CAS Parade of Sound Carts 10/15

This past Saturday we had our CAS sponsored Parade of Sound Carts at the Local 80 stage in Burbank, CA. What on overwhelming success and turnout of both participants and their gear, production mixers, boom operators and students. It warmed my heart to see such an event so dedicated to our craft of production sound recording on location. Once again it proved to me how specialized our craft is and how we each tailor our tools to our own way of doing business. Everyone had a great time and, I believe learned quite a bit. I know I took home a few ideas for my rig.

Thank you to all our participants and to all the CAS members and the Board of Directors for putting this event on. Paul Marshall, CAS deserves a big congratulations for organizing the seminar.

Sound & Picture

Emmy Spotlight - Sound and Picture.

Glee Season 3

And so we begin Season 3. My crew for this go around will be pretty much the same, with the minor shuffle of Devendra Cleary moving to Playback only and Mitchell Gehbard coming in as Sound Utility for the full run of the show. Devendra will be spending his non playback days establishing himself as a mixer here in Los Angeles.

We start principal photography on Tuesday with our sound prep starting Monday. We pretty much stay ready, just some tweaking of the record and playback rigs. Looking forward to the new season and all it's challenges. I'll try and post as much as I can to give sound blog perspective of the season's activity.

PWP

Finally finishing the upgrade.

Okay, just about done with the cart re-build. A couple of things will be done, but it's just about ready to go.

Here is the cart just before we put the final patch and recorders onto the recorder deck.

Here is the rear panel with patch bays.

This is the front view with with all devices actually running. Computer is connected to both the MH unit via FireWire and the O1v via USB.

Closer view of the front from mix position. It should do.

Final prep and ready for the season will be next week.

Thanks!

PWP

Upgrade continues 7/8

I've started remounting and re-rigging the gear. The Lectro Venues have moved up a space, giving enough room for a new set of 5" monitors. The recorder platform will go right above the new Metric Halo Mobile I/O which is acting as my ADAT to analog D/A converter.

The recorder platform will hold the new DEVA 16 and the Sound Devices 702T back up recorder. I'll mount the Rollogic remote controller directly behind the 2 recorders.

On the side I have mounted the TV tuners for when I can't connect to Video Village via CAT5. They act as my back up video assist.

On the back of the rack, I have an accessory shelf for IFB transmitters, antenna amplifiers, power distro, 2 video baluns and a cellular modem WiFi access point. The 2 CAT5 baluns are for Video Village and for send and return from the playback rig.

I've added a Remote Audio Shunt Box in line of my inverter to be able to remotely turn it on and off as well as monitor the battery level and amp load of the AC/DC inverter system. I have 2 batteries on board, one for the DC gear, and one for the inverter which powers the AC gear.

Thats where we are today. Thanks.

PWP

Summer cart cleaning/re-wire and upgrade

I've got a few weeks off and have the opportunity to upgrade and re-wire my cart. It's an opportunity to pull all the gear out and give it a good cleaning as well. I'll be upgrading the recorder to a DEVA 16, allowing me to go up to 16 tracks. I'll have to add an ADAT to analog D/A converter to the rig to get the additional 8 tracks into the deck. I'll probably be replacing the triple 4" monitors for a triple 5" monitor rack, as my eyes are getting tired these days. Here are some stripped down pictures before the re-build.

Before:

Empty and cleaning:

Re- rigging and remounting gear:

More to come...

PWP

American Horror Story

Within a week after finishing up season 2 of Glee, we began filming the FX series pilot of American Horror Story. It's being produced and directed by Ryan Murphy, so we rolled right into production. No rest for the weary I suppose.

We are just 2 days from finishing the 15 day pilot and looking forward to some time off this summer. It's been 11 months since I took any sort of extended vacation, so it's more than needed.

I wanted to thank my crew for this pilot, Michael Primmer on boom and Mitchell Gebhard as utility sound tech. Your efforts are very much appreciated.

Next up, some vacation time then a cart overhaul... I'm sure that second thing is no surprise to anyone who knows me.

Glee Season 2 Wrapped!

A bit late but in time to air...Glee season 2 has wrapped. I want to thank my crew, Patrick Martens and Devendra Cleary for a great season. Also a big thank you to all the boom operators and mixers who came in and helped out on our big days. Next season will be more of the same.

I'll see you all in August.

Next up, American Horror Story. Couldn't be farther from Glee...

One month to go

We're down to the last month of filming of Glee season 2. Finishing up episodes 18 and 19, while starting 20. It's been a long road in production since last July. On the tech side, we are very happy with the change over to CF media and the pdf sound report delivery. Our Telecine tech from Encore, Michael Maher, visited the set on Friday to get a sense of what we deal with on a daily basis. He commented on how much easier the new process is for his workflow. He also talked about a new telecine audio sync process that uses ProTools and plug ins. He said the system works great. We might be seeing that on the horizon soon, especially with file based HD shows.

