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Sound Devices Mix Pre-3 and Mix Pre-6


afewmoreyears

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the Hirose DC and Sony NPF battery solutions from hawkwoods on IBC:

http://www.newsshooter.com/2017/09/18/hawk-woods-mixpwr-adaptors-for-sound-devices-mixpre-ibc-2017/

 

played around with the MP-6 today and managed to set up the fader knobs as trim and only record ISOs without mix (takes a bit of fiddling in the custom mode). One thing which was confusing is I had to set the HP presets to post fader to be able to monitor the ISOs on record and playback (at least that's the only method I found in the short time).

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Has anyone had any experience using a SD Mixpre-6 with a Panasonic GH5? I am getting a healthly amount of noise when I return the sound back into the camera. I don't hear any noise when I monitor the sound from the Mixpre-6, just when I monitor from the camera. I've used these guidelines that SD has provided. When I used the Mixpre-6 with a Sony A7sII, I didn't get any noise/feedback at all - just clean (albeit quite loud) sound. Any suggestions on how I might troubleshoot?

 

http://cdn.sounddevices.com/download/guides/MixPreSeries-PanasonicGH45.pdf

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On 9/26/2017 at 5:22 PM, jwanek said:

Has anyone had any experience using a SD Mixpre-6 with a Panasonic GH5? I am getting a healthly amount of noise when I return the sound back into the camera. I don't hear any noise when I monitor the sound from the Mixpre-6, just when I monitor from the camera. I've used these guidelines that SD has provided. When I used the Mixpre-6 with a Sony A7sII, I didn't get any noise/feedback at all - just clean (albeit quite loud) sound. Any suggestions on how I might troubleshoot?

 

http://cdn.sounddevices.com/download/guides/MixPreSeries-PanasonicGH45.pdf

 

You probably need a ground loop isolator ... something like this...

 

https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Ground-Isolator-Stereo-System/dp/B019393MV2

 

This might prove useful too...

https://www.sounddevices.com/tech-notes/tackling-ground-loop-audio-noise

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On 5/16/2017 at 10:54 AM, Kisaha said:

It will be an instant classic, will push the low cost category a lot forward (because it is putting pressure to other companies), and I just can't wait to see what this release going to bring in 6xx line.

 


Any one have any guesses when that might happen, when the next Lectrosonics 6xx will be announced? NAB 2018?!

On 5/19/2017 at 3:01 AM, Kisaha said:

@Gerard-NYNY from time to time I have to work for "producers" that have their own equipment and they only pay you for your presence. Most of the times you are in trouble because their equipment is of very bad quality and they do not understand their responsibilities (or they do not care), that is why I am so excited about this MixPre, I can have a full set of lower - end equipment for jobs like these, and I don't have to worry for other people's mistakes. I will pay for extra equipment, but I will have peace of mind!


Try to avoid using production's equipment!

 

 

Plus you have invested a lot of money into your equipment, and you can't justify that high level of investment if it is just left on the shelf doing nothing, it needs to be out there working & earning its keep. 

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21 hours ago, Paul Isaacs said:

 

You probably need a ground loop isolator ... something like this...

 

https://www.amazon.com/Mpow-Ground-Isolator-Stereo-System/dp/B019393MV2

 

This might prove useful too...

https://www.sounddevices.com/tech-notes/tackling-ground-loop-audio-noise

 

Thanks a lot Paul, I'll give this a shot!

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I submitted a feature request to SD yesterday.  One thing I often do is use a front end preamp / mixer before a recorder.  The CS 104 is my preferred tool for this, but it cannot withstand even a moment of phantom power being applied to it's direct outputs (according Evan at Vark Audio).  While scrolling through the menus of the Mixpre-6, it would be pretty easy to accidentally touch the phantom power button on the touchscreen and potentially ruin my mixer.  I'd imagine that other mixers or equipment have this vulnerability as well.  Additionally, the folks using ribbon microphones might appreciate a little safety feature as well.  So my suggestion was to create a "lock" for the phantom power settings in the MP6's menu.  Like a two step verification that might have a little lock symbol to prevent people from accidentally ruining gear or mics with a small misplacement of the finger on a touchscreen.  

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21 minutes ago, Peshawar said:

The CS 104 is my preferred tool for this, but it cannot withstand even a moment of phantom power being applied to it's direct outputs (according Evan at Vark Audio).

I haven’t actually investigated this issue so the following suggestion is just speculation -

 

Wouldn’t it be possible to make interconnecting cables that would pass signal to the recorder while not passing phantom power back to your Cooper mixer? Perhaps an in-line isolation transformer?

 

Apologies if you have already considered this and there is a reason unseen by me that makes this solution impractical. 

 

David

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2 hours ago, David Waelder said:

I haven’t actually investigated this issue so the following suggestion is just speculation -

 

Wouldn’t it be possible to make interconnecting cables that would pass signal to the recorder while not passing phantom power back to your Cooper mixer? Perhaps an in-line isolation transformer?

 

Apologies if you have already considered this and there is a reason unseen by me that makes this solution impractical. 

 

David

 

Hi David, 

 

That very well might be possible.  I have seen phantom blocking inline adapters before, but I didn't realize you could modify the cables to produce the same effect.  Perhaps I should look into it!  Thanks for the suggestion.  But having a small bit of idiot proofing for people like myself on the recorder side would be best case scenario.  Less stuff to buy and carry around.

