DanieldH

We've benn using a hollow foam (originally with some generic foam from dynamic mics) glued to a printed ferrule. Now we use the Bubblebee foam for medium movement that is aparrently more effective (but not hollow). 

6 minutes ago, grawk said:

from page 29 of the manual, the tascam x8 has a choice between 24v or 48v phantom power.  

Yes, thnx, I already edited my post. The German Referenzhandbuch v1.32 p28 only mentions on the option for switching it on and the warning:

"Manche Kondensatormikrofone funktionieren möglicherweise nicht
mit einer Phantomspannung von 24 Volt. "
meaning "Some Mics may not work with 24V phantom power."

So, as I understand from the tech specs and the chapter about phantom power, this tascam X8 thing delivers 24V phantom power only. No wonder your professional mics arent hot enough. One shall be advised to be suspicious if a prosumer brand advertises phantom power without mentioning "48V". If some phantom-passthrough-fethead-cloudlifter-device works at all at 24V it will surely amplify the higher self noise of your professional condenser too.

Get some external phantom box first. E.g. Ambient UMP or Xvive P1 to mention some different price ranges.

Edit: I double checked, it does mention 48V. It might still be worth making sure that it is set to the right voltage.

On 3/29/2024 at 11:53 PM, rmac said:

What are the lavs for and why do they have to be wireless?

They are not, and if, not yet pro level.

The Cosi I have ist the standard one that is pictured everywhere. I guess from your upper quote Cinela calls that medium pile length. I called it felty because it is a bit felty out of the factory, compared to longer fur. 

The only one with longer fur I've ever seen was on Monday at my dealer when I checked the MKH50 holder. Maybe this is a new thing, demo unit or just a different "batch". 

The Cosi is very nice on the boom for before mentioned reasons. As THE standard outdoor tool it is not effective enough but only in mildly windy situations, don't quote me in Bft, IIRC the lab video demonstrates it. It is more a convienience alternative to a bigger WS. 

1 hour ago, rmac said:

Could I ask what you mean by medium wind when you say "If there is even medium wind you'd want a piani or even something bigger." 

I mean the exact same thing as Cinela with "decent wind protection". Just less public relations speak. It is limited. 

IMHO Cinela makes superior products to Rycote (to a higher price).

Get the Piani 1st, ideally with the raincover and Bubblebee fur, so you have the best there is against the elements. get a Cosi, when you saved more money to have a more sleak option. 

I rarely use a cardioid supercardioid outdoors and I don't know if you mainly record sound for video and a camera is around.  

There are at least 3 types of outer surfaces for the Cosi. Fabric, short felty fur and medium long fur. This may not be advertised on the website, but fabric and felty are mentioned in the video.

I have the felty for an 8060, a miniCMIT and in the future possibly a MKH50. It is an excellent tool for booming if low winds allow it (weight, shadow profile, handling noise). I'd doubt that the medium fur version allows significantly more wind. If there is even medium wind you'd want a piani or even something bigger. 

Piani has a good raincover. Bubblebee also offers a fur for the Piani (and Rycote modular WS 3/4) that appears to be more wind effective than any Cinela fur and is easier to apply/remove. If you only intend to use it on tripod-like situations (that is my assuption) when you don't need a high quality suspension system a Rycote modular WS or something cheap and similar in size) plus optionally a Bubblebee jacket would cost significantly less (even though I have a lot more sympathy for Cinela than for Rycote). 

Vac cleaners use high power slip rings and are kind of crude for a mic signal and difficult to isolate from EMI. Their systems are quite big, for longer and thicker cables. Some even only have 2 "channels". The better ones come with constant torque springs rather than power springs. Over all, they are not made to be taken apart and I have given up attempts to harvest them from old units before.

A DYH-1703 may have the right dimension, though also not small and the breaking system would probably need some modification to be quite. I do not have or have used one. I do use a DYH-1816 without the break on the boom but 3m max is probably too less for a bag to boom scenario.

Where is the boom resting on? Or what?

What is going on in the first photo?

Found on Ambients website

21 hours ago, awadden said:

there’s a cost in structural stability

Is that actually an issue in the 1.8m-2.7m range with e.g. a Piani as mentioned? I hardly have the need of such a pole outdoors.
I see the disadvantage over more sections in pre operation handling and in overall weight (and rather slight, when fully expanded) balance advantage vs transport and occasional horizontal storage on a sound bag.
 

Great work! Thank you for sharing.

I suppose, this would have an influence on the 788t used market. Though I do not operate a 788t, but did many years, I would prefer to see a cabled android device, RaspberryPi with touchscreen or similar.

Bavaria is not in France.

35 minutes ago, Derek H said:

That’s pretty cool! Nice work. 