I'm adding some wireless to the gear package this month, spreading the spectrum out a bit more. We are probably heading to NYC for one of the final episodes of the season, so any help in the big city.

This past week we filmed musical performance #245 for Glee. Wow... Thats a lot of playback.

PWP

CF update

Very happy to report that after a week of CF delivery we are all very happy with the results. Encore, our Telecine facility, has a system with checking in and out the CF cards with a bar code on each. Our post crew is dumping the files to hard drive and Technicolor is swapping out hard drives weekly. No one seems to miss the DVD-RAM's at all, which was my hope all along.

The PDF sound reports are the big hit. Not only are they easily read and shared, but they are attachable to the project and searchable. Search for scene 23B, and the proper report shows up with all the details.

Goodbye DVD-RAM...

...at least on Glee. Since the pilot of Glee we have used DVD-RAM media our our primary delivery of sound recordings to telecine and post production, as do most shows in network television and motion pictures. At least here in the United States. For years now I've had the desire to move away from DVD-RAM, to a more efficient, less fragile, higher capacity media like Compact Flash or other solid state media. Beginning with our episode 216 of the second season, we'll be giving that a go.

Over the past several weeks I've been doing tests using Compact Flash media with our post production facilities and personnel. Our telecine process at Encore in Hollywood uses MTI Control Dailies which uses a computer as it's source for sound. It will see anything on a drive, if properly formatted, as it's audio and can sync up accordingly. We are not limited to the Fostex DV-40 as our audio source, that being DVD-RAM only. We ran tests this past week with both Master and Back-up CF and the cards read fine. We are also not limited to track count, which has been an issue at times with the Fostex machines.

Upon completion of the telecine transfer and sync process, the CF cards are returned to Glee post production where they are dumped to a Hard Drive to await the weekly swap out to Technicolor. Technicolor can then routinely store and log all the audio media for dialog edit after picture lock. No more waiting for picture, then all day dumping slow DVD-RAM media onto a server for the DX.

The new Glee sound delivery process:

Here's the new process:

1) I record to CF, both Master and Back-up. The Master CF will have the multi-track and the Back-up CF will have only a 2 track mix.

2) Encore will receive these CF cards in the same manner as we did with the DVD-RAM media and telecine as usual.

3) When Glee post picks up the HD edit master, the previous day's CF cards and case will be picked up from Encore.

4) Glee post will then copy the audio files from the CF cards to a Hard Drive supplied by Techinicolor.

5) CF cards and case will be returned to set. I'll have 5 sets of cards in rotation so there is no time pressure on returning.

6) Weekly or periodically, Technicolor will swap out the Hard Drive from Glee post.

An additional change will be the use of pdf sound reports. I will be creating my reports via my laptop on set and sending them to all who need it via email at the end of each day. The same report will be placed on the Master CF drive.

I'll report on how this process is doing after we get it going for a while. I'm looking forward to it.

PWP

Cart expansion plans

The change to the O1V96 console has opened up the possibility to do much more than ever before with a location sound cart. I've decided on a plan of expansion to move from an 8 track system to a 16 track system. Here's the rough details.

I will continue to use the AES card in the Yamaha O1V for the 8 channels of digital I/O, which is currently tracks 1-8 on the DEVA 5.8. My plan is to change my primary recorder to a DEVA 16, which will give me 16 tracks for recording. The second 8 input tracks will have to be analog. I will use the ADAT I/O and convert those to analog via a Metric Halo 2882.

Tracks 1-8 AES via Yamaha card

Tracks 9-16 Analog converted from ADAT via MH 2882

The routing in the O1V will be the same, Busses 1/2 for mix tracks and Direct Outs for each channel for iso tracks.

Also, in the plan will be adding 4 more wireless channels to the Venue Systems. This will make the wireless count to 12 on the cart.

I'm looking forward to this upgrade. It should be a fun project after we complete this season of Glee.

O1V96 on location

As posted on the O1V96 Production Sound Users Group.

I wanted to give an update on my first 2 months with the O1V96 on location and stage. Mainly to give those that are considering this as an alternative to the analog consoles that have been the mainstay for location sound recording for many years.

Without a doubt, this has been a far easier transition than I had anticipated. At first glance, and even after a period of time, the O1V96 seems daunting with with it's menu driven control and it's software based operating system. But as you wrap your head around the structure of the console, you will see patterns and redundancy in the operation. And before too very long, it will only be as complicated as you desire your set up.

I've changed the way my routing, both input and output, a couple of times since I began. And I have settled on a scheme that is very similar to how I first started, with a couple of modifications. I use the BUS outputs as my feeds to the slots utilizing 2 layers on the console, one as the mix layer and the other as the pre-fade output layer. The AUX sends work as my routing to the OMNI outputs giving me all 4 to work with. The AUX/OMINI are for COM/IFB as well as EPK and playback outputs. It's working really well for me, and my show is as complicated as I've ever had to work on.

