chrismedr

I‘m not sure where this thought experiment is going except to tout once again how zaxcom is superior to all other wireless 😕

as Tim says, pretty much all systems which use 32bit float recording will have a dual or multi ADC which means the signal will never be only 256 discreet levels. How exactly implement this in a wireless system for transmission is certainly a challenge, but instead of bringing up strange thought experiments and accusing other people of selling snake oil, the better way would be to just test the system and see if we can adjust the signal level without loosing quality.

obviously such a test is better done by an independent party then from a competitor. 

FWIW, I also agree with Peter - actually I started to write a reply on the same topic, but deleted it because I didn't want to distract from the topic.

nobody doubts that Zaxcom makes some great products, but the question was clearly about the runtime of the A-20 (which Paul answered) and not of the ZMT4 (I don't see anybody from Sennheiser or Lectro etc boasting how great the runtime of their transmitters are).

Sorry to drag this on, but it hasn't been the first time I felt this way.

10 hours ago, Philip S89 said:

I really wanted to get the Nagra 7, but I decided I will invest in good mics instead.

yes, that sounds like a good plan. can't go wrong with some schoeps or sennheiser MKH mics, but if you can it's probably worth renting a few different options before you buy to see what you like best in your scenario.

the M2D2 is a lovely device, but in your case scenario it seems to me that you should first think about your setup in general before you select specific components.

like what is the room situation? how many people? how many cameras? voice or music? how high is your budget? etc.

usually mic placement is the most important aspect anyway.

Afaik, half a frame is about as good as gets when using timecode. If you need more accurate then that then you‘d have to look into world clock / genlock workflows

I have a friend who builds custom electronic devices for various clients. He told me his last job was about 25% more expensive in raw components because of difficulties to source parts. I guess a bigger company has some more alternatives, but most likely they have similar issues.

Well, imagine I had a cantar (I don‘t : )  so I would probably charge something like 150eur for a single day rental. Now sombody asks me if you could do a simple interview, one boom, one track.
 

I could easily do that with a low cost recorder, but maybe the cantar is the only recorder I have, or I simply prefer using it over something like a MixPre-3. so I would bring the cantar but only charge the equivalent what a good 1 channel recorder would rent for.

Charging for the full cantar price seems kinda wrong (plus, I probably wouldn‘t get the job if I tried)

On 12/15/2021 at 1:35 AM, sonicfruit said:

Was about to ask for charger recommendations for the LADDA 2450s. Ikea sells their own charger but it's pretty basic, and seems to take longer than it should to charge.

I have the ikea 8 bay AC charger and it‘d definitely slow, and it seems to stop charging a bit earlier then full (if I put the batteries in another charger they charge quite a bit more).

there is a new grey 4 bay ikea charger that should be faster.

the new grey 2450 ladda seem to be very similar to the older white ones, the 1900 are reported to be good as well, but from what I‘ve read rebranded eneloops.

I guess there are different ways to look at this. If it were a free upgrade some 888 owners might be annoyed because suddenly the feature gap closed.

as for charging more rental for extra channels, I would have thoughts this is already common.

If somebody hires me for a one channel interview and I bring my 10 track recorder since that‘s what I have at hand, I will charge less rental for that recorder then if hired to do a 10 channel show.

19 hours ago, Blackdawg said:

 Really inside is where it can be, lets say questionable. So that might be more the area I need to focus on.

If you need an interior mic, get a MK641, MKH50, or DPA 4018.

Personally I‘d be worried about the added weight of a heat sink.

But in a bag setup, air circulation is most likely more effective then a heat sink. So if you‘re worried I’d look for a small silent battery powered fan, even a tiny bit of airflow should make quite a difference.

10 hours ago, Matthias Richter said:

I have this speaker on set since 25 days now. All day on battery. No shut off whatsoever. 

Looks like a great speaker. how do you like sound quality?

2 hours ago, Sound said:

This means you dont recommend them as recorders on a talent? Why?

Can the internal recording be trusted 100 percent?

 

I was hoping, I could just use four of them on my talents an sync everything in post, but I guess this could make some problems.

