I have a nice IV-L. Pulled it out recently and have been test recording with it. Nothing serious at this point. The drive belts need replacing. I've ordered both belts. I can't find any video of a "how to". Anyone have any leads? Or do I make one as I do mine?

It "looks" simple enough, but I'm aware that all is never easy inside any sophisticated machine. I do have the service manual, but it does not offer tips on belt replacement.  

Thanks!

Roy in Montreal

I want to record dialogue while filming with an MOS film camera or at least an SR that is fairly quiet but not absolutely so. I don't want to pick up motor noise.

It's either that or ADR.

If not Cedar Audio, have you used something similar?

If I can get out of having to make a blimp or a barney, or try to buy an old one, that would be great.

I just finished a four-hand piano arrangement of probably the second-most famous James Bond Theme: “007 takes the Lektor” (often simply called “007 Theme” or just "007"), originally written for the 1963 motion picture From Russia with Love by John Barry. This piece is dominated by a 7-beat rhythmic motif that cleverly forms a hemiola against a 4/4 time syncopated bass figure. The heroic horn line above then sounds rhythmically as if it were notated in 6/8, which gives the whole piece a bit of a Western feel. Maybe a little nod to the Magnificent Seven from three years earlier? 😉

Because of the three elements described above (two counter-moving rhythm sections under a soaring melody line), I think the 007 Theme lends itself perfectly to a four-hand piano arrangement, which is exactly what I did and then recorded it with a former student of mine. Glad to know what you think of it.

Have fun!

Dustin

Would it be possible to scan it at high resolution. Will have it printed out.

Sincere thanks!

Bernard Herrmann’s minimalist approach to thriller scores from the 1950s and 1960s has always fascinated me; in particular, the title music for Psycho (1960). The piece, which for its time is unusually reduced in terms of melody and harmony, is essentially constructed using kind of a modular approach from just two basic ideas (Herrmann himself spoke of “musical cells”):

•    On the one hand, the so-called “Hitchcock Chord” consisting of a minor triad plus a major seventh on the top, which is hammered out five times in a row in B-flat in second inversion right at the beginning of the piece and reappears repeatedly throughout.

•    On the other hand, a central motif consisting of four sixteenth notes (major third ascending; minor second + minor third descending), which melodically dominates the entire “Prelude” and also recurs throughout the rest of the score in dozens of variations. Once you know what to look for, it’s actually hard to miss.

In accordance with Hitchcock's deliberate choice of black-and-white visuals, Herrmann decided to limit the instrumentation to string ensemble. Woodwinds, brass, and percussion are completely absent from the score. Even though special playing techniques like pizzicato or sul ponticello are missing in a piano solo version, the limited range of timbres on a piano follows a similar direction. While several film music songbooks by Hal Leonard contain a more or less “official” version, this version is full of errors, such as dominant seventh chords instead of a double-diminished chords etc. So I had to write my own arrangement. If anyone wants the sheet music, just let me know. I’m happy to share it. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/xejDXqAPk40?si=vwjAq0VGnLCDWsta

Best regards,

Dustin

I've got a little job, this time filming a string quartet for a brief online ad.

I will be recording the quartet with two Rode NT5 microphones, in an X-Y stereo array (the two capsules of the mics immediately above each other).

This ad will likely only ever be viewed/listened to on either a phone, or a computer.

Is mono or stereo sound better for the finished video? I'm thinking mono.

So over xmas I ordered the Boya mini 2 wireless microphones hoping to have an inexpensive digital wireless mic for film student audio.  Actually ordered two of them because somewhere online it said there's some A/B mode and it's possible to run two mics on each channel for four active microphones in the same area.

So far i've had nothing but problems, including the headline.
#1 it didn't say anything about needing "an app" to use the microphone, nothing would see the microphone and the instructions said NOTHING about download a stupid app.
#2 there's no A/B switch anywhere I can find in the software menu so far so only one pair of microphones is being seen
#3 worst of all the microphones refuse to turn on UNLESS you have internet access enabled!  I dont mean one time like to online register this or that or something, I mean each time you try to turn the microphones on, if you dont have internet data on your phone it REFUSES to turn on and gives some error about "network is abnormal" each time which I assume means it's not able to call home to china to decide whether or not they want to spy on you this time or not since I can think of no other justification.

