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RScottATL

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Everything posted by RScottATL

  1. Beautiful van, Whitney. Hope this gives you many years and many miles of good service and good times.
  2. I've been doing similar things with the overcovers, putting on the Sanken metal windscreen first and then using thin, long strips of moleskin or transpore tape to wrap the overcover tight around the metal screen. A rubber mount or vampire clip mount helps secure the whole thing to the wardrobe. I like the overcovers because they are fairly cheap as expendables and work well enough for the wind I've encountered. As long as the metal windscreen is well covered by fuzzy, it works great, though a little more muffled and you must take extra care for the rig rubbing on clothing.
  3. Sound quality is one of the major factors that I'm looking into Zaxcom for my first wireless units. I've used Lectro my whole career and would just prefer a 100% digital signal that I can still get usable range from in the bag with whips. I'm watching True Blood season 5 and instantly I know what wireless they are using from the signature low level hiss, fluttering and artifacting throughout the season. Lectros sound pretty good even in poor situations and sound excellent in excellent situations, but so many times now my gear is being pressed into unknown operating modes with little notice. The ability to record locally on a whim, the ability to go from whispering to shouting to recording rappers in a noisy nightclub and adjust any settings in the bag - - all of these are great things for me, but the kicker is wideband and range. Range and block limitations are my two worst enemies and Zaxcom seemingly knocked them dead. The last two are what really finally makes the price a worthwhile value proposition for me to really consider spending the extra to get the extra. Just my two cents. Not trying to hate on Lectro, as I've used and loved them for a long time, but the caveats in a hectic reality environment are what cause the most issues I have to address or tweak during my workday. Less tweaking means more mixing or more booming or more staying out of the way and letting the production flow well. I can't wait to get ahold of the new wireless systems and hear what others are seeing from the range.
  4. A few years back I had some MRI scans done. They used headphones and microphones so that the lab tech could instruct the patient (me) when to breathe, etc. The MRI would most likely have rendered standard metal microphones useless with its enormous magnets.
  5. When doing mine, I did pins onto the OSC8/MC8 first and then pushed it all in at once. I found an awl tool helps A LOT for helping to push each little pin in a little bit without using too much force. It is a very delicate process. The colored bushings look fabulous, part BSP. The colored rings are another nice touch, part XXR (only works for XX series Neutrik, they have a different part for X series). The CR part is a clear ring that you can put a label under. I believe the white guide marking that Neutrik puts on the 8-pin housing interior can be used to line up the pins. I think it circles around 1-7 and ends with 8 in the center. You could use something like a silver Sharpie pen to mark 1 on the exterior, if you need a reference. I use the notching guides and arrow markings on the exterior of the cable to orient myself, with pin 4 IIRC being 180 degrees away from the arrow on the push-pull. A lesson I learned from ordering parts for these is not to order the OSC-8 Male and OSC-8 Female from Markertek. You get both Female housings, with one male and one female of the interior parts. The housings don't mate! The OSC-8 Female and MC-8 Male are the right parts to order. Newbie mistake, not helped by the fact that there are no photos on the site to reference both male and female parts.
  6. Tom, I am amazed and inspired! Your posts are always the ones to watch. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.
  7. Reference Page 36 of the 664 manual for details on the proper cable to link a 302 to a 664 (assuming the 664 works as specified -- I don't own a unit so I can't test this for you.) Page 17 on the 302 manual and Page 13 on the 442 manual will also be helpful. I wouldn't advise using the headphone output for this purpose. The 664 has a 5-pin TA5 connector labeled Link I/O. This is a two-way unbalanced stereo connection (two channel send, two channel receive). The 664 receives a two-channel output from an external source (presumably the 302 tape output or another mixer's Tape Out). The 664 sends its own two-channel mix output (BEFORE the extra channels are added in) to an external destination (presumably a 552 or 664 Link I/O.) Thus, both mixers receive all of the extra channels from the other mixer and both mixers' outputs are available for the summed mix bus. All channels from both mixers are recorded to the 664 L & R tracks. Levels for SD Tape Out and Mix In are -15dBU nominal Pin Configuration: TA3 Tape Out/Mix Link Input on a 302 or 442: 1 - Ground, tied to shell (Link cables must short ground to connector shell to open the connection) 2 - Left 3 - Right TA5 Link I/O on a 664 or 552: 1 - Left Output 2 - Right Output 3 - Right Input 4 - Left Input 5 - Ground, tied to shell (Link cables must short ground to connector shell to open the connection) To build an appropriate 302 to 664 cable, you would want the following: Use a 2 core cable for a one-way connection. Use a 4-core cable for a two-way connection (552 or 664 only, unless for some reason you wanted to return monitor on the 302. I'd be careful about sending the return into the 302 Mix In -- if it sends that to the Tape Out bus then you have a feedback loop.) If you're using starquad cable for a four-core, you will need to test each end with a simple continuity test on a Multimeter. It has two pairs of each color so the color coding won't help you. TA3 End 1 - Shield, tied to connector shell 2 - Cable core A 3 - Cable core B TA5 End 1 - Not Connected 2 - Not Connected 3 - Cable core B 4 - Cable core A 5 - Shield, tied to connector shell If you'd like me to build you this cable, I'd be happy to give it a shot. Just PM me. Scott Beatty
  8. I do think a headphone limiter with an adjustable threshold would be nice. I frequently get blasted when listening carefully to background noises at an increased volume.
