S Harber

I seem to remember the IA 695 contract on location being 8hrs for sound. The other locals had much longer turnarounds ie DPs at 10 or 11 and ACs at 9 or 10. Not sure what the contract says in town. But from where I sit, we have a crap deal compared to every other local I've spoken to about it. Turnaround is also not a huge concern as it really doesn't cost much to the show. Maybe there's a liability concern and that may come into play in getting a things to be better planned. Bringing turnaround concerns up to producers in a civil way lets them know that you are attentive and not being a doormat. This attribute carries over into fighting to get what you need to record, mix and capture the performance. They get it, you get it and you need to diplomatically say that it's not OK but one doesn't have to be a whinny PITA about it. Talk to the other depts and approach things as a unified, caring, concerned group trying to have a decent life. Not as a greedy group of folks trying to get more money and I'm sure things will go the direction you want them to and they will respect you for it. Or not. Scott

Looks cool Percy. Smart and useful as we cobble together that same kind of rig in an a la carte fashion for our lavs and having the fur over the mic head really helps. Well done. S

I updated yesterday then loaded previous settings from a file recorded before updating. All went well but I had to deactivate the Remote Track Naming as it only worked in an additive fashion when using the CL Wifi for metadata rather than editing the SC/Tk. So every time I'd change a name it would only add on to the previous Sc/Tk name. Kind of confusing but I solved this by disabling menu 11-Remote Track Naming. Also, my usual take separator "T" that makes the Sc/Tk of file 101T01, went away and that isn't a place I would usually look for issues as it doesn't show up until you look back at the files. And... my previous recording medium of HDD and Ext HD had changed to Ext HD only. Once I went through it all VERY thoroughly all seems well. YMMV Scott

Try a mic on the underside for when the mics inside fail then at least you will have something. Keep in mind that heat rises for where you rig the mics and maybe some foil between the mics inside and the fuel will prolong the inevitable char. S

We're at Fox stage 11 for the next couple of weeks. Visitors welcome. Scott Harber on Wilfred

Rewired 3 Cubs so far and they seem fine now so.... hopefully it's solved. Thanks Larry

Hi Larry, Does that wiring work in a universal fashion? I still have a couple of UM200s and I really don't like the idea of certain mics working with certain transmitters so I've accepted the slightly higher S/N of the universal wiring. S

What exactly do you use in an insert car? 4 Mics A Comtek BST or IFB transmitter. Maybe a monitor feed? If you can't get that up and together in under 30 mins you better have great people skills. Go ahead and make some baroque floral build out of it but it doesn't help record good clear dialog. I love being at work and hearing about the previous yahoo who needed to spend a half hour getting their cart rigged next to a windy loud place in the back of the tow rig. S

Not sure how it used to be off hand but today we're wired; TA5F 1-Ground Wire and to Plug chassis-and series 560 Ohm to White Wire 2-Jumped to 4 3-Black Wire 1-3 Cap I went this direction with a bunch of COS11s which worked well and lowered the S/N from my previous wiring setup so I went ahead and did the same wiring with my CUBs. S

Based on how mine looks I think it indicates a late submission but the hours apply to when you worked. I'm not totally sure but that's what I deduced. That or those are days I had to run with Laetrile. YMMV

I've had that a number of times with SM, SMD, and SMV transmitters in both block 21 and 25. It's really only been there when I've been using Sanken CUB01 mic. I generally attributed it to RF getting into the element or ? This happens most often while using the CUBs in a visor in a car plant situation. I redid the wiring and it didn't resolve the phasing/flangey sound in general. Generally it goes away with another transmitter although I've never simply resorted to a repowering of the SM. ....and to boot, it is intermittent and totally arbitrary with different Cubs and transmitters which makes things super extra fun. Scott Harber

I've never understood the need to have the cart out there with the wind and the genie and all that noise. Seems like a bad place to make decisions on a mix. I live in the cab on a small OTS rig. Sets up quickly and helps me make informed decisions about what I'm hearing vs hearing things that may or may not be in the mix like wind, rattles, or gennie noise. S

If a director has ever spent much time editing they should know that they are tying their hands if they allow major overlaps which cannot be easily undone. I let them know that they are painting themselves into a corner and will have issues shortening the scene or changing the pacing of it in post. On masters I generally let it play out but when we push in I am much more apt to call out overlaps. I boom off camera lines as well so as to allow them to function as wild lines as well, this in addition to wiring most of the time to protect future impulsive tendencies of many actors and directors, but that's just how I play it. I find my role is more to let them know my opinion of what is cutable or problematic and what is not. They can then make an informed decision and do with it what they will. Scott Harber