 

Thanks again,

Stuart

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On 4/7/2017 at 4:21 PM, dactylus said:

I just received my Hawk-Woods dummy L-mount to Hirose adapter and I'm awaiting a Naztech PB15000 battery cable with a female Hirose connector to be able to try this out.  

I also purchased this very low profile 2200mAh, Sony NP-F570 L Series InfoLithium Battery to use in conjunction with the Hawk-Woods dummy cell.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002Y5WVQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I would also like to see a sled with a single NP-F inline and a small integrated buffer battery that can run the unit for 5 minutes for swapping batteries!!  The L-mount sled with 7200-7800mah batteries are a definite no go!!

 

Interesting option.

 

One could use the Hawkwoods L-mount adapter (to use for instance NP1 on a cup) and this slim 2200mAH L battery (or one of similar size), 

so one could swap NP1s having the slim L-mount acting as a backup while swaping.

Would this work or I'm missing something?

 

maybe the recorder will be using both batteries all the time so the small battery will be almost depleted when swapping the external (NP1) battery being of no use to hold the recorder on while swaping...?

 

Can anyone check please?

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Also, when using external lithium batteries (L-mount, NP1, etc) how good is the MixPre to inform on remaining power?

Not easy with lithium because of it's discharge curve...

specially difficult if using non L-mount batteries of higher voltage since, whatever the source voltage is, it is converted to 8V by the adapter (Hawkwoods LR-04 / LR-06) or Hawkwoods SD-1 (6V? 8V?)

 

So, it is informative/safe enough when using for instance NP1 batteries externally thru a Hawkwoods SD-1 (sled with Hirose 4 pin)?

 

My NP-1s for instance are at 15.8-16V when just charged. Go down to a plateau at 14.4V in some minutes and stay there for long. Then go down rapidly down to 13V where they are depleted.

Will this be represented in a useful way on the power monitoring icon on the display?

 

BTOH, I wonder how long it takes to deplete a 65Wh NP-1 using a Hawkwoods SD-1 on the MixPre-6

 

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On 26/09/2017 at 6:22 PM, jwanek said:

Has anyone had any experience using a SD Mixpre-6 with a Panasonic GH5? I am getting a healthly amount of noise when I return the sound back into the camera. I don't hear any noise when I monitor the sound from the Mixpre-6, just when I monitor from the camera. I've used these guidelines that SD has provided. When I used the Mixpre-6 with a Sony A7sII, I didn't get any noise/feedback at all - just clean (albeit quite loud) sound. Any suggestions on how I might troubleshoot?

 

http://cdn.sounddevices.com/download/guides/MixPreSeries-PanasonicGH45.pdf

 

Gh5 have very noisy preamp and you can't decrease the input level, like in sony's or canon's cameras, to a line level and "bypass" the mic preamp. You can just send a scratch sound to the camera or you have to buy the module DMW XLR1 who have good preamp https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1304877-REG/panasonic_dmw_xlr1_xlr_microphone_adapter.html

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...
12 minutes ago, josephboyle said:

Does anyone know if one uses a Tentacle Sync with the Mix Pre3/6 through the 3.5mm input, will it record LTC on one of the audio tracks or metadata timecode? I've heard conflicting things about this.

 

Thanks,

Joseph

 You can set the MIxPre to do either one. 

 

 If you set the "aux in" mode to timecode, then it will read the incoming LTC and embed it as metadata. However if you setthe aux in to line input, it will just read the LTC as an audio signal and you can route it to any track to record to. 

 

-Mike

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35 minutes ago, Mobilemike said:

 You can set the MIxPre to do either one. 

 

 If you set the "aux in" mode to timecode, then it will read the incoming LTC and embed it as metadata. However if you setthe aux in to line input, it will just read the LTC as an audio signal and you can route it to any track to record to. 

 

-Mike

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

So you would only need to use Tentacle's proprietary syncing software if you choose the LTC option, correct? And with the embedded metadata option, an editor could sync it with most any NLE (I know that Premiere and some others don't work with LTC)?

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Thats correct. If you choose to embed timecode as metadata then it will work like any other production sound recorder on the market, and the editor can sync it up just like normal in his/her NLE. 

 

If you choose to record LTC as audio, you will have to have another piece of software that converts audio LTC to timecode metadata first, like the Tentacle Sync software does. 

 

-Mike

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8 minutes ago, Mobilemike said:

Thats correct. If you choose to embed timecode as metadata then it will work like any other production sound recorder on the market, and the editor can sync it up just like normal in his/her NLE. 

 

If you choose to record LTC as audio, you will have to have another piece of software that converts audio LTC to timecode metadata first, like the Tentacle Sync software does. 

 

-Mike

 

That's great to know. Thanks Mike!

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3 hours ago, josephboyle said:

So you would only need to use Tentacle's proprietary syncing software if you choose the LTC option, correct?

 

might be worth noting that davinci resolve has support for audio LTC, so you can sync with that and export as XML/AAF to pretty much any other editor of choice.

chris 

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Hello Everyone,

 

First time posting. Actually first time with a question worth posting:

 

I've just acquired a new Mid-Side setup (4017b + CCM8) and have run a few tests over the last few days.

It appears, that when MS linking is enabled, the MixPre6 ( fw: 1.5.2 ) is recording the decoded mid-side signal to the ISOs as well as to the main LR mix channels.

According to the MixPre manual, it should leave the ISOs in MS format.

 

Anyone else have a similar experience?

I called SD, it was the first they've had a report of this. They're looking into it.

 

FWIW:

If no linking is selected, everything works as one would expect. ( HP preset to decode MS also functions correctly ) 

 

Cheers,

-m

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