I've never seen these problems mentioned in any of the (admittedly only a few) reviews I read of the Boya originally, not thinking anyone would design with this mentality, but is there someone more familiar with these than me who understands whats going on or if I can get around this nonsense?

I needed these for recording in some deep rural areas as my immediate next project and there's not even guaranteed internet access meaning the microphone wouldn't even turn on if I tried to use it there.  Is this all known behavior?

I apologize up front for the questions, and hope they're not too naive. I'm working on a project and trying to understand how double system sound worked in the 1960's with a typical 35 mm Mitchell BNC and a Nagra III tape recorder. It's my understanding that the motors of the two needed to have some synchronization signal in order for the sound and picture to be synched. Does the Mitchell supply the signal? Or did they just rely on a common power supply? Or? Any clarity on this on how this worked would be much appreciated!

David

On one of my recent productions we used a Tascam DR-701D for a few days of the shoot. The rushes sound great and so we were all happy.

However, just now I have gone through the rushes and on one day, a bunch of sound files are missing! We used a checksum verification when backing up on the shoot days and there were no issues. By chance that shoot days SD card did not get formatted and I still have it as it was from the day.

So, the sound at the start of that day and the end of that day is on the SD card (as well as the drives it was backed up on). However, everything in between the start and end of the day is not. This has not made a gap in the file numbering, it still went in numerical order but there is just a load missing.

I have of course contacted the sound recordist. I do trust them completely as we are friends. Unfortunately they do not know what could have gone wrong and swears they remember the slate tone at the head and tail (it was set to have this) going off and seeing the timecode roll for each clip as they would always check.

We used various data recovery softwares today on the SD card and nothing. 

I know the most likely answer is that they're gone forever and we have no chance. I thought it best to ask everywhere I can though in case anyone has any ideas and my only hope is that I still have the SD card as it was on the shoot day. Even though we used data recovery I'd still love to hear if anyone has any recommendations.

Thank you,
Dan

https://youtu.be/uuqujiGUywM

This may be a longshot. I'm doing some research for a project and I'm trying to identify the make and model of a sound (mixing?) board that appears in a 1967 episode of the original Mission: Impossible television series. The episode is entitled "The Train," and the board was used to combine/select the outputs from a bank of reel-to-reel tape recorders (though it was just a TV show). I've attached a picture of it from a screencap.

I think it's a commercial board because it looks like they covered the manufacturer's name, below the VU meter, with a piece of black tape. Any help or pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much!

Dave

What's the highest-end, lowest THD+N audio setup that pros are using on sets? I specialise in high-end classical music recordings using RME gear, and though I love the sound, setting up 2 1U devices, powering each separately, MADI cables to fiddle with, etc - it's all heavy and takes a lot of time. My clients typically care as much about the video, so I'm trying to optimise my audio setup. I've used MixPre and Zoom in the past but found the quality lacking for classical music.

Thanks,

Larry

The cellist asked me if I could film a simple video for advertising their duo online. This won't be a live gig in front of an audience, so we can do other takes. I will also be doing a video ad for the wedding venue (a privately owned Chapel).

The plan is that they will play together in the chapel and I will film them, with B-roll shots to fill the scene out. My question is mainly about the audio challenge for this shoot.

I want to film them as if they are both playing acoustically, like they do for wedding gigs (the pianist will be playing on a digital keyboard  but for all intents and purposes it's an acoustic performance).

So, ideally, I don't want microphones in the scene.

How is it best to do this, and still get great audio?

My current plan is to get hold of another Deity S-Mic 2s small shotgun mic, and use that with my other one and mount both on a boom pole. The boom pole gets held up by a C stand with weight bag on the legs. I put the two mics, perhaps in XY configuration, approximately in the centre of the two musicians, up high and just out of shot.

Two long mic cables with XLR connectors go to either directly into a Canon C300 MkIII or into a Zoom recorder. I will need to get better headphones to properly monitor the audio.

