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jon_tatooles

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Everything posted by jon_tatooles

  1. We are pleased to announce that the Audio Ltd A10-RX can now interface directly to the integrated slot in Sony slot-based cameras with the addition of the A-15PIN accessory. There are significant number of these cameras used for news/interview/broadcast and reality. We worked directly with Sony to provide compatibility. Here a bit more on this: https://www.sounddevices.com/sound-devices-releases-a-15pin-adapter-for-sony-slot-in-and-a10-rx/
  2. We are honored and excited to be part of the launch of the new Frame.io Camera to Cloud Integration. The service was announced this week, rolling out in March. This the first, and unquestionably not the last, of this type of system allowing for automated transfer of sound files directly from a recorder to post production. Take a look at their system - https://www.frame.io/c2c More on this to come.
  3. The MixPre may change SR when connected to a computer as a USB interface, depending on what the SR is set in the computer. It won't change back to a prior SR when disconnected.
  4. I am curious how many of you hold Part 74 licenses or operate within a production company or studio that has a Part 74 license.
  5. Comments and discussion regarding plugin topology and licensing are certainly something we are watching. And yes this is a "new" business practice for Sound Devices; we have never before had the opportunity to bring an entire hardware-box worth of realtime processor-intensive signal processing to a portable product. NA is far outside the scope of our normal, and comprehensive, free firmware updates. Those continue just like we have since we started firmware updates with the 744T, in 2004. We know many users won't consider using noise reduction. If it isn't relevant for your applications, that choice is yours. If it is, again you have options. CEDAR is solely in the noise reduction business and has been honing their algorithm for years. It is an incredible tool. Sound Devices' development of our own NoiseAssist algorithm took years of development by our resident big brain (https://www.prosoundweb.com/sound-devices-welcomes-dr-steve-popovich-as-software-engineer/) working with Matt and his team of software and hardware engineers. And either tool can be added to the recorder because of the 8-Series' prodigious computational power. Noise reduction as implemented here is vastly different than attenuating an input like we, and others, do with automatic mixing.
  6. We have worked a long time on this project and are pleased to offer CEDAR noise reduction on the 8-Series. This is another available option, along with our own internally developed NoiseAssist, for realtime noise suppression. These processes take advantage of the enormous computational power in the 8-Series. https://www.sounddevices.com/sound-devices-and-cedar-audio-ltd-announce-cedar-sdnx-for-8-series/
  7. Based on the original posters input source the Centrance may not have enough gain based on its published spec of ~54 dB maximum gain. That is suitable for many applications like music, but not enough for dynamic microphones and speech at any subject-to-microphone distance beyond a few inches. A preamp with a minimum of 65 dB of gain, and more like 70+ dB, should be considered.
  8. With wireless now in our product line, we are exploring where and how customers are using wireless and how FCC licensing affects users choice of system, operating frequencies and power levels. A couple of questions: For those of you in the U.S. operating in the 941 MHz band, was the licensing requirement something you addressed before or after considered operating in that band? How long did it take to get licensed? Again for U.S. users, is the licensing requirement to operate higher than 50 mW in the UHF band an obstacle in day to day use? For those who are licensed, how often are you operating at higher power levels?
  9. Regarding your deliverables to production, in the context of a production sound mixer I don't believe that baseline requirements from production will change soon from 24/48 PCM WAV iso files (and the occasional mix...). Although I have heard about more than one feature production attempting to do their entire audio signal path, including dialog, at 96 kHz SR and are having difficulty (why...another question entirely). That doesn't mean that you won't be recording in some other format in the foreseeable future. Production sound mixers and sound designers are presently recording material upstream of their deliverable with different formats. There are applications that benefit with different SR's, bit depths, etc. Note this is a totally independent conversation than what is the deliverable to end users. We are in a world where streaming services deliver 5.1 MPEG at 384 kbs.
  10. If you are at IBC, please stop by and see the latest - https://www.sounddevices.com/product/833/
  11. Correct. Files are not overloaded, though their waveform display shows how it would be interpreted as integer (24-bit). MixPre II record mode is either/or, so that isn't feasible, though you could perform a re-record/re-mix on the device to re-record the mix at levels below 0 dBFS.
  12. A few things on this: If you are in a "bag drop" scenario, this is an ideal application for 32-bit float recording with the MixPre II. Whether you (grossly) under record or over record, you can scale the signals after the fact as required. When in 32-bit float mode, limiters are not available on MixPre II's. Nor are they required since no analog voltage from a microphone signal can overload the AD converter. Yes, when you are using a wireless system that has its own gain stage, you must set up a valid gain stage for that device. In 32-bit mode, metering is identical to 24 bit recording, so if you see overload, a signal that is above 0 dBFS will be clipped if converted without changing gain post-record to 24-bit. So if you are using an application that does not recognize 32-bit float, signals over 0 are an issue. You would need to adjust gain and convert to 24-bit in a DAW that correctly interprets 32-bit float. 24-bit recording is available, with limiters, and with extremely wide dynamic range, just as we have in the past. Here are preliminary data on some common editing environments and their 32 bit compatibility (we recommend independent verification for your specific setup, etc.): DAW/NLE 32-bit float support Limitations Adobe Audition 2015.2.1 Y None Adobe Premier Pro 2015.4 Y Waveform displays can still show as clipped when signal is reduced below 0dBFS. Apple FCPX 10.4.6 Y Waveform displays can still show as clipped when signal is reduced below 0dBFS. Apple Logic Pro X 10.4.6 N - Audacity 2.02 Y None Avid Media Composer 8.6.5 N - DaVinci Resolve N - Izotope RX7 Y None Protools 12 Y Waveform displays can still show as clipped when signal is reduced below 0dBFS. Reaper64 5.979 Y None Steinberg Cubase LE 9.5 Y Output can still distort if signal is not reduced below 0dBFS (MAC OS Mojave) I believe we are at very early days with this, and I am certain we will continue to evolve how these are handled at all stages of production.
