Re: Zaxcom recording radios... another shameless rave

Noah Timan wrote:

Thanks, Billy, for posting your thoughts -- it's appreciated. As you
are well aware, there is a marked difference between latent potential
for repair in post and actual repair being regularly done along the
lines of the prescribed notion put forth by a new production mixing
practice or piece of gear. There are lots of bells and whistles that
we've had exposure to over the years that would, in theory, cure all
our ills. Combine them with a smart dialog editor and a generous
helping of time and you could cull a combination from our isos and mono
mixes that would sound like a million bucks.

Typically I imagine the editor would only need a few words here and there, something they often do already with a mix track and ISOs.

But the problem is that we can't just turn over our tracks to someone
with a general time code reference and assume that they will work it
all out.

No, post has to be on board before you shoot. Workflow meetings have to take place. When everybody understands how things go, then you have a chance to make it work.

I understand that the Zaxcom radios have a recording feature
that other radios don't have, and I'm not trying to knock that feature
-- or the radios. I think both are beneficial. But I do have some
issues with the notion that the radios present a solution to
disappearing RF bandwidth if that solution is "well, we record
everything on the actors' transmitters, and post works it all out
later." If that happens, great, we'll all buy Zaxcom radios. But
it's not quite a safe assumption that this is going to be accepted by
post or anyone else yet.

In the end its still probably cheaper than ADR, and saves an ADR session at the least, and will make some impossible situations possible. Its not just that the post budgets are shrinking either, production seems to want us to yank increasingly larger rabbits out of our hats.
I've had enough trouble in my life trying to
get post to deal with two legs of a DAT -- now they're gonna have time
to reassemble a timeline from six to eight different bwf-m files on
their ever-shrinking schedules? I am happy to be wrong, but as of now
I'm skeptical. I believe they'll go back to making room for the
boom before they will accept not being able to hear the take properly
on the day and have to patch it together from multiple files just to
make dailies.

....

You can adjust the transmitter gain stage, sure, but are you going to
be able to do that effectively via an IFB remote while you're mixing
a broken-up, hit-filled scratch mix?

Well sure, you do this on the rehearsal, just like setting up the gain stages in your mixer.

Again, I'm not saying the Zaxcom unit is a bad product, just that we
shouldn't yet consider it a practical solution to the very concerning
problem of disappearing bandwidth or actively encourage people who
don't know better to spend thousands on it because it's going to be
the radio that survives the re-occupation of the airwaves.

Why not? Got a better radio solution?

My .02

John
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Old Gernanium Transistor Repair
    ... But early transistor radios, ... The cheap transistor portables came later. ... A lot of transistor radios were repaired in the '60s and & '70s. ... repair the faults. ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: car radio?
    ... manuals etc. makes it very hard t repair these radios. ... I used to work at a car audio place, and we also did all kinds of repairs, 2-way commercial radios, CB's, car audio. ... Then again, if everything else fails, in one of our local for sale ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: Newbie/visitor wants advice
    ... repair person who understands tube electronics and who like you is aged ... I began to learn seriously about tube electronics when I was about 47 ... Repairing old radios and radio-grams was one amoung many trades I got ... Patrick Turner. ...
    (rec.audio.tubes)
  • Re: car radio?
    ... manuals etc. makes it very hard t repair these radios. ... car audio place, and we also did all kinds of repairs, 2-way commercial ... which in turn goes into the top motherboard. ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: Car stereo output stage blown
    ... Granted, after repairing HF, VHF and UHF radios for years in the ... back to the certified manufacturer repair depot. ... |> logic probe in the tuner section, ...
    (sci.electronics.repair)