Jump to content

Production Sound Mixer Cart/Workstation


indiefilm

Recommended Posts

If you look at carts in the gallery on this site you'll probably see that most of them have open fronts, which means there are no bars on the sides of the shelves. The widest gear I don't know, it always depends, but I would very much like to be able to remove bars on certain sections of the cart to allow for wider gear when I need to, and to be able to put rack width gear and attach that gear to the sides. I imagine that gear would be more or less permanent. 

Again, I'm not in the market since I now work in radio (and even so I do actually have a cart at work sometimes). 

 

In short, I want my imaginary cart to be very flexible. 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/22/2019 at 7:01 AM, indiefilm said:

which TV lift did you use? I was already thinking using that too if I decide to have that feature as electrically powered


It‘s either this one or very similar to it. It’s a cheap China import, I believe. It’s not ideal, though. It constantly draws a few amps and, worse, it needs 24V which I don’t usually have on my cart. Also, I couldn’t program it to other stop points, and they didn’t help with it, but you may be able to do it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Someone on this site had listed Tilta as being a cart manufacturer. According to Kennedy Fielding at their new LA store, “Unfortunately our Tilta film/steadicam carts are for our showroom purposes only and not sold for retail in any country.” I saw online where some were and may still be offered for sale to buyers in the USA, so buyer beware.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/8/2019 at 7:25 AM, Olle Sjostrom said:

If I were in the market (I work in radio, and though sometimes we do small OB gigs, it doesn't really warrant a custom cart. We have a sound cart though) I would like :

 

- a rack width frame, but it should be "open" so that you could attach bars with rack holes to shelves, I hope you understand what I mean. I'd like to be able to put rack width gear on one  section of the cart and have the cart be without bars on one section.

 

At what height do you want it to be able to be “open”? Also how large width wise does the “open” area need to be?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 I guess I mean I'd like the maximum width of the cart to be 19" so if I wanted I could mount bars where I could put rack width equipment, but also be able to take those "bars" ( sorry not a native English speaker so I probably am at a loss of words here) off if I wanted to put something wider in there instead. Depth wise I'm not really sure. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/15/2020 at 10:24 AM, Olle Sjostrom said:

 I guess I mean I'd like the maximum width of the cart to be 19" so if I wanted I could mount bars where I could put rack width equipment, but also be able to take those "bars" ( sorry not a native English speaker so I probably am at a loss of words here) off if I wanted to put something wider in there instead. Depth wise I'm not really sure.

 

 

I've never noticed you having anything but an admirable command of the English language -- unlike too many of our compatriots.  

 

A common term here for the rack mounting strips with pre-drilled holes is "rack ears."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, John Blankenship said:

 

I've never noticed you having anything but an admirable command of the English language -- unlike too many of our compatriots.  

 

A common term here for the rack mounting strips with pre-drilled holes is "rack ears."

 

I think "rack ears" refers to the panels attached to the left and right of the rack mountable gear  ---  it is the rack ears that provide the attachment to the rack RAILS. Rack railes of various sorts with standard spaced holes drilled and tapped are available  in steel (and sometimes aluminum) from Starcase and a few other companies. LINK to Starcase rack rails. Another good source is LMB Heeger (best selection of aluminum rack rails)

 

rack ears.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/14/2020 at 5:32 PM, The Immoral Mr Teas said:

 

Rack width? (19 inches) Or do you mean depth? (Available space backwards for big rack equipment).

 

Jez (guessing)

19” would be no problem. Larger than that would be tricky hence why I asked the question. I’m sure some mixers are wider but what percentage are and how many location sound mixers would need that I can’t know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Jeff Wexler said:

I think "rack ears" refers to the panels attached to the left and right of the rack mountable gear  ---  it is the rack ears that provide the attachment to the rack RAILS. Rack railes of various sorts with standard spaced holes drilled and tapped are available  in steel (and sometimes aluminum) from Starcase and a few other companies. LINK to Starcase rack rails. Another good source is LMB Heeger (best selection of aluminum rack rails)

 

rack ears.jpg

Thank you!
So yeah, Rails was what I meant. Detachable rack rails would be awesome.

