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Sonosax SX-BD1 Boompole Preamp


Carlos Maeda

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" Anyone have any experience with this unit? "

yes.

I seems you have experience with every single piece of gear, but offer no opinion at all. I like you, Mike, but you can't even classify this post, or others like it, as educational. It just bumps the topic without offering anything new. That's counterproductive for those of us who like to keep up with topics, and who hate looking at a bumped topic only to discover it was you being useless and egomaniacal.

Please stop.

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"experience with every single piece of gear, "

lotta' years, lotta' gear(s)...

but the question is/was "anyone have experience with..."

 

in the case of the Sonosax BD-1, I have one right here, mounted on a traveler pole,k with a Lectro LMa T(Bl 22!)...

I got this one as a trial/review  demo, and have bought it. current mic is 8060, with filter module, in K-SUS, with fuzzy.

 

any questions ?

Edited by studiomprd
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What have you discovered are advantages or disadvantages? Does it "get in the way"? Is it easy to use?

Those are the kinds of things the OP is looking for.

Most people are not looking for "yes" or "no" answers, or comments like "it's subjective" or "it depends". You as an educator wouldn't accept those as answers from your students. So, if you're going to comment, please just tell us YOUR experiences. People can easily read yours and others subjective opinions and come to their own conclusions.

Blocking does no good, because you still bump the topics with no useful information.

You are ruining this great resource for information to the point that Jeff ought to intervene, by either selectively deleting your answers or simply removing you from the site. You are no longer a productive member. It's sad. You used to provide great information.

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" What batteries do you use and how long do they last ? "

a set of Alkaline last all day on a gig,* Lithiums several days, but being old school, I replace them before they die...

I've got some new NiMH that I expect, based on their capacity, will easily last a day, and recharge overnight (I'll actually swap between two sets,..)

 

" advantages or disadvantages? Does it "get in the way"? Is it easy to use? "

I'd say advantages/disadvantages subjective: they are in the eyes (experience) of the user.  I don't find it gets in the way (and I'm left handed!) I find it handy, and pretty easy to use, and to me the advantage is on the old ENG** style gigs, I can now have control of the boom level using my hand on the pole, and being able to see the levels (without looking down).

of course, like everyone else here, on every piece of gear here, there are some thoughts on what might be different, ,in my subjective opinion, a  most prominent and pertinent is the less than usual Binder connection, which I have added to my parts inventory

 

* back when I started, I got some good advice with my new Nagra 4.2:  every day put in a dozen new batteries, the cheap carbon zinc ones bought in bulk. --give the used batteries to the drivers, for their lights, and kids toys--. and bill production.

 

** I don't do today's 'sound by the pound' so-called reality stuff.  I do do a lot of 1-boom and 1-lav (and a lot of 1-boom, one wireless feed) which go to an SRaB on a professional camcorder.

Edited by studiomprd
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I don t own one unfortunatelly but i know it can team up very well with a zaxcom zfr100 recorder and give you a one channel timecode enabled boompole recorder for about 1000$ for the mixer and about 1200$ for the zfr100.

The best part is that now zfr100's with the ifb board can remotely jam a erx pack to keep your camera in sync.

No bag at all, imagine that..

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I'd have one .It´s à very good unit with the Sonosax quality.you have obviously a Head phones control, +48v and when you boom you CAN have the "vu-mèters in front of your eyes

If you are sure to only need one boom it's really à good préamp.

About batteries : 4 x AAA alkaline for a day work

+ very light but one more Time you have to be sure to only need à boom ( or whatever mic) for the day .

Happy to say more if you need

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I neglected to originally mention another battery factor:  the LED setting affects battery life!

Some folks may consider having the weight (see spec's) on the bottom section of a pole as a negative, or disadvantage , but I personally consider it an advantage (positive) ...

 

" Any guess on weight? "

not really...

Edited by studiomprd
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Have one since it came out.Hardly used it,seems like the limiter is not as good as in the SX-PR and the SX-ST:tends to overload and clip.Changing AAA's is a bit of pain.Not one of my best liked Sonosax products.But there are colleagues that love it!

Sonosax is notorious for providing very meager info on their products.....

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Thank you all for your input. So much more info than I was able to scour up; and certainly of better quality. 

 

Here's the reason I asked this question in the first place. I'm looking for a small, single channel setup for boom to be used in a couple different scenarios:

 

A. I'm a mixer with separate boom op, where the boom op can hear their mic (I don't necessarily need to give him gain control) while sending the signal back to me.

 

B. I'm a OMB and only require at most 1 boom and 1 lav, where I'd feed the boom and lav to simple 2ch recorder. The goal here is to be a minimalist.

 

C. I'm a OMB and am mixing multiple sources + boom. The goal here is to offer easy adjustment to the boom I'd be operating, making it one less channel to look down into the bag and fuss with.

 

I initially only cared about scenario A, as I thought B & C were only capable through remote faders on a recorder like the SD 788 (which I cannot afford nor justify owning at this point in my career), or mixers like the PSC Alphamix or SQN 5s (have my heart on upgrading my lowly MixPre to a 552 in the next week or two). I then came across the Sonosax and thought it'd be a way to gain control of the boom's gain like the devices listed, but with any mixer/recorder I choose.

 

I'm probably way over thinking this, as I can't seem to source this unit anyways. Will probably end up keeping my MixPre or buying an MM-1 and throw either in a waist pouch, but figured "what the hell, it doesn't hurt to ask around." Does it?  :unsure:

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Tiny bit of background on me to help understand where I'm coming from: 

 

Finished school concentrating in audio post, but finding more gigs and open doors to post through working location. Started off with an SD MixPre to a Zoom H4 (first gen) for gathering SFX right after school, then replaced the H4 with a Tascam HD-P2 when I started location (figured I'd at least be set in case I need TC). I then traded the HD-P2 for a DR680 (was almost an even swap and figured I'd benefit more from the extra channel count than owning a "TC ready" recorder) with the plan of selling the MixPre and pair the recorder to a 552. 

 

Figured I'd buy my gear slowly and rent as needed, only upgrading if I see I'm renting higher-end stuff more and more. In the case of my initial question. I'm renting out a buddy's old Shure FP12 enough times to justify looking into owning my own solution.

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What are the "binder connectors"? They just look like ta3's?

They aren't. They are smaller than TA3's...at least when I messed with it. I don't know if they changed them. It was an oddball connector that was expensive and had to special order. 

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Had one. Sounds good but battery change in field is difficult..compartment can fall out. When battery is anywhere near low levels, strange distortion likely. I found the pot for gain adjustment, though large, a bit too easy to move on pole. Yes..inputs not standard..had to configure custom cables for my use. I like it overall but it is pricey for what it is.

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