[Tom Galli]

[Ty Ford] “You have been told how and why your thoughts will get you in trouble.”

You know, I really don’t understand the hostility here. Your response consisted of “Don’t do it.” David’s was “It’s a horrible idea.” Where is the how or the why in either of those?

[Ty Ford] “Even in theory, your idea will not work. “

See, again, you throw out a statement with no support. That’s not discussion, it’s browbeating. Why is the idea so offensive to you? The concept is to reduce ambient sound and allow for critical listening; how is this different from having sound isolation headphones, or working in a quiet environment?

[Ty Ford] “Please test it before the reality of it bites you it the butt and tarnishes your reputation.”

Yes, absolutely! I rely on tried-and-true methodologies. You’ll notice that I ran out and bought the amazing cans David mentioned.

I suspect that sound cancelling technology is immature, but it sure looks promising. If you were to have suggested, 20 years ago, that taking an in-line noise filter to a shoot was a good idea, you’d have been roundly scoffed. Now, it was your go-to response, and one supported by others. Why is it crazy to think that, 20 years from now, sound cancelling monitoring won’t be the norm?

[Ty Ford] “I’m not sure we can be of further assistance.”

I’m interested in discussion. Informed feedback. Maybe even someone who is experimenting with the concept. If all you’re interested in is telling me “no,” mission accomplished. Feel free to ignore my continued curiosity.

[Ty Ford] “That has been asked and answered. Please move on.”

Does it really hurt you so much to allow exploration of a valid question?

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

[Richard Crowley] “If you have tricked yourself into not hearing potential problems, then you can’t deal with them properly”

Now, that’s an interesting perspective. I’ll have to chew on that.

[Richard Crowley] “Noise-cancelling headphones WILL reduce/remove ambient repetitive noise from what you hear in the headphones. Unfortunately, that INCLUDES reducing/removing the ambient noise that you are RECORDING.”

See, I think a great many people misunderstand how noise cancelling headphones function. It is not like you seem to be describing. They’re designed to eliminate ambient noise, not noise in the signal. For example, when I travel, I have noise cancelling headphones. They do a fantastic job damping the noise of the engines and such, but still play the movie’s soundtrack perfectly. Even, and I need to be explicit here, even if that soundtrack has the noise of jet engines in it! The only noise being cancelled is what’s being picked up by the microphone built into the headphones, which is fed out-of-phase to the driver; no filtration is applied to the incoming signal.

That being said, it seems to me a lot to ask of a single driver to be doing 2 tasks at once, and I suspect this is why people complain about noise cancelling headphones coloring sound, which they most certainly do.

[Richard Crowley] “If you have not already encountered it, highly recommend this document which you should read and share with your producer/director/AD, etc.”

That’s an old favorite! I do love to forward it to directors when I work with them for the first time.

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

Thanks for the tip on the headphones! Mine arrived today. They definitely provide more isolation than anything else in my current inventory. They’re certainly comfy enough to wear for 15 minutes; I look forward to trying them on a shoot.

Still, even with 45 dB of isolation, I can hear the clickety-click of my keyboard as I type this, and the laughter of students in the classroom down the hall. Are my ears just more sensitive than average? I find that hard to believe; my youthful love of rock and roll has translated into middle-aged repercussions. My hearing is about average for my age, but I do have tinnitus. Even with hearing loss and tinnitus, these new muffs mark an improvement, not a solution, to the issue of “is it in the mix, or just in my ears?”

I’ll keep looking, but thanks again for the link!

Tom G

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

Aloha David,

I didn’t do any troubleshooting other than what I mentioned; there was no time! The theory of having two units on the same frequency crossed my mind, but the units had been in constant use together for a day and a half without issue, and were used together again later. I did check the batteries on the units that seemed to be misbehaving, but they were nice and strong.

I might have turned something off and on again, but I don’t recall doing so. Again, we were holding a scene while I tried to get things up and running, so “make it work” was priority one, and “figure out what happened” had to wait for a break. By the time the break came, the issue had self-corrected.

As far as people mucking about with the gear, I suppose it’s possible that the talent got bored waiting for her cue and decided to press buttons on the transmitter, but everything else involved was in arm’s reach: the recorder, the receivers, the unused transmitters. Seems unlikely, but if that did happen, then after I swapped mics on her, it should have remained mucked up until I discovered the problem.

I’ve got 2 full weekends of shoots coming in Feb with the same rig, so I’ll be setting it up before then and trying to duplicate the hiccup. I don’t like not knowing!

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

I acknowledge that reducing sound is part of the job.

Hopefully, you will acknowledge that removing all extraneous sound is impossible.

Whatever ambient sound remains, there are times I question if I’m hearing it because it’s in the mix, or because it’s penetrating the isolation value of my headphones and reaching my ears directly. This is what noise-cancelling headphones are specifically designed to combat. So, if I may ask again, why do you consider the use of such a “horrible” idea?

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

It’s funny to me how the replies are focusing on the generator. That was only the example from my most recent shoot, but it seems to be that, by its very nature, location recording means dealing with noise. Every time I’ve been in charge of recording audio on location, and sometimes even on a sound stage, at some point I have asked myself “am I hearing that as part of the signal, or am I hearing it because the sound is penetrating my headphones?” Clearly spending $3k on a filter for the mic will not change that question at all.

I do like the headphones you listed, and may well pick up a pair. Are they comfy enough to wear for a full day? They look like what I wear when I go shooting (the other kind), and those are definitely not comfortable enough for extended use.

What makes you say that noise cancellation is a “horrible” idea? This is the idea I’m interested in discussing. I get that there’s concern about the sound-cancellation circuitry inadvertently coloring the sound, but when the quest is for clear sound, is a little false color really a sin? It’s not as if I’m EQing in the field.

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

Create Multi-Camera Source Sequence is fine if it works, but it doesn’t work in this situation. This project is long, and my cameras break the footage up every 14 minutes or so. Over the course of this particular production, each camera generated 7 clips. These do string together seamlessly, but when I select all the videos and turn Premiere loose to create a multicam sequence, it actually creates 7 sequences. And, since the cameras aren’t electronically synchronized, the beginning and endings of the clips inside each sequence don’t align, meaning that the sequences can’t be strung together.

Just as an aside, I don’t have to “manually sync” anything; Premiere has that power, and usually does it pretty well. I let it sync the first clip from each camera, then just drop the remaining clips on the appropriate layer with Snapping enabled.

Trust me, if the automated approach worked, I’d use it. I never like to use 3 mouse clicks if 2 will do!`

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

Ok, I found my own workaround. In the nested sequence, I turn Linking off, then select only the video portion and enable multicam editing there. While this prohibits me from switching audio sources, in the case of this particular project, that’s just fine.

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

While that worked, what a ridiculously awkward thing to have to do!

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.

[Tom Galli]

That is amazing! This is a functionality I was not aware of!

The difference between theory and reality is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and reality.