[Craig Alan]

Ok let me rephrase this is the pm55P the best PM55 model for this purpose. It seems to have more features than the previous model and that’s fine but want to make sure it serves my primary purpose for its use.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks again. The pm55 has been replaced with the PM55P which they say is stereo.

A typical set up for us is one boom mike to input one output left channel from the SD 302 to input 2 on our camcorders. This produces dual mono recorded to the media card.

Any problems with this for a mono mike. It has a switchable stereo/mono 1/4″ monitor input jack. But we are using xlr.

Unless BH just doesn’t sell the right model?

https://www.rolls.com/pdf/M_PM55P.pdf

MONITOR LEVEL: Adjusts the level of the incoming signal from the Monitor Input.

But that won’t change the pass thru levels right?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Sounds good. I’ll go with the PM55. It does pass thru the phantom power from the mixer, correct?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks so much Richard. Big help.

The poles are used by a lot of people and the coiled cables end up getting hopelessly twisted. But I like the ones where you can use a straight cable that comes out the bottom side of the pole so the boom op can rest the foot down. Plus easy to switch out cable.

Yes I was leaning toward the first solution for a number of reasons.

The mm1 looks good but does this effect the gain to the audio mixer? I’d rather the boom pole operator left that to the audio tech and instead just be able to listen what they are picking up. How’s the battery life on the rolls? I want either a separate xlr going to the boom op or a passthrough to the audio mixer and just a headphone amp for the boom op. Does that make sense?

So do I have one length xlr from the mike to the rolls and another from the rolls to the mixer? Or split the xor from the mike so the headphone amp and mixer each get one?

I’m not looking for a boom cradle. Just a way to rest the boom when the team is taking a break or getting a visual only shot.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Todd and Bruce. I contacted them and they are going to send me samples of their different gaf tapes. I asked them what the different items amounted to. I gather some are stronger and some leave less residue but they also have different lines and it wasn’t clear to me which was the best quality. Most likely pro gaf line. I’ve ordered these in the past. I’ll check what brand got ordered when i get back to the studio. Its also possible the rolls I have got subjected to too much heat. Its not like it doesn’t work but it does leave residue beyond a short amount of time on whatever i am using it on.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

very old thread but wondering how the sonnet made out. in the market

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Well ran memtest with three passes in single user mode and it passed. So still left with owc enclosures in which my new drives fail at certify and/or crash the Mac. Same thunderbolt cable as Pegasus. Next I will try a Pegasus populated with the same drives and see what happens.
This is the same behavior I was getting with my 2011 iMacs and the owc mercury dual raids. Now it’s three different owc enclosures/dock that does this. These drives pass smart check.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

The end game is the same.The UI has a lot of components that are the same. You may not prefer connected clips but it takes almost no time to get. If you don’t like magnetism then you haven’t learned the position tool. Trackless is different and I can see not liking it and I can see learning to use it in complex edits, if you have already learned to use tracks, could be a difficult learning curve. But mostly I don’t find experienced editors saying that it was a hard learning curve as much as they didn’t like it . Early on they may ask if they are missing some aspect or operation that would allow them to work the way they were used to working. Well with the position tool the answer is yes. But if you want the equivalent of tracks, you start learning stuff about secondary storylines and using gap clips to place a sequence at a fixed location, compounding clips, etc. And yeah that is trickier than transitioning to another track based timeline. But easier to keep audio in sync not harder. And the reason that you needed tracks has not gone away. You are still editing multiple layers of media for a project that will appear as one linear timeline.

And if they really want to learn it rather than just say its not for them, then telling them they must embrace FCP X way of thinking is not helpful. What is helpful is asking “what specifically do you want the edit to do” and then give directions of one or three ways to get it done. FCP X still has traditional use of layers like all visual apps from photoshop to AVID. The top layer dominates the visual. You can set opacity to allow lower layers to create a composite. or just as a way to cut between shots while keeping a consistent audio track. Same as all NLE.
So the real difference is how to manage those layers without tracks. My take is with a limited number of layers FCP X is easier and faster. With more layer, its more difficult to manage or at least not as obvious to manage but doable.
Deal breakers are missing features not a different interface.

One thing I love about X is I have never found an edit that I couldn’t find tutorials on on line and if I was motivated and had the time could learn. In some ways this is Apple legacy. Apple users “share” more. But please don’t cal an export a share. Its just condescending renaming a universally understood operation. If you want to upload to Video fine. But if someone doesn’t know what an export is they will not know what a share is.

[Scott Witthaus] “I see new users “getting” FCPX faster than “track-baked” editors if they try to make X work just like PP or MC.
“

I don’t doubt this is your experience; but my guess is, they are going back and forth between different NLEs, and not spending as much time in FCP X.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Worse case FC lets you navigate to the folder where you put the clips. It handles the rest. Basically just select import in the event in which there are off line clips. Then choose your finder folder where those clips are stored. It imports them and you do not loose a single edit. The relationship between FC and the mac Finder is truly great. No need to be afraid. Also if you want you can chose consolidate and put the original media in a different location.

Highlight the library and in the inspector choose consolidate and navigate to the library or any new or old location you desire. Pretty cool. Always good to have card copies stored elsewhere.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

[Scott Witthaus] “Four of the six Premiere users commented that X was much better for them (I found myself defending Premiere!). “

Yeah it also points to what I find: that people that know how to edit have an easier time learning FCP X then people who don’t. Liking it depends on their workflow and needs.

[Scott Witthaus] ” Apple has done something very right and I hope they continue to support the software.”

That’s my concern. Will they? And their secretive nature is not helpful. And their history for EOLing stuff without more communication and support is troubling. Imagine if they had released FCP X by saying up front that it was a work in progress and although they would not continue to update FCP 7 they would add support for new codecs and that 7 would work on the same system drive as X and 7 would work on the next several OS releases. (which actually turned out to be the case). Sure there would still be this debate but it would feel certain that going into FCP X was the path of the future and would remain supported. I still think Apple could improve its respect by being more transparent and communicative. $300 was a lot of money for a beta release. $300 for every release up to the latest version has been the greatest deal in NLE history. But no way to know this. In fact I paid for a site license to keep OS X and FCP X up to date only to learn by years end that I paid for nothing cause both, Apple decided, would be for free. They gave a partial refund starting on the date that they made that decision. Not too generous considering it was a school. And it took I can’t tell you how many phone calls to get it since no body at Apple knew. And then they gave it to the entire school system and I never got it for my program, even though it was grant money that paid for it.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.