Even one frame drift in 24 hours could be a problem when I need accurate audio sync.

the drift is the least of the problems. The main problem to record without monitoring is that you dont notice problems like cloth noise, dislocated lavs or cables etc.

came here for the tech news, but getting reminded of Paint Your Wagon beats that hand down.

absolutely strange and beautiful film, whoever gave this script the green light is a hero!

I have a prepaid card that I only use for mobile data in my ipad, cost only 4EUR a month for 1GB of data which is enough for casual surfing.

if I need a lot of data for a day, like for an online meeting or uploading a lot of data, I pay 4EUR for an additional 10GB data ticket for 24h.

the folks in asia and north europe (and most of the rest of the world) will probably laugh at the low data plans still common in germany anyway.

this might be a simple one:

if you know you need 4 ISOs, get the -6.

if you only need 3 ISOs, get the -3, use it as long as it fits, and if in 1-2 years you need something bigger, sell it and buy what fits then (which might be something completely different)

I think the usual response would be "better for what?"

but a broad picture would be:

need light and cheap? get the F8

don't might weight and energy consumption? get the 788T

5 hours ago, nevo said:

I went to the Icon page which directed me to the Scorpio Specific firmware but when I extract it.... it’s a BIN file which is a MAC format.

Can someone point Me to which 2.09 firmware  Is relevant.

no experience with the scorpio or icon, but the .bin file is not a mac format but most likely the binary native to the controller, which must be uploaded in some way.

the manual mentions the procedure (page 47):

https://iconproaudio.com/product/platform-m-plus/

there's also a link to the sound devices specific  firmware.

maybe you tried this already

14 hours ago, henrimic said:

And if this is of interest for someone, I've found these solar chargers that seem perfect for the kind of situation we'll be in.

in my experience, at that size you need a full day of sunny weather with optimal placement to charge a 20000mAh powerbank (ie about 70Wh)

yeah, as you said it depends on several factors - one question was about monitoring live audio and I understood that as phasing between real world live sound and transmitted audio, therefore my comment about the 6meter distance.

if you're mixing boom and wireless, things will be different.

if 6ms of delay is already very annoying to you and you don't want to delay the boom, then you'll likely want to use a zero delay wireless (which you probably do).

this clearly is a low budget device though (350USD per channel), and we all know that if we're working on low budget there's usually compromises involved.  if latency is a deal breaker, this is probably not the right unit.

Sure, there are situations where latency is annoying or even downright unusable, but as always there is a trade off features,  quality and price. 
 

I‘d love to have a great sounding wireless system with no latency, tons of features, excellent range for a low price, but at the moment it seems to be hard to do or somebody would have done it.

2 hours ago, Sound said:

Hmm, 19ms really is a lot.

well, it's half a frame at 24/25fps - not sure if I would call this "a lot".

2 hours ago, Sound said:

Hmm, 19ms really is a lot.

Does it affect monitoring your audio? Is it annoying to live monitor audio with a 19ms delay?

if you're standing 6meter away the real world audio will arrive at the same time as the transmitted audio (ie perfectly in synch)

if you have a zero latency wireless system then the real world sound will have a 20ms "delay", so you decide how annoying that is : )

2 hours ago, Display Name said:

The Zoom H5 with its detachable mic module is not that large either and it manage 2 channels phantom powered. 

the H5 is a nice little unit, but the original post mentions:

"So the highest audio quality is most important"

with that requirement I think that a sonosax M2D2 with an AES or iOS recorder is pretty hard to beat, or a mixpre3 with being more convenient in handling.

highest audio quality and at the same time smallest for factor and also cheap is probably a typical case of unrealistic expectations.

well, I still don't get the point of the "noise calculations" above...

borrow some mics, try them with your typical environment and gear, then see what you like.

will take you a few hours and cost like 50 bucks, but tell you 10 times more then reading data sheets and running calculations for days.

as for which mics to try, as mentioned there are quite a few of good topics already.

If you want to get good at location sound, focus on sound perspective, mic placement (including booming and lav mounting), room treatment etc rather then a few db noise difference. 

those will be much more useful skills then comparing technical data sheets.

as for mic choice, these are dozens of topics with great advise here. Personally I‘d say get something cheap to learn if you are broke, but get a nice mic as soon as you can (used if necessary)