Thank you Tramm! real world Magic Lantern at work in the Chinese riots

Video: Uighur residents confront troops | World news | guardian.co.uk

A really quick thank you to Tramm for making my life much better, I'm writing this in between the rioting. I've been using magic lantern for all our pieces to camera with our reporter during the riots in Xinjiang, China. Also been using it bit in the demonstrations themselves.

The finished piece is a mixture of 5dmkII, Sony A1 and Reuters footage but even in low res on the web I think you can tell the 5dmkII stuff.

Dan

(ps - forgot to add there is a gallery of 5dmkII stills here http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gall...ture=349978668)

[Chris Hurd]

Incredible. Please be safe Dan!

[Tramm Hudson]

Wow! Be careful Dan!

Last night's 0.1.5 release might make things easier for you since it has the config file for your parameters and won't turn off the camera while you are setting up the shot, talent, mics, etc. Please let me know if you need hit any show-stopper bugs that need immediate fixing with either version.

[Dan Chung]

Another video just went up thats almost all 5dmkII Video: Thousands of troops descend on Urumqi | World news | guardian.co.uk

The reporters voice is all magic lantern :)

Dan

[Chris Barcellos]

Dan:

Such great news that you are able to make it all work in the field- amazing that you can concentrate on the camera setting with all that going on about you.... Nice shot inside the police car !!!

This is really super news for news gatherers. As we have all notices doing our public shoots, people seem to react a bit different thinking they are in front of a still cam, though by time you get that shoulder mounted, that may disappear.

Outstanding job, and Trammel Hudson can be proud that his creation is out there working already..

[Dan Chung]

Now that things have calmed down a bit here in China we managed to get into a hospital and interview one of the victims. As I'm writing this it is on the front of the paper's website.
The aftermath of Urumqi | World news | Observer.co.uk

This was a great test for Magic Lantern and the Juicedlink CX231 that I'm testing. It's the sad story of newlywed Dong Yuanyuan who was attacked with her husband on the way to their honeymoon, she hasn't seen him since and he can't be found. She spoke very quietly for much of the time so it was a big ask for Magic Lantern and the CX231, agc would have been a nightmare. I used a Rode M2 mic plugged into Sennheiser EW100 transmitter module, would have liked a more discreet mic out of shot but under the circumstances a lav was out of the question. The setup worked really well although at one point she got suddenly louder and caused some clipping, I missed the limiters of my Sound Devices here but I'm prepared to sacrifice that for portability.

Dan

[Peter Burke]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

... although at one point she got suddenly louder and caused some clipping, I missed the limiters of my Sound Devices here but I'm prepared to sacrifice that for portability.
Dan

Dan, you many want to consider using the Sony PCM-D50 Portable recorder. The D50 has a rather unique limiter - reviewed here;
Review: Sony PCM-D50 Portable WAV Recorder - O'Reilly Media

To quote the reviewer;
"It works like this: the recorder creates two audio files during recording. One is written to memory, another — recorded 20dB down — is held in a buffer. If peaks exceed zero (i.e., maximum digital level), the recorder grabs a portion of the safety track and writes it to memory."

and "the PCM-D50 limiter isn't a conventional limiter (dynamics signal processor). As a result, it doesn't require extensive parameter controls (threshold, release, hold time, etc.) to operate transparently, and that makes it easy to use. This is far and away the most useful limiter I have ever encountered on a portable device."

and "You'll have to trust me that recordings I made at 24/96 sounded gorgeous; they are simply too large to post online."

The 20dB safety feature seems too good to be true.

[Dan Chung]

Peter,

Thanks for that, actually I have a PCM-D50 over the Zoom H4n for that very reason and love it. Sadly its part of my 'proper' audio kit which I use with a Sound Devices Mix Pre, this is not really suitable for fast news situations where I'm working solo and there isn't enough time to mess around syncing audio in post.

Dan

[Tramm Hudson]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

She spoke very quietly for much of the time so it was a big ask for Magic Lantern and the CX231, agc would have been a nightmare. I used a Rode M2 mic plugged into Sennheiser EW100 transmitter module, would have liked a more discreet mic out of shot but under the circumstances a lav was out of the question. The setup worked really well although at one point she got suddenly louder and caused some clipping, I missed the limiters of my Sound Devices here but I'm prepared to sacrifice that for portability.

One option might be to setup the same signal into both channels and have asymetric gains. That way you can have a low-volume track and a high-volume track. If you think that would be useful it would be fairly easy to add to the 0.1.6 release.

[Dan Chung]

Tramm,

Genius, that would be useful for me if it could be turned on and turned off, maybe see what others say.

Also can you PM me your address, I'd like to send you some things :)

Dan

[Toenis Liivamaegi]

Originally Posted by Tramm Hudson

One option might be to setup the same signal into both channels and have asymetric gains. That way you can have a low-volume track and a high-volume track. If you think that would be useful it would be fairly easy to add to the 0.1.6 release.

Actually this is what many sound recordists have been doing for years: Having a mono signal at asymetric gain on a stereo track.
Easyest way is just to allow L and R gains to be dialed in separately OR to have some sort of "-20db SAFE mode" for recording that allows immediate asymetric gain without thinking about it - normal (ML conf) levels at the right channel and -20db tack on the left.

This requires that you feed the camera with "streo mono" signal - common on 3.5mm mono mics like the TinyMike and Rode's VideoMic that have a mono signal but a stereo plug that feeds both channels.

Cheers,
T

[Marcus Marchesseault]

Is the juicedlink set up with two signals like this? I would love dual gain control and it is time to start solving my audio issues so I can start getting a professional product.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

Is the juicedlink set up with two signals like this? I would love dual gain control and it is time to start solving my audio issues so I can start getting a professional product.

Not quite... but all you'd need is an XLR splitter. You can control the gain of the two channels separately.

There are switches for moving each channel to left, right, or center, but they are downstream of the gain controls, so you still need the splitter.

[Dan Chung]

Jon,

You beat me to it, a splitter is required but hopefully this will be redundant with the next version of Magic Lantern.

Dan

[Jon Fairhurst]

Originally Posted by Dan Chung

J...a splitter is required but hopefully this will be redundant with the next version of Magic Lantern.

True. Separate gain on the channels is all we need, considering that the juicedLink lets you send a single input to both channels of the camera.