So what do we think of our Tascam DR60Ds?

The only thing I don't like about the Strut case is that again, it's one of those bags that hang off your neck which is horrible ergonomically. I was thinking of somehow affixing it to some kind of tool belt or something, or maybe taking one of those weight lifting support belts and turning it around so the wide face is in front, and then rigging some kind of cage for the 60D that would fit securely and not stress your neck. I looked at various "audio bags" and harnesses and stuff and it's all in the $300-$700 range and it seems like an ideal DIY project (he said, knowing little).
 
OldCorpse said:
The only thing I don't like about the Strut case is that again, it's one of those bags that hang off your neck which is horrible ergonomically. I was thinking of somehow affixing it to some kind of tool belt or something, or maybe taking one of those weight lifting support belts and turning it around so the wide face is in front, and then rigging some kind of cage for the 60D that would fit securely and not stress your neck. I looked at various "audio bags" and harnesses and stuff and it's all in the $300-$700 range and it seems like an ideal DIY project (he said, knowing little).
Click to expand...

Strut makes a harness for this bag, putting it in the ideal spot for visibility and accessibility.
 
I don't usually hang them "around my neck" but more like the way british kids hang their book bags, or women carry purses when in the anti snatch mode. So it sits off to the side more than in front. But PortaBrace also makes a waist harness and one that figure eights around your shoulders.
I don't find having dead center in front of me in a bag very easy to work with. I'm much happier with it to the side.

Then again how much can the bloody thing weigh (you wimp! ;~) ). I carried a nagra around all day a few times (the digital one) and it's about 15 lbs. My shoulders felt like raw meat by the end of the day.
 
The 60D by itself doesn't weigh much (about 1 pound), but adding power solutions (power bank + batteries), any wires hanging off etc., does get it up a bit, but still tolerable. I have only boomed on a few shorts, a couple of weeks total on rented sound equipment (I was the mixer as well as the boom op), but that was a number of years ago. I remember having the mixer hanging in front of me. Despite my rank amateur ignorance, I actually managed to get decent sound thanks to the one piece of advice from the rental guy (thank you, Coffee Sound!) - "get the mic as close to the actor's chin as you can") - and some "boom mic!!!" screams on every take (when I'd shove it into the frame), but everyone was grateful for my "work" come editing time, NO SOUND PROBLEMS, BOOYA!!! The one insanity that we struggled with and lost a day to - that's how stupid and ignorant we were - was on one day when for some reason I was getting Mexican radio on my boom mic even though you could not hear the radio anywhere, it was for some reason picking up the signal. The director and producer threw a fit as I struggled, and struggled to get rid of mariachi music and Spanish call-ins - I thought they were going to kill me, and I only took to boom duty because nobody else wanted it. I called the Coffee people and they tried to help over the phone, but it didn't help, we kept hearing Mexican women call in with their requests and when yet another boom-chick, boom-chick, boom-chick blasted, the director would give me the stinkeye - and we had an actor that day that was hard to book, so by the end of a useless day, everyone on set was ready to murder me. At that point I understood why nobody wanted the boom duty and I decided to stay away from volunteering sound on any future productions - a lot of work, sore arms and nobody appreciates you. Anyhow, sorry - that was a crazy derail. My point is that I think it should be possible to DIY something for the pretty small 60D.
 
FYI what probably was happening was a loose or bad connection or a bad cable. A mic cable if not shielded effectively becomes an excellent antenna.
Dirty oxidised connections can sometimes also act like a radio (look up crystal radio set), but you usually have to have a shield issue also.

This also goes back to (OT side step) why on projects like films you really need some folks with experience everywhere. Script supervisor I think is another job that tends to get shoved off to whoever drew the short straw. Big mistake.
 
I wonder why there is almost no information on the new recorder. I can't even find any on the manufacturer website! Hmm. For $200, that is a wonderful little device!

I'd prefer a waist harness over a neckstrap, and will eventually get one for my setup, but not for that ridiculous amount! I need a case that has a little protection, nothing fancy or expensive.

I love your story, OldCorpse! I've been in that position before, but with electrical signals messing up the audio from telephone wires. We ended up having to do a voiceover for that location shot (it was short).
 
Plus I wasn't getting paid :) which to be fair was not much of an injustice, since I was not a pro. In any case, Scott is right it was probably some cable or connectors somewhere - we just got a whole new gear set and that solved the problem.

