Wandering Ear

I find it annoying that Arri chose to have 2 different proprietary audio inputs on the different Alexa mini versions.  

9 hours ago, LarryF said:

That will give you more room but if you ever want to use that expensive Lemo with a COS-11, Lectro's wiring calls for a pin 2 connection for lowest distortion, i.e., the best COS-11 wiring uses all three pins. The simple explanation is that the COS-11 was designed as a three wire lavaliere. If you aren't going to use Lectros or COS-11's ,then happily whack away.

Best Regards,

Larry Fisher 

Thanks Larry.  So far all the lectro lav wiring I have done is TA5 so I hadn't looked into the ssm wiring.  All the lemo's I do are for Zaxcom, and Zaxcom uses pin 2 for the 2nd channel (stereo) input.  I will keep this in mind.

On 3/22/2019 at 7:25 AM, astro said:

 

I don't know about SSM or ZMT but Sennheiser and also Wisycom has the bias voltage and audio input on pin 3. Snip off pin 2 instead.

 

Voice Technologies uses a screw type Lemo connector without the crimp part which is much more easy to assemble. I don't know if it's an original Lemo or some kind of knockoff.

Ambient has them in stock.

You are right, I had remembered the pin numbering wrong.  It's pin 2 that is unused.

On 3/21/2019 at 6:47 PM, Brian Liston said:

Sadly most software is going subscription. Although I think Avid has been a bit...sluggish...of late, there have been some cool updates. Track folders, Atmos, etc There is supposed to be a release this month that work with Mojave.

 

I'm trying to become a Reaper-capable person for pinch moments in the field. But oh boy, it is a learning curve. I'd rather pay the $400/yr to keep my PT Ultimate rocking.

Where did you find track folders in PT?  I have seen lots of people ask for it, but no confirmation it's actually coming.

In addition to the good advice above:

Good wire preparation is key.  Solder once and quickly using a fine tipped iron after tinning the leads and contacts

I like to snip off pin 2 since it's not needed on a lav.

Clamp both the pins and the wire in place, don't try to hand hold.

On 3/18/2019 at 1:57 PM, Bouke said:

 

Please point me to the proper docs!

(and yes, this is purely hypothetical nerd talk.)

Bouke

 

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7291029

Here is a link to the smpte standard doc 12-1.  Unfortunately it's only free for smpte members, which I am not.

3 hours ago, Koca said:

Can somebody please re-post the picture with pin layout for TC in? 

It's in the back of the Arri Alexa mini manual which is on their website.

On 3/14/2019 at 8:56 AM, John Blankenship said:

 

Unfortunately, such misuse of terms is the cause for much misunderstanding which the internet tends to spread easily.

 

Volume vs. Loudness

59 minutes ago, chrismedr said:

If I understand correctly then Bouke is saying that there's a flag (data bit) in the TC stream which usually is used to indicate DF vs NDF, but which also could be used to tell the camera in an instant if synch is at 24.000 or 23.976 vs having to wait a lot of frames to even out jitter.

 

sounds like a good feature to me, but I agree that this should not result in 24.000 or 25.000 TC called drop frame, but rather invent a new term for this (it's confusing already the way it is ; )

There is a flag in the TC stream that indicates DF or NDF.  According the SMPTE timecode spec, which all TC capable device follow this is not used to indicate integer frame rates.  Bouke was presenting a theoretical update to the TC spec, not something that can be utilized today.

35 minutes ago, Bouke said:

You are forgetting one thing:
It was about making clear if a TC stream is 23.976 or 24.
Measuring duration takes time to be sure. If you read the DF / NDF bit (that is in every frame), that could be a dead giveaway of what it 'should' be. (thus, instead of looking for frame duration with a 0.1% difference.)

Next, if DF keeps the TC 'as good as possible' in sync with the time on the wall, thus 24, 25 and 30 also should/could be called DF. (drop nothing if not needed.)

Now, please open Wave Agent (still in beta), and see that they have both 30 DF and NDF. (That makes no sense to me...)

 

I am aware of the context, but I disagree with your direct association with calling anything that stays in sync with the wall clock DF.  I think it's misleading at the least because nothing is dropped.

More so, SMPTE 12 & 12-1 define how the frame rates should be labeled, including the DF NDF flag, and going against that seems like a bad idea to me.  

Now, why Wave Agent has 30 DF??  I don't know.  Only Sound Devices can comment there.

