Ron Shook
Forum Replies Created
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Charles and Rick,
[Charles] “Just to add a bit of clarification to an important part of the puzzle. The audio connections from your sound card to your amp or speakers should most likely be: 1 mini-RCA plug for the front, 1 mini-RCA plug for the rear, and one for the subwoofer. Then you need to configure your Vegas hardware settings accordingly. Don’t try to listen to 5.1 from Vegas with a Toslink digital connection to your speakers…..it won’t work.”
Oh My! I just start to look forward to lowering my cable count from the rat’s nest of component and S cables and surround sound pushes it in the other direction. This is gonna get a little complicated and I’ll fantasize how to do it with what I have and you tell me if I’m on the right track.
I currently have available to my system a sort of cobbled together 5.1 surround system that sounds just short of audiofile. It consists of a mid-sized JVC surround receiver, a couple of JBL mid-sized studio speakers for L&R Front, a couple of small mid-sized Polk Audio speakers for L&R surround, a large mid-sized very clean European center channel speaker, and a relatively inexpensive self powered Yamaha 10″ subwoofer (I have no interest is rearranging my guts with heavy bass.)
What I contemplate using for monitoring in production/pre-encoding surround sound is using the JVC surround receiver in stereo mode to power the L&R front, my previous but still good Sony stereo receiver to power the L&R surround, and an amp that I have squirreled away somewhere that has at least one good channel left in it for the center channel. (Speaking of the center channel, is that usually doubled with the subwoofer channel on the sound card?)
Good so far, but it leaves a gapping question. I don’t want to string dual sets of speaker cable and I’ll want to continue using this system to listen to encoded surround as well. Can I simply loop the surround and center channel speaker wire from the two extra amps through the speaker connections on the surround receiver? Will I risk damage to the surround receiver if I do this and thus need to put in A/B switches on the speaker cable? Are there Rat Shack or other A/B switches for speaker cable if this is necessary?
I hope enough others find this informative enough that I’m not overstaying my welcome.
Ron Shook
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Rick,
Thanks for the succinct answers,
[Rick Mac] “Vegas has a downmix button that allows you to listen to your 5.1 mix downmixed to your stero speakers. Work much the same as a stereo to mono switch.”
Pretty Nice! I’m impressed!
Ron
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Raymond,
[Raymond Motion Pictures] “1. A pop-screen is mandatory!”
It depends on how you place the mic. I’ve used a short shotgun for VO for years with excellent results, plenty of compliments and never a need for a pop-screen. I put the mic on a stand with boom to one side and over the talent and aim it at the mouth from slightly in front, slightly off vertical axis above the talent. Talent is always looking slightly down at copy and breath pops are never a problem. In other words, place the mic as if you were close booming from above.
Ron Shook
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Thanks Wil!
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[jgravat] “I’m don’t know much about uploading videos online or about video compression, so i appreciate all the help i can get.”
You’re liable to get all the help you need from Aharon’s complete DVD at an introductory price through the end of the month I think:
https://training.creativecow.net/dvd_store/dvd_storecartcode.html
Ron Shook
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Gene,
Thanks a bunch! Just what I needed to know.
[Gene Colburn] “You need to use the interpret footage function on import.”
Since I don’t know the app, this is the only thing that’s a bit unclear to me. At what stage does this “interpret footage” function happen, during capture, in the bin, or on the timeline? I’m sort of assuming that it’s in the bin, so it would be logical to keep the two different footages separated in different bins? Can I assume correctly that this function can applied globally to any clips that are selected at one time? I don’t want to assume anything if possible. (g)
Could you or anyone else clear up this point?
Thanks,
Ron Shook
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Teecee,
[teecee] “I am about to hock my first born and go to Dell and order the fattest machine I can get…If “you” had an unlimited budget and no sense, what would you buy???”
If I had no sense, I’d go to Dell. (g) I’m speaking to the entire thread here. You don’t feel comfortable doing the whole roll your own thingy like John suggests, and if you don’t feel comfortable, don’t do it. But do consider rolling out parts of the system, like storage, monitors, and perhaps the graphics card on your own.
What do most of the top flight NLE integrators use? Not Dell I assure you, but almost exclusively HP because HP workstations are certified nearly unanimously across the board by PC NLE manufacturers be they Avid, Adobe, Grass Valley, whatever. They are rugged, quiet, AMD or Intel, have the space for certified expansion, and have been working directly with the NLE manufacturers for years. Look there and don’t load it down with periferals, because you can always do that more inexpenively yourself. You mention both Vegas and Adobe apps. The Dell might be a little cheaper than the HP and fine for Vegas, but not necessarily for Adobe with extended hardware like Axio.
I’ve been a roll your own kind of guy for years, but I’m thoroughly sick of it, and if I had your budget I wouldn’t even think about it.
Good Luck,
Ron Shook
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John,
[John Frey] “If I have a cameraman available, it’s another assignment. If they go longer, then the client pays the extra hours. Most of our scheduled shoots are full day rates and part of a project contract.”
If what you saying is that you don’t book these tiny gigs significantly ahead of time but take them “catch as catch can,” then I have no problem with this approach. It just wasn’t clearly that from your original post.
[John Frey] “My studio locations are not in large cities.”
That does make a difference. In large metropolitan areas it’s not hard to find User Clients (our earstwhile leader, Mr. Lindeboom, would call them “grinders”) who will move from production company to production company screwing as they go, and with 3 or 4 degrees of separation in the production community cutting a swath for some time before they run out of real estate. In small city/town situations where there are only 1 or 2 degrees of separation, it doesn’t take long before no one will work for them.
It all goes to show that you can’t generalize too far when it comes to rates and rate structures.
Ron Shook
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John,
[John Frey] “For a 1/2″ 3 Chip Pro camera, operator, wireless mic simple shoot we start at $125/hr. with a 2 hr. minimum. $95/hr. for Canon XL1, Sony PD 170, etc. Day rate is usually 8 hours for the price of 7.”
I don’t grok this hourly rate thing. No one with any experience does that sort of thing in my neck of the woods (midwest-Chicago). How can you book a 2 hour shoot that leaves you with so little after travel and most of a day used up, when the next client may very well want a full day shoot on the same date? How do you deal with the users who push you to shoot continuously in the hot sun without time for even a drink of water with the pee running down your leg, to keep it under 3 hours?
Mike’s approach and rates make much more sense, assuming he’s talking about a 1/3rd”, 3 chip DV shoot:
[Mike Kujbida] “Experienced shooters in my area with a 3-CCD camera get around $600 per day.
A half-day rate is typically 2/3 of the day rate so that’s $400.”The most in demand shooters here don’t even bother with a half-day rate. If they shoot they get their day rate. Of course everyone makes exceptions for the clients that regularly help you make your monthly nut, but it seems like you’re just asking for trouble by not demanding a day’s recompense or at least 2/3rds of a day’s rate for a short day that gives you a breather.
Ron Shook
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JD,
[jdwilkin] “my read on the Sony HDCAM EX is that it will only offer 25MB/s HDV. Hope I’m wrong.”
I’m almost positive you are wrong. When it comes out, it will have the 35 mb/s XDCAM codec, while the shoulder mount big brothers will gain a 50 mb/s 4:2:2 new codec. If it doesn’t, it’d probably be a bust without a tape transport to service standard HDV.
Ron Shook