JCC

I'm having trouble getting TC into or out of my camera: I'm demo'ing Nomad 8, trx900 (sta 150), to qrx100 on cam. pani varicam 2700. I heard Glen say in a video that the uhf sends tc with the audio, but I'm not sure if it sends it ON the audio track (embed) or through the qrx tc out 1/8 mini (that Im connecting to bnc tc in on cam). Getting TC into cam: Nomad is generating TC, it's showing up on my zax ifb (erx1 tcd) - so at least I know it's sending on ifb. But I cannot get TC to show up on my TRX900/sta150 (option rec). Trx is just showing the generated code that the trx is generating. TC mode is free run, fram rates match (29,9 ndf) I've tried every combo of display and output, but my cam (and the trx and qrx) don't seem to be getting tc. On the trx: I've tried all combos, I think. Currently - it's in stereo, tc jam = auto jam, tc source = I've tried "audio in" (using the xlr from ch1 &2 out off nomad into 5pin AUDIO IN) and ifb, TC out = Out on L. Do I need to cable my trx directly from my nomad tc bnc out to my trx "audio/tc" or "tc in"? Any thoughts on how to get ifb tc to show up on my trx or on my cam? I've read the manuals, but I'm not getting it. Thank you. John

Cool. Very helpful. Thanks. That thin strip of moleskin is wrapped around the barrell of the cos-11, to hold the overcover onto the pop filter? John

AZW, I'm not clear on your taping: To be sure I understand you, you put the overcover fuzzy onto the (long) side of the hushlav, fuzz facing chest, then tape all of that to the inside of the shirt? Do you tape the hushlav to the shirt, then topstick, then the fuzzy against the topstick? How do you tape it all to the shirt without mashing the fuzz? Thanks. John

+1 to RM11 and topstick - I use that and moleskin exclusively. RM11 with cos 11's, and moleskin with trams. I also use half a hush lav on the end of the cos 11, inside the rm11. I'm guessing it's overkill, but it works so I haven't tried changing it. I couldn't get the over/unders to shut up. Moleskin: I use a tram, cut a 1" square of moleskin, tape the back of the tram to the moleskin, and press the front of tram and remaining moleskin sticky side to inside of cotton T-shirts. As one of my mentors told me: "homerun every time". What do you guys use for heavy wind? I was in Kenya, and the wind was howling. I taped an rm11 with a cos 11 inside to the talent's body (topstick and transpore), then wrapped the head of the cos11 and rm11 with a long fuzzy that looked like an extra hairy overcover. It wasn't pretty, but it mostly beat the wind. Anybody have good lav techniques for heavy wind and nylon clothes? John

Thank you, Tom. I'll try to set the 302 to just VU and see if that jives better. For my tape out (TA3 Y to 2 xlrM), I'll get a couple xlrF to 1/4M adapters and try stuffing those into the H4n and see if that improves the recording as well. John

I'm putting a 302 together with an H4N as a lightweight backup system for when I travel overseas. One problem I'm having is that when I get tone correct on the H4N (from the 302), I tend to get too little sound recorded on my H4N. It doesn't make sense to me. If I'm sending 0dbu, and setting tone on the h4n at -20, all other sounds should fall in line, right? When I look at my meters, the 302 is tickling the orange zone nicely, but the h4n seems to barely move past half-way. When I look at the recorded audio files, the waveforms are just too small. So if I set 302 tone (0dbu) to -12 on the H4n, I get better waveforms on the recorded files, and the audio meters on both devices seem to match more, but the H4n starts clipping much too soon. I'm thinking that maybe the problem is related to the fact that the H4n wants mic ins, and I've got the recording volume down to .7 (on a scale from like .5-56). I'm sending line from my tape out to the H4n xlr ins (pretty sure they're mic ins), which is why I have to set the H4n levels so low. My next step is to either attenuate the xlr ins, or slap xlr to phone jack adapters onto them - hoping to buy either one or the other (2 attenuators that adjust to -40db, or 2 xlr to phone adapters). I like the xlr to phone adapter idea because I'd rather work with a line level on the recorder if I can make that work... Does anyone know if the H4n would accept a line level in the phone jacks? The manual says that the phone inputs are 480kOhms, unbalanced at +2bdm _-32dbm - is that a line level input? Anyone have an opinion on whether I'd have a better response on the H4n adapting xlr to phone jacks, or attenuating the xlr jacks? Thanks John

