Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

What surprises me is that Ryan doesn't seem to ever look for bargains, if he wants to buy. I bought much of my inventory (especially radio mics) from ebay. There's loads of junk, but also bargains - often from people who don't know they're bargains,

The thing with Ryan's way of working is that if he does research, he produces conclusions - which like this topic, seem to work out this way - I did this, this happened, therefore this will always happen - and life doesn't work like that. This then translates to certain jobs being problems, when they're not.

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

Given Ryan's lack of knowledge about audio, I doubt that he would know a bargain if one bit him. And he doesn't seem to like spending money for anything. I recall an earlier thread when he was asking about a wonky AC adapter. Several of us advised him to spend ~$20 and buy a new one from the factory. He evaded discussion about it. Then one day he announced he had gotten one (not knowing whether it was appropriate) from a friend, and plugged it in, and it seemed to work. Weeks of time wasted on discussion and helpful answers, and instead he risked blowing up what was allegedly his perfectly good recorder. His logic does not match my logic.

A few months ago I spotted a "refurbished like new" handheld dictation recorder, normal price $80, being sold for $9. Being always curious about bargains, I bought one, and it was as advertised! It makes surprisingly good voice recordings. So I bought another. They are now loaned out, recording COVID-home-studio voice tracks for some local music shows. Of course I had to buy a third one; it arrived with leaky AAA cells well-crusted in place. So much for "refurbished like new." Oh, well, I got my money back. I'd be tempted to place another order, but they're finally sold out.

Let me know if you see any more good deals!

And *why* did you spend £14,000 on equipment you have no work for? That must have been one heck of a bargain.

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

I had summer contracts all booked so in January I started ordering, then found stock in the US, Mexico and China of things I needed at the right prices. My normal process each year for lighting and audio kit which I hire out. The audio kit is normally very expensive per box and at uk/eu prices out of my budget but in the US most dealers have display stock but supply direct from the factories. It's an older line and I discovered the us dealers were starting to sell the display stock which is fine for me. Then corona came along, airfreight crazy prices so I accepted sea freight for the heavier items. So kit all paid for, on the way, and then my diary collapsed. I don't even have the storage for it because it should be in theatres on hire, and repaid by Christmas. That's where the 14 grand has gone! Just a good purchase at totally a bad time!

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

In my experience it’s not a good idea to cut corners or wait for the last minute to buy equipment on paid gigs. Allowing time if something is out of stock and test it. For live event work you can’t afford for equipment to fail. That’s not say there isn’t a place for used equipment for other types of work.

Pertaining to Ryan unfortunately it isn’t purely an equipment issue. Because he’s on the spectrum he can’t function normally, make good decisions, and work independently on paid gigs where he could acquire experience and gear. This is why all our advice falls on deaf ears. This is a mental thing. Without proper thinking all the other stuff doesn’t matter.

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

Indeed!

On the gear front, B stock with a few paint bumps work for me - always have. Stuff in demo areas in the big dealers are never thrashed and spend the showroom time usually turned off till somebody wants a demo. You're going to mark them yourself first time you attach a frame, so the 70% ish discount off direct from the manufacturer is pretty good. Full warranty, which to be honest probably won't apply as I imported and didn't buy from a UK source. Considering the journey they had the condition was pretty good. A couple of chips in the paint where they'd been stacked and pinned, and one ding in the metal speaker grill which I fixed pretty simply. For what I have - the UK/EU price would have been 19-20K, and that's pounds not Dollars. This didn't include flight cases of course - this probably comes to £1400 or so. I'd got 30 shows to do with the system in various formats, and all gone! Good news though it seems like I'm eligible for a grant from the Government as they closed the theatres, effectively putting me out of work - won't be a great deal, but it's a grant, not a loan.

Crazy world isn't it!

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

who are y’all’s favorite b-stock/used “hidden gem” sources?

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

Thomann in Europe - True Heart Sound in Florida but most bigger dealers have B-stock, and will let you have photos if you ask.

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

Cool. Any for video gear as opposed to sound?

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

Here in the UK we have a dealer called H Preston who I've bought my cameras from. I NEVER bought an expensive brand new camera either. They always have last years flavour of the month with a few hours on the clock at good discounts. I rarely follow the 'must have' trends, so I've always bought for years now JVC cameras. 500,5000,100,200,700 series.They're now on 800 series, so pre-corona, I was thinking about which 800 to buy when the next series arrives. Staying one behind has saved me so much money over the years.

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

Thanks. I will definitely not buy another cam anytime soon (maybe ever?) but have always gone with what's popular/requested by clients, as there's a 50% chance they'll request one of several cameras vs don't know/don't care. Here in Houston Texas that's Canon C-series cams or FS7s. I myself got a C100 back in 2016.

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

I've got three 'goodwill and be nice' projects on the go and am flipping between them as the contributions arrive. I asked for 1980x1080 mp4 and 44.1K 16 bit .wav audio, 25fps for everything.

Thank God for media encoder.

Quick question. Anybody know how to make the network sharing on Windows 10 work properly? I need to save files on the left computer to the right one - and all my attempts fail. I'm currently saving to USB drive then moving it to the other one. Drop box takes longer. I'd just love for a computer saying Audio appear on the video one, and vice versa.

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

I've used a USB computer-to-computer transfer cable long ago. Just a cable with two USB-A male connectors, and a lump of firmware in the middle. IIRC, each computer sees it as a device in "My Computer" and you can drag and drop back and forth from either machine's screen.

It's been a few years and I don't remember whether it will actually network drives in real time. i.e. if you're running recording software on machine #1, I don't know whether you can -- at that time -- be saving the data on machine #2. But that's apparently not what you're asking, if you're presently using a USB stick for transfer.

Of course I did this years ago, probably two XP machines. But I'm pretty sure I've seen these advertised quite recently. Note that what you want is not simply a "data transfer cable" with two USB-A connectors ... those are for data transfer between a computer and a peripheral with an unusual connector. You need to be sure the description says "computer to computer" to be safe.

Now that you mention it, I think I'll look to buying a new one that works with current OS machines. You can never have too many toys ... or at least I can't.

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

I'll have as look, that would do exactly what I need! Cheers

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

If you google how to network windows 10 you’ll find the answer. I used to know but I’ve forgotten

Re: Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?
 

"I used to know but I’ve forgotten" - Basically the same here

I have my PCs set to show in the (My) "Computer" window as drives X, Y, Z.
Assuming your LAN 'Network Discovery' is on in the 'Network and Sharing Center' settings. Browse for the computer in 'Map Network Drive'. I have the 'User name' folder set to 'Share' as well.
At least this what I recall and may hold clues.