  9. I'm looking for a new set of shockmounts, so it's pretty awesome to see another low form factor shock mount enter the market. It's exactly what I'm looking for.
  10. Also, in the realm of helping your back in a troubling RF environment, the 664 I'm told is very clean as far as how much RF pollution it delivers to nearby receiver antennas and is also quite lightweight and not as power-hungry as the 788T. If you can justify the unit, it may also make your life easier. I find the 788T RF emissions in blocks 19-21 to be pretty bad, especially if I hook an external drive to the firewire port.
  11. Jon, How well do your 411A's perform with your external antennas compared to whips? I would say if this is a significant boost with a little room to give up a bit of performance, the SRb's could do fine. If it's still "on the edge" of what you would consider usable, then you may just need every little bit you can get. I don't consider SRa's with whips extremely usable in very RF cluttered zones, and I when video transmitters, 788T RF emissions and hops transmitters are involved, even 411A's cringe more than I would like. Hence, why Lectro has taken the initiative to improve their SR design. I would consider the SRa to the 411a to be a couple of steps down in performance, but I would consider the difference between running in a fairly clean RF environment vs. camera transmitters, hops, etc. to be a giant leap down in performance. If you would consider adding a directional antenna to be recovering a fair amount of ground in terms of performance, I think the SRb would probably be a great candidate for bag work. Also, if you have 250mW capability, the antenna coupling does reduce the overall signal of everything -- your transmitters and your surrounding noise. As long as the 250mW is not overloading your receivers with RF, being able to reduce the entire signal while improving signal to noise ration would be ideal. The SRa's can select compatibility mode per channel, so you can set channel 1 to 200 mode and channel 2 to hybrid mode or whatever you want. -Scott
  12. http://www.tensility.com/content.asp?pgid=1264 Tensility looks like they have a locking, right angle version of the S760K. They have three flavors: 10-00114 -- Two connectors wired together, shielded (single jacket), 78" 10-00115 -- One connector wired stripped and tinned, shielded (single jacket), 78" 10-00116 -- One connector wired stripped and tinned, siamese side-by-side style double jacket, 78" Those connectors are specced at 2.1mm ID, 5.5mm OD. The only Lectro reference I could find was in inches (0.076" ID, 0.215" OD) which doesn't EXACTLY line up, so who knows if it works or not. Edit: I found some off-brand CH20 power supplies for Lectro receivers that list their DC connector as 2.1mm ID, 5.5mm OD, so I suppose 2.1x5.5 is good. Anyone know depths for the parts? Or, get the Lectro model at B&H: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/663927-REG/Lectrosonics_21586_PWR_CBL_LCKNG_LZR_TINNED.html Straight LZR 6' $7.50 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/623385-REG/Lectrosonics_21746_21746_Power_Cable_12.html Right Angle LZR 12" $3.61 http://www.performanceaudio.com/buy/Lectrosonics/21747/14522?gclid=CPzB7O_F67UCFQODnQodrHsAZw Right Angle LZR 6' $7.58 Who knew? Factory connectors at reasonable prices?
  13. http://www.remoteaudio.com/cables_adapters/power/xlr/ This link references the Switchcraft S760K and states that the cable is capable of powering Lectrosonics LZR type units such as the SR series receivers. http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Switchcraft/S760K/?qs=Z0CQwBkL9d0b%252by2xBlPCrw%3D%3D&gclid=CPmg_ry567UCFQmxnQodBlsAHA This is a link to the part at Mouser, was 4.67 when I checked. It looks like the right part, but I'd order one and check it out before going whole hog. The 502-760K part is a 2.5mm ID plug, which does not match.
  14. You could possibly cut a Switchcraft TA3F crimp-down strain relief and solder that to the XLR shell to provide adequate strain relief on the cable itself. You might be able to get two or three of the crimp-down fingers into the XLR shell, but it will no doubt be a tight fit and take some small degree of craftsmanship to do right.
