Matt

Thanks for all the responses, guys. I just recorded Al Gore and got some weird audio at times with him. Almost like the diaphragm inside the Sanken was rebounding off the inside of the mic body. I'm thinking I need to send in my Sankens to be checked out if for no other reason than to put my mind at rest. Who handles that in the U.S.? Plus 24? The problem isn't intermittent so much as it is dependent on the sound of the voice being recorded. Women can get really ess-y with COS-11's pretty fast it seems. I found that backing the transmitter down has helped with the distortion problem SOMETIMES, but again, the meter on the receiver did not indicate that I was hitting the limiter at all. I hate the sound of the limiters and try to set everything low enough that they never come on. -Matt

But how will you develop the same warm relationship with talent if you don't grope up their pants leg? Once again, new technology comes between people . . . -Matt

I have been doing a lot of interviews lately, and would always prefer to use the boom. However, most of the rooms are pretty small spaces and have a lot of weird reflections. I find that the camera guys I work with don't want to see the lavs. In the worst situations, the lavs are not sounding good (talent is wearing polyester with lots of chest hair) and the room is very reflective. As I have pondered this, I have often thought about some sort of portable sound-proofing to help with the room to deaden it a bit. I was wondering how, if ever, the folks in this group deal with this. I've met guys who never treat any room with anything and just go with the acoustics, but for TV interviews, this can sound terrible to my ear. Too echo-ey. I've tried a sound blanket or 2, but they don't seem to really do much. I've also tried using a wider pickup pattern, but find this doesn't work out, because I am usually in such a bad location with traffic noise on the street outside, people in the next room, etc. -Matt

Hey Everyone, A friend of mine recently asked me this question: "So, on sketch comedy shows like the Mr. Show they will sometimes record the laugh tracks while the audience is watching the sketch on a screen. I guess they also did that for the exterior scenes on Fawlty Towers. So I was wondering how they managed to get the audience reaction without picking up the sound of the sketch playing in the background?" It got me thinking, and now I wonder how it is done. Anyone know? I assume they have a pretty quiet studio room for the audience to reduce reflections and use shotgun mics pointed at the audience. I still don't know that this would totally work. They surely have a PA playing back the audio from the video, but I never hear ANY bleed on Dave Chapelle or Mr. Show. It just sounds like a clean recording of a laugh track. Would it work for them to feed the audio signal into the audience mic mix, but flip the phase so it would cancel out? Or is this nutty? Thanks, Matt Hamilton

Robert, I have actually found that pushing the Sanken down into the rubber mount can brighten a dead sounding lav. On ENG or reality shoots, where EQ at the mixer is not an option, this can sometimes help with a muddy lav, due to position or some other mitigating factor. I don't push it all the way down into the mount, though. Usually, just pushing it in until the windscreen tip is flush with the top of the rubber mount is enough. So, do you always have the windscreen tip above the edge of the rubber mount? How do you deal with clothing noise? Sometimes, I'll put the mic element in the open-backed area of the rubber mount, turn this out toward the clothing, and tape it to the clothing with the rubber mount between the mic element and the skin, but open toward the clothing. However, this can still brighten the signal, which is not always desirable. But when I leave the mesh screen sticking out, it seems to have more clothing noise issues. -Matt

Hey All, I was using a UM400 in 200 mode with a Lectro 201 receiver and was getting distortion. I have not heard this with my other 201 system. All I can imagine is that there is something odd about the UM200 emulation on the 400 transmitter. It wasn't that it was getting limiter distortion, sounding squashed. It actually was breaking up and sounding like overload distortion. The receiver was showing the level just barely hitting full-scale, which should be okay according to Lectro literature. The 201 system was showing the same levels, and doing just fine. A few possible issues that may have caused it: 1. I had a Sanken COS-11 on a female in the rubber mount with the mic pushed into the mount (nothing sticking out of the top). Maybe the boost in high end was making it too bright and causing this distortion? 2. I have heard the system break up on S's before on women who were hitting their S's too hard. It is the high end in those cases. 3. Maybe the UM400 isn't matching up correctly with the meter on the 201 receiver? I don't know. Any thoughts? I couldn't get it to do it again after the fact. I tried yelling into it and everything. I am not using red dot Sanken's. -Matt Hamilton

This isn't exactly an "equipment" question, but seems to be important. How do you label your DVD-RAM or DVD-R discs? Do you use a Sharpie and write on the disc, or do you only use discs with the white surface for printing? There isn't a DVD-RAM disc with the white printing surface, so I'm wondering if it is safe to write on it with a standard sharpie. I'd heard that CD-R's don't like this and that the ink will eat through the disc eventually. Maybe it is all a myth, but thought I'd throw it out there. Would using sticky labels on DVD-RAMs be a bad idea? Thanks, Matt Hamilton

Hey All, I am working on a music video on Thursday, but the production team is from the UK. We are using 25 fps PAL TC. Do I need any sort of pull up with this on set, or is it true that there is no pull-up or down with the PAL format? They'll be providing the DAT with the TC, I just want to make sure I set everything up properly on the PD-4. A basic question, I know, but I've never dealt with this before. Thanks, Matt

On the Deva 5.8 I was using, the UDF option does not even work anymore. Does anyone know what version of DV-40 firmware is required to read FAT 32? Or does it not read it at all? -Matt

Hello, I just got a call from post saying they can't read my Deva 5.8 DVD-RAM mirror discs. I formatted FAT 32. I had previously sent this same house the same thing, and they had no problems. Now, they insist that their DV-40 is having problems reading the discs. They say it has something to do with the version? They say everything they are getting is on DVD-R discs these days. Have any of you run into this? Why can't they just use an external computer drive to read them? What gives? It is my understanding that DVD-RAM is still the de facto standard for production work as a deliverable media. Is DVD-R starting to take over? Any help is appreciated. -Matt Hamilton