Nice setup. I'm working on a similar 6ru case mobile rig. Are you not concerned at all about leaving some space between the hotter units in your rack? I'd love to pack my 6ru case full but I get worried about heat build-up.

I did remove the OctoPres from the 6U rack and put them in a separate 2U rack bag. This also made the main 6U much lighter (it was getting up close to 90 lbs with everything in it).

This is my current configuration.

Thanks for sharing. I'm coming to a similar decision to either split up my rig into two racks (main rig and then a second rack with extra pres if needed) or just upgrade to a 10ru with wheels.

I'll share my rig once it's all set.

Cheers!

This rack just barely fits in the back seat of my Tacoma. If I had bought the shock mounted rack, it would be much larger and heavier and would have to ride in the bed. I think splitting the pres up into two different racks is the most efficient. I have 16 preamps here (plus the 32 Dante inputs), and another 16 in my auxiliary preamp rack. I don't normally need more than the initial 16 so it's easier to avoid having to carry the extra 16 when I don't need them.

Yeah, I just got a 10u rack used today for a great deal on Craigslist (came with some other extras including a power conditioner and some rack plates/rack shelf) and it was definitely bigger than I realized when I threw it in the back of my hatchback. I may flip it and get another 4-6 u rack, but I'm still feeling it out.

Quadruple S!
Sonosax, Schoeps and Sony WM-D6C field recording cassette setup with neotech silver and tpr cabling into a pelican 1200 with a K&M bar and some rycote shockmounts.
Only things not pictured are a stand (manfrotto 5001b) and Sennheiser hd-25's (the 4th 'S').

Planning a few minor changes in the coming months:
-upgrade those schoeps bodies through Rens Heijnis to his +48v phantom electronics
-buy some Schoeps W5D wind shields
-change out the TPR for neotech copper and eventually neotech silver cabling.
-Make the sonosax sx-m2 into stepped potentiometers or switches for easier stereo matching of gain.
-get a lipo battery to power the sx-m2 instead of 9Vs.

-get a smaller stand than the manfrotto 5001b, any recommendations? ~3.5ft max height needed probably.
-get some earphones to reduce size and weight further, any recommendations?

What a beautiful space!

absolutely - except that the pa better be a l/c/r system rather than just l/r, but that's a discussion for another thread...


i didn't get to work with a nevaton mic yet - any comment on the sdc's?

You're right, I've worked at FOH a few times there and it's pain in an ass)))

I've asked a few years ago a few Nevatons mics for some testing and were pretty sceptical about them, I have a lot of mics (Neumann, Gefell, DPA, Beyerdynamic, AEA, Royer, Pearl, Sennheiser, Schoeps, you name it) and I didn't expected that they can fight with cats like Schoeps, Neumans, etc... I was wrong.
I have tested them against Schoeps, DPA's, Neumann and others and was amazed, Nevaton's are top microphones with their own face for sure.
Now they have released modular 59 series and it's really-really great, cardioid version much-much fatter then MK4, more detailed and not so bright. Omni version is extremely close to MK2 sound-wise, they are a bit different but with the same character. Also Nevatons does have extremely low noise, that's very important for me, omni (MC59-O) is 5dba self-noise and cardioid (MC59-C) is 7 dba, wide cardioid (MC59-W) is about 6 dba I think. At the moment they dont have bright omni capsule so if I need brighter omni I use MK2H or DPAs but I know that they have plans for bright omni, 8, hyper and a few more. So nowdays I'm a big fan of them as you can see!)

Wow, cool stuff.

I don't work in the large recording world, mostly small jobs. For the past nine years a local university has hired me to record a narrator that reads all of the names of the graduating class. The audio files are then sent to a company that chops each name into its own file. Each graduating student is given a card with their name and a unique barcode on it. As they approach the podium the card is scanned and the system plays back their name to the audience. This university has found it saves around 1.5-2 hours from the entire graduation ceremonies. Plus the various dean's do not have to recite the names, which are many different nationalities.

Very basic setup, Cantar Mini with a Neumann TLM103 microphone.

I love that this is a repeat gig. For anyone that thinks there aren't opportunities to make a living in audio - THIS is the stuff that fills in the gaps. Little random gigs like this, strung together, with repeat clients, and next thing you know, you're booked solid.

That's pretty cool actually. The announcer for my high school graduation (the head of the English department, and one of my former teachers) screwed up my name.

Any idea what the system is that they use for the scanning and playback? I'd like to learn more about that, myself.

I will contact the the university and see if they will give me the name of the company

On going client. Final performance of the season. Seven inputs, DPA Boojum/JNorman Array plus two solo spots (KM140) and a yak mic.

Super performers and lovely peeps.

D.

Nice set up. And interesting to see you still using the Masterlink.

Yep. We'd like to ditch it but our clients are well trained to expect a set of CD rough mixes after the performance. What to do?

D.

Tell them you're about to ditch the Alesis...but they're welcome to bring along a blank C-90 cassette tape. Or a USB thumb drive.....or hand them a business card with your Dropbox/Google Drive download details printed on it.

