Hi Martin
Ric Creaser, sound recordist from Melbourne (formerly Sydney) designed
these with an engineering colleague. He's put a lot of thought and work
into them. Also, most importantly, they sound good. I've heard them
interior but not exterior. Also, I haven't done AB tests between Sanken /
Countryman / DPA / etc. We'll certainly be distributing them this side of
the water, but I understand (as I suggested to Ric) Coffey Sound in LA
will
be the US importers. Other US dealers may supply, but that's up to John
Coffey. It may be a month or two before full production runs, but I can
see
networks and freelancers demanding them. Incidentally (for other
manufacturers), I think they're patented all over the place. Regards.
John Rowley
info@soundequip.com.au
www.soundequip.com.au
"Martin Harrington" <lendan@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:ysijc.14741$qq6.7967@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Someone mentioned that they say a cool lapel mic that takes the shape,
(or
hides in) a button or broach from Australia.
Any ideas who makes it?
As an Aussie, I'm eagerly waiting to see something like this from our
own.
Rode told me a few years ago that they were investigating the
possibility
of
making a killer lapel and shotgun.
Maybe this is the start.
--
Martin Harrington
www.lendanear-sound.com
"Noah Timan" <this_isnot_it@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:cd345c55.0404241811.7ffd15d4@posting.google.com...
Audioetc@webtv.net (Eric Toline) wrote in message
news:<4076-408A14BB-5@storefull-3254.bay.webtv.net>...
I'm sure I left a lot of other interesting stuff out that will be
filled
in by others who were more sober than I was.
Actually, you got the bulk of it, I think. Last year, the main draw
was a bulk of new products we had never seen before in prototype
status. This year, rather than new things, it was more of a chance to
see last year's prototypes advanced to almost-finished status.
The Deva seemed to me to be far and away the most flexible, intuitive,
and user-friendly of all the new recorders in terms of dealing with
inputs, routing, adjustments, and access (and breadth) of features.
Of great interest to me is how the preamps sound, for when the machine
is used as a standalone over-the-shoulder recorder -- I did not get a
chance to listen at the show (usually not a great environment for such
things anyway). Aaton clearly sets up a pretty stiff challenge for
this with the amazing-sounding preamps on the Cantar, although Aaton
does not offer nearly the same kind of flexibility and routing with
the inputs or intuitive function and system controls.
Zaxcom had two external faderboards -- one which looked to take the
place of a cart mixer entirely, and the other which looked to serve in
over-the-shoulder applications. I had trouble personally envisioning
how the smaller board could be used in an over-the-shoulder
application without being clumsy -- it looked like it would extend
horizontally over the top of the machine and attach in a way I didn't
thoroughly comprehend -- but it did bear the disclaimer of being a
work in progress. Of course, the Deva does have four rotary faders on
it already, which would be sufficient for most OTS situations.
I was delighted to see that Zaxcom also had a quad box for its ENG
receivers. For folks like me who tend to fill in gaps between
features with over the shoulder work -- or occasionally work on wacky
features where OTS work becomes necessary here and there -- this
offers the opportunity to use their wireless in a bag situation as
well as in a cart situation. (I wasn't looking forward to buying two
different receivers for each application). The only stumbling block
was that it seemed that each receiver needed three connection points
to the quad rack -- two individual antenna connections and a DC
connector in the rear. This seems time-consuming, especially in the
hurry I usually need to be in when making these changes. Better still
would be a single connector, a la Audio Limited, that allows for quick
removal of the reciever so it can be moved from one configuration to
another (cart to bag or vice versa) in seconds. I, for one, have
found this to be necessary on many occasions in the field. I'm sure
Zaxcom's got quite enough to do at the moment as it is, but maybe it's
something to think about for the future.
The Cantar was there with an internal DVD drive -- great progress as
the last version's suggested process of backing up the hard drive with
CD-Rs didn't make sense for most of our purposes. The fader board, as
noted by others, did not make the trip. The problem with the internal
drive, as it currently exists, is that it does not work with DVD-RAM
-- only DVD +/- R/RW -- and does not mirror. I was told it would take
about 25 minutes to burn a DVD, which would have to be done at the end
of the day -- not a possibility for most of us, as we have discussed
many times in the past, and which the other recorders have eliminated
with the mirroring process offered. The only suggestion made was that
one could burn several DVDs during downtime through the day that could
eliminate the pileup at the end of the day, but this doesn't seem like
a good idea. The Aaton representatives mentioned they're looking into
DVD-RAM drives that can fit in the tiny drive bay, so hopefully this
problem will be addressed in the future.