My power set up is currently in flux, as I am switching out my Xantrex 1000 watt inverter for a smaller unit rated at 300 watts with a 500 watt surge capability. The battery side of my power chain has remained pretty much the same since my analog set up. I like every thing to remain powered up all the time, so the inverter works like a very long lasting UPS system while working on stage. And with the 80 AH battery on board, I can go for several hours without the need for shore power. I completely see how you can run without an inverter these days, as our camera, video assist and/or DIT stations work completely on AC. It's just my preference to have the battery system in place for the comfort factor.

None of this is really new information, but just words of confidence to those that are considering the plunge to a fully digital console set up. Within weeks after I started, I sold my analog console and bought another O1V96 as my back up. I truly didn't want to have to go back to the analog set up.

PWP

2010 Prime Time Emmy winners!!! Sound Mixing for 1 Hour Drama or Comedy

This about says it all! Thank you so much to everyone. Our Producers: Ryan Murphy. Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan, Dante DeLaretto, Kenneth Silverstein, Alexis Woodall, Brad Bueker. My crew: Patrick Martens, Devendra Cleary, and all those boom operators who come in for our day calls. My wife Kathy Davis. And I must thank the full crew of Glee led by our Director of Photography Christopher Baffa, because it's a team effort every day. We could not have done such a job with out you.

Cheers to everyone!!

First week with the new console

This was the ultimate test for me and the new O1v96 mixer. I practiced a bit off line, but there's nothing like the real thing. We started season 2 of Glee on July 28 and I jumped in with both feet, and the new mixer. At this point, I couldn't ever see going back to an analog mixer. Especially one that is limited to 8 input channels. The Cooper 208D is probably the best sounding mixer I have ever used and certainly owned. It performs flawlessly and is built like a tank. But for the show I'm currently doing, the flexibility of the digital mixer is paramount. I'm able to route any signal to just about anywhere, and with a little more practice I'll get faster at doing so. I've set up scenes so that if I get really twisted up, I can restore the console to my basic setup in about 5 seconds. The console sounds really good, and is really quiet. The computer interface is really useful, as I can see all the parameters in real time. I can also manipulate the mixer and it's many settings via the computer, as well as save out the console set up. I've already purchased my back up O1v96, and have it ready for the swap if anything goes awry. Yes, it's a power hog...but I can deal with that.

So far, I'm very happy with the Yamaha mixer. I'll post more info as I get deeper into the season.

2010 Emmy nomination

Yesterday was a big day in the Palmer household. At 5:40am the announcements detailing the nominations of the 2010 Prime Time Emmy awards were released. I'm proud to say the sound department has been nominated this year for the Glee episode 'The Power of Madonna'. I am nominated along side with the post production mixers, Joe Earle and Doug Andham. I could not have done it without the help of my sound department Patrick Martens on boom, and Devendra Cleary on playback and utility. We've also had quite a bit of help from many other USTs, boom operators and sound mixers throughout the season. I am indebted to each and every one of you.

The Creative Arts Awards, which sound is but one of the many, will be presented the week before the main awards broadcast. Our awards are on August 21, and an edited broadcast will air on E sometime very soon after.

Thank you for all the kind words over the past couple of days. This is a great time for both my crew and I.

Cheers,

Phil

O1V96 cart load up

I've pretty much completed the load of gear. There are few things left to tidy up, but the signal path test through is complete. The result is far more routing and functionality. The console is quiet, endless routing and much easier to use than originally thought. It's the equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife. I'll post a more detailed list of gear and it's power distribution later and on the O1V users group.

Cart clean up and overhaul

I haven't done all the wiring yet, but here is a preliminary look at what is shaping up. Had to do some modifications to shelves today. Hoping to have it wired up and testing audio tomorrow.

O1V96 production sound users group

There are several sound newsgroups and forums on the web currently that deal with the complete scope of production sound recording for film and television. After many emails and phone conversations during the process of my mixing panel upgrade, we felt there might be a home for a specific group that dealt with the Yamaha O1V96 and it's use as a mixing platform in location sound recording for film and television production.

Give it a look : O1V96 production sound users group

Panel swap and cart overhaul

Well, it's been a couple if years. I've had time to really get to know and use my current cart configuration. Still, to this day the best set up I've put together. But my current show has taxed my mixing panel and it's routing and output ability. So, on our break between seasons of Glee...I will overhaul the interior rack of my cart and install a Yamaha 01v96 console in place of the current Cooper 206D. I am assembling all the materials and parts now, and the project will begin in about a month. I'll post before and after, as well as progress photos.