill me in on the sort of level it'll accept in stereo unbalanced mode. I can't find that sort of info on their website. Any sync issues to be aware of? thanks, nick.

or their own generated RF field, if they have anything more sophisticated than a basic regulator inside.

my initial thought would be to get one of the accessory leads that allow external 3.5mm mic input into the GoPros. Feed a mono audio mix out of your Cubase system into each camera - using the original take's track for each overdub (so all overdubs have the same audio attached to the picture - not their own). You'll probably need to pad down the audio level and use a very lightweight cable to feed the camera on the guitar. Each overdub will be recorded to a track in Cubase, of course. Use Pluraleyes software (not expensive) to line up all the camera takes using the common audio track - assuming you can work out a workflow with your video editing software - I'm not an expert on that. Once the edit's done, import at the guide audio track into your audio editor and waveform match the final mix of the multitrack audio to that (can't be done in the video NLE as you've discovered), cut to exactly the same length, and replace the video edit soundtrack with your mix. That's the basic workflow. Details depend on the specifics of the DAW and NLE - neither of which I'm familiar with.

thanks guys, will follow up.

Does anyone know of a Rental supplier that carries Sound Devices 970s (I need two) preferably in LA, but failing that, elsewhere in the USA? I've checked the websites of all the 'usual suspects' I know of, to no avail. Job's in a couple of months time, so no rush to sort it out.

what media were you recording to - SSD or CF card?

Hi Wandering Ear, yes - I use Lockstep, as well as SMPTE Reader and its current replacement Horae, from sononum.net. I also am a major user of Figure 53's other software - Qlab (which contains the code from Lockstep as it's timecode engine). I find Lockstep can drop connection to the sound card you are feeding TC to if left running for more than about 4 hours, experienced this on several systems. The TC module in QLab does not suffer this in my experience, and I've had some clients computers running Lockstep and ProTools that have never exhibited this problem, so it's probably dependent on what else is going on in your computer. I switched to Sononum's SMPTE Reader (now free, as "legacy" software - supposedly good up to Mountain Lion) and it works day in day out like a charm. If you need Yosemite or higher compatibility, the current (paid) version is the much expanded "Horae", which does MTC-LTC both ways. Unlike Figure 53, who are large by developer standards, Sononum is one guy in Germany, who has recently decided not to continue supporting other products of his, so be aware of that if buying for long-term use in a corporate environment.

those Aeromic neoprene belts are very thick, they'll almost certainly be visible under clothes. In the Theatre world here in Australia (where they are made) they are popular with the companies doing weekly rentals to School shows where they have a hard life, but are never seen at a professional level. Remote Audio make a belt system that's quite similar to the Flexibelts one. I own those and Neopax, and most talent prefer the Remote Audio ones for coolness and comfort, though the Neopax do smooth out the transmitter lump better under thin/sheer wardrobe.

Radial have just announced a similar range of products that look very rugged, and Rat Sound have had an equivalent for years. I make my own. For line level audio they have a similar immunity to interference from nearby mains cable as normal mic cable. Many people use them for Mic level signals (especially with shielded Cat5 - mainly to give the extra conductor needed to allow 4 channels with Phantom Power), but I haven't tried that.

Maybe not - I don't have 8060s, but do have a quantity of 8020s and 8040s. Early ones didn't have the ring One of those had the noise problem and had to be replaced. Newer ones had the darker metal ring - simple, I thought. but then I just bought another brand new 8020, with a much more recent serial number, and it doesn't have the ring anymore.

+1 for a small analog-in / dante out mixing panel to suit the SD970. 16 mic/line channel minimum (on 2 layers if necessary), ISOs and mix through to the 970. Maybe the ability to use more than one for larger channel counts. Something significantly lighter and shallower than my 01v96, with 12v powering. I'd buy it in a flash.

My condolences, Jeff. The Australian National broadcaster ABC ran the story on their News Radio network quarter-hourly bulletin yesterday, including tape of Mr Wexler talking about his use of natural light. Can't think of many other film creatives they'd do that for.

Hi Scott Sending (generating) timecode is rather unusual. You have to create a separate track in your session and put a LTC (or MTC) Generator Object on it, and drag it out to be longer than your anticipated recording duration, then assign it to an appropriate output. You then have to go into this generator object and set the start time (presumably to match your timeline) and set the TC rate. Chasing TC (or Timestamping) is not much easier. While you can in theory use MTC, with an external LTC to MTC convertor app like Lockstep, I've found it unreliable. The way I find that works is to feed LTC into an input on your chosen Interface. 1) Right-click on the Play Button to open the External Timecode Sync window. Select the LTC Input to whatever channel you are feeding with LTC. Tick the "Start Playback on valid timecode" box. It won't work otherwise. Change the other settings as follows: Freewheel = 0, Synchronise by Seeking Ahead = 1000, Re-Synchronise = 0, Skip / Drop Frames = 0, Offset incoming TC = as required. Using the defaults WILL RUIN YOUR RECORDING with regular dropouts as it re-syncs! These settings will make it work similar to BoomRecorder - it will timestamp the new regions, but if incoming TC drifts or stops, it will keep on recording. As with all of these DAWs, the Wordclock needs to be synchronous too between Audio and Video or it will drift over time. That may not be a problem for narrative filming with short takes, but will be if you are recording a concert. 2) Once timecode is running, you need to 'go online' BEFORE pressing record - tick the "Enable Synchronisation to Timecode" box at the top of this window (it will immediately start chasing - and playing anything already at that location), or I've set up the custom shortcut key "F6" to do the same thing. Once it's chasing, you should see the Counter running at an appropriate time. You can close the External Sync window if still open, and click the Record button to drop into record when desired. Clicking Stop or the spacebar will drop out of record, but will keep chasing. You need to de-select the "Enable Synchronisation to Timecode" box (or just press your custom shortcut again) to stop it chasing so you can playback. 3) All the BWAV files will be timestamped with the appropriate start time, but not with the TC framerate, so if you want to import the files into ProTools, Avid or similar, you need to be sure that the destination session is set up right. Then you can just spot the files to the timeline using Original Timestamp in ProTools.

We consider it our most reliable solution for high-track-count location recording (192 tracks are common for us) - always run it as the backup if we are running ProTools as the main by client request - otherwise we run Reaper with SD970s as the backup. I personally prefer to edit and Mix in ProTools, but that's just familiarity over many years of use, and the clients want it - but importing tracks recorded on Reaper takes a few minutes. The only problem is timecode (in and out) is a bit weird and un-intuitive. We've tried everything that runs on a Mac - Nuendo, Nuendo Live, Tracks Live, Boom Recorder and others. FYI - Mark Franken from Sounds in Sync has been extraordinarily nice in updating his free utility EdiMarker at my request to make importing Markers created in Reaper into ProTools to support this workflow - it's ridiculously easy now.

The newest update of these mics all have a visible metal ring where the capsule joins the connector module, about 2mm of slightly darker smooth metal easily contrasting to the nextel finish of the rest of the mic body If you have that, you should be right. Prior to that, there were mics released with the original body but updated circuit board as well, so you may well be fine either way.

no, I had the problem with a couple of 8020 Omnis, I know several others who did too, with 8020s and 8040s - so probably random mics across the whole range were affected.

Hi Bash, love your videos. Are there more of them to come from IBC, or is the Phonak one the final one?