Seth Bloombaum
Forum Replies Created
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Find out which producers and production companies are serving this market in your area and hit the road with your demo reel – sell to them.
Only the largest clients will employ specialists directly, and those that do will keep them forever or until they screw up. Rarely do they experience overflow needs that cause them to look for additional talent.
OTOH, producers and production companies frequently are dealing with availability and capacity issues, as well as trying to find the right designer for a new client.
In my experience widening out what you do and who you serve will help smooth out the peaks and valleys.
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BetaSP is FM analog, not digital – the same rules don’t apply. It’s a longitudinal stripe on the video tape.
Back in the day I would set 0 to 0 and usual peaks at 0 or a little lower, instantaneous transient peaks sometimes over 0. Granted, I was a little more aggressive than many others. A more conservative approach is to set 0 to 0 and usual peaks to -3, transients to 0.
Do listen to a little playback. If you’ve never heard what a peak over 0 sounds like in analog you should acquaint yourself with it.
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MPEG2 is not a codec packaged with WMP. You’re probably used to looking at DVD or MPEG2 content in WMP, but the codec would have come from WinDVD or PowerDVD or one of the other DVD players commonly packaged with DVD drives, especially with OEM bundles. Now that (almost) all PCs are sold with DVD players with bundled software for viewing, this usually isn’t an issue.
Assuming that you’ve seen this file work on other machines, the playback PC needs a codec.
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> Although, I would like to get the two input receiver…
It does look good. Note that the newer receivers cover 4 UHF channels, eg. if your older Sony is a “68” which would be Ch. 68,69 in many of the newer receivers you’d buy a “66” covering 66-69.> I like the Sony 77, but would love to try out the mini lavs. Have you compared them at all?…
No, I’ve not. The little DPA, Sennheiser, Sanken and Countryman all have good reputations but I’ve not had to get that small – 77s and Trams have been small enough for me, and sound good too 🙂
Perhaps someone else on the forum has experience with the micro-mini mics.
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Sennheiser 100 G2 is the value leader.
Sony 800 series UHF is a strong performer.
Lectrosonics UHF is the best, Lectro digital is the creme de la creme.If your sony wireless are 800 series you’ll do well to get them repaired.
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1) Really accurate audio monitoring in your edit suite. You need studio reference monitors to tell you what’s really going down. If you don’t have them you’re just shooting blind on EQ and compression of your field recordings as well as your v/o.
2) Forget the stick – you need a decent large-diaphram condensor mic and a pop-sheild if you have a good narrator and want to hear that in the mix.
3) Learn what to do with eq and compression. You’ll do it on the Mac, not with outboard equipment. (sorry, no Mac software recommendations, I use Vegas on the PC)
4) If you’re hiding your lavs under clothing, realize that means a whole lot more work in post. See #3.
5) Monitor all your audio in the field with good headphones. Play with lav placement while you’re listening to it.
6) Get in-person help from a sound professional in the field and/or studio. They earn their money by getting good sound, and can help you with all of the above. Even if you bring a pro in for just one shoot, one VO and one mix you’ll see if what they do is within your reach. If you establish a good relationship they might be happy to set you up for post (do pay them dayrate for this) plus first call for your more difficult shoots.
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Ya’ the reason the Gentner or similar is nice is that you can patch the producer’s return audio into the cue/headphone mix (if you have such capability on the mixer).
Why? For most producers, it’s not just about approving the read, it will quickly become directing the read.
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There’s just about nothing you would use the MPEG-1 codec for these days except maximum compability between PC and Mac for video supporting powerpoint.
If finishing a project for layback to tape, you’d render to avi, DV template.
If compressing for DVD, you’d use MPEG-2, DVDA template. Then, there are some tweaks to the DVDA template…
If you’ll answer the following questions, you’ll get more specific help:
What is the nature of your source material – what was the content, what format was it shot, how was it transferred to the PC?
What format are you trying to get to? (tape, PC playback, DVD, do you have DVD-Architect or using some other tool?)Hardware/software issues on rendering – I’m not too sure. Perhaps you could give a few more details on the settings you used for the MPEG-2 render. Have you restarted your PC recently? Where is the temp directory for Vegas set to, and is there enough space on that disk? Have any large renders been completed on this setup, or is this the first?
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Regarding work for hire, I think we’re all projecting the common practices of our specialty art or craft in our industry onto others’ specialties and industries. “Work for hire is always bad or even predatory” is meaningless if not offensive when we come to the video and other media specialties supporting corporate communications in the U.S. FYI.
Likewise, many outside of it are unaware of the common industry practices regarding preservation of copyright to pro photographers in publishing, advertising and portraiture.
It took several messages for the issue of “fair and reasonable value” to come out in such a way that I understood what we were talking about. I think the reason is that we’re all like fish swimming in our own sea – we don’t usually see the water we’re swimming in, nor imagine that it’s different anywhere else.
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Generally, yes, lots of people like the dbx driverack series.
It’s particularly popular for biamp applications, because it incorporates a crossover as well as room delay, eq, and compression in a single rack space.
However, for a single channel of non-delayed audio all you need is two rack spaces for an eq and compressor/limiter (and some don’t use compression, but I do), and you get real knobs to twist and sliders to push, which makes config much easier and more direct. And you won’t hesitate to adjust during a show if needed. (with a dsp you’re always hesitant to dive through levels of menus while the show is on).
But those are just my biases – lots of engineers love the driverack stuff.
Don’t know who to send you to in the DC area, but someone here does.
Thanks for the words on your sound background – I’m just a little hesitant to turn over the car keys to someone who’s not gone through drivers ed…