Reliability of your Mobile Recording Equipment

[Gaston69]

Reliability of your mobile Recording Equipment.

Unfortunatly I experienced a few times during a life concert that all of a sudden my preamps started to create a hum or noise while not having a backup solution installed i.e. the recordings were gone

My question is did you experience the same kind of problems and what did you do in order to prevent yourself for experiencing the same problem again?

What caused the problems, defect in equipment, earthing or bad power issues, not well maintained, rough handling, temperature differences, transport damages, bad or wrong cables used etc etc etc etc??????

Did you got your equipment repaired, did it happen again if yes you returned it again for repair and sold it afterwards or went on with it?

In case of earthing/electricity/power problems, how did you solve this issue?

What backup do you use, extra set of mics, extra set of pre-amps, extra set of recorders etc etc??

Gaston

[d_fu]

Originally Posted by Gaston69

Unfortunatly I experienced a few times during a life concert that all of a sudden my preamps started to create a hum or noise while not having a backup solution installed i.e. the recordings were gone

Ouch...

My question is did you experience the same kind of problems and what did you do in order to prevent yourself for experiencing the same problem again?

AFAIR, I have only once had a similar problem - an AD converter failing minutes before a concert. Fortunately, I was able to replace it with another setup of preamps/converters just in time (and fortunately, I had it with me)...
It was the unit's power supply and/or mainboard, and it had to be replaced, which cost around € 300,-. I have used it after that, but nowadays, I mostly use something else/better, so it hasn't been in action very much since then.

What backup do you use, extra set of mics, extra set of pre-amps, extra set of recorders etc etc??

I only use backup recorders. Backing up preamps, ADC, or even microphones is quite a lot of extra effort. A second preamp would require splitting mic signals before the preamp and possibly before the phantom power supply. What if the phantom power source fails? Complete redundancy without SPOF would require two completely independent setups.

I guess I would only consider that if I were asked to record something like Alfred Brendel's recent farewell concert or so...

[videoteque]

Complete redundancy without SPOF would require two completely independent setups.

Powered with differente technologies!

I will add SPOF to my vocabulary, thanks Daniel!

[Gaston69]

Well on payed jobs I am not going to take the risk any longer and will mount an extra pair of mics on my mic stand which will have their own pre-amp/converter/recorder for example:

stereo pair DPA4060 > ULN-2 > Macbook > Record Panel Metric Halo (battery operated)

stereo pair DPA4006 > Paintpot > Korg MR-1000

But will need to experiment which of the above mentioned combinations have the best performance.

If you are having any suggestion on this subject I would be happy to hear from you

Gaston

[resound]

Gaston,

Besides this noise/grounding issue, what other issues have you had with your PaintPot? I'm curious as an owner and since the first one I received was a lemon (defective). It's nice kit, so I hope mine proves durable over a long period.

Thanks.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by d_fu

...Complete redundancy without SPOF would require two completely independent setups...

Excellent - I love that acronym!

Single Point Of Failure

Thanks for sharing!

[slaphappygarry]

I had a power cut once which wiped out the stage lighting and the stage power (on the same circuit) which killed my recording rig. The backup rig - like the one described by Gaston - stayed alive and the main pair (with passive splits to the main rig) kept going strong.

This was a live orchestral recording so even though the backup worked, 65 musicians playing without the side lighting to make their scores ledgible meant the recording was gash.

:D

On another recent job I had my 003 disconnect from my laptop (again the backup kept going). I have put this down to dirty power but it was still no fun explaining this happened. Computers work great but laptops IMHO have to be kept cleaned and reformatted regularly to keep them going strong.

Garry

[Gaston69]

Dear Vukon Crack,

In the first place Crispin sold me one of the first models which got pretty warm and all of a sudden one channel started getting noisy so I returned it, and got it back after a few weeks however now it didn't worked at all anymore. It turned out that Crispin did not had the time to test it before shipping, so I returned it again and he gave me a brand new model which sounded fine however 1 channel was about 4 to 6 db louder, my last recording I start getting hums so I changed powersocket in the pause of the concert and it seemed to work however it came back right while the orchestra was playing :(

So Crispin asked me to return it which I will do, but I am loosing a little faith in it's reliability.

Tomorrow I will DEMO/Test a Nagra VI from Amptec Belgium, if that turns out to do my job I might save some money for it even if it's costing a fortune but I get so frustrated in putting a lot of energy, efford, Diesel and my precious spare time in not succesfull recordings due to electronic failures.

Gaston

[Ozpeter]

Don't laugh, but the Zoom H2 makes a handy thing to have with you for when all else fails. If you clamp one to the mic stand carrying your main pair and set it running before the concert begins, whatever else fails you'll at least have something to fall back on. And it adds almost nothing to your kit bag, and covers the whole recording chain from mics to recorder, and is self powered. Of course if the recording depends on loads of spot mics etc, it might not do the job!

I've rarely had problems but for me, media failure is the most likely source of trouble, so I tend just to have a small backup recorder taking a stereo mix in parallel with the main recorder.

[tsvisser]

As soon as I can justify it, I will be getting a 2nd Nagra VI as a backup unit.

I do happen to have an H2, which I occasionally hook up to a Sound Devices 302, and its certainly not bad for the price and fun to have around when your not expecting to need a recorder. Marantz just introduced a new recorder that looks intriguing and seemingly well designed, the PMD661.

[David Rick]

I distinguish between things that might fail "on deployment" and things that might actually fail "in action". What fails "in action" in my experience is tape, hard disks, and computers in general. That's why I run my SD 744T in parallel with my recording computer. But I'm comfortable taking an analog split after the preamp, or even (sometimes) a digital split after the ADC. True, mics do occasionally develop problems, but I typically have at least a couple of pairs up anyway. I lump most other stuff into the "on deployment" category. If a piece of rack gear is gonna fail, it usually happens at power-up. In that case, there's time to patch something else in its place.

