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If you could design your own gear, what would it be?


Sara Glaser

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Hi everybody,

I was catching up with a friend of mine the other day who happens to be a manufacturer.  His name is Danny McKinney and his companies are Requisite Audio & Standel.  I know him from my music days.  Anyhow,  Danny makes great gear.  Requisite has mastering quality limiters, pre-amps, and cables for sale.  Danny's also been working on some moniters and he also has thoughts about boards.  Standel, of course, has been around for ages (Danny bought the company) and offers amplifiers that guitarists seem to love.

You can check out both companies at http://www.requisiteaudio.com/

The point of this is that while talking with Danny I asked when he could make something I could use as a location sound mixer.  His first thought was cables.  Knowing Danny's cables this is not at bad offer.  But we kept talking and he's the kind of guy who wants to come to a set to see how we work because that's a major factor in whatever he designs.

So the question of the day is:

What are some of the things you might want to see developed?  Or if the gear already exists what changes would you like to see made?  What would make our life easier?

I thought I'd open this one up because I'd like to know what the interest level is.  I know quite a few of us design things on our own because we can't find it elsewhere.  So let's hear some ideas and if enough people are seriously interested maybe we can take it from there.  Who knows?

Okay, open the floodgates:)

Sara

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It is interesting that you should ask this today because after the Yamaha O1v class I started designing my own mixing panel (in my head of course, has not progressed any further than that). Many of us have designed and had built lots of different things, everything from adapter cables, add-on accessory gear, mixing panels (less common) and of course sound carts.

My thoughts on a mixing panel were to try and come up with an analog panel that allows me to do the things I would now need the Yamaha, or some other digital board, to accomplish. I know this is not exactly on your topic and I also know that in today's world of mass produced consumer, pro-sumer and professional gear, often designed for the home studio/music market, my plan is financially unviable.

When I get the chance I woud like to anwer your topic's question but most probably on a somewhat smaller scale...  maybe starting with cables as you suggest. The other thing to consider is that we all have different capabilities on our own to do some of these things. I have know brilliant sound mixers who know next to nothing about even basic electronics (and would surely injure themselves if they ever picked up a soldering iron) and I also have known sound mixers who could personally design and build almost every piece of equipment they might want to use in their work.

-  JW

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He owns Standel?  Can they fix a 1968-vintage "Imperial"?  The first decent solid state guitar amp. 

Otherwise, location sound gear is a crowded and contentious field, without the possibility of moving large numbers of units.  I'd encourage him to study the successes of Sound Devices and Zaxcom, two relatively young companies whose gear has become industry standards overnight.  What did YOU ask him for?  A high-quality, DC powered, very flexible audio DA?  Some kind of Mark Ulano-style Aviom-type CAT5 distro system to eliminate snakes?  Perhaps a smaller, lighter, DC powered version of the latter, more suitable for people with rather less elaborate setups than M.U.'s?  Some kind of fast, easy foolproof docking station for recorders like the 744 that makes pulling files off and burning them to DVD easy, fast and painless?  An add-on for popular portable mixers like the SD 442 or the Cooper 104 etc that would allow them to have full audio DA, multiple boom talkback and monitor etc etc......

good luck to him

Philip Perkins

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My thoughts on a mixing panel were to try and come up with an analog panel that allows me to do the things I would now need the Yamaha, or some other digital board, to accomplish.

-  JW

Jeff,

A little of topic but...

Personally I don't think that I would ever go back to an an analog mixer.  However, I was at a Post NAB event where the new Sonosax mixer was being shown off by Pierre Blanc from Sonosax.  I couldn't help but appreciate what a good job Sonosax did in making their new board's routing and some of its other features' flexibility about as close to a digital board as an analog one could ever get.  On top of that it just looked like a work of art.  Very impressive engineering indeed.

That being said, it still offered a lot less flexibility than an 01v96 and was approx 10x the price.

Best,

Darren

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He owns Standel?  Can they fix a 1968-vintage "Imperial"?  The first decent solid state guitar amp. 

