Constantin

A lot of misunderstanding in this thread. Let me try to further muddy the waters. Or clear up a thing or two. 32-bit float is not the same as Zaxcom‘s NeverClip. NC is employing two A/D converters. Each one is optimised to a specific dynamic range and they supposedly switch seamlessly at the crossover range. This is an extension I guess of a fairly old technique called gain-ranging. Neumann for example used this for many years in their now discontinued digital mic series. Zaxcom achieves 137db of dynamic range, IIRC, which is impressive, but still fine to represent by 24-bits (which can represent up to 144dB). 32-bit float is absolutely not the same as pulling down gain by 40dB. Absolutely not the same. Likewise NeverClip, it is not the same as a 40dB gain reduction. By pulling the gain down 40dB you deliberately destroying your dynamic range, not adding to it and you’re getting very close to the system noise and that is exactly what you want to get away from. You want to present a healthy level to the a/d converter (and preamp) that’s why we gain up quiet bits and down the loud bits. So while gained up when someone suddenly starts to yell the audio slams into the limiter creating a very unpleasant effect or, worse, it will clip the converter and ruin the recording forever. That is where 32-bit float comes in. It will save your recording from clipping for those unexpected moments. That’s why it’s probably ideally suited for those situations where you cannot control the gain, but not really advantageous in those where you can. As everyone stated the preamp and the mic will remain as the limiting factors if they clip the 32-bits won’t do you any good. You can probably help the preamp with an analog converter, but once the mic clips, there’s not much to do

Eric is not here anymore, but yes you can do that, it is possible. The cable type depends on your equipment.

Yes, but I definitely prioritize good quality sound over perspective.

That kit is ok, is not lacking anything essential, although that depends on the kind of jobs you are doing. You will soon need something to allow the director and script person to hear your audio, and you’ll need timecode soon, too. But you can record fine audio without those two things. You didn’t list weather protection, that’s something you need to consider urgently. The first thing I‘d think about is the K6/ME66 combo, as that is one of the worst sounding mics on the market. A Rode NTG3 for example will sound much better, but it’s far more expensive. Maybe in the meantime you can rent a better mic. The sound is your signature, kind of, and you want that to sound at least ok. I‘m not sure you‘re going to find much use for the SM57 on a set, but it’s a good mic. M3 I don‘t know, it looks large and heavy and it’s very cheap and that makes me skeptical. Next you should get better lav mics, for the same reasons as above. I‘m assuming here that you are using the stock Sennheiser ME-2s that came with the set. Not sure what you want with the SKP100. You can’t use it for a wireless boom, unless you intend to put the SM57 on it? You should definitely try that, though. Could be interesting

This wasn’t a for sale ad anyway. You can always buy any Schoeps mic in your favourite colour. So you can biy all these individual items in a light blue

No, the Cantar Mini could clock itself to the preamp, presumably if it has that setting, but the preamp cannot clock itself to the Cantar. AES3 is a one way format. If the Sonosax has a AES input you could use that to lock it to the AES output of the Cantar, but otherwise they won’t sync. However, the Cantar will simply re-sample the signal and you probably won’t even notice it. With Zaxcom it’s the same situation, the clocks won’t match and so the signal will be re-sampled

Adobe Audition used to be really good at this. Maybe it still is, I haven’t used it in a long time. It had a very nice batch processor where you could combine any number of processes (like convert bit depth, then normalize, etc.) into one batch operation. I don’t know if it kept metadata though. So that might be an option. However, Bouke is right of course, with everything he said, and if he tailors software to your needs, that would be even better

I didn’t know that they weren’t servicing the MK6 anymore. They usually have a reputation for servicing everything they ever built, but certainly with the MK6 it was pretty expensive. Just as it was to manufacture. That’s what I heard, anyway

Even less? Glenn said the 742 does not lock itself to the SuperCMIT so that’s what I‘m taiing to be true. My question was if in theory it might be possible to lock these devices together one after the other. Just out of curiosity, not getting at anything. I know a lot of people are happy with their SuperCMIT/742 rig, but that doesn’t help me, because I was not. My SuperCMIT was fine on its own and my 742 was fine with different (non AES) mics. In both cases I‘d say „kind of happy“, because both didn’t sound like I was hoping for, but that’s another story. Both of them, Super and 742, put together, however, were not fine.

Hypothetically speaking, couldn’t the 743 lock itself to the AES signal from the SuperCMIT and the the QRX licks itself to the AES signal from the 743 and the recorder locks itself to the AES signal from the QRX?

No, not an external reference, but the 742 could have synced its own clock to the AES stream from the SuperCMIT. At least in theory it could have, I don’t know if that is possible in real life.