  15. Here is Lecro's guide to wiring various sources to a transmitter via TA5: http://www.lectrosonics.com/Microphone-Wiring/uhf-transmitter-5-pin-input-jack-wiring.html Lectrosonics has Servo-biased and Non-Servo-biased transmitters. "Universal 2-Wire" is just a term I've heard and adopted to apply to COS-11D's that have the Audio and Shield connected to Pin 1 and Bias connected to Pin 3. See figure #5 in the diagram. "Servo Biased" wiring is the other term I've heard used, and it seems to relate to Figure #11 where the Shield goes to Pin 1, Bias goes to Pin 3 and Audio goes to Pin 5. The Universal wiring works with all Lectro transmitters old and new. The 3-wire version only works with the newer Servo-biased models. I *THINK* this includes UM400a's and all SM styles. I've been told by a audio dealer that UM400's (non-A) and older transmitters are Non-Servo-biased. My company runs UM200's and even has a few old 195's hanging around, all the way up to the newest SMQV's, so we require the Universal wiring scheme. The 3-wire scheme is said to be a cleaner signal with less noise. I just worked a show with a lot of production gear including a mess of UM400's and 400A's and a smattering of Sankens of varying age and unknown wiring schemes. Some mics had significant hiss on the UM400A's but not the UM400's and some were just the opposite. I didn't dive into taking the mics apart to see what was what, but I will say that in certain combinations, many of the Sanken COS-11's on Lectro transmitters produced significant self-noise that was audible at normal speech levels and problematic at whisper levels. Gain settings for the transmitters were in the ideal range.
  16. Love the topic. I just wrapped a season of reality TV and despite the fact that reality typically allows very bad sound to be the norm, I found many instances where I strongly felt that a lower equipment noise floor would help improve my work. I've grown an acute distaste for the 416's self noise in quiet interview settings and instances where the boom is in an less-than-ideal spot due to 3 cameras shooting the same scene. In those cases, I have to crank the noise up a lot compared to the dialog I'm capturing. Regarding the preamps, the 788T transformerless preamps offer quite a lot of clean gain. The 664 preamps are said to also be transformerless and quite clean. I haven't heard the Nomad, but many folks seem to like the preamps as well as the 788T's. The NeverClip digital converter stage seems like it could give an edge to Nomad. In contrast, going back to a 442, the preamps are significantly noisier with the 416. Can I extend this conversation and ask what equipment you all would suggest for quiet, clean lav mics? In specific, what models and wiring schemes are being used? I've been working with a lot of Universal 2-wired COS-11's and the noise performance is less than ideal on UM400a's. What are your feelings on various transmitters/receivers as far as noise performance is concerned? I've been looking at the Zaxcom digital wireless, but just can't hop on board that boat just yet. Thanks. -Scott
  17. Samsung's TecTiles are somewhat gimmicky NFC (near-field communication) stickers that allow you to program a sticker with a set of fuctions so that when you touch an NFC enabled Android to the sticker, it does something. Stick one on your bag or cart and touch it when you walk into work to have your phone go into silent mode, dim the brightness and launch FreqFinder or whatever your favorite work app is.
  18. James, I just want to say thanks for your help. I had a problem with the latest Android patch on Ice Cream Sandwich wiping data last night (separate from the update data wipe), contacted James on this forum and by this morning, he had it fixed and ready for download on the Android market. Bugs suck, but that turnaround is amazing. Thanks, James.
  19. I use Lectros everyday and most of the time the performance is totally solid. Every now and again, the analog modulation scheme has me wishing for something better. Either futzing when in a room with video transmitters (even after coordination) or when the transmitters must use low modulation (in the case of a very dynamic performance or less than ideal pack gain setting). I can totally agree that Lectro could sound better. For most, though, there is no better combo of build quality, price, features, service and range. Zaxcom seems to be the top dog for transmission quality, but there are many notes from users regarding range and price that are worth considering as well. Each person has their own set of needs. If audio quality is top of the list far above all others, I think Zaxcom is the way to go.
  20. Yep. I walked into work on my prep day before a big reality gig, ready to whip out my phone and make short work of coordinating 22 channels only to find the list gone. Not great, but I still got the coordination done speedily and production reserved a full day so I had time. In a pinch that could have hurt, but .... stuff happens. Let's just say my hard copy is up to date now too. The good outweighs this little oops. This app is so helpful. Keep up the good work. The ability to disable but not delete channels would be nice for having more intermod free choices. I have a few channels that get used once a month that this would be great for. (= Thanks again! Excellent product.
  21. I totaly dig the bands. I use gaff and the bands look much better!
  22. Great to have another great supplier in the south!
  23. Not to mention you can solve that bad window/door seal at the same time!
  24. Thanks a lot! I too am using Android and am looking forward to buying the TV addon. The trial has been great. Thanks for such a great product. I did just change phones to the Galaxy S3 and it is greatly needed for 20ish channels to run smoothly compared to my old Galaxy S. One feature I'd LOVE is the ability to email or share profiles. It took a while to rebuild my current shows from scratch and it woulld be great to send a show coordination to another mixer or day player.
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