Picture taken during a location session. It was a blast but I was doing all the audio, video, and lighting work so it was a bit frantic.
Audio through a Yamaha MLA-8 into a DR-60 and A&H ZED10 into a DR-40. That mic in the right corner was also very poorly placed. Kept getting whacked with the bow.
I kind of buggered the video because I assumed the dinky cameras would handle low light a little better than they did. Oh well, now I know...
Come to think of it, I should've had a video camera at the place I shot that picture... Darn.
I used eight lengths of dirt-cheap (from the home-improvement big-box store) Cat5 UTP (unshielded twisted pair) to extend the direct outputs from 32 channels of the house desk through 120 feet of metal conduit to the line inputs of the video/broadcast/recording mixer.
The house desk is a big 36-channel Soundcraft with "fake" (impedance-balanced) balanced direct outputs. The media mixer is a cheap 32-channel Behringer thing. The TRS balanced Line Inputs are almost certainly just padded-down and fed into the transformerless balanced mic input circuit.
I used these adapter gadgets (~$2 on Ebay) to transition between the 8P8C ("RJ-45") network cables and the break-out ordinary audio shielded pair cables out to the gear.
Cool! How do you like the mixer? Which one? Are you using the preamps?
I love the Cooper. I am using it’s preamps. They’re very quiet, and have a monstrous amount of gain. They’re fantastic.
It’s the CS106+1 with the stereo mic-input module. I had it modded at Vark audio to update the direct-outs to fully balanced, as well as modifying it’s PL (private line) comm feature to function as talk-back system to the stage. The Cooper + the SDs & Nagra make for a complete, 8 channel tracking/mixing/talkback session-kit with redundancy that fits into one rolling case (all running on batteries!). In the few years I’ve been using it, it’s helped me hone my live-to-stereo mix to the point where I’ve not had to revisit the multi-channel stems in post for most of the productions I’ve used it on. My only complaint is that it only has a single aux-out (no artificial reverb printed to the mix at the session/concert).
All of this means I carry less to the gig, I don’t have to worry about CPU crashes or power interruptions, and I don’t have to spend time remixing in post (linear faders are so much better than rotary for me. I’m humbled and shocked how some location film engineers could mix so well with them). This system has allowed me to provide a lower-cost option to clients on a budget. It saves on freight, and post-production costs, but still has incredible audio fidelity.
Some English piano concerto sessions at Bard College with TŌN orchestra and Piers Lane.
Main mics thru the Grace. Spots on the BG and LineAudio.
Shout out to the talented king2070lplaya for the assist.