Matthias Richter

thanks Dani. I will get a demo kit from my dealer soon. They point out the same issue as you reported. I will do an A-B test with one mic patched into my mixer directly using 48V and the other mic plugged into a Zaxcom TRX900AA. Will see if I can live with the reduced headroom. Reports coming. Update: I`ve done the A-B listening and have returned the pair of mics to my dealer. Can´t tell for sure if the power supply of the TRX with only 3.3V is the reason or not, but the mic on my TRX900AA sounded very noisy compared to the one plugged into the 48V on my mixer. It also was getting some RFI from the digital tx, not more not less than my DPA4063 which is the one recommended for use with Zaxcom wireless but since I would use the 4081 as a plant mic I would need to push the gain more than on a lav directly on talent, those bringing up the noisefloor even more. It´s a shame. I would have liked the small mics as an option in my kit and they come for an very attractive price. Decided to go for a 2nd Sanken CUB01 instead. Matthias

it´s the 2nd sound cart I know that was inspired by the "Berlin cart". I love that! Thanks for sharing the pics and keep posting your little improvements here and there. Best, Matthias

with my recent situation the 4 actors were in a big crowd scene and had their dialogue while the others were screaming like crazy. I had the extras mime (w.out sound) and most of the lines were good on the boom. But since we were shooting wide/tight at the same time I would have liked to push one or two of the actors a bit to make them a more audible against the others. But with the TRX gain set to "0dB" I still had almost constantly distorted sound on the lavs. The RX4900 showed no clipping on the TRX - thats why I´m assuming it might be the lav ... Robert, it might have worked to get one actor´s lines over the lav of another actor. But in this situation they were all screaming on top of each other. In the end it was just one of those days I guess ...

what do you use for screaming talents when you still need lavs? I find that with my TRX900 and DPA4063 I smtimes run into the situation where I need to bring down the gain to "0dB" and still get to high levels. Is there any inline attentuation available? The other thing is that although the DPA4063 can handle SPL up to 138dB before clipping (specs) I often have the feeling that it might not be the mic input of the TRX but rather the lav itself that is distorted. With a B6 - do you use the red (-10) version for screaming or even the blue (-20) one? Matthias

I think I have never used 8ch parallel either but ALL inputs are in use from time to time. I have ch1-4 hard patched from my RX4900 (4ch receiver), 5&6 are for the two RX900 (portable rec) and 7&8 are for hardwired mics, often a stereo mic. I just can´t think of a configuration that allows me to loose one input constantly. Another thing: when you record the mix to your 744 too - do you put the scene name into both recorders? If only the 788 would pass this info to a slave recorder along with the TC I would use the 788 for Isos and the 744 for the mix but I don´t wanna type in the info into 2 machines ... Matthias

Robert may I ask how you handle mix and isos? Do you just loose one input channel on your mixer constantly and send your mix to the 788? Or do you repatch? Matthias

the CS208V2 got the XLR instead of the jack but both of them are unbalanced! Pin 1&3 are connected.

I suggested this a year ago on the SD forum and they said it is possible with the existing hardware of the 788. Don´t know if the request has moved forward on their list. My Cooper mixer got Direct Outs and digital mix outs. With the LR tracks accessable via AES I could use 1-8 for isos and LR for the mix. If that would be possible I think again wether to buy a Fusion or 788. matthias

yeah right. It´s just that I tried to "improve" my boom mic and now I had to replace it. All the cheap mics on the computer headsets are electret - thats why I asked. I have ordered the dynamic mic I used again ... Matthias

does anyone know if the external slate mic input is dynamic or for electret mics? No information found in the manual other than unbalanced in. Cheers, Matthias

I have the Inv7, the PSC and the Cinela Osix4. The Osix is the only one I truly believe in and trust when my BoomOp uses the CMC6MK41 - with the squivel, maybe that makes a difference. Matthias

just found this posted by another mixer in a German forum ...

