So I'm being asked to do film work on location.

[herecomesyourman]

I have a laptop with Cubase 4 that's running great...and a Fireface 800.

I'm looking into Mic's and booms that would do well for on location shooting if anyone has that kind of experience.

As well as any additional software for syncing up to film that people like to use.

[Maber]

Hi, maybe not all the answers you are looking for but some things to think about!

are you shooting on film or video? drama or documentary? are you capturing the sound by yourself? do you have a back up recorder? I strongly recomend some type of backup recorder if you record to a pc on location, what timecode issues will there be?

As for booms I like Ambient's stuff and shotgun microphones, sennheiser 416 is a very common and good sounding one. I'd look into hiring gear if it's possible

Boomrecorder is a software made for this exact purpose, never used it myself but I hear many good things about it, it will let you record inoming timecode on one of the inputs on your interface.

as for syncing in post i would head over to the post-production forum they'll know the ins and outs of that!

hope this was of any help!
martin

[pkautzsch]

Laptop might not be the best choice here, even if it's running stable. Most important point: It's got a fan, so you need to set up farther away than you'd normally like. Plus it's too many components to be hooked up with each other. Firewire plugs can lose connection too easily.
If music production in the studio is like driving a Rolls on the highway, then location film sound is like an off-road rallye. There IS a chance the Rolls arrives at the destination, but there are more reliable cars for that purpose.

I'd rather go for some dedicated location recorder. Can also be rented for not too much money. Nagra, SoundDevices, Cantar, Deva...or Fostex FR-2 as a cheap alternative.

[mohthom]

I second the suggestion on SoundDevices gear - pure gold for location stuff.

Just a quick note - if you can, use StarQuad cable - the extra electrical shielding will make all the difference with all those lights around. I lost 2/3 of my sound from one session (in studio!) because the lights messed with my tie lines. A mistake never to be repeated!

Good luck - hope the shoot goes well,

MohThoM

[ghellquist]

Do check the cameras as well -- many modern video cameras has decent sound. You would then only need a good location mixer with lots of outputs, the Sound Devices stuff has been mentioned. From some reason, location mixers are comparatively less expensive to rent than location recorders. And additionally as all sound is synched the postprocessing gets simpler from that aspect.

Personally I would never ever take a laptop on a location film recording, too many things can go wrong. I take my laptop to on-location concert recordings without second thoughts so the problem is not the laptop.

A good internet group is RAMPS
Discussions - rec.arts.movies.production.sound | Google Groups

gunnar