James Arnold

Getting the posted out mini-sd was the easy way. Most of us bought our own and had to burn the update software onto it using the command line on our computers. Now THAT is scary. You get it wrong and you wipe your entire drive!

The information required is on the Zaxcom user forum. However, this once again highlights the fact that many pertinent bits of info regarding Zax gear are currently spread over different internet forums and missing from both the website and the product manuals. Zaxcom would do well to try and consolidate this stuff. Half the discussions we seem to have on Zaxcom kit revolve around 'I've been told' 'I read somewhere' 'He said' 'She said' kind of thing. I don't think they are entirely alone in this as manufacturers though.

These look fabulous. I don't have any TRX at the moment and my ERX tend to be on camera, but I might pick some up anyway. Good work!

FYI - I've been having a chat with Antoine from Audioroot who has pointed out that the current EU pricing lists are wrong and due to go down. RFS in the UK do not have the new prices yet, but should know soon. Looking at the other Euro dealers I would suspect that theirs will decrease also.

Depends on the agreements LSC have made with the suppliers. Quite within their rights to refuse to ship to a non US postcode (as many US companies like Lectro and Zaxcom require of their suppliers in America). I've no idea on the shipping costs, though as batteries and chargers are reasonably heavy it might be more expensive than one imagines. Duty would be payable, but also VAT upon entering the UK, otherwise you get done for avoiding the taxes. Interestingly I learned recently that wireless gear is exempt from one (not both) of these taxes when importing.

Absolutely. I'll have a look round to see if anywhere in the EU is a bit more reasonable. So far I can see fluctuations of only a few Euro. The Li-89 is still around $100 more than the Location Sound Corp price.

You really do excel at spouting irrelevant nonsense. This has NOTHING to do with anything discussed in these threads.

Thanks Rado. The size and power would be plus points for me also.

I can only see a few power cables when I search eBay. As previously noted Richmond Films Services cater for the UK and its not cheap at all.

As per my previous thread I've been considering a swap for some time. Being able to trade NP1 with other mixers is a good point well made though - Hawkwoods, IDX and Swit all fit the same shoes so it's an easy swap. I'd suffer that if I could lighten my bag though. I don't wish to constantly harp on, but the price differences are certainly a little depressing.

I'm not sure about contacting Audioroot directly (there are no prices on the website as far as I can see) but French distibutor Areitec sells the battery for 306 Euros including local taxes ($396). That must be way above what you paid Rado. Your total package would be in excess of $2000 from them. Many thanks for the review.

Apologies if we were derailing your thread Rado, however price points are a factor in these choices we make... I started a thread on Audioroot some time back, but the cost was just too much for me then.

No idea. Might be an offer. I'm still waiting on the Zaxcom and Lectro 'deals' for Europe ; )

Even if you disregard VAT in the UK the comparative prices are wildly at odds. For a product made on my European doorstep it is frustrating (again) to see the US market getting a much more reasonable deal.

My word. It's BEAUTIFUL. And THAT looks like how you do a screen! And the waveforms! Fabulous!

Gotcha. How do you feel about the harness ring placement? Rado has complained that they are too far forward causing the harness straps to obstruct access to the mixer controls. Looking at the top down view of the bag I can see how this might be the case - on the Petrol systems they were butted right up to the corners.

Minor point maybe, but that 788 looks to be rigged upside down. You'd have to rig the 788 in a way that the rotary encoder on the side is not obstructed by the mixer straps. Do straight XLRs really fit into there? Doesn't look like it. Looks very tight!

Thanks for that review Beartrax. Nice to see pictures of these bags rigged with cables instead of just naked recorders. That does look awful tight on the 633 with straight cables. I hadn't realised that the side panels are single zip. That is quite an oversight. Everything should be double zipped. Otherwise why use a zipper?

Three people already suggesting a slightly wider OR-30, but we may not be representative of the common opinion.

I use the XLRs to feed wireless links. The TA5 are used for my multipin send to camera and return. Over here in the UK there is still a huge amount of work that uses cabled to camera, not wireless links. In fact I'd say in 90% of my work I'm hanging out the back of a cam operator. Productions are slowly learning to love double system, but they hate paying for it and budgets are in crisis. I also use the side outputs for IFB other than my ERX. And Mike - you are just trolling. As per bloody usual. I'm a sucker for even paying you the slightest bit of attention.

Typical. As I understand it ORCA are looking for feedback on these bags, particularly those still in development. This is that feedback. It's also how the current Portabrace system was refined.

I guess that's kind of what I'm asking for. A Rado bag without the Rado-ing. Cameronlenart - I hadn't thought of using the DB-15. Can't get inputs 9/10 on that but it's still a good idea. I think any bag should still give the option to use the standard right hand side inputs and outputs though.

Yes. I may very well do that. However the mid sized Petrol bag range began this trend for audio bags that were often much larger than everyday use required but had far superior design features than the competition. Before then the eng type bags were a lot smaller. This was partially driven by the need for mixers to carry more gear, but it did result in guys (including myself) toting around some pretty large bags only half full. The small bags were reserved for 302 type rigs. This seems to be continuing for the Orca range. This is not a bad thing for those with lots of gear to accommodate, but without investing in a smaller recorder like the Maxx or 633 it would be nice to have a more modest 'electric handbag'. Because of the prevalence of dual RX it's now possible to build a very powerful bag with a small footprint.

See my previous comments on here and the Zaxcom Facebook page. I think if you're rocking lots of 411 and an FP8 then (as long as those side input/outputs are more accessible than they look) it's probably a great bag. For those of us with smaller rigs I'm of the opinion - Rado style - that it could get a lot smaller.

I will consider myself forewarned! I guess we should get back to talking about the Orca bags...