I understand the concept, but 24 FPS staying in sync with the wall clock does not make it DROP FRAME.  DROP FRAME timecode drops the first two TC numbers every minute except in multiple of 10 minutes. 24 FPS stays in sync but does not skip any values.  That makes it NON DROP regardless of whether it stays in sync with the wall clock.  You state yourself that 0 frames are dropped at 24, so why do you insist on calling it DROP FRAME when nothing is DROPPED? 

I understand that you are a very knowledgeable person, I am not making a personal attack on you, but I do disagree with you on this point.

12 hours ago, MartinTheMixer said:

Wandering, I don't understand what you mean. I can send track 2 to out 1. I'm too tired to go dig the mixer out, but, are you saying you can only send certain tracks to certain outputs? Maybe I'm just tired, but that is not making sense to me right this minute.

 

Thank you, Martin

Only during playback the routing is fixed and the routing you have chosen in the BUS menu does not apply.

12 hours ago, mikerobertson said:

I use the tape out for playback - you can assign any card tracks you want on it. it should be in the first BUS menu.

I don't currently use my tape or mono outputs, but this could be a decent work around.  I would still like to be able to play back to my regular outputs.

14 hours ago, Bouke said:

 

 Because it is true?
DF is designed to make the TC drop frames in order to stay in sync with the TOD. 24 drops exactly enough to stay in sync with the TOD.

23.976 on the other hand drops the same amount, but does NOT stay in sync, making it a NDF format.
Now, there is a bit in LTC that says drop/non-drop, why not use that to make a difference between 23.976 and 24?

 

 

You did not really understood what I wrote, did you? Please re-read it, it's not hard.

 

No frame values are dropped in either 24 fps or 23.976.  Both of them are NON DROP frame rates and are labeled accordingly.  The difference between them comes down to speed, not skipped frame numbers.  

I never got comfortable with an external cable.  It was always akward and more difficult to extend/collapse the pole.  It saves weight though which is nice.

For all the booming I do I use an internally cabled pole, but I also have an uncabled longer pole for wireless work.  This is my favorite setup.

The Nomad plays track 1 to output 1, track 2 to output 2, etc.  So half your tracks can't be played outside of the headphones at all.

I have complained about this in the past (and spoken to Zaxcom directly about it) cause I find it infuriating and completely unusable, and there are times I would really like to use the feature.  I still have not been able to come up with a situation where this routing would ever make sense.

2 hours ago, Patrick Farrell said:

What? No. Why would you even say that?

 

 

The whole Arri/Zax problem is pretty simple. Zaxcom timecode is within SMPTE specs and can feed an Arri camera fine and provide adequate sync. However, firmware dependent, the camera will display an error message. This is because the camera also has a feature which allows you to tune the camera's internal clock to the incoming TC stream, similar to how genlock works. (Remember sync boxes that had TC and genlock?) This requires a much more stable clock than that specified by SMPTE. Since there is jitter in Zaxcom's TC, it is not stable enough for the camera to tune it's clock to. This is what produces the error message, ableit Arri worded the alert incorrectly.

This

45 minutes ago, Olle Sjostrom said:

That video on the page you posted is funny though. I mean it’s a very simple edit to make. Not that I don’t believe in it, just that that video doesn’t really prove much.. to my ears. 

I doubt they intended the video to be proof.  They did publish a paper with their results in it, which I have not read.

24 minutes ago, drpro said:

Sometimes a suitable amount of cash to the lawn care workers provides relief!!

That's true, but outside of our work, how wonderful would it be if these things no longer made noise?  

I joked a lot about how much it could make our work better, but really if this tech pans out I see it really as a major breakthrough in quality of life.  I think I will start holding my breath now.

Shooting near a busy road?  Lawn work or construction down the street?  Surround the set with a temporary barrier made from this new material and you'll have a silent set even in the noisiest location.

Ok, so back to reality.  That is obviously an unrealistic fantasy, but new research has come up with a way to reduce 94% of sound transmission without impeding airflow.  So maybe we won't be creating temporary silent zones, but a silent leaf blower may now be a real possibility!  Once they can figure out how to adapt this to aviation, hold for plane may actually become a thing of the past!  For now, I'll continue to be a hopeless optimist as the whole set watches me waiting for an all clear so we can get back to work.

https://phys.org/news/2019-03-acoustic-metamaterial-cancels.html

What is a "write" strip?  Are you referring to the name of the track in pro tools?  If so, try this:

Import the poly WAV into pro tools clip bin (not new track), the select the channel you want to work with and drag and drop into the dark gray area of the timeline where no other tracks exist.  This should create a new track named after the channel name.  This is the only way I can think of the have pro tools automatically name a track after the channel name. 