Re: 60DmkII, the funny thing is how people tell you about gear for film - buy sound gear with confidence because it changes very slowly compared to cameras; that may or may not be the case, but at least on the consumer or semi-pro level, I feel like the changes are pretty fast - Tascam alone has come out with 3 recorders in the last month alone, and Zoom is not standing still either. Whatever you buy today will be superceded tomorrow by a new model coming out. So I just look at the gear and ask "does this do what I need at a price point that's acceptable?" If yes, then I buy. The 60D was good enough for me, and I bought it. I don't foresee upgrading to the mkII, but of course I'm curious to learn how much "better" it is.
 
Well, the studiodaily link says street price of $200, so maybe that's confirmed? But then again, they say this: "Power is provided by two AA batteries or USB connection" which is wrong, in that it takes 4 AA batteries. Regardless, if it is indeed $200, I wonder if the price will drift down from MSRP to street price, as often happens. Wouldn't it be a trip if you could buy the 60DmkII for $150 at B&H? Amazing times we live in. If it's indeed a step up from the 60D, then at $200 it's an absolute steal, let alone $150.

Edit: Adorama has it for $199 with free shipping, so that's confirmed.
 
Nice affiliate link

What do you mean? I hope you don't mean I'm somehow affiliated or profit from linking to Adorama? Because I have zero relationship with them (other than I bought stuff from them). Also note, it's just a plain link, with no additional markers: http://www.adorama.com/TSDR60MKII.html

I googled for it, saw it on Adorama, went there and copied the link, that's all. Also maybe it does ship Oct. 15, but on Adorama it says "In Stock" for what it's worth.
 
Not sure I've ever seen this before. Your "plain" link gets converted into an affiliate link so this website must be an affiliate for Adorama and benefit$ from any product links that are posted in the forums then if clicked on and the item purchased they make some $$$, interesting.

Adorama always says items are in stock when they really aren't. B&H Photo and Amazon are much more accurate with what is really in stock.
 
Well, if you look on B&H, the 60DmkII is not there. I buy 90% of my stuff at B&H, and maybe about 5% at Adorama, so I first go to B&H - I did a search and nothing came up.
 
Adorama is terrible about letting customers know if something is in stock. I found out a couple days ago (after looking into it myself) that my purchase of a boompole case is backordered for a month.

That article came out a couple hours after I posted so I hadn't seen it yet. No clue why the product wasn't showing up on the Tascam website before!

From what the article said, it seems the only changes to the DR-60D are the red bars and 12db of gain increase. A nice addition, but not amazing enough for me to upgrade.
 
Sorry about this, this site is very sticky, I have great difficulty in typing anything here, the response is painfully slow! No problem when using Firefox, but with Internet Explorer, it is terrible. (It is like you type sth to a PC 12000 miles away and watch for response, this is due to Adobe Flash? )
 
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lifepo4, I am usually very cautious when buying tech gear of unknown provenance on ebay. I agree that the numbers are quite extreme. However, I went ahead and bought based on 3 factors. First, it's less than $20 - in the worst case, that's what I lose. Second, the company selling/distributing these is based in California - I am pretty confident that the actual product is probably both designed and manufactured in China, and these guys are merely distributors/sellers, but nonetheless, if these batteries either were not up to spec or regularly burst into flames, I think we'd hear of this by now, after all, most of the folks buying this are not in some region with no lines of communication, but vocal people right here in the states. Yet I have not heard of any such thing - plus if it really was a problem, I expect a U.S. based company would get shut down. Third, they claim to have sold several hundred of these, and in fact are not the only sellers, so I assume there must be at least a few hundred or even thousand customers who took possession of these batteries. If there were problems with either the claimed specs, or with them bursting into flames, I doubt these guys would stay in business. Of course, maybe they're lying and only sold a few, but it hardly seems worth a scam like that with free shipping and less than $20 a pop - if they only sold a few, what kind of business would that be?

Bottom line, while none of this is definitive in making a conclusion, these were my reasons for going ahead and buying. But maybe you're right, and this is all ill-advised. Not being an engineer, I can't tell. So, as they say, caveat emptor and YMMV.
 
Would you say that you got decent audio good enough for a film short?

In evaluating my baggage weight/size limits, I may not be able to take certain gear with me and I am considering not taking my Promix mixer with me. I plan just to boom an AT835b shotgun mic (which allows me to use a battery).

Also, could I use a 50 ft 3.5mm cable with 2 male ends if I want to make a scratch track on the video? I'd boom away from the camera and feed the signal into the camera.

Thanks.

P.S. I know I have been a little all over the place lately (a couple other threads) trying to figure out my travel kit. Thanks for the patience and help.
 
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