David L. Rick
Seventh String Recording

[tnjazz]

I used to run an HD24 as a full backup to another HD24, split at the preamps.

Then I got rid of my digital preamps for better analog preamps, so I ran the second HD24 after the first one. This is serious overkill for the stuff I record though.

Nowadays I roll 24 channels through the Alesis for my main recording and take 2 channels from FOH plus 2 mics in the mix position to an Edirol R-44 as the backup. For an important gig I may rent another Alesis, but those are typically few and far between.

[Remoteness]

Hey, there's nothing wrong with a backup for the backup.

Better safe than sorry.

[Corran]

I take a mixdown to my Zoom H4 as a backup. I haven't needed it yet...

And since tnjazz just sold me my first UPS I feel pretty confident

I'm not worried about my Earthworks doing something in the middle of a concert. I think the only things that could happen with them would be before a concert, setting up.

[resound]

Gaston,

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I'm having trouble getting something resolved from Crispin, too. I'll refrain from commenting more at this time until I have something more decisive to say. I'm very empathetic to the demands on small business owners, especially if "real life" creeps in. However, I don't know if that's the case here, and he's late in delivering something to me. Now I worry that if I make a bigger fuss, I may get something lacking the expected quality. Hmph. More to come on this in time.

[Plush]

I don't like to see people speculating here about what might make Crookwood late with a delivery or about specific problems with YOUR mic amp or personal comment about Crispin. Take your concerns to him directly and stop commenting in public. How rude and how unprofessional.

If YOU have a problem with YOUR unit that does not mean that the company or the Paintpot product is suspect. What a joke!

As far as some piece of equipment failing or malfunctioning--get it repaired. I have used multiple Crookwood Paintpots for over 15 years without a problem. If there were a problem, I would have it repaired. In the mean time, I would use something else to make the recording.

A redundant set of mics and pre-amps is not necessary. That said, of course you should always travel with more than one set of equipment in case something fails. If it fails, most likely you know it during the set-up.

[resound]

Plush,

Perhaps you need to step off your soapbox from time to time and read what was written. I have not said anything about the man personally. In fact, I quite clearly stated that I will refrain from elaborating until my situation is resolved. At that time, I will either have something favorable to report in another thread or will update this thread with the resolution to my situation. My experience with Crookwood thus far has given me some pause. My first unit was defective, and other problems have arisen in dealings with Crookwood since. There are some valid concerns to be shared about the current state of the company's service. I also made it quite clear that I understand how small shops can get waylaid by any number of factors. Hence, I'm not airing a laundry list of gripes at this time, nor would I issue a petty tit-for-tat later. Hopefully, everything works out and I can share something more positive later.

Calm down a bit. I'm sorry that you don't find this discussion measured and without acrimony. But, unprofessional? Certainly not.

[Plush]

Sorry you think that I'm on a soapbox. I don't think I am. I am making a criticism of how you and other posters are airing dirty laundry about your malfunctioning gear.

My comments revolve around the notion that all of what you and Gaston have said here should be said only to the people at Crookwood and not here. What good does it do to tell us about unspecified problems with one or two units? The Paintpot is a manufactured piece of equipment and any manufactured product can have a failure.

I can tell you that a properly functioning Paintpot is one of the top three mic amps in the world for acoustic music recording. I DO hope that you get to enjoy the benefits of using a Paintpot.

[Gaston69]

Hi Plush,

Crispin is very helpful and is doing the utmost to get problems solved, the Paintpot sounds fantastic and suppose that I was just unlucky....

Gaston

[resound]

Plush,

No harm was meant to Crookwood and no offense meant to you. I view the equipment I buy as an investment and an asset: part of buying quality gear from a reputable manufacturer is the benefit of service. That's the value added over building and maintaining one's own gear (assuming one has the chops).

When service falters, part of that value erodes away. I would say the same thing about any asset I own, and we frequently see the same around here from users of gear A, B, or C who have trouble getting gear serviced or delivered as promised from company X, Y, or Z. I'm on no campaign to malign or discredit anyone or any company. Hopefully, we can put this to rest now.

On to the nice things:

It's a darned-fine sounding unit.
It's a darned sexy looking unit.

[Jim Williams]

Originally Posted by VukOnCrack

I view the equipment I buy as an investment and an asset: part of buying quality gear from a reputable manufacturer is the benefit of service. That's the value added over building and maintaining one's own gear (assuming one has the chops).

There is value in building and maintaining your own gear. You know it inside/out. If it has a problem on location, you can fix it. A tech bag goes with me everywhere, location recordings, studios, musical gigs. So many times I used it, fixing location gear, a bad module in someone else's studio, messed up musical gear at gigs, etc. Without such experience, skills and spares would make me very nervous at an important location live recording. Something always goes wrong. Being able to deal with it relieves much of the tension.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

[Yoda117]

Another way of saying what Jim just stated is:

Prepare for the worst... so if it comes, it won't be.

It's been my motto for years. So far, so good

[sonare]

Originally Posted by Gaston69

Tomorrow I will DEMO/Test a Nagra VI from Amptec Belgium, if that turns out to do my job I might save some money for it even if it's costing a fortune but I get so frustrated in putting a lot of energy, efford, Diesel and my precious spare time in not succesfull recordings due to electronic failures.

If you are serious about this you should definitely look at the Sound Devices 788. 8 micamps and sound quality that may not quite be the sine qua non of Nagra but more than acceptable for clients. And at $6k plus 2 more channels there are solid advantages.

Rich