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Tech tips for Aaton Cantar X2


Alan A

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I have a question about the Aaton Cantar X2, I know a lot of mixers use it so figured would be a good place to ask questions,

I have been using the Cantar for a couple months now, and love it. Its a great machine, but very complicated to use. I know its probably not the best recorder to first start out with but I like a challenge.

My question is, the mixer faders on the top of the Cantar, do I have to assign the tracks or mics to those faders? Or am I just crazy and they are there for a different reason?

And yes I have read the manual but translated from french to english it makes 0 sense. I had to get a friend of mine that speaks french to read the french version to learn how to format the HDD.

But I think im doing pretty well as of now, I figured out most of the Cantar on my own. Just little things like that mixer faders.

So if anyone could give me some tips on it it would be great!

Alan

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I have been using the Cantar for a couple months now, and love it. Its a great machine, but very complicated to use.

I've been using mine for about a year and must admit that I still encounter things that puzzle me. It is complicated but complex because it offers so many capabilities.

You should probably contact Mike Paul at Location Sound and schedule a sit-down orientation session with him. I expect he would be generous with his time (within reason) even if you didn't purchase the recorder through LSC.

You should also sign up for the Cantar user group:

  cantar-users-request@aaton.com

Now, the faders-

First, it's a optional feature and one that you may have no need of on a regular basis. If you use the Cantar with a mixing panel, as I do, you really don't use the on-board faders. (Disclaimer - since I don't use them regularly, I may not be the best to explain them. I invite Scott Harbor or Scott Farr to jump in here and correct or update me.)

The faders are used to produce a mix track when you have designated one or two tracks as your on-board mix. Typically, this would be Tracks 7 & 8 and they would then be configured as Xa-Xb.

You bring in your mike signal through your preamps. For example, your hand or boom mike comes in on Mike 5. (Mike 5 is often designated because the pot is "odd-man-out" on the panel and easily located by touch.) You assign Mike 5 to a track - for simplicity we'll say Track 5.

Your radios come in through your line inputs, say Line 1 and Line 2 and are assigned to tracks. Now you have three sources each recorded on its own track at levels you set with the pots. But you do not have a mix.

If Tracks 7 & 8 are designated Xa and Xb they will record whatever signal you brought in on Line 1, Line 2, and Mike 5 (using the example above) as a mix. The relative strength of the signals from those sources is determined by the magnetic faders on the fader panel. So, you might record your radios at full level to their independent tracks but blend them in with the boom at a lower level by setting the Track 1 & 2 faders slightly lower than Track 5 fader.

These magnetic faders are intended to be set and left alone, not to be "ridden" they way one might ride the fader of a Sonosax or Cooper mixer. However, they are intended to be adjusted during recording. It's a fine point but one can make changes on the fly but one doesn't ordinarily keep one's hands on the faders.

The fader panel is also useful for making check mixes or supplying the director with an alternate mix on playback. For instance, if one had a very noisy radio mike, one could, on playback, mix recorded tracks together but omit the problem mike to determine if the recording was salvageable.

David Waelder

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tech set 5 i think.

use jog wheel.

faders 1-6 mirror the windows.

assign micX, lineX, or digx to left outer window and that corresponds to fader 1

inner window is 2

next circle is 3, 4 followed by 5,6

over by the square window you can assign tracks 7 and 8 to mixes as david said or individual tracks.

Scott has a cool cheat sheet for the cantar on his blog

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Thanks Dave and graham! That helps a lot,

I was a bit confused by them at first, but it makes sense now. I will still have to get a crash course on the Cantar, I fear It would probably take me years to self learn all the possibilities of this machine.

If anyone has worked with the Cantar or still is, I would love any tips or tricks with it.

Alan

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