I didn't spend any time with the PortaDrive -- the size, weight, and
lack of a firewire I/O all scare me.
Fostex didn't have a booth, but LSC showed off their new toys, which
included a nifty external DVD drive and housing for the PD6 for cart
applications, the DV-824, which is a new studio-based DVD 8-track
recorder, and the FR-2, which is ready to go without TC (not yet ready
to go with TC).
The Sound Devices 744T looks almost done. It could probably fit in a
coat pocket. Improved (!) mic preamps from the 442, good and easy
track configurations and routing, parallel path outputs to internal
and external drives, lots of bells and whistles -- looks like a pretty
great little machine. Multiple units can be interconnected for eight,
twelve, sixteen tracks and so forth. Not yet present are filename
editing and metadata entry capabilities, which could be a stumbling
block for some feature work, depending upon the standards that are
developed for filenames and data (still in the early stages of
progress, it seems). Jon Tatooles indicated that these are
considerations for future firmware upgrades. In the meantime, stick a
302 on top of it and you've got the world's tiniest top-of-the-line
over the shoulder mixer/recorder rig. It's going to make life a lot
easier for documentary soundmen everywhere, that's for sure.
In terms of other brand-new stuff, there was relatively little to see.
Though their lavaliers still sound terrific, I wasn't too knocked out
with DPA's zeppelin -- the one they had on display looked way too big
for anything other than a long shotgun. The representative I spoke to
indicated that they would be issued in two sizes, but I'm still
doubtful these two sizes would fit all mics -- a shorter version for a
short shotgun is still going to be too long for something like a
Schoeps, Neumann 150, CS-1, etc. This effectively forces the
microphone further away from the subject, due to all the extra space
on the front end of the zeppelin, and in noisy environments like
Manhattan exteriors, damns your signal to noise ratio to hell.
Also, while I have put a windjammed-Rycote out in torrential rain
plenty of times and come back with a dry microphone, I'm not so sure
the polyester cover that is the DPA Zep offers the same sort of
protection. I looked at the device with Ty Ford and he made the
excellent point that it may also fare poorly in on-set collisions with
grip and electric stands and equipment.
Clear advantages are the weight (boom ops are going to love it) and
compact size (great, as Charlie said, for those days when you choose
to leave the zep case behind on false promises that there will be no
exteriors). But the price point kind of nullifies those. I don't
want to be one of those Glen-Trew-$20-boom-stand guys, and I can
appreciate extensive research and development costs, but I have a hard
time accepting that a device made from polyester and a few aluminum
struts should cost $850 (unless someone's going to look really
fabulous in it).
Sanken showed the new "stereo" lav (its purposes escaped me a little
bit, but there must be some broadcast or music recording situation
that calls for it that I am unaware of) and a neat 5.1 mic (again,
nothing I need, but a very interesting design).
Petrol had a really simple, cheap, and good rain cover for an
over-the-shoulder rig (designed particularly for their "Eargonizer"
bag, but applicable for any bag). A big window, thorough coverage,
enough room underneath for hands -- forty bucks. Great.
Ambient also had an interesting ENG bag that looked good and flexible
for a number of systems. They also introduced a mount for a
Lectrosonics-style "butt plug" transmitter that sits between
microphone and the top of the boom pole to eliminate cable traveling
down or in the pole, but it definitely made the pole very front-heavy.
Audio Ltd. had a new Tx with remote operation and a better battery
door, and a new frequency band allocation that should eliminate some
interference problems, but still no entry or apparent interest in the
digital wireless sweepstakes.
Sennheiser had a live MKH-418 up for testing this year with an MS
decoder. It seems to me that the side ports are awfully far back on
the barrel, maybe making it subject to picking up handling or mount
noise. Anyone have experience with this? I tried listening to the
mic and panning it around the convention floor for a minute to get a
sense of its abilities, but after getting a funny look from Karl
Winkler I put it back in the clips.
Upstairs at the South Hall, I saw a little wireless video camera for
about $200 with a receiver. The whole rig was really tiny, and looked
like it would be great for those situations where the cart can't be in
the room one is shooting in -- slap it on the ceiling and watch the
ever-so-fascinating events of set transpire from wherever you need to
be. This particular model started breaking up as soon as it was out
of line-of-sight, so it wasn't the one, but anyone know of a similar
device that will work through walls? Ray, I know you mentioned
finding one there. How does it work around the corner, in the next
room, downstairs, etc?
Thanks to Kurt and Eric for coralling all of us at Firefly, where a
good time seemed to be had by all.
Regards,
Noah Timan
(working email is my name at earth link)
( no comment )