A lot of churches still duplicate CD-R's of Sunday services and talks and courier them around to local members who can't get out to the church, usually due to age or incapacity. The very same group of people who often don't have a computer/internet connection/cellphone (which would make distribution much easier !)

Yep. I hear all that. The folks that want the CDs have been apprised of their options and they are still writing the checks.

D.

Plus, you can be folding mic stands and coiling cables and other stuff while the burner grinds away...

Are you using the mastering functions of the Masterlink? Or just using it as a live CD burner?

I have a Masterlink I'm trying to get rid of. But also have an HHB CD burner that I plan to keep to do the live CD burns that I need to do.

I usually just do a bit of a quick edit to put track markers about 2 seconds before first music on the pieces, including movements. Takes about 2 minutes unless the performance is super complicated. Then it takes 3.

The hardest part? Chasing down the appropriate person to hand off the CDs. They have usually scooted off for pizza and beer.

D.

To tell the truth, the process rarely makes my load out any longer. Burn the first CD at intermission and the second while, as you say, I'm doing other things.

It's just a little trap we set for ourselves many, many years ago and now we can't get out

D.

As long as it's easy and expected, and the checks are being written for the service... is it really that much of a trap...?

I'd say "Thank you!" and carry on.

But, then... I still buy CDs, too. Gotta love "product-in-the-hand"...

HB

No pics yet, but I just placed an order for equipment for my new University gig in the fall (will update later this summer once I'm in town). I'll be recording concerts in several spaces (a large recital hall, a cavernous concert hall, a small wood-panelled museum space, and assorted other places), and since I'm buying it all from scratch, I had to work within a budget. Here's the gear list I sent in:

Zoom F8n
Audio-Technica AT-4022 x 2
Rode NT5 + NT45O capsules x 2
sE 4400a matched pair (for small gigs or spots)
sE x1 A x 2 (for spots)
Manfrotto triple mic bar
Manfrotto light stand (11' height)

My plan is to do a Boojum/JNorman array for medium to large ensembles, and some flavor of two-mic setups for smaller gigs. It's not the fanciest equipment in the world, but it's all gear I trust. My eventual goal down the line is to incrementally upgrade the rig piece by piece, but this will get a good start.

A couple of images from a recent choir, brass and organ session, and pretty well the first outing for my 'big rig' (16 channels of recording + talkback).


Mics by Rode, Line Audio and sE Electronics. ESI 168XT interface and Line Audio mic pres. The Zoom L12 is just there providing the pre-amp for the talkback speaker (Yamaha MS-101III) though it's also my backup multitrack recorder for sessions in case the laptop were to croak. I tend to do smaller channel-count live concerts with the Zoom recording to SD card and multitrack to the laptop (via USB).

Nice compact rig, very neat and uncluttered !

What's been your experience with the ESI interface thus far...I've read mixed reports of it having a clear, hi-fi sounds vs a few folk having troubles with drivers and one or two sudden deaths of the device after a few months use ?

I believe the manufacturer forgot to add rack mounting ears, but maybe that's been fixed by now ? The dual headphone outputs is a great idea too !

I've only had it a few months - it does get daily use as my studio sound card at home though and it's been pretty faultless.

I will say that it did very briefly drop out on me during that session twice (only for a fraction of a second, but I was recording 15 out of the 16 channels at 96/24!) but it was on all day. The lack of rack ears is a little irritating, but I've velcroed mine to the top of the LA 8MPs, and it's also helpfully wedged underneath the top plate. I'm on a Mac and haven't had any driver issues. The dual headphone outputs were indeed very useful (both I and the producer wore cans) though it might struggle to provide a really strong level for high impedance headphones (I was using Sony MDR-7506s and the producer Behringer Dt-770 Pros - the 80Ω model).

The only other thing I rue slightly is the lack of a proper built-in mixer - there is a software panel but the functionality is pretty basic - it'd be great to be able to make a monitor mix pre-DAW for latency (I was running it at 1024 samples in Audition whilst tracking but can usually get away with 256 or 512 for smaller channel counts).

I've not used the built-in pres on Ch 1-4 in anger but in a quick test they seemed really pretty nice, and I can't fault the general sound quality - as far as I can tell it's transparent and delivers lovely depth and clarity. It's got 8 outputs as well so you could run a surround setup through it.

The dropout aspect could be a deal breaker for some, and might be related to drivers or USB interrupts/DPC stuff....who knows....but at least your Zoom covers you for backup.

Probably your DAW would ideally give you the monitoring functions that the ESI console doesn't, which is where products like RME really shine. Do you find the Line Audio preamps match well with the interface ? Nice talkback system, is that an established brand of desk mic (sorry for all the questions !)

If you have any miking photos from the session that would be great to see too ?

After using various computer rigs and having issues from time to time in the past, I switched to an hd24XR for all of my live recordings and never once had an issue. I do not like dealing with a computer in a live recording situation. Now I'm using two Tascam hsp-82s for live jazz recordings. You can probably guess which one has been to the Amazon rainforest, doused in salt water while deep water fishing, and generally been beaten up on dozens of film shoots...never once skipped a beat, so I didn't hesitate buying a second when I wanted 16 channels. I think it's a very underrated recorder.