Bob Woodhead
2
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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First off, let me say thank you for your input on the question, I really appreciate your time!
Pana HPX500, btw, and I try not to use AGC, but sometimes the limiters.
>>I’m sure there are mixers that offer four discreet outputs and faders, but I don’t know of any high grade portable ones. You’re not really mixing then. Your chasing levels to four discreet tracks. How do you monitor those four tracks to get any semblance of a stereo, mono or split track mix?>>
Exactly – I like the ability to NOT mix them, if I have 4 sources or less. Gives me more freedom in post. For example, I’ll use FinalPlug on those people that have too wide a range of levels, and it’s much easier when the tracks are fully split. I suppose it would help the conversation to state that almost 100% of my work goes through post, so unlike news, I’ve time to tweak it later.
Monitoring – now that’s a fair question… I’d hope for solo channel monitoring and mix out.
**OR**, am I approaching this wrong, simply because I want to use all 4 channels of my camera?
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Not trying to be difficult (really!), but my mics mostly have rolloffs and the camera has assignable limiters on each channel.
What I’m trying to find is a field mixer that can be used simply to ride the gains for each of 4 channels going into the camera. I’ve searched through the regular players, and haven’t found this ability.
Is this an oddball request? I’m certainly not an “audio person”, so perhaps I’m missing something?
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Yeah, **pre** fade out. But wouldn’t it be better to be post-fade, so your audio guy rides gain on the inputs before it hits the 4 channels of the camera? Otherwise, why even bother with the mixer? (Which is what we’re doing mostly now.)
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Yeah, looking specifically for post-fade outputs so audio guy can ride gains & monitor 4 mics prior to hitting camera. But still something in a field usage configuration.
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Yep… in the past week I’ve shot: DV25, DV25 16:9, DVCPro50, DVCProHD 720 24fps & 60fps. Not an unusual week. The SD 16:9 shoot, waned some nice slo-mo, so flipped to 720/60fps, dropped it into the SD 16:9 timeline, smooth as buttah.
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Once you get the workflow down, the many advantages of a tapeless system are **usually** worth way more than any added hassle.
The two main times tapeless is an issue are; 1) extended travel in remote locations where power is at a premium and 2) long duration records.
On the P2 plus side; 1) shoot 20 different formats with the same camera & cards 2) multiple frame rates & instant playback 3) “buffer” recording – never miss a shot 4) no preroll 5) metadata 6) user clip names, ready for editing 7) instant editing, right off the camera, and “push” the edit back to the camera for HD-SDI output 8) delete bad takes 9) shoot some on a card, hand it off for editing, keep going on other cards, “edited” card comes back empty & ready to go (not like 10 minutes recorded on a 30 tape) 10) no log & capture 11) no log & capture (yeah, I’d rather watch it non-linearly) 12) no dropouts 13) no head clogs 14) no condensation on the heads 15) oh yeah, NO HEADS TO REPLACE 16) well, OK, NO MOVING PARTS 17) yeah, I could go on, but I think you get my point.
“Constituo, ergo sum”
Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500 -
Card size: you didn’t mention the most important criteria – shoot format. Directly affects duration: DV – 4hr, DV50 – 2 hrs, 720/24pn – 3 hrs, 1080 – 1 hr? That answers your card choice. Unless you can guarantee offloads as you go, get cards to cover the day.
Has the P2 Store been upgraded to a much larger HDD? If it’s not up to 300-500GB, forget it. Use an external RAID1 (mirrored) drive array & P2CMS (Panny app) to offload your cards. That gives you the fastest 2 drive backup. I’d get a really nice Pelican case for it, with that much travel. That’s been my approach for the last 10 months. Search on my name for much longer discussions of workflow. Have fun with your new tool!
“Constituo, ergo sum”
Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500 -
FYI, just bought a new Diva 400, and it now has a 2/4 bank switch, and the spare tube case holds 6 instead of 4.
“Constituo, ergo sum”
Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500 -
“Home Cheapo flo bulbs” = @ Home Depot/Lowes/etc some of the florescent brands have Kelvin temp printed on ’em… I sure wouldn’t call that gospel, but find it gets it close enough to what I’m looking for (either 56K or 32K).
As for mounting, I wired up a plain socket to a standard plug, using individual 12 gauge leads, bit of a gap between the leads. Pop open china ball, put metal spreader for china ball through power leads (that holds up the ball, which weighs nada), screw in flo’s, hang lead opening over arm clamp, into Mafer on arm end, whatever. Cheesy? Yeah, but the whole affair only weighs a couple lbs.
“Constituo, ergo sum”
Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500 -
And the next thread down talks about using electrical conduit or PVC as a cheap frame. When you’re at Home Cheapo, also look for some plastic alligator-toothed clamps, about 3 time the width of C-47s, but same length… they’ve a hole at the end to thread a cord through… work great for stretching out any diffusion in a frame. Think they’re called tarp clips.
“Constituo, ergo sum”
Bob Woodhead / Atlanta
http://www.CoolNewMedia.net
Quantel-Avid-FCP-3D-Crayola
Panasonic HPX500