Bouke

Please, don't make this kind of stupid remarks

Well, I did some research years ago. A GPS receiver is dirt cheap, and coding for it is incredibly easy. (Just connect to it, and data comes in in human readable form.) But, the clocks from satellites do NOT run at the wall time on earth. They have an offset, that is increased every such time (I forgot...) So, to get the real time, you need to know the offset. But that is only broadcasted every hour or so. Then, it might take a long time for the unit to find a satellite, that is not nice for run & gun work.

Working on a set of tools: Tool to merge BWF files into one long poly or mono file. Tool to log mute moments Tool to extremely fast offload Zaxcom MARF cards (Copy only the 'new' data, instead of the full card.) the Merge tool does something like 'autosequence', but with patch. The mute tool is a simple util that works with the merge tool, it will mute specific moments of specific tracks in the timeline I could use some input on how to improve it. Background: Client is shooting real life soap (or alike) with a gazillion of Zaxcom transmitters that also record. They want to use the data from the transmitter rather than the wireless (RF faults etc.) And he does not want 'private' moments to go to Post, nor does he wants talent to mute their transmitters. If you like, toy with the stuff below. (And give feedback, either here or in PM) Test set.zip BWFmergeBeta.dmg MuteLogger.dmg Test set.zip

Here is proof of concept: ZaxTrimBeta.dmg This is Mac only for now, but I can make it Win also. (And Unix, but that will take a bit longer...) It wil copy MARF / Zax 'trimmed', so as small as needed. ZaxConvert 'should' still be able to work on the smaller / trimmed files. Fair warning, it WILL overwrite existing files, so choose your output wisely!

(my guess is that the Zax stuff is not so sophisticated, it just allocates space so no other app can interferere with it, Nothing wrong with that, but easy to parse. What I've done is not even remotely hacking, it's just extracting data, to feed ZaxConvert to it's expectations (for as far as I know, I just have one channel on one clip of one recorder, but I bet a box of beer this will work in any case.))

Nope, I'm on a fairly old Intel I5... But, for the stuff I do and the support I can give given the money, I don't want to have too much hassle... For the trimmed stuff, see the attachment. No clue what metadata there is to loose, as there is hardly any. (And I think the metadata is not in the .zax files, but in the .zzz file.) LAV__YEL.zip This should unzip to just a small .zax file, and a .zzz file, that 'should' work fine in ZaxConvert, give you the same as the 4 gigs you've posted..

Definitely something like that. I took your sample file, deleted the empty .zax files, trimmed the non empty (removing all trailing zeros), and ended up with a 344 KB file, that was still fully functional. This 344 KB became 2,4 MB when converted to BWF. That's 7 times bigger. So 'some' data compression is applied... (No clue if it's destructive or not, but I don't care, as long as it sounds good : -) But, this knowledge makes that I could create something that could backup cards fast, and save storage. (But that's only good as backup 'in case of emergency', as the MARF stuff can't be played / used. However, ZaxConvert is able to create BWF's if needed.) I don't think it will be significant faster than using the ZaxConvert, unless you offload to a very slow disk. (I guess the disk to oflload to is WAY faster than the cards.) I'm not going to pursue the Wine option, too much hassle. (I get a 'wrong CPU type' error.) More later.

No clue how to accomplish that. Wine / WineBottler chokes on it. Yes, that won't be hard to make. No clue, the interface comes back with the settings as I've left them... Those are simple CSV files, not hard to work on from Python, but I have no clue who uses them for what. (I'm a coder, used to be an editor, but never had to work with sound reports...) But, can we motivate Zaxcom to update the CLI version, and port it to Mac? (64 bits of course...)

Thanks. (Zipping zeros is always fun : - ) Looks simple enough, but yes, no fun reverse engineering. And no 'real' need, ZaxConvert GUI accepts multiple inputs, cards need to be offloaded anyways for backup. The command line util is simple enough for me to write an gui, but why would it be better than the Zac gui itself? It cannot send data to StdOut or alike for me to process further... So what's there to automate further? And, it's Win only, while I think most people here are on Mac.

Hmm, I can't find it...

Ok, In that case, can you send me a (small) disk image with some clips? Or does the command line util not work from a 'normal' disk (with the Marf stuff)? In that case, I need to find a local guy that can send me a card.

Ok, thanks! The command line util sounds promising, can it be used to offload cards? If so, I can do the scripting. (Well, write a Python GUI for it, that takes multiple cards.) But on the other hand, if Ambient already has done this, why? (They're friends, and it's an unwritten law not to fish in another one's pond.)

