March 8th, 2003, 03:20 PM | #211 |
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The RAID card would allow you to add additional drives, but is the costliest solution. You would also get a performance boost from the RAID card. FireWire is nice but if you don't need portability it is the next costliest solution. You could add larger internal drives too. What Mac G4 do you have? That can effect things also. Are you thinking about upgrading soon?
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March 9th, 2003, 03:59 AM | #212 |
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I am thinking of upgrading soon. I am using a G4 - 400mhz AGP graphics with FCP 2. I am thinking about a zif upgrade either a 800 or 1ghz (the reviews I have read about the dual processor upgrades were not confidence inspiring). Ram is not maxed but since max ram for an app is 999MB and this machine is dedicated to final cut, 1 GB ram is enough.
I have a B&W G3 that I use for surfing, word, excel, photoshop. This dinosaur has an ATA 100 PCI card installed that I was thinking about putting in the G4. However, the idea of portability is intriguing. I also have a Pismo powerbook that is getting the most use latley. Is an external Firewire drive (theoretical 400mbps) faster than an internal ATA 100 IDE drive? |
March 9th, 2003, 06:42 AM | #213 |
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I would get a FireWire drive to add portability to the system, especially if they are not networked. The ATA/IDE 100 7200rpm is faster than a FireWire drive. However, none of your machines are real speed demons so the slight difference would not be readily apparent. I would also get a better video card, it will free up the processor and make the computer seem much faster. OS 10.2 with the Quartz Extreme can hog a lot of processor power rendering and displaying fonts and shadows. A newer video card will relieve the processor of those duties.
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March 9th, 2003, 11:55 PM | #214 |
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Great mixer for your edit setup
Just thought I'd let you guys know about a lovely little mixer I picked up for an incredible price recently.
It's made by Eurorack, and the model number is the MX 602A. I was suspicious of the price ($79 at Promax, and can be found for less on the web) but having tried it for a month, it's working beautifully. It's essentially a six-channel mixer, two channels set up for mike or line (XLR or 1/4" input with gain control and phantom power) and two stereo channels (dual 1/4" inputs). There's also stereo tape sends and and aux send, which can also be used as inputs as needed. It's solidly built, the controls feel good, and while it is fairly stripped down it still has some handy features such as 3 bands of EQ per channel, aux sends, a main and "control room" output etc. The level indicators are pretty skimpy...LED's, and only four of them, but if you are mixing sources into the computer you have the levels in your system to work with. I have used it in a live presentation setting and also on my desktop, where I mix the computer audio output with my DV deck and dub rack, and the sound is clean. If anyone is interested in more info, check it out here. Sadly for me, in checking out that link I also came across their next model up, the 802, which adds inputs and more LED's for level--and it's only $20 more! Oh well.
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March 10th, 2003, 07:29 AM | #215 | ||
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Thanks for the heads-up on this economical mixer, Charles.
There are always mixed reviews on the Behringer line. "Too much noise and cross-talk," some claim; "For most applications you'll never notice," counter others. "It's cheaper to get a higher-end mixer used on eBay," says one; "No, right now it's just as cheap to get new gear as it is to get used gear," says another. There have also been charges that an inordinate number of Behringer products get sent for service with slow turnaround times. John Amstadter, Behringer Rep Midwest, had this to say: "As for reliability - I have sold thousands of Behringer units and have had returns running less than 2% failure rate. Most of the failures were related to shipping damage and not to any specific product. Behringer repair is backed up by Samson Technology and generally there is only a 5 day turn around. Problems should be addressed through Samson Customer Service. " Behringer is alleged to have produced their equipment from stolen or reverse-engineered designs from other audio equipment manufacturers (Aphex, Mackie) using low-cost labor in China, then exploited stringent European libel law to prevent court rulings to this effect from being publicized. (In any case, that would seem to be nothing but good news for the end-consumer looking for a good deal.) In fairness to them, Behringer's customer service had this to say about the matter: Quote:
Quote:
So, if anyone else has reviews of their Behringer gear, it'd be good to hear. I'm interested in whether the SNRs are good enough for 16 bit DV work (i.e. not much worse than 96 dB SNR).
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March 10th, 2003, 05:30 PM | #216 |
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602A
Yeah, I got one a couple of months ago. Very happy with it. Especially for the price. I can take it out when I'm shooting, where there's going to be power, and use it in the field.
