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Sonosax SX-R4+


pvanstry

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I've just been to the Sonosax factory today for their open day, had a good chat with one of their engineers with a development version of the machine. 

Good news is the machine works and sounds lovely with a pair of Schoeps plugged into it, the user interface seems nice and simple- no deep menu trees. The 4 'main' knobs can have their range configured (with both minimums and maximums) and are really accurate. Routing-wise, it's possible to route anything to anywhere. Mix tracks can be assigned to whichever channels you like.  The touchscreen is a reasonable size and is quite usable with fingers or a pen/pointy thing. It was also quite readable outside, although they also had an (unfinished) "daylight mode".   Wifi control's through a javascript based browser control- they were working on that today- it's not finished, but have a large version of the unit's main display running in a browser.

The switchable AES I/O is now on the right of the machine, while the 2ch analogue is where the AES was on the left, by the analogue line inputs.

The RJ45 interface hasn't been finalised yet- they were hanging on to see if one format "won".  The hardware's there to run 16 channels  both in and out of this.

Power wise it'll automatically switch between internal and external batteries. It'll get smbus data and alarms can be set at certain voltages, in a similar way to audioroot distros

Bad news is there's still quite a few things to be finished in software, think it's a bit of a way off yet. Also it's currently not set up to mix from the 4 main knobs- just from the fader control surface. I've suggested that I'd prefer to use those knobs as mix controllers, while being able to set gain per channel by pressing in a knob and using the controller wheel on the right to adjust gain per channel. I've stressed this will be very important to a number of users, as otherwise it's not possible to mix in the bag.

Neither the control surface or AD8+ had working models. The control surface really is tiny. I thought it seemed useable (faders were nice), but my fingers aren't that fat

 

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I've just been to the Sonosax factory today for their open day, had a good chat with one of their engineers with a development version of the machine. 

Good news is the machine works and sounds lovely with a pair of Schoeps plugged into it, the user interface seems nice and simple- no deep menu trees. The 4 'main' knobs can have their range configured (with both minimums and maximums) and are really accurate. Routing-wise, it's possible to route anything to anywhere. Mix tracks can be assigned to whichever channels you like.  The touchscreen is a reasonable size and is quite usable with fingers or a pen/pointy thing. It was also quite readable outside, although they also had an (unfinished) "daylight mode".   Wifi control's through a javascript based browser control- they were working on that today- it's not finished, but have a large version of the unit's main display running in a browser.

The switchable AES I/O is now on the right of the machine, while the 2ch analogue is where the AES was on the left, by the analogue line inputs.

The RJ45 interface hasn't been finalised yet- they were hanging on to see if one format "won".  The hardware's there to run 16 channels  both in and out of this.

Power wise it'll automatically switch between internal and external batteries. It'll get smbus data and alarms can be set at certain voltages, in a similar way to audioroot distros

Bad news is there's still quite a few things to be finished in software, think it's a bit of a way off yet. Also it's currently not set up to mix from the 4 main knobs- just from the fader control surface. I've suggested that I'd prefer to use those knobs as mix controllers, while being able to set gain per channel by pressing in a knob and using the controller wheel on the right to adjust gain per channel. I've stressed this will be very important to a number of users, as otherwise it's not possible to mix in the bag.

Neither the control surface or AD8+ had working models. The control surface really is tiny. I thought it seemed useable (faders were nice), but my fingers aren't that fat

 

​Well apart from the mix capability potentially needing the fader unit (which would kill it for me) and the fact that the software still has a lot of work to do, I think it all sounds pretty exciting. Thanks for all the info Richard! 

Wifi control's through a javascript based browser control- they were working on that today- it's not finished, but have a large version of the unit's main display running in a browser.

​HA! Did you catch that Senator? Sounds like it really is pretty easy to mirror the main screen...

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Thank you Richard and go ahead Constantin. I guess SX-R4+ might never become a mainstream recorder, like  SD products,  but Sonosax stands for the potential that you can love the sound of the things they make.

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Thank you Richard and go ahead Constantin. I guess SX-R4+ might never become a mainstream recorder, like  SD products,  but Sonosax stands for the potential that you can love the sound of the things they make.

​Well i hope they can take that to the bank.

Richard, great report, very interesting. Given all the cool stuff the recorder has it will be very disappointing if we can't mix with just the main unit, especially as the mic I/Ps offer such a wide dynamic range the need to be playing with trims (instead of fades) would seem to be less, so freeing up the pots for fading. RX4+ has potential to be very popular (if it can assign faders).

How is the build quality compared to SX62R? 

atb,

dan

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The Sonosax Open Day was great!

Thanks Richard for your input. As I'm not a sound ingeneer,  I'm going to try my best to summerise what I've seen.

The R4+ is more promising than advertised, as there are some hidden goodies that the manufacturer don't want to talk about openly for strategic reasons. It's a big leap forward from the little brother R4. The soft side of the R4+ is still in development but it's becoming a real forward thinking tool. Easy metadata setup and user comments, pilot and monitor the machine in (close to) real time through Wifi access over a simple browser, user customable functions of all knobs, very easy, fast and reactive touch screen. But the best advantage of this beast is the 132dB dynamic range capability of recording, wich made difficult for me to overload the mics. It doesn't mean recording is becoming easyer, it means you have to rethink how you listen and record things. How do you monitor 138db of dynamic without blowing your ears out? It's IMHO a revolutionnary tool packed in a matchbox and lighter than his old brother R4.