For cart based work, seems like a JoeCo type system with different input modules ( AES, analog, Dante etc) would be a great development. Joe Co, as cool as they are, have shortcomings for metering and metadata input. A 1 or 2 RU box that fanned out to a fader/input controller panel (mix 12), w/ optional slotted ins/outs. I'd be interested in that. Not sure how that would play in terms of demand out there but the combos of AES and analog to get over 8 tracks always seemed goofy to me. I do understand how it got there as there is a constant battle with space and weight etc. I mix from an 01V so losing the analog ins would be a great solution from where I sit but we all have our own way of getting there. If there were a way to put 16 inputs on 2 d subs that could be changed from analog to AES, space would be saved and flexibility would be had. I'm not sure why no manufacturer has done this by this point but I'm sure there's a reason it's been not chosen as an option. Scott Harber

i use the 4071 lavs with the microdot cut out as it is a point of failure. A 4K resistor from the hot lead and you're ready to go. They sound great on the Lectros and rig nicely in the circular plastic mount. S

sound travels over 4x faster in water think about the array and it's usefulness and it just seems like an exercise in geekdom to me you'd have to jump through a lot of hoops to get something useable

Well... sound travels through water much faster than air due to it's higher density. Salt water even more so. Thus a mic array as such would be more approaching a single point source and would need much greater separation. Secondly, it would be a hearing the respirator above all else. Just to start with. S

the mic array defies the density of water and how sound travels but other than that.... engineering can be fun I suppose.

Does this not seem to be fool like? http://www.ambient.de/en/products/ambient-recording/underwater/recorder-housing.html http://www.ambient.de/en/products/ambient-recording/underwater/uw-surround.html Ignores some basic laws of physics and usefulness but.... I found it funny. Scott Harber

Hi Christian and thanks. We give the director the first pass in it's entirety staying out of all the cameras then tend to break the C/wide camera after 3 seconds or so after the 1st take and he can either push in or hose the rest of his shot. Thereafter, we push in and try to force the cameras in to singles and then start shooting the actual footage that gets used. The show gets about 3 passes of a scene on a take (18 mins or so) as the director is averse to cutting. We basically do about 2 series of takes per setup. A pain at times but it is working well as I'm testing out the Pix260 so the longer takes bode well as the metadata aspect of the recorder is still being sorted out at this point. We put a lav in Wilfred's hood and have loops sewn in to get the cable to his back. Nothing very special there. Jason/Wilfred has a fantastic voice and Elijah is a pro who is a dream to work with. They both have the chops to be able to deliver a quiet voice in a loud fashion as well as a thorough understanding of what works on the technical side. Being fairly egoless helps immensely as well. Sorry for the sidebar there everyone, but... I'm not a fan of the DSLRs and it's not my call (just to bring it back to the topic). S

Make an excel spreadsheet and leave it on a shared dropbox folder. Make a column with the roll # for CF and the various other columns for the places it gets copied to. When it gets copied there you put an next to it. Come on, it's not rocket surgery. S

We're now on season 3 of a show called Wilfred where we have been using DSLR cams for the run. It started with 5/7D Cannons and then last season moved to the Nikon as they leapfrogged ahead of Cannon in the chip dept for a while there. 3 cameras in play and it won the ASC award last year (not that awards are real arbiters of quality or success). Our methodology was to jam padded lockit boxes into the audio input and mark the shots with a timecode slate. They tried various workarounds as tests-Pix 240,Black Magic Shuttle drives etc. but nothing seemed to work like simply recording on the camera as there were delays in outputs that would have made folks crazy. That's how we do it on Wilfred. Scott Harber

Ouch. A stressful situation that you guys need to work out. My method of dealing with things like this are that the wide gets about a 20 second shot and then I move in and they have to work around me and my needs. The visual is nice but rarely tells the story like words do and they can always cut away from a hosed shot. You can't cut away from a run of good dialog but with 3 cameras they should always have somewhere to go if needed. Not to be snide but how would it be if you turned the tables and played back the sound of where you were forced to pull back out of shot in the middle of some great story beat? When working docs like this I always boom opening my body towards the side where the cameras are, then we can do a bit of back and forth with them when they need some headroom and I can see what they are trying to get. i've watched camera ops trying to get the attention of a boom when they are facing away and that will send them through the roof. Good luck and really work on the rapport with the camera ops as they will make your life and days ahead working either fun or painful. S

So for now I haven't installed the Dante card yet as I'm running both the 788T as well as the Pix260 from the AES16 card in and 01V96i mixer. I need to be able to record to the 2 machines while going through the paces with the new recorder for a bit yet and the 788T doesn't take the Dante format. In terms of delay though, the Dante doesn't pose any more delay than the other digital systems in play like AES or ADAT etc. That was part of the hitch, as I understand, with the Aviom rigs in the past but the Dante world is a different bird using the same cables. BTW there's a sale on the Dante Virtual Sound card software here; http://www.audinate.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=238 I personally haven't delved into the Dante world much but it's not far off for where we are in testing and usage. At some point, maybe next week, I'll start using Boom Recorder as my main recorder and run the Pix 260 via Dante as a backup. I don't have the cajones for that at this point though. Fortunately our present show's work style is to do very long takes, to the tune of 20 mins, where almost all scenes are shot in series. This has been helpful in allowing the slower pace of cutting, rolling, and the changing metadata to get ironed out. It's a great recorder with massive potential and I'm really excited to watch it come to bloom. S

Been messing with one on my show. Beyond very promising. http://o1v96psug.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=88&page=1 Scott Harber