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I had read in the Adobe forum somewhere recently that CS3 is NOT designed to run on a 64-bit OS. If it does run, it probably can’t address more than 3GB RAM. I would take this with a grain of salt, but applications being what they are, I’d tend to believe that it’s true.

Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

https://www.basspig.com The Bass Pig’s Lair – 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
https://www.mwcomms.com
https://www.adventuresinanimemusic.com

[Accountclosed]

It’s important to note that on a 32-bit OS, only 3GB of RAM can be assigned to applications, with the /3GB switch in Boot.ini on Windows. AE CS3 can use up to 3GB of RAM if this switch is in place and you have 4GB physical RAM installed. 1GB goes to the OS kernal. This is a limitation of Windows 32.

Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

https://www.basspig.com The Bass Pig’s Lair – 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
https://www.mwcomms.com
https://www.adventuresinanimemusic.com

[Accountclosed]

I suppose the SM answers to someone, but I need to tread somewhat lightly too, as this is an orchestra I have been wanting to work with for two years and have finally been hired to cover this concert this fall.

The cameras have to be completely out of sight and we have no problem doing that–we’ve done that at nearly all of our concerts, excepting an outdoor one we did in 2005. There’s a trap door in the back of the stage backdrop which opens up for a camera to peer through at the conductor (camera 3). That opening is 12′ up. I have rigged up a mini tripod to operate a smaller HD handycam style camera that just fits that space.
Stage left, by the percussion and behind the violin section is camera 2.
Up in the balcony is camera 1. They usually have me set up at the end of an aisle, off to one side. They are completely anal about compliance with fire marshall’s regulations about blocking aisles and so forth, so I can’t usually get a good center aisle location up against the railing–I’m always told to park off to the side. Not optimal, but works.

I’ll have to discuss this new concert with the SM anew. We’ll start fresh. I plan to be firm about the mic system and say “this is how it is”. I do sense that the orchestra would cancel my contract in a heartbeat if the SM says ‘no’ to my microphone setup. They treat him like some kind of god.

The idea of paying a bribe doesn’t sit well with me. I know it’s done in some cases, but still, this is a professional situation and they are not government officials. 🙂 The venue is not far from NYC, but I much doubt that NYC politics is involved.

I’m not getting paid a king’s randsom to do this job, as Classical music is not a tremendously profitable industry in this part of the country, but I am getting some invaluable benefits plus advertising in their program guides, to say nothing of the tremendous value this concert will add to my portfolio/demo reel. Our audio recordings are already highly-acclaimed.

I’m composing an e-mail to the SM, with some questions and requirements to fill, and I will be including a photo of the mic grid, with it’s flight requirements (elevation and distance to FoH).

Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

https://www.basspig.com The Bass Pig’s Lair – 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
https://www.mwcomms.com
https://www.adventuresinanimemusic.com

[Accountclosed]

Hi Peter,

Tbank you for your perspective on this.

I can safely state that our rig will be flown from above, WAY out of line of site to the orchestra–even for the balcony, so that’s why I think the SM is overboard. Last time we discussed recording, he balked at the size of our mics! He said they were too big. I asked what he had in there when the classical station recorded and he described some pencil-thin mics, flown from above. I gather there were just two thin capsules, hung at left and right over the stage.

My rig is a metal grid 14″ x 32″, with five large diaphragm condensers mounted under it, all precisly positioned and locked down. The rig is meant to be flown 16′ above the stage floor and at the front edge of the stage. If this is just below the front row of curtains, it should be unnoticed by anyone but the audiophile who actually looks for microphones as a hobby. 🙂

Meetings are rather hard to arrange. I had been having discussions last year via e-mail and had sent a photo of our mics back then and that’s when I got the first indication of how finicky they are over there. The mics are too big?! We’re talking something the size of a U87 here. From 100′ away, that’s barely an eyesore.

We’ve already contracted with the orchestra and while I would not actually walk off the job, I may be inclined to tell them to find someone else to record if they are going to require such a compromise as to jeopardize the quality of the audio pickup. And the orchestra Chair did tell me the radio recording wasn’t very good at all. I won’t have that happen, as it’s my reputation on the line here. It’s to be done MY way, or not at all–not in my name. That is my dilemma.

Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

https://www.basspig.com The Bass Pig’s Lair – 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
https://www.mwcomms.com
https://www.adventuresinanimemusic.com

[Accountclosed]

I use the Zoom H4. For critical weddings that include a choir, organ and/or piano, I plug in a pair of studio condenser mics into the H4. The sound quality rivals my big, expensive multitrack recording system. Ease of use? It couldn’t be any easier.
TIP: get NiMH batteries from Maha Battery for it. I use the 2700mAh cells and they run this beast for 5-6 hours easily.
It records 44.1, 48 and 96KHz. I use 48KHz for video projects.
File transfer via USB, quick & easy.
Highly recommended!

Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

https://www.basspig.com The Bass Pig’s Lair – 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
https://www.mwcomms.com
https://www.adventuresinanimemusic.com

[Accountclosed]

I wouldn’t buy the Sony V1U for it’s jacks, given that the audio frequency response of it is “dumbed down”. See https://aamserver.dnsalias.com/basspig/HVR-V1U_PCM_Audio(DV).htm for the actual response tests.
In other respects, yes, the V1U is quite good–as long as you plan to use studio lighting and have the levels at at least 20KLux. The stronger the lighting, the crisper the images. V1U shoots great outdoor footage on a sunny day, but indoor results vary. Normal room lighting is not enough, as the picture gets soft and noise increases to intolerable levels for a professional production. But this is somewhat true of all HDV cameras.

Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

https://www.basspig.com The Bass Pig’s Lair – 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
https://www.mwcomms.com
https://www.adventuresinanimemusic.com

[Accountclosed]

The weirdness just keeps coming…

Okay, I figure, let’s keep it simple and create a NEW project. Import some SHORT clips from preexisting media, and it should appear on the timeline, right? Nope! Pulling in some 30-second clips of existing media, to a new project, and dropping them on the timeline. There’s no HD activity after importing, but the clips eternally have “Media pending” screens.

So then I figure, why not try capturing NEW footage. So I capture a minute or so of new footage off the camera. By the time I close the Capture window, I can see the footage image is already in the bin–no Media Pending messages. It drags on to the timeline and plays well too.

So the problem seems to be that all preexisting footage is no good anymore. All of it. I can play all this footage in Media Player, but Premiere chews on it for a few minutes then the video never appears.

This is one of the biggest “head scratchers” I’ve ever run across. I’ve spent my entire Labor Day weekend eating, sleeping and importing projects on this machine, trying to find a common thread behind all of this. Just when I think I got it figured out, something else proves me wrong, and I’m back to square one, having not a clue as to why footage I captured yesterday won’t load, but footage I captured 60 seconds ago will load. It seems that every time I move the Media cache, all those prior footage files become “no good” and I can’t get them to load anymore–not even into a new project. Heck, I even renamed the footage, thinking it was permanently marked in some hidden database, but even with a new name, it still won’t load and appear, ever.

I got off the phone around 9:20 this evening after speaking with the client. Her photographer apparently didn’t take ANY good pictures at her daughter’s wedding and she’s upset about it and is asking me if I can find any of these types of shot compositions on my video. But I can’t even get her project to load at all, and not even individual clips into a new project. I’m at a brick wall now and can go no further.

Software shouldn’t be this easy to “break” beyond repair. Out of dozens of theads on a dozen forums on a Google search, not one has found a solution for this problem. I can’t run a business on software that works on Wednesday, then refuses to load any footage prior to Wednesday, after rebuilding the system drive on Friday. This is just insane. I’ve waisted what–seventy hours on this troubleshooting–that in addition to the forty hours I spent editing the wedding to near-completion. All I was waiting on was the music from the client, and this project would be on a DVD the next day. So close… yet so far now. Looks like I’ll be installing Vegas in the morning, and Premiere Pro 1.5, just so that I can capture, convert and encode using my trusty CinemaCraft encoder. What a huge waste of time this was. And it’s my fault for daring to make a client a guinea pig by doing their project on a new system without six months of testing on in-house and volunteer video projects first. Never again.

Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

https://www.basspig.com The Bass Pig’s Lair – 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
https://www.mwcomms.com
https://www.adventuresinanimemusic.com

[Accountclosed]

If you’re not running a 64-bit OS, then the amount of RAM available to AE will be 2GB on Windows XP and Vista 32-bit. If running a 64-bit version, then this won’t be an issue.

For Windows XP, you can add a switch to boot.ini to reallocate an addition GB of RAM to applications. It is the /3GB switch and you can Google to find the Microsoft KB article on how to do it. The default is 2GB to apps, 2GB to OS kernal. Windows XP addresses up to 4GB. Part of that address space is your graphics card memory and virtual memory swap file. If you have 4GB RAM, you don’t want a virtual page file, as it will prevent Windows XP from utilizing all your RAM. The /3GB switch will increase RAM available to AE. You can see how much RAM is available on startup of AE.

Additional RAM on a 32-bit OS goes unused because of the 4GB address space that 32 bits can address.

Take care,

Mark & Mary Ann Weiss

https://www.basspig.com The Bass Pig’s Lair – 15,000 Watts of Driving Stereo!
https://www.mwcomms.com
https://www.adventuresinanimemusic.com