I also had the honnor to meet an incredible humble man, Dr Joerg Wuttke, who was attending the open day.

_DSC0494_zpsfpocqcqk.jpeg

From left to right Jacques Sax and Dr. Joerg Wuttke

Patrick

Edited by Patrick Tresch
picture & dB
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The Sonosax Open Day was great!

Thanks Richard for your input. As I'm not a sound ingeneer,  I'm going to try my best to summerise what I've seen.

The R4+ is more promising than advertised, as there are some hidden goodies that the manufacturer don't want to talk about openly for strategic reasons. It's a big leap forward from the little brother R4. The soft side of the R4+ is still in development but it's becoming a real forward thinking tool. Easy metadata setup and user comments, pilot and monitor the machine in (close to) real time through Wifi access over a simple browser, user customable functions of all knobs, very easy, fast and reactive touch screen. But the best advantage of this beast is the 132dB dynamic range capability of recording, wich made difficult for me to overload the mics. It doesn't mean recording is becoming easyer, it means you have to rethink how you listen and record things. How do you monitor 138db of dynamic without blowing your ears out? It's IMHO a revolutionnary tool packed in a matchbox and lighter than his old brother R4.

I also had the honnor to meet an incredible humble man, Dr Joerg Wuttke, who was attending the open day.

_DSC0494_zpsfpocqcqk.jpeg

From left to right Jacques Sax and Dr. Joerg Wuttke

Patrick

​These 2 fine gentlemen smiling together should be an Add for the sx-r4+ in a magazine... (:

Edited by RadoStefanov
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How do you monitor 138db of dynamic without blowing your ears out?

​You implement a headphone compressor/limiter that the user calibrates per headphone to set the max SPL that he wants to hear ever. Then, no matter how loud you have the program dialed up (say, volume jacked up in order to listen to background noise quality), your headphones will never exceed into a damaging range. This is VERY important and every manufacturer should do this. This is a very easy way to allow your record tracks to handle gunshots, door slams, etc. without your ears needing to as well.

And this is much easier and less scientific to do than you would think!! You just have the recorder play a sample recording of a voice talking at a normal listening level and have the user dial their headphones to where the voice is at a "normal" listening level. Then the recorder knows pretty well what SPL the voice naturally would be and can figure how sensitive the headphones are. The user then sets the Max SPL to, say 80 or 84 or 90 and it's done.

Edited by RScottATL
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Build quality seems to be similar across the whole line.  Something that's quite impressive is the minir82 casing- the top curved bit is machined out of a solid block of aluminium:
20150527_143819.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cyD2o27BS80/VWX_mgD25DI/AAAAAAAAIjw/nogvORdGvfg/w466-h828-no/20150527_143819.jpg

​Build quality of minir82 never in doubt - solid, very well made and easy to get to the drive. An updated version with the wifi capabilities of R4+ would make a very cool tracking recorder - especially if paired with wifi enabled RMs (it's about the same size as a slot in receiver) so if the whole lot could be piloted from a tablet it would be a very compact brick of electronics to carry in a shoulder bag or backpack. Anyway the sx62 i met recently didn't seem quite as solid as r82 or the original r4 so i hope no 1 minds me asking about this, then again, balancing weight, strength and construction costs for bag-able devices is part of the design art and sonosax haven't failed at this so far.

dan.

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​Build quality of minir82 never in doubt - solid, very well made and easy to get to the drive. An updated version with the wifi capabilities of R4+ would make a very cool tracking recorder - especially if paired with wifi enabled RMs (it's about the same size as a slot in receiver) so if the whole lot could be piloted from a tablet it would be a very compact brick of electronics to carry in a shoulder bag or backpack. Anyway the sx62 i met recently didn't seem quite as solid as r82 or the original r4 so i hope no 1 minds me asking about this, then again, balancing weight, strength and construction costs for bag-able devices is part of the design art and sonosax haven't failed at this so far.

dan.

​It's say it's pretty much the same as the SX-R4, although the back's just a single plate, rather than having the battery compartment in, that may make it slightly stronger. I didn't really have a close look at the SX-62R

Edited by Richard Thomas
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Such an exciting machine, I love the idea of a machine that can jump from a small footprint lav-and-boom interview into full fledged cart duty. I really hope they work out a way to mix with the front knobs. Given the choice, I would rather have the trim setting be secondary/menu-driven. OR some kind of rotary fader panel ALA CL8/FP8.

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Such an exciting machine, I love the idea of a machine that can jump from a small footprint lav-and-boom interview into full fledged cart duty. I really hope they work out a way to mix with the front knobs. Given the choice, I would rather have the trim setting be secondary/menu-driven. OR some kind of rotary fader panel ALA CL8/FP8.

​exactly what I was saying earlier.

CL8/fp8 device and a com button will make it perfect.

Edited by RadoStefanov
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SONOSAX SX-R4+ improvements; in answer to future user's demand, we have added outputs as follow:
- 1x Line output on TA-3, 2 channels analog unbalanced
- 1x AES3 output switchable to AES3 balanced input with ASRC on TA-3 connector
- 1x Optional analog stereo output electronically balanced on XLR5 connector

11112983_839361269489229_290458543575790

11401339_839361279489228_528120294540046

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