Ben Turney

I appreciate this thread very much. I have recently incorporated dipole antennas into my bag. I have found that my range has increased, which is great; but also, unwanted rf sources are more prevalent too -- AND, my receivers seem more susceptible to interference. I receive more "hits" when talent wearing mics moves around the room, for instance, and when I scan, more TV stations or rf "noise" show up. I do not have a filter in the system, so perhaps this is my problem, as Rado wrote earlier in this thread. I ask the people who really like their dipole-in-bag setups, are you using filters? Would the Lectrosonics PF25 be a good idea? Here is my current setup: 2 Lectro SNA600's connected to the PSC Multi SMA, which then connects to an SRb and 411A on block 19; and an SRc in the block 21-23 range. I see that if I add two PF25's on block 19 between the dipoles and the Multi SMA, I would need to remove the SRc (which does not cover block 19) from the dipole setup since its frequencies would be filtered.

I had this same problem today. The headphone monitoring on the standard HP settings was fine, but when I chose to listen to a custom HP setting, there was no sound in the headphones. Also, the record start and stop beeps were absent. And for me, as written in this forum, the problem seems to have gone away only after powering down for a good hour or more.

This is really strange. Several years ago I had bought some universally wired COS-11D's from a dealer and then noticed that they seem to be wired out of phase with some other universally wired COS-11D's that I have from a different dealer. I noticed the phase effects when holding them close to each other and listening to them mixed. (Could this happen when the white and black wires are reversed? I can not see how they are wired because of the heat shrink tubing.) Mostly I did not use the different phased mics together on jobs so the phase issue has not been a problem. And all the mics have worked fine on older UM200a transmitters and also some SMQV's that I have. But I have just this week purchased some new LT's and an SMV. The phase-reversed COS-11D's hardly work on them -- I have to turn the transmitter gain up all the way to hear a little audio, and of course, there's too much hiss and something is clearly wrong. But my older non-phased reversed COS-11D's sound fine on these new LT's and SMV. Has something changed about the wiring to the input connector on the newest Lectrosonics transmitters? Something that is different even from SMQV's that are about 3 years old?

I have replaced my earpads on my HN7506 headphones three times. The first time it took me about 2 hours. The third time I did it in about 2 minutes. I consider myself an expert in this procedure now. The trick is to hold the headphone so that you are looking down onto its speaker-side, or the black cloth that covers the speaker. Now, position the earpad over the speaker. Hold the headphone and earpad together with one hand, but don't press them together yet -- you're just holding them somewhat loosely together at this stage. With your other hand, insert your index finger through earpad pointing away from you toward the speaker. Move this finger toward one inside "corner" of the earpad. With the tip of that finger, feel for that plastic flap on the underside of the earpad that will stretch over the rim of the headphone. The way you are holding the headphone and earpad, you can't see this flap because it's on the side facing away from you. With that finger, push open the flap on the earpad and push it over the rim of the headphone. With the other hand that is holding the headphone and earpad, use a few fingers to press the flap in place against the rim of the headphones. Now, slowly sweep your index finger that is under the flap around the inside of the flap, in a motion like sweeping cookie dough out of a mixing bowl as a little kid might do, stretching it over the rim as you go. As you do this, adjust the fingers of your other hand so that they continually press the flap against the rim. When your index finger sweeps around the whole circumference, you will have stretched the entire flap of the earpad over the rim of the heaphone. There. Easy! (Just kidding, it's a major hassle, but it will get easier with practice.)

Thanks Tyler, just looked at this.

JP, thanks for uploading these. Which mic is on which track? Sorry if I missed this info . . .

I am becoming more and more of a fan of my Sanken CS-3e in reverberant interiors.

I am looking over the manual and at some youtube videos about the Njnja 2. It appears the audio meters don't give much information. Anybody have comments and warnings about using this recorder?

I'm willing to believe it's a mic problem. I can't find any other reports of this issue. Yes, the cable is fine, and yes, when switching the CS1 to a 416, not changing anything else on the MixPre or 552, the 416 sounded fine. Even if it is a problem with the CS1, it's still funny that the problem does not show up with the SD442 mixer. -Ben

Has anyone used a Sanken CS1 with a Sound Devices 664 and found any problems? I have found that my Sanken CS1 does not work with with some mixers. It is fine with my Sound Devices 442. But when I have plugged it in to a MixPre or a 552, I have barely been able to hear sounds in the room through the mic, while on the other hand hissing is very loud, far above normal electronic hissing levels. Same problem when plugging it into an early version Nomad, but I'm not sure what version. When having this problem. I have made sure I have phantom power on at 48v. Also, I am not talking about the "heart-thumping" problem that occurs with this mic if the low-cut knob is turned completely off -- that's a different problem (though perhaps it's related). Switching the CS1 for a Sennheiser 416 and making no other adjustment, the problem has gone away and the 416 sounds fine. I'm on the verge of purchasing a 664 and want to check in to this. Thanks. -Ben

Thanks Glenn. I will re-try with the timecode and post here if I learn anything.

I actually do use a Zaxcom ZFR100 as a backup recorder in my bag. I feed it from the TA-3 left/right outs on the SD442 mixer. Remote Audio makes cables suited for this, with resistors to help the TA-3 impedance balanced outputs work with the ZFR100's stereo adapter (STA100). The recorder records well and reliably, and does not lose a file if power is lost in mid-recording. I have rarely used it with timecode, but the few times I did, once I had the menu set correctly, it did jam easily from a camera. But I think it loses timecode when it is turned off (I would need to confirm this). Just recently, I used the ZFR100 to output timecode to the audio track of another flash recorder. This was part of an experiment for transcription purposes. When I sent the audio file to a transcriptionist, she said that the timecode "audio" was unreadable by her timecode reader. I looked at its waveform in audio software and saw that it does look different from normal timecode; and it also sounds different. When I sent the transcriptionist a recording made with timecode from a Panasonic camera, she could read that timecode just fine. So, as of now, I don't know if the ZFR100's timecode output is useable. But this bears further investigation. The headphone output is a mono mix only. I have the regular STA100 adapter, and cables connect to it very awkwardly. While the ZFR100 is small, it's cable connections make it very unwieldy in the audio bag. I know that right-angle connectors are available, but I don't have them. Still, even with rt. angle connectors, I think the recorder would be hard to mount in the bag in a way that would let you see the meters. Sometimes I velcro my ZFR100 to the top of my NP-1 battery cap so I can see its LCD screen. But usually it sits fairly buried in the bag, with its LCD screen pressed against the side of the bag. In that position, I can reach the Rec and Stop buttons, and see from the LED on its top if it's recording -- and, indeed, the recorder needs to be buried in the shade of the bag if I am to read this LED on a sunny day. If anyone has better ideas on how to use it in the bag, let me know. Audio files from the ZFR100 need to be processed by Zaxconvert software in your computer. You can make .wav or .mp3 files this way. But this extra step means you can't easily hand off the SD flash card to a producer for making a transcription. When a transcription recording is necessary, I use a different flash recorder. The ZFR100 uses mini SD cards. I bought several when I bought the recorder, but I have not checked their availability in a while. Also, only certain brands and speeds of cards will work in the recorder. Make sure you can get the correct cards before you buy it. In summary, I don't necessarily recommend the ZFR100. But I don't know what a better option really is for the price, which is over $1000 with the STA adapter.