Author: rt

I’ve been working on a design for a small line mixer since January, on and off. I’m getting pretty close now- I’ve got a working circuit and managed to get the enclosure design working. I need to make a few tweaks to the board design, as some components need to be moved in order for it to fit in the box

This particular one is an unbalanced design, with 4 inputs over 2 mini XLR inputs, outputting to a single mini xlr output. The reason for this is to work with my Sonosax recorder and mixer, in order to be able to be able to add the recorder’s 4 XLR inputs to a mix (on the bus in for the mixer) and still record pre-fade ISO tracks.

The holes at the top are for L-C-R panning switches, which will need to be glued into place (one’s actually on the table in the photo above to the left).

I’ve made sure to use high quality components in the circuit- resistors on the inputs are matched within 0.1% tolerance and high quality op-amps have been used. The most expensive parts were the sfernice conductive plastic potentiometers, though.

There’s no internal batteries, but it will run on sources from around 9-16V, with the internal regulator providing +15 and-15V for the op-amps

Here’s how it fits in the bag.

It shouldn’t be too different making a balanced design using 5 pin mini XLRs- I went through one in the design process. There’s also a headphone amp on the board, I’m wondering where I can squeeze a 3.5mm jack and a small level pot in there.

As the boards are being fabricated I may be able to sell some of these as kits, if it’s useful to anyone else

I found out last week that a little short film I did, Best directed by William Oldroyd won the Sundance London short film competition. Unfortunately (thanks to the masses of Pink fans at the Millenium Dome) I managed to miss the screening, but got to see some of the other shorts and have a chat with some of the other directors and crew involved.

It was shot really quickly in an afternoon on DSLR with a very small crew, with the actors getting changed in a nearby cafe and, although the church knew we were shooting a film there, they didn’t know what the content was.

http://www.sundance-london.com/blog/short-film-competition-winner

Here it is; some people may find it offensive, it might not be safe for viewing at work

BEST from William Oldroyd on Vimeo.

Since then I’ve done another short with William- Wanted: Murderer, where I also did the post mix.

I’ve been looking for a small NP1 charger for a while- something which came to mind after I’ve had a few jobs where I’ve been away for a few days and didn’t want to take my big 4 bay one.

I think I’ve found quite a neat solution after finding some 14.4V Li-Ion chargers on ebay being sold by Audioroot (French company which makes high-end power distribution systems and portable microphone preamplifiers).

I bought a couple of these (one’s going spare if anyone’s interested) and soldered on a female hirose socket (HR10-7J-4S) so I can just attach an NP1 shoe with a hirose plug.

It also *may* work with the unregulated flying lead on the Hawk Woods battery distributors, but I’ve emailed them to confirm- so I don’t blow something up

I’ve recently invested in a paintball gun bag, which is proving surprisingly useful.  I even managed to carry my entire kit for an interview (with Dame Helen Mirren, no less) in it yesterday.

Inside the main compartment, I’ve got a vdb doco pole, Manfrotto 5001b light stand with boom buddy, magic arm, mic suspension and clip and 3 XLR cables.

In the front I’ve got a Sonosax SX-R4 recorder, headphones, 2x AKG C480 mics with various capsules (in peli case) and my lavelier microphone kit including 2x DPA4071 with hardline adaptors.

When running more complex setups, I’ve got this doubling as my boom case, where the Sennheiser MKH8060 setup can go in the front compartment

As another note, a Rycote WS4 will fit in the front compartment too

After talking to John Willett (Sound-Link Pro Audio) and Elisabeth Kuenhast (Microtech Gefell) at BVE a few weeks ago, after just spotting this mic and saying ‘what’s this?’ I’ve hired one out this week for a couple of days recording a play.

It’s a really interesting design, it effectively works like a line array – essentially meaning it will pick up sound with only a 3dB loss from a doubling of distance, rather than 6dB from an omnidirectional mic.  The pickup pattern’s also interesting- it works like a cardioid in the horizontal plane, but lobar in the vertical.

I decided to give it the cruellest test possible in my flat by recording my voice from the other end of the bathroom, our bathroom’s quite long- it’s about 4m away.

It wasn’t all good though, the internal noise was considerably higher than the Sennheiser MKH and AKG ULS mics I’m used to, 15dB(A) (DIN EN 60 651 scale)- however not surprising, considering there’s 8 capsules in there.  Another thing which is frankly scary is the price to buy it- however, this will probably do the job of 5-6 mics for me this week.

Another thing is it requires mains power for the matrix/powering box, so wouldn’t be suitable most situations I find myself in

I’ve been having a bit of a look round at cases- Most of my jobs are with a reasonably light kit and I’ll get there on public transport.  I’ve been looking at Peli cases, which are made to withstand environmental extremes, but I could probably do with something a bit lighter.  For the last couple of years I’ve made do with a backpack, along with having my sound bag on but there’s the odd time where ‘I could have really done with that’.  Also something where I can use dividers should also help finding things quickly, instead of having to root around at the bottom of the bag for that obscure adapter.

Stuff I’m having a look at:

Lowepro Pro Roller X300  – A self-shooting director I work with bought one of these for his C300.  Being able to use the inside as a backpack’s nice.  It’s got 35L capacity, which is only a bit more than I’ve got now.  Weight 6.1kg

Petrol PA1003 – Really like the 2 layer design, *looks* quite big although the interior specs seem to say otherwise (30L, maybe only counts 1 layer as main compartment?).  It’s also quite heavy (8.1kg) There’s a video up here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI-HvH2eO8s&noredirect=1

Kata FlyBy-77   – Lightest of the lot (4.1kg) and pushes 40L capacity, although some of that is from being a bit deeper.  Is also good as airline carry-on.  Wonder if reduced weight= less protection, though?

Lighting bags? Petrol PL2003 etc
They’d need extra dividers to cushion stuff, but they’ve certainly got enough space in.  You can also put a whole boompole and/or mic stand in lengthways on the longer ones.

Also as an alternative to Peli cases, I’ve been pointed at B&W cases, they’re made in smaller sizes and are considerably cheaper with dividers.

Anyone used any of these, or have any other ideas?

Here’s a comparison table

*no weight with internal dividers given (expect to be similar to Peli cases)