Does this plan sound feasible? What are other ways to mic this shoot? Can anyone recommend good, low-cost mic solutions other than getting another Deity mic. What about Rode mics?

How do other music video shooters handle filming gigs like this?

Also, at first I was tempted to hire a second camera, and do a multicam setup, but I think I will have to shoot this with just one C300. My plan is to film an entire run of a performance, the camera locked off on a tripod, medium wide shot. Then do further takes for B-roll shots, with CU shots etc. Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

 I used the days around Easter to polish up and re-record a very old composition of mine (2008!). Maybe some of you will like it. 🙂

Best regards,

Dustin

This second one is a Purple Panda mic. As I'm now using a later iPhone, it won't connect directly. I need an adapter which I don't have. So I was only able to plug it into my tablet. I made a few test recordings with an audio recording app which shows the audio peaking etc with a graphic display. During my testing with me talking, I moved the mic close to my face and further away (and also behind my back.) The graphic display looked pretty much the same regardless. When I played the recordings back, the loudness of my voice sounded generally the same no matter how far or how close the mic was to my mouth.

This mic also comes with a TRS (two ring) adapter which supposedly plugs into a camera. According to online sources, my Panasonic G7 has a 3.5mm input socket (which is also the remote socket.) I tried to plug the Purple Panda mic in there via the adapter but it looks like it's not physically compatible. It feels like the plug on the adapter is too large to fit in.

Any idea why this mic is not working with the Samsung tablet? I admit I'm not an audio expert so there might be something obvious that I'm missing out on. Batteries shouldn't be an issue because this mic doesn't have any. This is crazy bad luck that Ive purchased two lav mics and neither of them will work. Ive never used lav mics before so I have no experience with them.

LWKS are running an education programme on both Lightworks and editing in general over 2024.

https://forum.lwks.com/threads/lightworks-in-2024-—-education-content-community-and-more.250597/#post-272487

It may be of interest to those interested in learning more about post production. February is covering audio.

New articles are added regularly and can be found here: https://lwks.com/blog

Because this was self-funded with meager paychecks, the project was filmed in bits here and there as I could. The 16mm stock was a mix of fresh and expired/unknown origin. The choice to shoot as a silent was to not need special equipment or crystal synch cameras and give me the ability to use what I had on hand or acquire at a more affordable cost. Andreu was interested in doing the scoring when I reached out in 2018 (before any filming had started). After seeing the completed piece, it was worth the wait. Some scenes can be seen in the doc below (taken from a proxy file sent to him).

Did anyone played around with tools like this that use AI to remove background noise, echoes etc. from voice recordings?

https://podcast.adobe.com/enhance

Sound barney build project video

Am searching for a Westrex RA-1231 16MM recording camera...

Anyone have any ideas, contacts etc?

Cheers, Nick

If you need some Geiger counter sounds for a project, here are 5 field recordings made from different Geiger counters taking readings from radioactive Thorite.  You could buy Thorite on eBay 12 years ago, but it looks like the gov shut it down or maybe something else...dunno.

<><><><>

Selection from Cyanotype Collection DDTJRAC

Thanks!

https://www.iflscience.com/amazon-releases-ai-tool-so-you-can-finally-hear-dialogue-in-movies-68552

DDTJRAC

I am definitely out of my depth here and I figured I would ask far greater minds than mine the million dollar question. I had a volunteer community theater reach out to me about the possibilities of recording their stage play and help them upload it to the interwebs for the soldiers that weren’t able to make it to the event. What type of microphone/ sound equipment would be a good solution to this? I guessed lav mics, (but an 11 member cast seems pricey), or what level of omnidirectional mics would make sense (if any at all) for a sound crisis like this? I figured it was worth a shot to also ask brands and models that seem reliable for sound because I’m not a sound guy…yet…I’ve got a growth mindset and want to learn tho! If you have any thoughts on it I would appreciate the advice or direction, and if not, please leave comments explaining politely (or rudely lol) how I can say no to this organization because the cost would be too high. I only have a zoom h6 to my name, so, I would probably have to have them buy their own mic equipment if they were willing to pony up for that. *sigh, why do I do this to myself? Lol.

-Ryan