George Tarrant

Early 80's got a package deal..Nagra IV-L....Sennheiser 415T with no rycote...Sennheiser 815T with a rycote...Beyer DT48 headphones and 3 Sony ECM 50 hardwire lavs and a bloop slate and a QM preamp for the Nagra that supplied 12T to one input of recorder...and a box of various XLR and Nagra Sync cables all for $3600.00. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven!

Thanks Vas. I think the Rycote Baseball is quite similar to what I'm using now...more of an interior use but would work for light wind in an exterior situation. Wasn't aware of the Cinela Leonard 20 which certainly looks to be a good alternative. Have you used the Cinela with the swivel attached?

I have been using a fur ball wind gag that I got from Rick Patton in Vancouver (RIP Rick) a number of years ago. It's a combo of fur and foam and pops directly over the CMC much like a regular pop filter. This rig works well for fast interior moves and is ok for outside use with winds up to say 10 mph. I'd like to be able to use a similar rig with better wind protection and am looking at the Rycote Baby Ball Gag but have a few questions. Is this rig still usable when the GVC swivel is added between capsule and pre amp as in will the gag interfere with the mount and does it fit securely on the actual swivel? Will it still provide good protection in winds 20-30 mph? I have a couple of exterior sets where the swivel is necessary (under front porch of house ) and interior barn with open doors and relativley low ceiling. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I had a similar issue with my original 2 block venue a couple of years ago. Turned out to be a combination of a power supply issue and old firmware. Something was wonky internally on the venues power supply. I think a return to the mothership is in order.

What a bummer! Tyler provided exceptional service and some great advice for many years and we usually had some laughs over the phone. All in all a huge loss for Trew Toronto. Tyler you will be missed and I hope your new endeavor works out well for you!!

Like Glen I have also found that a small rubber O ring on the 742 cone makes a huge difference when mounting the Tx on the business end of the pole. It takes out all the play in the cone and makes a very secure connection. You do have to make sure you listen for the " click " when the cone hits home. I also use an offset on the mic and it lines up and stays put even with really violent moves by my boom op. As for the cases mentioned here I find all of them to be somewhat lacking. We usually wrap the unit in plastic sandwich wrap...which can be a hassle when making a quick battery change but does provide some degree of protection for weather.

Another terrible loss. I first saw the Eagles in the fall of 1971 before the 1st album was released although I believe the single Take it Easy had been out for a couple of months. The show was a triple bill with Eagles opening, followed by KISS...who were also brand new and the headliner was Jethro Tull on their Aqualung tour. It was a really amazing show. I remember how the crowd really took to the young Eagles group. Everyone had a lighter lit up when they played Take it Easy and many were singing along. Very fond memories indeed.

Great review of the " slim"thanks Jeff. I have not had the chance to hear one as there is no rental house near me where I can try one and as far as I know none of the local mixers in my area have any slims or any other DPA's for that matter. I have the usual assortment...Cos 11's B6 and Countryman EMW but think it's time for some DPA's. The biggest thing holding me back was the size of the other types of DPA lavs but now with the slim, I have no excuse...other than the Canadian Dollar exchange rate...ouch! Experienced ears like yours tell me what I need to know and that is the value of JW Sound. Think I'll just bite the bullet and get a couple of Slims. Is there any talk of making assorted colors for the button hole mount...as that is the only issue I can see with this rig.

Sorry for your loss Jeff. Condolences to you and your family. I just watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest last night...brilliant!

Here's a Nagra story you may find interesting. The 1988 Winter Olympics were held in Calgary and the year before them we were shooting a lot of commercials at the Olympic venues. Working on the Bobsled/Luge track I hopped in a 4 man sled with the Canadian Mens Bobsled team. We did a couple of runs from the junior start without incident and then decided to make some runs from the top. I had been using a 4.2 Nagra for the Junior start runs with no problem but when we went from the top...a very different story. The big circular section of the run called the "Krizal" if memory serves correctly...pulls about 6 G's of force. After we got to the bottom I played back the take and there were spots on the tape that we really wonky to say the least. Turns out that the G force was so great that it was actually pulling the tape off the heads of the recorder in a sporadic way. Same thing with a nose mounted Arri 3 Camera. The 1st AC opened the door of the camera to check the gate and when he did so the film was just jammed into the threading mechanism and spilled out like a Jack in the Box...totally unusable. If I remember correctly the Camera was overcranked...adding to the problem. The next take Camera ran at sync speed..24FPS and I switched to my IV-S Nagra and everything worked. I think the IV-S with the head protector made the difference by keeping the tape in contact with the head stack. On the third run from the top a stills camera was mounted to the sled...the photograper was 2nd man in the sled and I was 3rd man. When we hit the Krizal section the still camera snapped off of its mount...the threaded piece simply broke because of the G force...and the brakeman ( 4th guy in the sled ) reached out and grabbed the camera with one hand, managing to save it!

I've been using an AD 149 for the last 15 years. A very solid and reliable piece of equipment that I really love.

I had a similar problem with my 742 after a battery change. All of a sudden after the new batts were in it decided that it was a 900 series Tx. Called Zaxcom and got the secret menu reset code and voila. Apparently the 900 series is digital only. When this happened the Phantom Power menu dissapeared...which was my first clue that something was wrong. See if the Phantom Power menu is there...if it is you probably need to return to the mothership for a tweek.

I've been enjoying JWS much more since I blocked Senator at the beginning of the new year. It got to the point I just couldn't take it anymore. Every time I saw GREEN I started to see RED. Granted some of his posts are helpful but they are few and far between and his constant need to "police" this site is way over the top. Out of sight...out of mind.

+1 RPSharman. Getting tone is always a problem on set these days. I've found that many directors are approachable to the idea of not calling " cut " immediately and letting things roll for a few more seconds. Sometimes the camera dept gets on board and continues to roll as well or sometimes they quietly cut camera....either way you usually end up with some useable tone and everyone is happy . I always note these nuggets on the sound report and have scripty make a note as well.

Thanks for the review Bash. Unfortunate that your test day wasn't a bit more of a " howler " in terms of wind. Please keep us posted and let us know when a windy day test happens. Glad to hear the build quality is so good...I've always thought Rycote makes a good product and have been using their stuff for over 30 years.