Freeheel

I have a lot of fondness for Tascam - I still have my venerable DA-30 Dat rack mount unit, which has never eaten a tape, and always sounded great. The DAP1 was my first sound effects machine. I still remember recording a distant river and not having the white noise of the running water vanish into analog tape hiss. It was magical. Cheers, Brent Calkin

I have the things in my hands now, and they do flash at the top of the second, and whether it's a feature or a bug, I'm going to take full advantage of that. Brent Calkin

Nice, Thanks Johnny. Cheers, Brent Calkin

Jeez, I walk away for five minutes and the kitchen's a mess. First of all I live in Doc world, so I like to be able to instantly know at all times whether sync is holding. I usually work with pro cameras, so it's nice and easy to do a timecode count during a down moment or even sneak a peek at the camera display to make sure sync is solid. But for the next project: -The tentacle will be going to an audio track on a toy camera with no TC - a Sony FS 5. So I can't casually look at it's timecode display over DP's shoulder and make sure we are still in sync. -I CAN look at the audio input display and make sure that the tentacle is still plugged in and creating timecode that is going to the Audio track. -I could put a comtek on the camera and send it to my return and then monitor the timecode by the sound of the code going by. No really, I'm sure I could learn what 29.97 DF 17:45:23:24 sounds like as audio... By far the easiest way of doing a quick check, is to see whether the 2 tentacles on B and A Cam are flashing synchronously, and that flash matches the top of the second on my recorder's timecode display. It's what we did when we had to sync up 10 cameras with lockits, when they didn't have fancy displays. We'd jam, and have 10 lockits in a pile, all flashing together like clockwork. It was pretty obvious when one hadn't taken a jam properly. I hope this clarifies the topic a bit. I'm not intending to create a perfect solution, just one that helps me feel a bit better throughout the day and gets me through till I can have a moment to pull the tentacles off the cameras and check them with the iPhone app... Cheers, Brent Calkin

Hey Millar, https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5018-131/Transparent-Dry-Bag Can't really argue on price, or reliability. Good to get some silicone moisture removing thingy's, as well. Put a fancy MEC absorbent cloth or towel in with it on the bottom. Or just a hand towel. Sounds like you've found a fun project! Cheers, Brent Calkin

Thanks guys, good to know there is useful visual feedback about the state of sync. Cheers, Brent Calkin

Hi All, I've got a question about the Tentacle sync units. I'm going to be using some next week. When they are synced, do they flash in time with the timecode on the second, like the Ambient and Mozegear units do? The reason for my question is that when using the Tentacles for TC on a camera audio track, you can't just look at the camera to see whether time code is matching the audio recorder. With the Ambient, Mozegear and Denecke lockits that don't have timecode displays, the flashing "on" light matches the top of every second (or 2 seconds) so you have at least some visual clue of whether the unit is still in sync. Do the Tentacles have this feature? Cheers, Brent Calkin

Hey Johnny, My bag has all the usual ENG/doc stuff, a 633, Zax qrx200, an assortment of Lectro 411s, comtek transmitter and a block 24 Lectro hop. All attached with a BDS. Never had any strange sounds or interference. As soon as the bluetooth dongle was inserted, the return started put, put, putting like a small 1960's Evinrude 2 stroke. I haven't taken the time to test each device in my bag against the dongle, since in the pecking order of gear on my bag, Wingman comes pretty much last, and fires up fast enough that I can plug it in when I need it. The important test I need to do is to see whether that noise ends up on the tracks, or whether its only on the headphones. Cheers, Brent Calkin

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/politics/tsa-ban-electronics-laptops-cabin.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news As someone who doesn't trust checking my gear into the cargo hold, this will likely affect my global flight planning. I can think of two flights that I took in the last year that may have been restricted by this policy. It will be interesting to see how they fold this restriction into the requirement for NOT checking lithium batteries into the hold- I'm quite certain I would not want to remove the battery from my Macbook before a flight, seeing as it's built in... Cheers, Brent Calkin

