[Ty Ford]

If local RF is turns out to be the issue, using the Neutrik EMF suppression XLR connectors has worked here for blocking client iPhone induced RF into a mic cable.
https://bhpho.to/3o7an5k
Maybe try a pair on one cable….
Oh! and another anecdote! Peabody Conservatory’s BIG transformerless input console, a Sony I think, was having problems. Preamps were blowing out. It was found that the very long mic lines leading to the console from the concert hall were long enough to pick up stray voltages. They solved the problem by putting transformers in front of the mic inputs on the long lines.

[Ty Ford]

Hi Mick and thanks for reaching out. Thanks also to everyone who responded. It’s been a bit quiet here. I appreciate your thoughtfulness and effort.
I’ll add another weird possibility. The video you provided — and thanks for that! — reminded me of a situation in Boston some years back after the install of a new DAW. In that case, the timing was very cyclical; like every 10 seconds or so. It was eventually found that the new studio’s location on the third floor of the house, put it in the way of a Boston Airport radar tower some miles away that was sweeping for air traffic.

Regards,
Ty Ford

Cow Audio Forum Leader

[Ty Ford]

check out Hive Lighting – https://bhpho.to/3dfF1Vf

[Ty Ford]

Hello Craig,

Thanks for noticing. there are two parts of good acoustic design, exterior noise abatement and interior acoustic design. Exterior noise abatement is about keeping outside noise out. The physics for that involves DID – Density, Isolation, Density. You need at least two walls separated by as much isolation as possible. The home I bought 22 years ago had that. It’s a brick rancher.

My studio is in the basement and the basement is 3/4 below ground. Lots of dirt to stop the exterior noise from hitting the foundation walls. Someone flushes the toilet or the trash truck comes by and I have to wait. Fortunately, those sorts of things don’t happen very often.

The room is 25′ x 35′. I don’t have a booth. The entire room is my booth. This allows a large space for the sound to travel. In doing so, it runs out of energy, Inside I use both diffusion and absorption to control reflections.

Think of sound as a moving visible force, like a pool ball on a pool table. Throw the ball down the table and it will continue to roll, bouncing off the bumpers until it runs out of energy. Sound is similar. It continues to reflect until it runs out of energy. Your job is to be able to hear the reflections and put up stuff to either absorb or diffuse as needed. With a pool table you only have two dimensions, length and width. With sound you have three dimensions, floor, ceiling and walls. Too much absorption and the room can sound spongey, especially if the room is very small or you’re very loud. In essence, you excite the foam and can hear it vibrate. Diffusion helps there by breaking up the sound waves into smaller, less energetic waves that can then be better absorbed.

I do consultations with clients in which they send me sound files recorded at their site. This is helpful because if your room is ringing or has other problems, you can’t always hear it during playback because the room is also ringing and exhibiting other problems during playback.

[Ty Ford]

Hi Jason, I agree. Dialog usually stays in the center channel. I do some mixing for an Edgar Allan Poe podcast. I use panning because we don’t have a picture and it helps to separate the characters. I seldom go hard left and right, but I do pan.
It sounds like you don’t trust your guy. That’s a nasty feeling. Perhaps he could direct ou to something he’s done on Youtube or Vimeo to make you feel more comfortable.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Cow Audio Forum Leader

[Ty Ford]

Hello Jason,
Sounds like what you have is a “failure to communicate.”
Sounds like your hearing is more sensitive than his. He may have some hearing loss and may need to have the volume up to hear what he’s doing.

“While watching with two of my producers, we had a difficult time listening to some of the characters speaking.” Your comment is not clear to me. You say the volume of the dialog is too loud, but you have difficulty listening to it. Please explain.

Tell him about the Vimeo issue and see what he says,
The distortion you refer to sounds like there may be some gain staging issues.

I do not know your system and/or what problems there may be with it (or not.) Does everything else sound good on your system? Listening on other systems is always a good idea to sort those issues out.
Can you reach out to another sound designer?

Regards,

Ty Ford

Cow Audio Forum Leader

[Ty Ford]

Jacob,

The simplest answer would be to boom the shots. An AT4053b. Do you currently have a boom mic. Boom mics are more COVID friendly.

Also, as a resource, there’s a Buy/Sell forum on JWSoundgroup. https://jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/forum/23-want-to-buy-want-to-sell/

Regards,

Ty Ford

Cow Audio Forum Leader

[Ty Ford]

Bonjour Jacob,
Location Sound is a deep rabbit hole, but here goes.
I don’t know what kinds of projects you shoot, I use Sennheiser G2 and G3 and Audio-Technica System 10 (https://bhpho.to/36iCPuO).

WISYCOM, Polsen, Saramonic and Rode and a dozen or so others make wireless gear also make low end wireless systems. https://bhpho.to/3jdY1Fz
There are generally three different RF bands, 500MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.4 GHz.

I don’t know the t.bone gear either. The one point I see in their literature that causes a question is that they say 24-bit, 44.1 kHz resolution. That’s virtually impossible in the 2.4 GHz range without data compression. How much data compression is used determines the quality of the audio. The other side of that equation is latency. How many milliseconds of latency exist between the time the audio is picked up by the microphone, gets converted to digital, is transmitted and converted back to analog at the output of the receiver? More than 3-4 milliseconds makes it very difficult to deal with as a sound mixer. Is that system latency I’m hearing in my headphones, or is there a reflective surface somewhere nearby. If it’s just latency (and that’s bad enough) fine, but when I get back into post and hear the audio, will I also hear that latency?

Which of these will work reliably in any situation is the question. I have no direct experience with them.
Usually, as the price goes down, so does the build quality. Will a cheaper system last four years? How well do you or your talent treat the gear? I have G3 and G4 gear that’s over 10 years old and still working. I have System 10 Audio technica gear that is almost that old and is still working.

Will they work for you? How much interference exists where you’re shooting? What is the range? Range is somewhat determined by power, but twice the power does not provide twice the range. All of these factors are why many people hire location sound professionals with gear you’d never buy yourself. And, hopefully, they know how to use it better than you! (no offense)

Regards,

Ty Ford

Cow Audio Forum Leader

[Ty Ford]

Hi Todd, I got an iMac Pro about 3 years ago and ordered it with an SSD. I haven’t done a reach around yet, but so far, so good.

[Ty Ford]

Hi Todd,
Sorry, I can’t help.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Cow Audio Forum Leader