Peter Ralph
Forum Replies Created
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standalone waveform monitors are expensive. Most of the time a WFM is unnecessary – you can rely on the levels meter and headphones. But with a loud band a WFM can help to identify problems you might otherwise miss.
a laptop and an inexpensive usb pre-amp also give you extra recording channels – which is what you need. The mix from the sound board is used to reinforce the sound from the stage not substitute for it. In a small venue the drummer is often not miced at all.
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more careful prechecking definitely.
For music (especially loud music) you need some good isolating headphones and a waveform monitor. Most NLEs have WFMs built in so a laptop works well. In this case the level problem would have been obvious if you had checked the meters on your cam.
You cannot rely on DJ/sound mixers to give you the levels you need. Many times you will get a line-level feed from a board – you can control the levels using pads and the settings on your transmitter and/or XLR adapter.
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no motion settings are at default – good tip from Blub – but even when dragging the position of the cross-hairs is offset from the matte positioning points
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i use a griffin imic or an maudio mobile pre for XLR mics
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google royal camera – they are a rip-off. No retailer can undercut B&H by more than 10% or so.
More pertinent is wether a major price drop is imminent for the VX2100 and PD170.
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it depends on the camera and personal preference but outside in bright sun the lcd may be useless so don’t ignore the viewfinder. Most of the smaller camcorders are designed to be used with the lcd, there seem to be very few design concessions oriented towards using the viewfinder.
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a dimmable light with barndoors is a good investment. If you can afford it a lighter battery belt (not lead acid) is something to look into
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the real problem with the hands free transporter for weddings is the top speed – 20mph max
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the difference between the stability of light and heavy rigs can be apparent even when mounted on heavy duty tripods. An old article in DV about the making of a sony commercial using a sony handicam explained that they had to add 80lb of dead weight to the head in order to get smooth pans.
But there is a big difference in what passes for smooth on a 15″ monitor vs a movie screen. I doubt you will find the smooth-shooter lacking in that regard. If you run a lot at weddings you might want to consider one of these:
https://www.handsfree-transporter.com/
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Yes – I agree. It’s kind of like data errors. Type 1 are unrecoverable, type 2 can be corrected unless a bunch of them arrive at once.