OUAT – Second Star to the Right (s2e22)

Posted: May 11, 2013 in Once
Tags: , ,
2

Hey reader!  I have it figured out.  I know who “The Home Office” is.  Mysterious island that you cannot leave?  Smokey shadow monster?  Doomsday devices?  It’s obvious; the Home Office for which Tamara and Greg work is the Dharma Institute.  My only question is when someone “turns the donkey wheel” where will Storeybrook go?

This is going to be a short summary and review of the first part of the season finale.  I will hold of a detailed review until the “episode” is complete.  Those who are familiar with my reviews of Fringe for Wayne Henderson’s FRINGEcasting podcast will understand my approach on two-parter episodes.  Read the rest of this entry »

OUAT – The Evil Queen (s2e20)

Posted: May 5, 2013 in Once
Tags: , ,
0

Once Upon A Time is on its final rush to the season two finale.  Episode 20, The Evil Queen puts the final pieces in place to begin what promises to be a roller-coaster ride to the finish.  There are a lot of story threads hanging due to the very gutsy agenda the showrunners had for this season.  Kitsis and Horrowitz have promised us closure and resolution, though I’m sure there are a few question/challenges that will be left to set up season three.

Life has gotten in the way of my writing, so I will try to take advantage of it.  I’m going to change my approach in my write up this time.  Rather than doing a detailed episode review, for this week’s analysis I want to consider those different hanging story threads.  Time and space permitting, I will also provide some thoughts on what we may see as we wrap up.  This will post on Sunday as a “ramp up” for part one of the finale. Read the rest of this entry »

No Gain, Much Pain

Posted: April 28, 2013 in Pro Audio
Tags: , ,
0
Figure 1

Figure 1

By far the most frequent problem I’ve seen when working on a new board is poor gain structure.  One of the quickest red flags I see is if I sit down at a mixer and see a lot of channel faders that look like what you see in Figure 1.

That almost always tells me that the gain structure was set up by moving the fader to nominal (i.e. the 0db mark typically 3/4 the way up the fader) then bringing up the gain until the volume sounds right.  Typically the soundman will get away with this, especially if he is not running a lot of channels.  What he may not realize is

Figure 2

Figure 2

that he is not getting the best quality of the source signal and he is very likely injecting a great deal of noise into the channel.   If I see faders scatter about like in Figure 2, I have a much higher level of confidence in how the mixer has been configured.  No guarantees, of course, but the odds are in your favor. Read the rest of this entry »

Sound Thinking

Posted: April 28, 2013 in Pro Audio
0

Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to mix on a fair number of boards that were not “mine;” that is not one where I was responsible for the setup and configuration.  I’ve also help more than one sound tech or podcaster online who have had problems with getting an effective mix.  From these experiences I have found that there are typically a few repeating problems that are causing people problems.  Because of this, I’ve decided to produce a short series of articles that I hope will help both sound techs and podcasters get the best possible sound. Read the rest of this entry »

Thoughts on Season 2 of Continuum

Posted: April 27, 2013 in Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Tags: ,
4

Well, season two of Continuum has started.  I thought I’d provide a few of my thoughts for based on the shifts we see coming from season one into season two.  I will say that if you are in the US and do not have Canadian friends or a VPN service that lets you see the show, you may want to skip this post.  There’s not going to be a lot of spoilers after all only the first episode has aired, but I will not be avoiding the season two opener.  If you can’t wait for a sneak peak of what’s ahead, however, read on…   Read the rest of this entry »

Older Entries
Newer Entries