I love zombie threads... sometimes you get to see an answer that you gave someone years ago and forgot about. Like a nice little time capsule. Cheers, Brent Calkin

Hi John, thanks for the good advice. I've been doing a lot of doc shooting in the past year where we're alternating a lot between Sony F5 or Amira with a hop, and DSLR's without one, often I'll be shooting both ways, in the same location and same wireless conditions. I haven't seen any particular desensing when the hop is on, or any range advantage when it's off. (for either the Lectro or the Zax). The hop dipoles over the shoulder and down the back, along with careful frequency choices, seem to be doing a good job of not causing interference within the bag- and ironically, I often successfully use a Lectro wireless in the SAME block as my hops. (at opposite ends of the block) The QRX 200 is 4 blocks away from the hops. If my Zax results seem off base with everyone else's, I think my next step is to take the whole system back to the mothership for an assessment, and see if there is something funky going on. Cheers, Brent Calkin

Hey Constantin, I don't disagree with you about 30 ft seeming a bit strange, and that doesn't happen often, but it happened last week so it was fresh in my mind. I more often get usable range out of the Zaxcoms. Whenever I have the two systems running side by side though, I've always noted that the Zax drops long before the Lectro. I had 3 wired subjects who were moving through a house on a tour, and I was outside- 2 Zax wires and 1 Lectro. The Lectro had some occasional drops, but both the Zax's were completely gone for much of the tour. It's possible that the QRX200 is malfunctioning, but both the transmitters seem to be behaving the same... I've been informed that dipoles would make a difference on the 200, but I've already got dipoles on each shoulder for my camera hops, and I'm reluctant to put receiving dipoles millimetres way from receiving dipoles... Cheers, Brent Calkin

I'm using both Lectro receivers (mainly 411's but occasionally my SRB when its not being used as a hop) and a Zaxcom QRX200 in the same bag with a 633. I may get flames for this, and I respect Jack's experience expressed above, but I'm consistently finding that my Zaxcom rig used with TRXLA2, at full 125mw power, has significantly less range before dropouts than my Lectro rigs at 100mw. Both setups are using whip antennas and frequencies are carefully chosen for the least interference. Of course the Zax has the awesome onboard recording which means the lessened range is not necessarily fatal, but at the end of a long day, I'd rather just have everything on my recorder when I'm backing up files, rather than the added time spent converting MARF files and having to explain to my producers that post is going to have to repair tracks with the additional files from the wireless. I love the Zax capabilities when the subject gets into a car that we are going to be shooting from 2 blocks away, but am not always so happy when the director is listening on comtek to the Zaxcoms dropping out when our subject is 30 feet away from me and turns with the transmitter pack on the opposite side of their body. My experience is that there's a bit of give and take between the two brands. Cheers, Brent Calkin

Hey all, I'm enjoying my wingman setup, but discovered that I get a rhythmic popping sound in my headphone return of the 633. This is with the dongle in the right angle adapter and close to the unit. Has anyone else had this issue? Fortunately, it stops when you unplug the dongle... I'm usually keeping the dongle unplugged in a side pocket and I stick it in when I need to use the wingman app. Not ideal, but still easier than using the mod knob to enter long names. cheers, Brent Calkin

Heya Millar. I've got a couple work days on my 633 with no issues at 4.50. (knocking on wood as I type) And the machine's been dead solid since 2014. More solid than my original very analog 442, which sometimes went nuts when moisture got into the gain trims. Not that that ever happens in our neck of the woods... Cheers, Brent Calkin

I've had good luck with my Kingston, though it's velcroed to the side of my desktop and doesn't travel. I've got a discontinued nGear that travels everywhere and has been good, though its card guides are a little funky and I worry about bending the CF reader pins due to improper insertion.. Important to get a decent one though, and retire them at the first sign of failure, cause my experience has been that a failing card reader can damage your cards.