Hi Jack, I've been contemplating the same bag configuration that you have - I love lectro (especially 411's), and I'm really interested in that zax camera hop and the nomad.... I'm curious - If you were starting from scratch, do you think you'd go out and buy new lectro's 411's and tx's, or would you go all Zaxcom (for expanded functionality)? Thanks, John

Hi Jase, I've never tried to run two wireless hops - I struggle with dropouts with one stereo hop (two smqv tx's to a slot dual sra). Do you get dropouts on your wireless lavs when you send so much rf out there? John

Right. Thank God there's a backup. JCC

Help. I've just been told that there is no sound on video I/we just shot for a very important client. The camera is a p2 varicam, and the only difference is that the client is european, so the shooter changed his fps to 25 for euro market. He kept his codec at 24pn. When recording, the bars were moving on the camera. On playback, there is no sound. I have backup, but without timecode. Has anyone run into this, and is there anyway to resucitate that sound on the video? Thanks. John

Thanks Jack. Been wondering about that for a while. Mic routing on the fly sounds like it would be a more extensive move than just a "pan whip" in the moment. Though I am comforted (somewhat) by everyone's confidence in the Never Clip and Limiters. Still - just to be sure I understand you correctly, let's say I'm just going with no more than 3 channels, then I could always preset my boom mic to two different faders (leaving one fader down until it's needed), and when I kill everything but the boom, I'd just need to bring the other boom fader up at a different level, which is pre-set hard panned to the opposite side - right? I think that's right - please let me know if I'm missing something. If so, that's cool; seems like while the workflow might differ a tad, I can still get the same functionality and speed. (I expect I will also be one to miss the dedicated knobs and switches) Thanks again. John

I use variable panning when I kill a channel (running a lav on l. and boom on r. - say a wireless becomes irrelevant - which can happen a lot to me), and I suddenly rely solely on booming in a loud place, like combat or concerts; I set the pan for the boom at 2-oclock so that I have a hotter and a cooler of the same audio going to 2 different channels on the camera. It's a quick move - often needs to be done quickly. Is there a way to execute this kind of thing with the nomad? Or will I just lose the tiny bit of comfort I get with that 2-oclock safety, and have to mix it more exactly for 'center'? Thanks. John

Hey Gabe, what mixer were you using before the NOMAD? If it was an SD mixer, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the Nomad performs eng mixing vs, say, a 442 or 552 (specifically if the two handed faders cause you any problems when changing the mix on the fly). Since you are so happy with Nomad now, if you had to start all over would you go all Zaxcom, or would you re-purchase Lectro gear? Thanks. John

I'd love to hear from people who have crossed over successfully from SD 552 to Nomad. I love my 552 - the build is so simple and durable - I know I can trust it. I worry about the two-handed cross-fade on the nomad, too. I often have to quickly kill a L or R wireless channel on my mixer, and bring my boom up on both L & R - has anyone experienced the difference between doing this on a 552/442 and on a nomad? I am on the verge of placing an order... Thanks. John

You guys are, as usual, correct. There were two issues, however. One was dirty power (power cable to rx) - that was the drop outs. The other was the coordination: 3 blk 26 (2 to hop 1 to talent), and 1 blk 21 to 2nd talent. Blk 21 had no issues. I think the hop was too close to the other blk 26, in addition to the power cable screwed up the rx. Thanks for the replies. I did put a blk 25 as 1st talent for a while, but when competing with the blk 26 hop the lk 25 talent took more hits (and scanned dirtier) than the blk 26 on talent that competed with the blk 26 hop. Does that make sense? Is the same block sometimes better than different block when competing with its own block like that? Also, is frequency coordination good enough if you scan and choose "the valleys", or should one sit down with that chart and check compatible blocks/freq's? In other words, if you scan with gear turned on, is that essentially doing the same thing as looking at the compatability chart? Thanks again. JCC

ps - I've isolated the problem to the input side because the 2nd mic worked fine, and I corroborated that by listening to the recording (lav track sucks). Power seemed solid to everything - and backup batteries were ok in the rx. Next thing I'll check is my freq's to see if they're conflicting. I had three tx's on block 26 and 1 on 21. ...perhaps the block 26 mic was competing with the camera hop in both the frequencies I tried? Thanks again.