And detachable sections too. I’m dreaming of being able to have one part of the cart, like the lower, contain rack width equipment, like receivers, batteries or the likes, and the top section containing the recorder and maybe some redundant battery powered receiver, so that the top section can come off and be put in a car or in a small space where you couldn’t fit the whole shebang. 
 

But on the other hand, now that Nova is out and can have 8 receivers in a bag, I might as well just take the bag.. 

(again, I don’t have any movie equipment any more since I work in radio nowadays, But if i were to invest in movie sound equipment I’d invest in Nova for sure, thus not requiring as much of a cart) 

 

But as a radio sound mixer, a cart is surprisingly useful. We do use a lot of rack width equipment and one VERY large mixer (still rack width but just impossibly heavy and cumbersome: Digico) and then another lovely small custom built called Seeport from a Norwegian company called Seem Audio. Anyway, a cart that’s customizable would be awesome, seeing as I, if I were to switch back to movies, would probably keep a foot in both worlds (? Again language, this proverb is a verbatim translation of a Swedish one.)

and want to be able to go back and forth between minimal setup and heavier setups...

 

On the topic off tipping over: I don't think I've ever had a cart tip over, even when I'm overloading it.. Maybe a slightly longer (deeper) base than the shelves would give some, even more, security. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Jeff Wexler said:

I think "rack ears" refers to the panels attached to the left and right of the rack mountable gear  ---  it is the rack ears that provide the attachment to the rack RAILS. Rack railes of various sorts with standard spaced holes drilled and tapped are available  in steel (and sometimes aluminum) from Starcase and a few other companies. LINK to Starcase rack rails. Another good source is LMB Heeger (best selection of aluminum rack rails)

 

rack ears.jpg

 

Good catch -- thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, John Blankenship said:

 

I've never noticed you having anything but an admirable command of the English language -- unlike too many of our compatriots.  

 

Thanks! I like to think I'm fluent, buy that's just in the spoken form.. Writing is a different beast... But I guess watching all those movies with subtitles really paid off in the end ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
On 1/19/2020 at 3:38 AM, Olle Sjostrom said:

Thank you!
So yeah, Rails was what I meant. Detachable rack rails would be awesome.

And detachable sections too. I’m dreaming of being able to have one part of the cart, like the lower, contain rack width equipment, like receivers, batteries or the likes, and the top section containing the recorder and maybe some redundant battery powered receiver, so that the top section can come off and be put in a car or in a small space where you couldn’t fit the whole shebang. 
 

But on the other hand, now that Nova is out and can have 8 receivers in a bag, I might as well just take the bag.. 

(again, I don’t have any movie equipment any more since I work in radio nowadays, But if i were to invest in movie sound equipment I’d invest in Nova for sure, thus not requiring as much of a cart) 

 

But as a radio sound mixer, a cart is surprisingly useful. We do use a lot of rack width equipment and one VERY large mixer (still rack width but just impossibly heavy and cumbersome: Digico) and then another lovely small custom built called Seeport from a Norwegian company called Seem Audio. Anyway, a cart that’s customizable would be awesome, seeing as I, if I were to switch back to movies, would probably keep a foot in both worlds (? Again language, this proverb is a verbatim translation of a Swedish one.)

and want to be able to go back and forth between minimal setup and heavier setups...

 

On the topic off tipping over: I don't think I've ever had a cart tip over, even when I'm overloading it.. Maybe a slightly longer (deeper) base than the shelves would give some, even more, security. 

Thx Ollie. I’ll see what I can do to accommodate these ideas. As for detachable sections, there are several on the market that basically split horizontally/vertically  into two sections. Is that what you had in mind or were you thinking of something more specific or different?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, it’d be great if you could be able to split one section at least: the top one, so that you can take it off for tighter locations. Sure, most people I’ve seen have a bag on their cart that they take off and lug around when they change to cars or whatever, but there could be a middle way with the top section, so to speak. Sometimes you might want to be able to just have that top bit sitting on a table or something. So the idea, for me at least, is to have all the essentials in the top bit and be able to take that off for tighter spaces.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...