Richard Thomas Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadoStefanov Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Thanks for the info Richard. The accuracy of the knobs was very impressive when I played with the unit at NAB. Did you hear about a com/slate button? A knob controller in addition to the linier faders? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erkal Taskin Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 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. Thank you Richard for the extensive report! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Constantin Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 Yes, thanks a lot for all the info. It's terrible though, O already have several SD recorders, but now I'm beginning to develop feelings for this thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axel Posted May 27, 2015 Report Share Posted May 27, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel Posted May 28, 2015 Report Share Posted May 28, 2015 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Thomas Posted May 28, 2015 Report Share Posted May 28, 2015 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: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-cyD2o27BS80/VWX_mgD25DI/AAAAAAAAIjw/nogvORdGvfg/w466-h828-no/20150527_143819.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelo Waldron Posted May 28, 2015 Report Share Posted May 28, 2015 HA! Did you catch that Senator? Sounds like it really is pretty easy to mirror the main screen... Huh? is part of the thread missing, or are you just a ...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erkal Taskin Posted May 29, 2015 Report Share Posted May 29, 2015 Huh? is part of the thread missing, or are you just a ...... Nah he knows Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Tresch Posted May 29, 2015 Report Share Posted May 29, 2015 (edited) 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. From left to right Jacques Sax and Dr. Joerg Wuttke Patrick Edited May 29, 2015 by Patrick Tresch picture & dB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelo Waldron Posted May 29, 2015 Report Share Posted May 29, 2015 You turn it down. limit is 132dB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Tresch Posted May 29, 2015 Report Share Posted May 29, 2015 OK thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Thomas Posted May 30, 2015 Report Share Posted May 30, 2015 (edited) Joerg was lovely, he gave me a lift back to the station in his car which stays level while cornering Edited June 1, 2015 by Richard Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadoStefanov Posted May 30, 2015 Report Share Posted May 30, 2015 (edited) 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. 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 June 1, 2015 by RadoStefanov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RScottATL Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 (edited) 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 June 1, 2015 by RScottATL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniel Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 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: 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Thomas Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 (edited) 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 June 1, 2015 by Richard Thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VASI Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 Sorry if it has been asked before, but how many AES 42 signals can handle and which mode (1 or 2)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Thomas Posted June 1, 2015 Report Share Posted June 1, 2015 1 per XLR input, I think. Didn't ask about mode 1 or 2 (thought about it before going but forgot) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadoStefanov Posted June 2, 2015 Report Share Posted June 2, 2015 Mode 2 will be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathaniel Robinson Posted June 2, 2015 Report Share Posted June 2, 2015 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadoStefanov Posted June 2, 2015 Report Share Posted June 2, 2015 (edited) 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 June 3, 2015 by RadoStefanov Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VASI Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadoStefanov Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Slate button? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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