[Sam Mallery]

If you don’t have the cash to drop on more hardware right now, you could get by for now with a Y cable like this:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/160631-REG/Hosa_Technology_CYX_403M_Stereo_Mini_Phone_Male_to.html

You insert the mini-plug end into the speaker output on the back of the Mac Pro. The XLR male ends would plug into the input on each speaker. You control the volume of playback as you would normally, with the regular volume controls on the computer.

That cable would be handy to have around in the future if you ever ended up without your hardware at some point.

A good tip for Genelecs & good studio monitors in general is to put them at ear level. Instead of resting them on your desk, prop them up so that your ears (in your sitting/working position) are halfway between the woofer and tweeter. I own Genelec 8030a’s and at first I didn’t have anything to raise them up to this level at my desk. When I did later the sound improved dramatically. Glass bricks are good blocks to raise them up with.

Enjoy! Genelecs are wonderful little things.

[Sam Mallery]

Gee whiz. I did read the entire string. I offered my two cents because your advice was simply NO with a link that did not provide any information as to why you said it can’t be done.

[Sam Mallery]

It’s obvious that they put both XLR and RCA to give the user more input options. I’m not sure what you’re disagreeing with.

[Sam Mallery]

I’m curious what Adam suggests.

I see what you’re saying, Ty. I’m not an electrician. I guess there is some danger in connecting cables from device to device to device. The fact that these are modern day nearfield monitors with RCA inputs on them would lead me to believe that the designers likely foresaw that the user may plug multiple things into them, and therefore have some kind of functionality in place to handle this scenario.

Patrick, are you aware that you can use your Digi interface as your computer’s default soundcard? Click on the Apple and go into System Preferences > Audio > and then select the Digi hardware as the output. This way you can listen to iTunes through your monitors as well as your DAW.

[Sam Mallery]

I just read through the product description and I didn’t see anything that stated that this would not work. I would give it a try. You won’t be damaging the speakers.

If it doesn’t work, there are products made for controlling the sound sent to monitors.

Cheap:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/422072-REG/Behringer_MON800_MON800_Stereo_Matrix.html

Better:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/526345-REG/PreSonus_MONITOR_STATION_Monitor_Station_Desktop_Studio.html

[Sam Mallery]

You guys should petition to have Creativecow shut down this forum. Your attitude about not being able to learn anything from an internet forum unless you pay a stranger $500 doesn’t really seem to suit this place. Why post here if your craft is so exclusive and the possibilities of shared information on Creativecow is so futile?

[Sam Mallery]

Thanks guys. The kit just arrived. I’m going to take my time reading through the manuals and stuff before I plug anything in.

Mark… what you’re saying is to position the softboxes two times the length of their diagonal size away from the talent? So if my softbox is twenty inches wide, I should place it forty inches from my subject, and adjust from there?

Bob… that’s a good idea, providing the lighting person is the type who likes to share information, and is a good teacher. The trouble is that I really bought the best kit I could afford, and I won’t be able to hire anyone anytime soon. I’m not an audio guy who wants to transition to other fields, I just want a complete set of equipment to make my own productions.

Thanks for your words.

[Sam Mallery]

This reply is a year late, but what are you going to do???

The CS1 and 4053a are both good mics. For interior booming, I think you’d be better off with the 4053a. For working outdoors, you’re going to be better off with the CS1 (providing that you have proper wind protection).

The CS3e is a great mic and it really shines in certain situations. It has excellent noise rejection, so in a shoot where you are booming in a noisy area, it’s likely the finest microphone made for this job.

I imagine one of the reasons that the Sanken CS1 is more expensive than the Audio Technica 4053a (besides the fact that they’re very different microphones) is that Sanken is a smaller company, and more of a niche company. Audio Technica is owned by a much larger corporation, and likely have means to keep costs down that a company like Sanken does not. This does not mean that Audio Technica isn’t a great brand, they’re equipment is always dependable.

So, I would say that ultimately you should have both of these mics. If you were to only buy one, I would get the 4053a. It’s a little more versatile than the Sanken, and less expensive.

[Sam Mallery]

So I layer them on top of one another in the Viewer itself? If I drag both clips into the Viewer, one after another, will this work? Do you mean double click them when they are in the browser?

I never have much luck when I experiment with the Motion stuff. It’s probably the least intuitive part of FCP.

Thanks for the tips!

Sam

[Sam Mallery]

Thanks again Chuck. I’ll seriously consider giving this a go.

I just got this email from Macwireless.com:

“Hi McBoob,
We have cards, boosters, and antennas that would help, but you may want to try this first.