Thank you, Mathew. I'll keep testing. I am still hoping to hear possible causes, though perhaps they are too many to list. It sounds like bad mic placement at first, like the mic is rubbing, though I know it's soid, and then it intermittently cuts out amidst the rubing sound. Then it comes back perfectly. Has anyone had this kind of cutting out happen to them? I'll swap tx&rx today (did I mention that the tx was brand new? OY) John

Hi Gang. I'm in Jamaica, and I got 2 different mics on a guy that alternatively went into the same um400a (brand new). Mic signal was sent to a ucr 401, and into an SD 552. There was a 2nd mic on a um 200 & ucr 201 that worked fine. I also had two smqv's sending a wireless hop to 2nd cam. His mic started cutting out. , so I freq'd it, found a clear freq, and it still cut out. Short, frightening moments of electronic silence disrupted his speech. I had the boom on another track, so I was covered. But still, I'd like to figure out why the thing kept cutting out. ...and whether I can use that tx, rx, xlr cable, or sd input jack again. Of course it won't replicate itself. I'm in the hotel room now, re-creating the setup, and nothing cuts out. I've wiggled every mic, xlr, return, etc. The same camera is cabled, and the smqv's are on (though the 2nd rx and 2nd cam is not here) - can't make it cut out again. Anyone have experience with inexplicable "cutting out" like this? I'd appreciate any thoughts about how I might best diagnose this. JCC

Thanks Sounddguy and Lily. Sounddguy, why a dynamic mic on the bass, and do you recommend dynamic on piano as well? I like your idea of catching the two of them with one shotgun between them - it's simple, and if the room sounds good... Lily, I'll look into all that equipment - I'm hoping to use what I have, but of course, like I said, I want it to sound good, too. John

Howdy. I have an sd 552. I've been asked to record: 1. A jazz ensemble (singer, bass, piano) 2. A trumpet (solo - seperately) I voiced my concerns to the producer about not having mixed music before, and she said that it's not that big of a deal - if it doesn't work, she can get a recording & dub - it'll be a montage for a promo. I'd obviously like to make it sweet, but like I said, I've never recorded music before. I have: several good Sanken cos 11 lavs, a decent tram, a Sennheiser MK 416 shotgun, a Schoepps cmit 5u shotgun, and a "mic level" mic (that I've never used) - not sure how good, but I know it works. Do you have any advice on best practices with the gear I have. 1. 3 Piece Jazz Ensemble: Where would you locate /hide the mics, and which ones do you recommend? I'm thinking about booming the cmit from above on the singer, since that's the best sounding mic. I also think I should put the singer on one track and mix the piano and bass on the other, does this make sense to y'all? What mics would you use on the piano and bass, and where would you hide/place them? 2. Trumpet: Can I just boom the trumpet from above with my cmit 5u? If I put a lav on him for redundancy, where would you place it? Thanks for your time! John

Thanks Aristotle, That makes sense, and it also thankfully covers me arse. I reckon that since the audio TC frame rate isn't really recording in actual frames (on the 552), and since it's not recording direct to something that does (no need to create a frate lock onto the device that actually records in frates), then the media on the two devices should synch fine since they're both generally operating in real time and transients should match with pluraleyes accordingly. Does that sound reasonable? jc

Thank you Marc, and everyone. I went into wave agent and checked it out - I'm really glad there's a default. I am wondering if that default can be changed, though to 23.98 rather than 30nd. The Cannon was shooting 23.98 (though the selection says 24, right?). Is there any way to get my default tc to match closer to the camera's? Or is there only 1 default in this case. Also, If they're using pluraleyes, and it works (which I expect it will), will there still be drift due to different timecode frates, AND no camera TC signal - or, since pluraleyes matches waveforms, can we expect that the drift will be minimized? Thank you. John

So, I'm using the 552 and TC was set to "stamp file", (given the option of off(?), replace L, replace R, and "stamp", it was on "stamp" - the blue TC light was flashing (indicating no TC in), Is it still recording TOD, in this case? Thank you. John

Thank you. I will. God bless you - and God bless Jeff Wexler! John

So, I'm using the 552 and TC was set to "stamp file", (given the option of off(?), replace L, replace R, and "stamp", it was on "stamp" - the blue TC light was flashing (indicating no TC in), Is it still recording TOD, in this case? Thank you. John