because you running down the cable with higher line level those minimizing any bad influence on the cable run and on the camside you not only att your signal but the noise too. When attenuating on your side you run down the cable with much lower level and chances are higher to run into trouble. Matthias

is it possible to adjust gain and freq on the TRX using the onboard IFB of the QRX? Or do we still need an IFB100 for those features? matthias

if it would be an additional option in the menu to set all trims to the value "0" after leveling is done not a single mixer of the other "99.9%" would be effected because no one would be forced to use that option. It is just easier to set all inputs to the same value rather than to -6, 11, -2, 7 and so on. Matthias

will the off-set between channels stay freeze once leveled to 0dB? Or does this vary from day to day? If it stays there could be an software option "set all trims to zero". That way one levels the particular recorder and after all is set the trims are set to "0" which makes it easier to set them back to an equal level after some changes were made. I often record stereo-mic parallel to dialog scenes (street noise, crowd, FX). It would be very annoying if I can´t just plug into 2 channels, set them to equal trim, link faders and be sure to record a true stereo-image. I often wouldn´t even listen to that mics but concentrate on the production mix. Matthias

I`ve purchased 3 TRX900AA and 1 TRX900 end 2006. #4 TRX900AA and the TRX700 half a year ago. All are the very same model one can buy now. Don´t get me wrong - after all I just bought more Zax gear recently. I just wish they would be designed and build a bit more towards the real world challenges. Matthias

as much as I love my Zaxcom wireless for all the features they have, it´s also the part of my gear that will have a failure on one or the other TRX900/RX almost on every single shoot. Its been the buttons on the TRX that went flaky, the display went down, smtimes its moisture from a talent othertimes it´s the battery connection that came off because when taking out the battery one puts some stress on the soldering point. The battery cover is still not very robust - be very gentle with it. I had 3 out of 4 TRXs that needed some antenna resoldering inside the TRX because there is no proper counter tension (know what I mean?). With one antenna I was too late and the whole tx-amp was blown and the HF board needed replacement. Maybe all or some of that has changed with the LT, I hope so. Now that I have 5 TRX and 1 PlugOn I feel I can survive a shoot even with one TX going down. If my main recorder (SD) would have shown similar actions I would have switched with no doubt. That said the idea of having wireless control of the TX-gain is great and it´s the reason why I think of buying a Fusion (the other way around with me ...). The recording feature has been a life-safer for me already a couple of times and I won´t wanna miss it thats for sure. Matthias

John, the current draw of 3.5A was measured and Jeff the time was passing by like you discribed ;-) Just charged the batt overnight again and will run the test a 2nd time ... Matthias

I know what I should get but practical exp is smthing else. Specs of the Panasonic LC-X1265 says 20hrs when drawing 3.25A until cut off voltage 10.5V but I was told to calculate with half the capacity to get realistic hours. But even then 35AH and 3.5A should give me at least 10hours. Will see if a new one gets closer to the 18-20hours as I have just got another LC-X1265 on ebay. Matthias

btw how long should I last on a Panasonic 65AH SLA when my cart draws 3.5A? Shouldn´t I get at least 10h until the voltage goes down to 12.0V? Just got 6.5 hours tested in my appartement. If shooting outside with lower temp even less probably. Time for a new one or still ok? Matthias

wonder if the Fusion limiters sound "strange" like the build in limiters of the Zaxcom TRX? Matthias

I felt that the build in limiters of the Zaxcom TRXs are useless. If it kicks in it sounds absolutely horrible. I had a scene in front of a monkey-cage in the zoo, dialogue while the monkeys going nuts - it just sounded distorted in a strange way (I have described it in a previous post like someone with throat cancer). After switching the limiter to off it sounded just fine. What I do use is the compressor (maybe you are refering to that?) which can be set to different thresholds but don´t use the expander as this won´t work on location with all kinds of background noise. Matthias

new Macbook Pro with Lightpeak April 2011? http://www.edibleapple.com/apple-to-unveil-new-ipad-in-january-new-macbooks-in-april-along-with-new-version-of-fcp/

just an information: the low cut sold with the s.c. "movie-set" is available solo although not listed on the website for 20,-€ Matthias