Jump to content

JW Sound Cart


Jeff Wexler

Recommended Posts

just to get things going, here are two images of my sound cart (not very good photos, sorry). Monitor is a 10" Xenarc, Audio, Ltd. 2000 quad box next to it, Deva IV below that, Sound Devices 744T and then the Cooper 208. What is not seen is the new Mac Mini behind the Xenarc (that 's because it isn't there yet), the Cart Power Supply at the bottom of the cart that runs all the equipment.

post-1-130815074341_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

jeff, i see you have the deva and the 744t - i dont really know much about the deva, but it IS a recorder, correct? what do you use the 744t for? is it a backup/extra tracks option? thanks, tim

The Deva IV is the main recorder. I was the first on the West Coast to use the Deva (the original Deva I) and that was 8 years ago. This ushered in the era of non-linear production recording, now becoming the standard way of doing things. I have done 16 feature films this way and I am quite pleased that this method of recording, first represented by the Deva, is now the norm. Sound Devices (a really good company that has built many outstanding products) came out with the 722 and 744T machines and I had to have one. It is a 4-track, full timecode non-linear recorder, that records to an internal hard drive and a removeable flash memory card. I have it on the cart, for now, as an additional recorder --- not really as a backup to the main recorder or for additional tracks. I like having the SD 744T on the cart to be able to record things which I do not want to necessarily have on the main production recordings; things like sound effects, interesting ambiences, a scratch voice over track, and so forth. These are usually things that I will not have to turn in on a daily basis, and it avoids having to confuse people by turning them in as part of the main production recordings.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mr. Wexler,

  Thanks for starting the site.

   You mention that the Sound Devices is not your back up recorder;  which device do you use?  Another deva?

  Also, your cart looks very simliar to many computer studio racks.  Oh I'm not knocking it, I just wonder who made it and how was it constructed?

Sincerely,

Jonathan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mr. Wexler,

  Thanks for starting the site.

   You mention that the Sound Devices is not your back up recorder;  which device do you use?  Another deva?

  Also, your cart looks very simliar to many computer studio racks.  Oh I'm not knocking it, I just wonder who made it and how was it constructed?

Sincerely,

Jonathan

I don't actually run a backup recorder per se. If the SD 744T is on the cart and I do go into record with it at the same time as I do the Deva, then I guess it could be considered a backup --- but I don't always do that (andthe 744T isn't always on the cart). We have had lots of discussions on our r.a.m.p.s. newsgroup about "backups" in general, and I will state again what my feelings are. Brief history: I did run my ever so reliable Nagra 4.2 as the main machine when I first used used a DAT machine (as an experiment, well before anyone had used any DAT machine in production). I continued to use the Nagra for 3 movies, having demonstrated that the DAT could be the main machine (but I still wished to have a backup Nagra recording). The DAT format and the machines that used it did not prove themselves to me to be so reliable I could go without a backup of some sort (unlike the Nagra that had proved itself year after year --- no one ever talked about a backup recorder). So, I ran 2 DAT machines and was saved on several ocassions by running 2 machines. When I used the very first Deva, I continued to run 1 DAT machine as the primary machine until the Deva proved itself. The first Deva show went relatively smoothly and the reliability of the Deva proved itself to me in the first few weeks of use (and no Deva has let me down, ever, in the 8 years of my use with both the Deva I, Deva II and now the Deva IV). Up until about a year ago I continued to run a DAT machine on the cart but not as a backup for potential failure of the Deva, but rather out of necessity on the few jobs where post dailies operations were not quite ready to deal with non-linear (but sound editorial was thrilled with having non-linear file based 24-bit audio from me). Running the DAT machine also served to "backup" potential faiilures in the dailies process at times where a facility had claimed to be up to steam but were in fact woefully inadequate to deal with sound files.

My present sound cart (and the two that preceeded it) is based on a design originally from Michael Evje, an old friend who has since retired from the business. He was the first to think of doing an upright cart with sliding shelves, providing a lot of space, vertically, for the equipment yet occupying a small footprint. I built all of the carts myself with a hand drill and a hacksaw (not exactly the proper tools but I don't have access to a machine shop). I did all the work except for the bits of Heli-Arc needed and the Powder Coat paint process.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Greetings Mr. Wexler.  Great forum!

With the Xenarc on your cart, have you been able to run it in it's native 800x480 with the mac?

I'm looking into building a mini-based Metacorder rig and in my research it seems that this resolution is not attainable on a Mac without some serious tweaking.

If not, what resolution do you use and how does it look?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As for the Xenarc, you are quite right about the various resolutions not being a very good match when using it as a computer monitor (and I believe this is the case with a PC as well as the Mac). I have not yet used it as a full time monitor for the computer as I do not yet have a Mac Mini riding on the cart. I did do several hours of testing with my PowerBook (which has true dual display capability) and by playing around with the various resolution possibilities provided by the Mac display panel, I was able to find one that looked pretty good...  not great but serviceable. I will have to hook it up again to actually document what I arrived at. I also played around with the few setting options there are on the Xenarc (Wide, Extended, Normal --- aspect ratio stuff --- and some of that tweaking helped as well). My feeling is that once I get it as good as it can be it is stilll not going to be terribly good, but there is no other monitor that I know of that can do as much: 2 video inputs, split screen, picture-in-picture, full screen video A, full screen video B, VGA computer monitor AND touchscreen. So, we'll see how it goes.

-  JW

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I did do several hours of testing with my PowerBook (which has true dual display capability) and by playing around with the various resolution possibilities provided by the Mac display panel, I was able to find one that looked pretty good...  not great but serviceable.

You may find interest in this:

http://www.macvroom.com/node/36/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You may find interest in this:

http://www.macvroom.com/node/36/

That's a fantastic resource for dealing with the resolution display difficulties with the Mac Mini and small VGA displays. Thank you for that. Anyone interested be prepared for a very detailed description of necessary display configurations (and software utilities needed) but the people at MacVroom (I think that is their name) have really done all the hard work.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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...