Yes, I too think that it is the only AES42 transmitter, which is why I had great hopes for it. Anyway, it’s hard to say. And if Simon Hayes does confirm that he is using this exact system with great success, and others are using it successfully, too, it doesn’t really change my situation. Or my opinion. And yes, it is possible that something somewhere in my setup didn’t work as it should have. To me it seemed clear though, that it were the combination of devices, as I did try various things to determine the cause of the noise. It’s specifically the combination of the SuperCMIT with the 742. The analog CMIT sounded better. But I am curious if the 742 does resample the AES stream or not? I‘m not saying that this would be a cause for noise, just be interesting to know

I cannot pinpoint the origin of the noise, but from SuperCMIT to sd card in my recorder somewhere noise was added, because when going via cable the noise was not there, or rather it was less and different, just like the regular CMIT. I know that my recorder would have re-sampled, or „sample-rate converted“ the digital signal from the QRX. How does the 742 handle this? Does it clock itself to the SuperCMIT? I did read Simon Hayes‘ write-up about the James Bond production. He said there that he always uses a cable from boom mic to recorder and the few times he needed to go wireless he would put a Lectro HMa on the boom. Of course I don’t know how he works in other productions or what his reasons were in this case. All I can say with certainty is that my SuperCMIT, my 742, my QRX, and my 788 didn’t play well together, and that when I eliminated the 742 and the QRX from the link, the rest of them did

In my opinion the SuperCMIT sounds terrible with the Zaxcom transmitter. I used that combo a few years back, although that was with a 742, maybe the 743 sounds better, but the signal became very noisy and created artifacts. Post begged me to switch to something else. Kind of ironic for a noise reducing mic…

The length is important as well. I believe it’s 9.5mm rather than the 12mm used for example for bds. and it’s a locking plug. This one is 6 feet long, is that enough? https://www.lectrosonics.com/hikashop-menu-for-categories-listing/product/p21747/highlight-WzIxNzQ3XQ==.html

The Rycote system solves problems you never knew you had. It’s lighter and the mic mount almost jumps out. You just pull the pcs down and the mic pops out. True one-handed operation

I've been using the Rycote PCS system for a while now and must say it's great. Superior to every other system I've seen in every way

Derek is right of course, but in the meantime I can say that I think it’s a bad idea. DSQD shuts off bias power when an incoming voltage is applied, which kind of indicates that it’s unhappy about it. I also remember having some trouble with two interconnected devices which both put out bias. But it wasn’t terrible…

Sure, of course you should always consider all options before buying a new recorder. I don’t actually use preamps much these days, so that is not quite as important to me. In terms of usability or features the 833 is miles ahead That quite possible, I don’t follow their prices regularly. That notwithstanding the general point I was trying to make still holds

So today the 833 sells for $5200. When it was first released I believe it sold for $3700 or thereabouts? In the new year SD apparently up their prices again by some 20%. That would increase the price to about $6240. So if you bought it back then, and now spend the extra $950, you'd get a more powerful recorder and still would have paid considerably less than that recorder would cost new today. I guess that's only little consolation, but still might be worth to bear in mind

Keep the pilot tone off on the receiver. I know that you did that, but you still seem to think it has relevance, but it hasn’t. Pilot tone on the iem receiver expects a stereo tone from the transmitter, which your tx can’t produce, they are incompatible. So keep it off on rx, irrelevant on tx. I think your receiver is damaged. Try another one This is not true. Mono transmitter and stereo receiver have incompatible pilot tones, even if both are G3 or G4. Pilot on the transmitter makes no difference as long is its off on the receiver

They learned that bitter lesson from the Nomad years, I guess. I‘m sure you are not the only one. I can understand and relate to your sentiment, but for me it’s a different perspective. The whole thing is moving towards a more modular approach. You pick and choose what you need and want, with the option of upgrading later when you need it, and not pay for features you don’t need. It better to know this in advance so you can pick the right package for you, but it’s not all perfect….

I spent years on this forum reading as much as I could, and researching specific questions and issues, before I ever dared to post anything. I learned a lot just from that and it spared me a lot of embarrassment. one main piece of advice often given here is one that seems mean at first, but isn’t: do your homework first. Do yourself a favor by reading and reading first, there are so many resources available online today. All of your questions can be answered easily by just reading this forum.

It’s not that bad, actually, because I don’t have those distros in there. I only use this as a drop bag for car work and as a backup or mobile alternative to my cart, though, and always with a boom-op. Only very rarely do I actually wear it and boom. Here is a picture of how I use it currently, if anyone cares. Although here I do have to distro, as I wanted to charge the Tentacle and my phone…

I actually do both. I have a DSQD in my bag and an 822, and use whips or Betso Bowties. As I also have an SL-2 in my bag, I don’t need any rf or power distro and still have 10 channels of wireless if I need it.