Hey Tom, sorry to hear that that the files were not recoverable and you have no satisfactory answer to the problem. This kind of thing is why I still generally refuse to send a scratch track to camera, and always send a high quality 2 track mix. Out of curiosity, were you using a higher sample rate than 48 Khz? And Ivanovich, I mentioned in my call to SD tech support that I consider a menu optional "2 handed" Record Stop function to be the most important requested feature on their list. Anyone who agrees with me please contact SD and request this for the next software update. It's not so bad when bend over to tie my shoes (with my bag on) and realize that I knocked it into record... but not so cool when the same thing happens when I'm already in record and the machine buttons off. It should not be so easy to pull a run' gun machine out of record- and it's really easy to do if skiing or running while wearing a 633. Cheers, Brent Calkin

So after talking to SD tech support, a media failure on one card of a 633 should not affect the other one. You can test this by pulling a card out of its slot while recording. (they suggest that you reformat the card after trying this) Any failure that would create a problem on both cards would have to originate in the data buffer or further up the recording chain inside the 633. "Infinity" and "winged frogs" notwithstanding. Cheers, Brent Calkin

The important consideration here is the question of whether a failure on one media can damage the other one. On my SD 744t, if the hard drive was full, the recording would fail on BOTH the CF card and the hard drive. Which I considered a terrible issue and was one of the reasons I jumped to get a 633 when they first came out. I have always backed up both of my 633 media files (SD and CF) when handing in files to production in case of media errors. If a media error in one causes an issue in the other than the "redundant system" is not so redundant... I'm phoning Sound Devices right now... Cheers, Brent Calkin

The Storacell type rip the outer sheath off my Powerex Imedions quite badly, as Matthew has noted above. My solution (for AA) was to file off the nub of plastic that holds the battery in place. If you are careful, you can find a nice balance between ripping the sheath and being so loose they fall out. With the AAA storacell holders, any nub was too much, so I removed it and hold the batteries in place with an elastic band wrapped around the whole container. I'd move to something like the the Delkin cases mentioned above, but I do like the ability to easily pull a couple batteries out of the Storacell cases with one hand, while running, and then slip the used ones back in - in reverse orientation so I know they've been used. Cheers, Brent Calkin

The Sharpie on the grill is definitely temporary, but I feel better using about it than potentially messing up the mic element with paint or paint bridging the holes of the mesh. Usually the mic is hidden under clothing or has the windscreen on it. (if exposed as a clip on). The only times I hit it with the Sharpie is if its grill is sticking out of the buttonhole of a black shirt and I only need the colour to stay on for the rest of the day. Cheers, Brent Calkin

I use a black sharpie on the grill when it has to look nice. I use the RM11 rubber holder all the time so my mic bodies are always protected, so I have no suggestions on how to fix that damage, other than possibly use automotive touchup paint... Cheers, Brent Calkin

+1 for Toyota sound trucks. 1986 turboed diesel Landcruiser. Only problem is that directors invariably want to put it in a few scenes of the movie, which while flattering and fun, is usually a pain in the ass... Cheers, Brent Calkin

Thanks, Tony. I guess I'll have to make up some dipoles and see how they work. Unfortunately my hops are already running on dipoles over my shoulder and down my back, so I'll have to be careful with placement. Rado, what are you using for antennas? Are you on whips? Cheers, Brent Calkin

On the subject of Zax wireless and range before dropouts, I've got two TRX LA 2.5 with a QRX 200 receiver. In a bag, using whips, at 125mw transmitting power, the range before dropouts is consistently about 60% of the range of my 100mw Lectros with 411 receivers. Love the encryption, love the onboard recording - don't love the fact that I HAVE to use the onboard recording when my subjects get any significant distance away from me- it makes extra work at the end of the day. If anyone has any tricks they are using to make the range better- let me know. From research on this board, it would seem that everyone who is quite happy with their Zax range is using directional antennas, which is not going to be possible with a stripped down documentary rig. Cheers, Brent Calkin