  13. Here is an article with both the sound files and visual representations of files that were correctly, over, and under recorded to three separate tracks in the MixPre II. This gives an idea of the gain invariant nature of 32-bit recording. https://www.sounddevices.com/noise-in-32-bit-float/
  14. With the single USB-A port it is either USB controller or USB flash.
  15. Good questions, though I don't have anything to tell you. IMO, choose your tools based on the capabilities they offer today, not what they can and can't offer in the future. In the SD world, we try hard to introduce new features and products when they are ready, though we certainly have missed posted dates.
  16. Yes. Especially when a mixer or recorder is in a signal chain with other devices.
  17. Yes, lots of relevance here. The file container size has historically not been the limiting factor of dynamic range. 24-bits of resolution is excellent for the overwhelming majority of applications. And the outputs of a device, such as AES3, will be in 24-bit. And if you are sourcing from an AES3 signal, no benefit in 32-bit float, unless you inadvertently add digital gain and go over 0 dBFS. In that case the 32-bit file will maintain signal integrity whereas the 24-bit file will be unrecoverable. The step in front of the file container is A-to-D conversion, which has historically been more limiting than the container. And in front of that, an analog gain stage is absolutely critical to high dynamic range. Our latest analog preamp topology's noise performance is extremely consistent across its gain range. There is a reason preamps (including ours) are specified at their maximum gain, since that is where most circuits perform best. A benefit to the work Matt Anderson has done over the years is that the noise performance of SD preamps is largely consistent across the gain range. That excellent noise performance, along with with tremendous A-to-D dynamic resolution, results in scaling of gain to the file being much less important, and nearly meaningless when you can write the full signal into a 32-bit container. If you think of it like digital camera sensors, the highest performance of those are essentially ISO-invariant. What we have with our latest is the equivalent of this in the audio domain. And we will continue to support 24-bit recording, still the gold standard, proven workflow.
  18. I believe we will start to see this format, which has been available in DAWS for some time, becoming more common in sound-for-picture applications. The benefit of the extended representation of dynamic range outweighs the penalty of the added data required. Here is a write-up of what a 32-bit float file is. https://www.sounddevices.com/32-bit-float-files-explained/
  19. Freeheel, I agree about Facebook and looking for manufacturer information there. Facebook, for better or worse, is often the first place a customer interacts with us today. That is a challenge. Facebook is designed so users spend time on Facebook. Search is non-existent so the same questions come up every 15 days. And the FB forums these questions come up are user-generated and we have no ownership or management of them. While user-to-user data is very valuable (and there are some incredibly sharp end users) it more often than not telephone tree with incorrect information being mentioned by someone (the loudest) who presents themselves as an authoritative user. For many years we had our own forums. Over time customers abandon it as Facebook came to be the place they spent time, since it was where all their "brands" were and didn't have to hop around. At least for SD gear, the first place anyone should go if they have questions is to Danny, Dan, Dennis, or Sean in our tech support. Real humans with phones and email. The others are good suggestions. I personally love FAQ's.
  20. Borjam's comment about missing a curly bracket isn't far off... We missed a few bugs in the 3.00 and 3.01 releases, and some of them manifest in the operation of the product. This truly guts us, and we will make this right, as we have since the early days of the first Sound Devices product with software control, the 442. Back then, the little micro-controller in the 442 controlled tone level, battery metering, limiter threshold, etc. As John says above, it is a software-controlled world. Actually, it is far beyond software control. The latest generation of products, from us and many others, are software-defined hardware. In products like the new MixPre-3, MixPre-6 and MixPre-10T the schematic of the product is effectively built each time the unit powers up. It is truly incredible, and this is what enables these products to do so much in such a small footprint. So yes, firmware can completely control the behavior of the microphone preamp.
  21. Note that version 3.01 was just released. This version corrects a couple of bugs that were introduced in 3.0. https://www.sounddevices.com/support/downloads
  22. I'm posting this here in the equipment section. Don't flame me since this isn't an advertisement, but a notice for existing users - smiley face. https://www.sounddevices.com/support/downloads To apply the ambisonics plugin, which works with the MixPre-6 and MixPre-10T (only), update to 3.0 first, then download the plugin at no charge from: https://store.sounddevices.com/product/ambisonics-plugin/
  23. The dynamic range of a speech recordings can be quite high because of factors such as varying subject-to-microphone distance, whispers to screams, etc. You can make the case to record the complete dynamic range on both the iso track and the mix. The argument for controlling dynamic range is just as valid. Every time a microphone is moved relative to the sound source, the amplitude changes. Great boom ops use that principle to manually control dynamic range. Mixers continually ride faders to limit dynamic range. It is all going to depend on what the scene/project/staff expect. Some post mixers like fat tracks that have little dynamics. Some like to make that decision on their own. Again, project-dependent. As far as recording, as stated above, 24-bit file containers give us latitude to leave plenty of headroom. The analog part of a microphone preamp circuit largely determines its noise performance.
  24. Bluetooth connection with the A10-TX only needs Bluetooth to be active on the device, no other setting are done there. When the app opens it looks for devices in proximity and they appear in the device list, which you then select. This is very similar to how Wingman connects to the 633, 664, 688, MixPre-3, MixPre-6, and MixPre-10T.
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