Otherwise, location sound gear is a crowded and contentious field, without the possibility of moving large numbers of units.  I'd encourage him to study the successes of Sound Devices and Zaxcom, two relatively young companies whose gear has become industry standards overnight.   What did YOU ask him for?  A high-quality, DC powered, very flexible audio DA?  Some kind of Mark Ulano-style Aviom-type CAT5 distro system to eliminate snakes?   Perhaps a smaller, lighter, DC powered version of the latter, more suitable for people with rather less elaborate setups than M.U.'s?   Some kind of fast, easy foolproof docking station for recorders like the 744 that makes pulling files off and burning them to DVD easy, fast and painless?   An add-on for popular portable mixers like the SD 442 or the Cooper 104 etc that would allow them to have full audio DA, multiple boom talkback and monitor etc etc......

good luck to him

Philip Perkins

Hi Phillip,

Call him about your Imperial.  Danny loves vintage gear (the whole reason he bought Standel in the first place) If he can't fix it, he would probably be able to point you in the right direction.  You can get in touch with Danny through either the Requisite Audio site or the Standel site.  Email and phone number are both listed.  Here's the link for the Standel site contact page.

www.standelamps.com/support/contact/index.html

Requisite Audio is a high end "Boutique" style company that operates out of Danny's home.  Everything is hand-made and overseen by him.  I'll take that kind of quality in any piece of gear any day.  Besides, I've used his gear before and it really comes down to me wishing that I had something from that I could use on location.  Pure selfishness:)

We tossed around the idea of a duplex cable & box, various cables, a mixing board, he mentioned monitors so maybe some headphones that aren't Sony's are a possibility, at the moment I can't remember what else.  However, I was just feeling him out while catching up.  On the other hand, I am quite serious about taking him up on this.  So for me personally, I might want to start with Danny's cables since he's already developed them.  They would of course, need to be modified for our uses.  However, while those were being used he could be developing something else.  That's why I asked for everybody's thoughts on the matter.

Sara

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I second Philip's suggestion: "An add-on for popular portable mixers like the SD 442 or the Cooper 104 etc that would allow them to have full audio DA, multiple boom talkback and monitor etc etc......"

Maybe an add-on box that is adaptable to any ENG/EFP form factor mixer that would make it more at home on a cart.  Along with what Philip suggested, I can see this little magic box having extra multiple isolated outputs, especially some mic/line switchable outputs that can select either channel one, channel two, or both channels -- good for things like video assist feeds, Comtek feeds, etc.

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Hey Sara, can your friend build a cell phone zapper that I could use to vaporize all the people on the sets I work on that feel they must make or take calls when we are rolling. I think this could become a hot selling item.

Regards

Old School

Don't I wish!!!  Actually, I dropped by Danny's shop with John Evans today.  Johnny usually booms for me.  Anyhow, we were talking to Danny about redesigning the duplex box in multiple ways along with the cable and headphones.  (Danny is also a cable designer.)  The boom op's headphones would have a little microphone like those hands free headsets attached to one ear.  This would serve as a dedicated talk-balk/PL too the mixer that could function through the duplex box.  That way when John's hands are in the air he can still communicate with me.  Also, volume control that John could set himself on his duplex box.  We were looking at some 7-pin mil-spec connecters that lock for the box and cable.  3 for what we're recording, 2 for headphone return, 1 for Johnny's TB, and 1 for a dedicated PL from me (or another mixer).  I know we have other ways of having a PL but I thought it would be cool to incorporate it into the box.  Then we started talking about phantom power in case Johnny needs to go wireless.  I started talking about wanting a better headphone where I don't hear the set (just what I'm recording) and we kind of went from there:)  Imagine that:)

Any comments , suggestions, or ideas?

I've got some homework to do (flow charts, pictures, etc.) before I check in with Danny again.  But I told him I posted on this forum and he's interested in hearing ideas.

BTW, Phillip, I told Danny about your Imperial and he can definately help you out and would be more than happy to.

Cheers,

Sara

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Sara, if you haven't already you should check out the products from Remote Audio that Glen Trew has designed. They have a boom cable system with talkback, custom headset with boom mic, isolating headsets and so forth. I am not saying these are exactly what you have in mind but you should see what others have done with many of the same goals in mind.

http://www.remoteaudio.com/

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Sara, if you haven't already you should check out the products from Remote Audio that Glen Trew has designed. They have a boom cable system with talkback, custom headset with boom mic, isolating headsets and so forth. I am not saying these are exactly what you have in mind but you should see what others have done with many of the same goals in mind.

http://www.remoteaudio.com/

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

Thanks Jeff,

I'll check it out.  Btw, what would you design?

Sara

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