It seems like you might be expecting something you do in Wave Agent to affect something in  Pro Tools.  This is impossible since Wave Agent and Pro Tools are independent pieces of software that have no interaction with each other whatsoever.

Or maybe I yet again don't understand what you are trying to achieve??  If so, please elaborate and possibly use screen shots or photos to highlight your problem because I think I am not understanding your terminology.

In pro tools you have control over what information you see and where.  First thing, familiarize yourself with the view menu, especially the clip view shows sub menu. 

The clip bin has its own menu where you can choose what metadata to display. 

Next I would suggest you dig a little deeper into the PT manual to see how it interacts with and displays metadata.

BTW, this has nothing to do with splitting a poly file as you reference in your original post.  

What exactly are you trying to do?  Your post is unclear to me.

Are you trying to import only selected channels from a poly WAV into pro tools?  If so, you can split the poly WAV into mono WAV's with waveagent and import only the mono files you want, or you can just import the whole poly WAV into PT and in the clip bin select only the tracks you want to use and drag and drop them on the timeline.

Working with a mini this morning, and after 2 hours of getting all the crew trucks unstuck from the snow, I surprisingly had some time to look at a couple things. 

So far I have seen a few warnings pop up, but no where near the almost constant warnings that I'm used to seeing.  23.98, tc out at 2.0 volts

This is a little different than the OP's experience, but it seems to me the latest mini firmware has made a significant improvement around working with Zaxcom TC.

Firmware of the camera I'm with today is 5.4

From the arri software updates page:

For version 5.4:

"Improved Timecode Behaviour in Regen Mode"

From version 5.0:

"Improved Timecode Behaviour in Regen Mode
Compatibility with SMPTE compliant generators that have caused intermittent warnings in the past has been improved for Regen mode. Starting with SUP 5.0 the camera applied a strict quality control on the timecode signal to ensure that the source would work with JAM Sync mode and tuning. This check has partly been removed in REGEN mode to support generators that comply with SMPTE specifications, but do not match the requirements for tuning the camera. As a consequence some timecode related warnings will not show any more so that operators will have to take greater care that the timecode signal applied to the camera will match the project setup. The warnings that won’t show in Regen mode any more are:

LTC In frame rate is incompatible with project frame rate (mixing integer and non-integer frame rates)§ LTC In drop frame configuration mismatch (camera uses drop frame, source does not or vice versa)
In both cases the camera will now show the warning Timecode synchronization is required.

LTC In frame rate differs from project rate (mixing integer or mixing non-integer frame rates"

When you switch to PRESET from REGEN, the camera no longer takes external signal.  If you are going to do it this way, it's the same as just jamming the camera and unplugging the external TC box.  If you leave it on REGEN the camera will continue to take the external TC.  Yes, the warning indicator will flash, but there is no real problem and TC will be accurate regardless of frame rate changes, battery changes, etc.

Arri re-did their timecode software on at least the Alexa Mini (but I think on all) and added a feature call "Jam-Sync" which retunes the internal camera clock to the incoming TC stream.  This makes TC a lot more accurate when not jammed for long periods of time, but can also take up to 30 minutes to tune the clock, and Arri requires a very stable TC signal to tune to.  Arri cameras complain about the jitter in the Zaxcom TC especially when using Jam-Sync mode.  Using Regen will fix this issue.

I have always had issues with Zaxcom TC and Arri cameras.  The TC is always accurate, the issue boils down to a flashing warning indicator that comes and goes letting the cam op know that something is wrong with the tc (usually says incoming frame rate is wrong), even when it's working correctly.  I usually just go with it, and let the AC know that it's normal.  If it bugs them then I offer a tentacle sync to add to the camera instead.

BTW, this is not just an issue with Arri cams, Denecke slates cannot auto detect the frame rate from Zaxcom TC, usually confusing 23.98 code for 24 like the Arri cams do.

For me using sound blankets that are black on one side and white on the other is the key to getting an effective amount of them in the room.  Being black and white they play well with the lighting department.  Keeps the DP, Grips, and Electrics happy while I get to put as many blankets as I can fit in the room.