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March 10th, 2003, 09:00 PM | #217 |
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I have a quick question for any one who owns a 602 or 802 or is familiar with a mixer such as the above. If I was to use a mixer like these (say, the 602) in the field, how would I get the sound into my camera? I know to go in through the mic-in on my GL2, but what kind of outputs does the mixer have (ie: XLR, 1/4, 1/8, RCA)? Also, if I wanted to get this audio directly into my computer what kind of card (PCI) would I need and what type of software would I use to capture the audio? Thanks to all! I am a little less familiar with the audio world than the video world ;-)
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March 11th, 2003, 08:05 AM | #218 |
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The concept of decibels
I have been reading the audio section of my final cut express manual and can't seem to understand the concept of 'db' with regard to the audio.
Could somebody please help explain this concept in simple terms. I have tried looking on the web and that really hasn't helped - it goes into algorithms etc etc. Or is it just a complex concept anyway... rather than just asssigning a certain number to a certain volume of sound (which would be the logical way to me). |
March 11th, 2003, 09:24 AM | #219 |
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The output on these mixers is 2 1/4" balanced (TRS) or unbalanced (TS) jacks (meaning it does either, just depending on the cable you plug in). If you're doing a really long cable run from the mixer to the camera, you may want TRS to XLR cables and an XLR-PRO or similar at the camera side, but most of the time we just run 6 or 10 feet of unbalanced cable and it works fine. Dual 1/4" TS to 1/8" stereo miniplug into the GL2 mic jack, and you're good to go.
For computer recording, there are lots of pro level audio cards that will do. Personally I love the M-Audio cards, the Audiophile 24/96 is a stereo in card that would do just what you want. Purchased new, the Audiophile comes with decent recording software, or you can go out and purchase something better like Sonic Foundry Sound Forge or Vegas (with Vegas, you get a multitrack audio recorder and killer NLE all in one!). http://www.m-audio.com http://www.sonicfoundry.com |
March 11th, 2003, 10:02 AM | #220 | |
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Quote:
So dB is a log of ratios. You take the intensity of your sound, divide it by the intensity of a reference sound, then take the log of that ratio. "Hm," you say. I just want to know how loud a sound is. What am I supposed to use as my reference? That's where it starts to get a bit complicated, especially once you start talking about VU meters, which is probably your actual aim. I could begin to go into the math here, but instead, you might appreciate these links which already say everything I might have repeated: A thread from The Recording Website Audio Forums Archives. The third post down begins a "For Dummies"-type comprehensive discussion of dB. Excerpt from Producing Great Sound for Digital Video, by Jay Rose (PDF)
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March 11th, 2003, 04:42 PM | #221 |
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Colorizing DV Footage
Hi All,
I'm working on a segment of my movie (music documentary) and I'm having a bit of difficulty. First of all my setup is: PD150 (shot on and for edit deck) with a 15" LCD G4 Imac (800mhz) running Final Cut Pro 3.0.4. The section is a slowed motion montage over music, using footage shot at a concert. The band uses really bright lights and much of the footage i'm using is really blown out at times (love the look). Anyways, I'm looking for ways to take some of the blown out footage and turn the bright white light into more interesting colors. I've tried using color correctors, but they just turn my footage "pink" or "sky blue" and i'm looking for more vivid colors. Is there anything I can do? I tried creating slugs of the colors I wanted, then superimposing it ove the image, but it just made things look like tinted black/white. HELP ME PLEASE!!! I have access to After Effects if needed, although I've never used it before. Thanks for your time, I look forward to hearing from you. Ethan |
March 11th, 2003, 05:39 PM | #222 |
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Hello Ethan,
Just to be clear, are you trying to change the color of the actual lights or of areas of "blown-out" reflected light (i.e. lit areas as opposed to the lights themselves)?
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March 11th, 2003, 05:41 PM | #223 |
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FCP OS9 Boot/OSX
Hi y'all,
Being a bit of a fledgling and ready to jump into an FCP system of my own (I've been using the company's for two years - OS9 version 1) I have two questions that you may have answers for: 1) Is there big difference in render times between a dual 1.25 and a dual 1.42 G system... both with 1.5 G RAM? Is it worth the x-tra cash to get the 1.42 system? (I'm going to be editing docs) and 2) I see a system I like that is touting "OS9 Boot/OSX". What does that mean? I'm sure more questions will pop up... Thanks, drey |
March 11th, 2003, 06:51 PM | #224 |
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High-quality Video Cards...?
I'm helping an individual start up a production company and was wondering if any of you could provide some useful information on professional video cards. We'll be using either a high-end Dual Processor G4 tailored for digital editing or/and a Mac laptop. We'll be using Final Cut Pro 3 as our editing software. So, any suggestions...?
It would be quite helpful if you could give some pro/cons on the cards you suggest. Thanks in advance. |
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