Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1152338
38 80/20 aluminum if it's better for the job. Gene and Drew do all of the design, assembly, and small machining. They credit more than thirty carts built so far for a wide range of sound mixers. SOUNDCART.AUDIO Matthew Bacon founded SOUNDCART.audio in the UK. The selection of sound carts was extremely limited in the UK twenty years ago; they were rarely seen on anything that wasn't a scripted drama or a feature film. Just like Jeff Wexler, Matthew's first cart was a homemade adaption of an existing industrial trolley, a BEKVÄM Kitchen trolley from IKEA. As his career progressed, his need for a solid sound cart became imperative so he set about designing one using the popular 80/20 material. "Other mixers began expressing interest in either buying my cart or having me build one for them." Matthew continues, "One thing led to another and after some R&D time, he launched SOUNDCART.audio in March of 2016. Following the success of the production sound cart, demand for other models soon followed. In particular, there was interest in a smaller, more compact design, thus the MiniCart was born!" The approach to designing the MiniCart was similar to that taken with the production sound cart, to design a cart that was functional, flexible, and easily configurable to allow mixers to work in the way they wanted. Matthew explains, "No two mixers work the same even with the same equipment. For example, some prefer to sit or stand, position their monitors high or low, fix their boom poles to the side or rear of the cart, use adjustable feet or small or large caster wheels, etc." Matthew offers design services to customize his sound carts to the needs of his fellow mixers. His newest entry is the Explorer sound cart, which is a self-assembly design. CANNIBAL INDUSTRIES Eric Ballew and his Cannibal Industries is the newest entrant in the sound cart-building business. While doing early mixing projects in 2010 in Los Angeles, he supported his career by working with stunt crews in designing rigging and emergency braking systems. It wasn't until 2017 that Eric decided to collaborate with a machinist and partner with Sound Mixer Daniel S. McCoy. Eric says, "Daniel asked me if modifying a Zuca cart for sound work was possible. In comparison to the complexities and mechanics of the cart I built for Michael Hoffman CAS, adapting a generic Zuca cart for sound was a simple and straightforward venture. I took the Zuca to my machinist who has been my mentor. I completely disassembled it and began drawing pictures of brackets and support pieces. We milled the parts out on the CNC machine and Bridgeport mills. Each piece was made to very tight tolerances; the result was an incredibly ridged and lightweight rig. To add some flair, I machined some very specific quick-release hooks for a Sonosax/Orca bag Daniel owns." Audio Department carts