Simon Paine Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 I've got a project coming up, where they are talking about recording direct on set, straight to a couple of laptops running FCP, through the firewire output on the high def cameras. (2 cameras) Does anyone have experience working this way ? I was trying to think of a way to send audio straight to their computer, instead sending audio out to the camera and having the firewire signal send it back to there laptop. Anyone know what the audio out would be through the firewire ? 16 Bit ? 48khz ? Aes ? I'll probably still record to my 744t, as a back up, or maybe as the master tracks. It seems like this workflow will just invite more possible problems, especially if we have to rely on 2 computers on set. I guess we'll see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Sounds like a hvx200 shoot. Feed the Cameras, record the real mix to your recorder. Get t.c. slates. Let us know. CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael P Clark Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 I just finished a job with Varicam feeding a FCP system and I sent the Audio to the camera only. If you try to feed the computer directly I would expect some sort of delay between your audio and the picture being sent via FW, wouldn't you? Send your feed to camera. Check that tone is good on the computer throught the FW, and let them figure out the rest. Oh, and gobo the computer fans or tell them to move away from the set. It seems nobody can hear the computer fans when they are setting up, and they want to be close as possible to the camera, because the firewire cables are only 10 feet long:) Makes me think of the last few jobs I did where I had a computer getting a feed from camera(digitizing on the fly), a projector shooting images behind the 40+ "man on the street" actors(2 at a time), and the AC decides he wants to set up his battery charging station 5 feet from the T marks. Needles to say I had blankets everywhere. Anyone else notice computers becoming set peices, and how close they are getting to the set??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptalsky Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 I agree with the above - send the audio to the camera. If it is an HVX setup, be prepared for lots of card swaps. I have always treated these as roll changes - and have had the AC stop by my cart and pick up a CF chip (with pc card adapter) so they can dump both the P2 card and the audio for it together (and then bring the chip back to me immediately after). I still burn everything to a DVD at the end of the day, but this seems to make them happier in post. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 Hey Phil et all. I have shot with the HVX and the P2 cards a number of times, but it never occured to me to down load with the P2 cards. Of course with a Deva I couldn't do it your way, but I bought a SD744t not long ago and I could in the future. What is the advantage other than more back up since your audio is already with the picture, in doing it in this manner? I guess it's 24/48 file might be an advantage, but thats what my dvdram is for in my mind. I might be overlooking something in your method. Thanks CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael P Clark Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 "I guess it's 24/48 file might be an advantage, but thats what my dvdram is for in my mind." This poses another question. Since the HVX200 is a 16 bit recorder, shouldn't the 744t be in 16 bit mode? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptalsky Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 Hey Crew, What I've found is that the HVX projects I've been on they use the camera audio for a scratch/matching/dailies track, and use my recordings as their primary audio. As such, most of the editors I've worked with have asked me to give them audio on the drive with the video files together, and since it is really no skin off my nose, that's the way I do it. I still turn in a full DVD too, but I'm finding more and more that P2 types of projects they want major redundancy (especially since there aren't any tapes you can roll back to if a drive crashes). And, again, since I work on mostly low-budget projects, they are often confused at first by iso recordings so anything I can do to make it simpler for them, the better. As far as 16 vs. 24, I still run at 24/48 since I'm not overly concerned with matching the camera audio. The HVX internal recording capabilities seem to cause lots of confusion, so I basically tell them to just use it for scratch, and use my separate recordings instead (this came after I had a director call me and yell at me once after the first day, when he was watching the dailies and hearing the "always-on" camera mic and thought that was my recordings). It always amazes me how much education I seem to have to provide on the projects I work on (and always very delicately lest they think the dumb sound guy is actually trying to tell them something about the camera). Anyway, a little venting and hopefully a useful answer. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted February 9, 2007 Report Share Posted February 9, 2007 Hey Phil, thanks for the clarification. I whenever possible have been feeding my mix back into the HVX/DVX or whatever the camera we are using. This seems to be productions only concern, and they don't really get why I record it as well. You are lucky in my book to be shooting double system, to me it is the right way, and is usually a much better track than using the onboard mic line pre's and A2D to import your good audio to a lesser format. Also we/me in LA commercial production almost never talk to an editor prior to a gig, and only after if there is a problem they want to blame on sound. As to teaching sound to production people, well I guess thats our Groundhogs Day. CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Paine Posted April 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2007 Just an update on this. Running direct to FCP on set never happened. They wanted to use 65 foot firewire cables with signal boosters. I told them i didn't think you could reliably go that long with a firewire cable, but who ever listens to the sound guy ! So instead they are using Firestore drives on the back of the cameras. They take the firewire out of the camera (Panasonic 900) and record on to there hard drives. We can get 110 minutes on them. I send a rough mix to camera/hard drive as a backup. They also roll tape aa a picture backup. But they are using the files from my 744t as the master audio. Actually, the 744t saves the day for post on this one. Because there is no way to name the files on the firestore hard drive, post is using my audio files (with scene name ) to identify what timecode corresponds with the picture. That way they can quickly link up picture to audio, without having to play each individual picture take. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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