Can someone help me out with how the Zaxcom eco system works? From what I know, their stuff records to a 'propiatary' .zax file, that needs to be converted to BWF after offloading. Situation: Client shoots with 20+ Zax recorders (and no, I have no clue what kind of them, client is on vacation now, but I have time, so I want to be ahead.) My job is to autosequence them and put them into one giant 50 track / 24 hour+ BWF file. That's no issue, but converting all the inputs to BWF before I do my thing seems silly. I think .ZAX is plain PCM data, am I right? Can someone help me with some info on how things are stored? (Short testclips would be nice!) Thx Bouke

Thanks all. I have worked for political parties / persons that I truely HATE, but did my job cause it was in the line of democracy. (The party did not hire me, the governement, and every legal party gets it share.) I did my job, made a very decent clip out of it, even knowing what lying backstabbing bitch I was editing. Fun story, something like that once totally backfired when my counterpart at the governement (I'm independent) decided to make a 'bad' video: a stupid extreme right wing idiot got funded to make a video, he did the job and told the 'talent' the first take (and his delivered chroma key backdrop of a 60 pixel wide GIF was fine). End result was hilariously bad, but went viral on YouTube. (Sadly it is removed...) Long story short: I have told them (my contact at Scientology) I'm not taking the job.

Disclaimer, I do NOT want a political / religious discussion. BUT: I've got a request to work for Scientology. If I were in a position to be able to refuse work, I would leave it instantly. But you've guessed, I'm not... Now, where is the line? I could really use some money, but I'm not really comfortable with the idea that my work will help sucking in people into something I call 'bad'. 'No discrimination' does not apply in this situation IMHO. What do you think? @ Jeff, monitor this and step in if this goes off the track.

PC version also available now, but in a sort of debug modus. It might be that there is a 600 Msecs delay. (Still good enough for rock 'n roll, but the meter on the right is sorta kinda more meaningless then. (it is meaningless already, as it shows the last M value, but that is average over the past 400 Msecs) The graph will be good though, will you a nice indication of what you are doing, and the status line WILL be accurate.

Note, for non-live scanning, it can be done way faster than RT. Have a look at Loudness Change. (That does scanning, like a lot of other apps, but this is made to batch alter all stems as well, and can work in batch on multiple shows with stems) https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/loudness-change/

Well, LoudnessChange (available for Win as well) gives you a full list of trouble areas. Not graphical, but in a list, and / or as Avid Markers. (I could add XMP markers for Premiere.) Scrolling trough the graph is meaningless IMHO. (But I could be wrong.) What you want in post is make a nice mix according to your ears, then see if it's OK by the specs. This thing is intended for recording / streaming / broadcasting. What use is scrolling? It's in the past, you're still recording, nothing more you can do about it... However, I could add a log function so if you did recording for post later, you see trouble spots. But then again, if you are doing post, you go over the file anyways, and a new scan will be quite fast. Creating the graph with time information is not that hard, but what is 'time'? Relative to start? Of the actual timecode? The whole idea of this thing is to have an easy to read overview to keep your mix 'around' the desired level. (For poor men, with my old RTW meter I could easily target -23 LUFS by just keeping the peaks around 0....) But again, it's no issue to make these things, I've done all before, just not combined into one new product 🙂

Quick follow up, It's available now, and reasonably priced. https://www.videotoolshed.com/product/live-ebu-r128-meter/ Mac only at the moment, Windows version will follow ASAP! Of course you can still suggest improvements!

Well, trust me, it's still in use today. A LOT. Elaborate please, as I have NO CLUE what you are talking about. VITC is Vertical Interval TimeCode, that means inserting TC in video, ment to read at normal speed (or if you had a slomo capable VCR at speeds up to 2x normal) Why would that be, as there are plenty tools around that can convert LTC to metadata, I sell one of those. Who are you? Bouke

Nick is (obviously) right, but: I don't understand it AT ALL. If you do MoCap for games, it's 'interactive', meaning a character will speak as the game engine decides. That means ISO recording always. How do you you want to record 6 talents with MoCap simultaneous? Do you have 6 HMC's with hardware? How would you like to get that interactive with the game? Note, I'm NOT a sound guy, I know a bit about MoCap / workflows. (Read, I've worked for Avatar and more blockbusters, and did custom work for Mocap companies, I've never seen simultaneous capture of talent.) And I'm also Dutch. Dus, je kunt me gerust mailen en wat concretere vragen stellen, ik denk dat ik wel 'iets' kan helpen.

For all: If you want it, I need your e-mail for a WeTransfer.

example of how a highly compressed radio broadcast looks.

Since I needed one, and wanted to toy around a little, I've made one. It's intended to monitor levels during recording / live streaming where you want to achieve a specific overall loudness. Mac only at the moment. If someone wants to toy with it, and if possible, compare it with other stuff out there, drop me a line.

Any experience? I direct a show where a Tricaster gets fed by a mixer, to livestream to YouTube. All levels 'seem' a bit correct, but the feed's return (from YouTube) is VERY low volume. I'm not talking details, it's 30 dB lower than expected. I am NOT the owner of the Tricaster, nor the mixer, I have no clue where to look... / give directions. Any help would be appreciated.