The DYH re-tractor is far from ideal. It has a power spring, but a constant force/torque spring would be far more feasible. Also, it comes with a locking mechanism that is useless and leaves behind some dead air in the enclosure. The whole thing is not very service friendly and for the full 3m expansion slightly smaller than one would wish.
I have not found a material / construction platform to develop something optimised for our needs from scratch. In the end, it would most likely be some router/mill processed aluminum alloy, like camera cages or cheeseplates. But prototyping with it is very expensive and resins as tough as they are advertised have viscose properties under permanent tension. I might end up with plywood or end up working with what is there.

The last image shows the smallest of the "washers" in the upper segment of the Quickpole.

The black holder is the current version, the blue greyish a previous version on my 2nd / fallback boom.

I use a modded DYH-1816 cable retractor populated with Mogami 3031. That just about fits the max 3m for an Ambient Quickpole 5100.  It is attached to the 5100 by an 3d resin printed clamping holder. The latest version of the holder also accomodates 10oz worth of tungsten weights from the archery industry as Hodges weight.

The lower ends of the booms pipes are fitted with "washers" that guide the cable and prevent it from flapping around during operation. In the latest Version the "washers" do not have to be glued any more.

I do mainly wireless booming on fictional shows with it, but also use it on 1 man show style bag jobs. As a DIY solution it helps me a lot, but it is far from a commercial product. I'd really like to make a more custom system that allows for more cable/boom length. 

I have a 4minX. I hardly use it, but good to have. At some point I will sell or barter it inside EU, so, I am not advertising mine to you.

 I cannot confirm the slight tone at (was it 8?)kHz. Maybe my unit is not affected or I just don't hear it. It can be notched out later anyway. 

2. The menu and overall firmware design did not reach adulthood and things like metadata, monitoring matrix, menu ergonomics and some other foo are a complete pain in film workflows. Probably much less so in music room recording, if you can prepare in advance. 

It has 4 analog inputs, yes, all with 48V, but they come in two pairs with diffent dynamic ranges! Dig the specs, and compare with other brands/models mentioned in this thread. You can add more channels with an old MixPreD or Sonosax M2D2 via 2 AES pairs that also offer AES42/SRC btw. 

The unit is quite big, but it is still light as they enclosed a lot of air.

The main reason why you probably won't buy a 4minX is, there is virtually no market! At least last time, I checked.

Did you consult

https://www.lectrosonics.com/phocadownload/SMWB_man.pdf

Page 17, line level signals?

On 12/6/2023 at 8:17 PM, colinmk said:

 

Can you get the EVO compander in the MTP40? I've only got ENC or ENR in all of mine...

Ask your dealer oder try it out with ENC/ENR. All I can tell you is, it worked and sounded good. 

I've worked with EK 300 receiving the signal from an MTP40 (in proper compander mode). Subjectively this had less noise floor than the variouse SK units and being able to tweak the transmission power improoves range slightly, e.g. compared to an SK100. 

The price is obviously much higher, but if you have a spare Wisy TX around anyway, it is an improovement.

On 10/1/2023 at 6:00 PM, Ontariosound said:

The Nanoshield was discontinued for a few reasons.  And the current Windjammers do not block the wind as well as the ones from years ago.  Yay.

Is it? For now, the Nano is advertised on rycote.com and listed on common dealers sites. (not doubting this info, just curious for the source)

47 minutes ago, Sandor Gyurkovics said:

Hey, have you actually used the hixman adapters by the way?  I was looking at a few of them....lectro to 3.5 for track E as you stated, plus microdot to TA5 for dpa goosenecks and lectro TX.   1/3 the price of the dpa adapters, so wondering about actual field use an track record.  

I do have a few cabled adapters from Hixman. On one, the molded female threaded TRS failed.

I have not used any microdot adapters from them. I did use the "cheap" Shure MD40 Lemo witch is of much lower quality compared to the DPA equivalent and I don't recommend buying the MD40.

Consider URSA shorties (basically underwear) and if at all possible an attendance to a training session where the athletes can try out the different options.

Before you buy an internally coiled cabled system e.g. Ambient 5130, try it out, especially with the particular length in question.

Coiled cables (and also straight ones) in the inside of the boom produce cable noise, some more some less at different length and depending on the cable used. Coiled cables, on top of that produce a slight center of gravity shift that annoys me. 

I've been using an modding a straight cable system for some years now (QX5100). These also include issues, including cable management and cable noise with mods and concepts to be implemented. It is a lot less complex to run the cable on the outside or have the TX on top.

I can't say much about K-tek, as they are not very, common over here. The units I came across where worn down to an extend but "okayish", not great.

Panamic is "heavy" and stiff. Good for operation heavy TX on top / big windscreen configs. Also, they are rather easy to service and care for. There is no internal cable option, mods may not be impossible impossible though.

Ambient is lighter and my operation and development platform of choice, since customer support is excellent and rather close by in my part of the world compared to K-Tek. However Ambient BPs need a bit more caring time after rain or sand/dust exposure.

I've mic'd up harness race horces for wild tracks (with medium results).

Production wanted the sound of their breaths as someone from the client company used to be a driver himself.