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Sonosax SX-R4+


pvanstry

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One of the many strengths of the SX-R4+ is how teeny tiny it is (I'd much rather carry around a SX-R4+ all day every day than a 688, Deva, or an X3), so in a way it is nice they're designing a compact one to match it. (but they've mentioned it could be expandable, for those who want it bigger)

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I disagree. If you need tiny you’re not going to be using a control surface. If you need a control surface you’ll most likely have at least 19” width available. 

 

On the the Facebook post about this there’s a bunch of music people who seem to like the tiny fader panel. I tend to think those folks should just use one of the 1000s of other quality products made for music recording and Sonosax might focus on making a control surface that uses the full potential of the recorder and completes the package for production Sound mixers interested in this recorder. 

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1 hour ago, Wandering Ear said:

Personally I like the super small fader panel.  I have stayed with my mix8 instead of an oasis mainly because of the size.  There are 4 main things I'd love to see on a small control surface.

 

Transport controlls

 Trim knobs

 PFL buttons

Slate /com button

 

 

I'll love a Mix8 with pfl, slate and transport, a add on or new one

 

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A small +- as cantarem, 14/16 faders( less for a 16 track recorder i don't understand) just faders the rotary gain pots, trasnport, solo, metadata etc  are on the SX-R4+ , or through the app, i don't need them duplicated.

And a second with 16 faders, pots, transport, metadata etc. As cantares or zaxcom mix16.

But the importan thing is, now please , please. As we say in Spain:  La necesitamos para ayer  (we need it for yesterday.

 

 

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  • 3 months later...
15 minutes ago, Benjamin said:

Excellent thread. I wonder: is anyone in the USA using the R4+? I'm interested in the recorder but would definitely want one with the full dynamic range. Is is possible to buy abroad and have one shipped stateside? 

Not sure how many takers stateside and take this with a grain of salt but I did play around with one for a bit at Trew Audio in LA (they have it out on demo).  Definitely built solid, nice size.  A little confusing menu wise in terms of how use to Sound Devices gear I am but I don't think it was overly complex.  Seems to be lighter than a 688 would be but given that it's about the same price point and Sound Devices stateside has impeccable service, I'd lean towards Sound Devices out of practicality reasons.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/12/2018 at 12:15 AM, codyman said:

Not sure how many takers stateside and take this with a grain of salt but I did play around with one for a bit at Trew Audio in LA (they have it out on demo).  Definitely built solid, nice size.  A little confusing menu wise in terms of how use to Sound Devices gear I am but I don't think it was overly complex.  Seems to be lighter than a 688 would be but given that it's about the same price point and Sound Devices stateside has impeccable service, I'd lean towards Sound Devices out of practicality reasons.

Yeah, being a seasoned SD user, the SX-R4+ user interface needed time to get familiar with. During your test, was there a difference observed in the Pre-amps between the 688 and the US version of the SX-R4+ to you?

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6 hours ago, Soundmind said:

Yeah, being a seasoned SD user, the SX-R4+ user interface needed time to get familiar with. During your test, was there a difference observed in the Pre-amps between the 688 and the US version of the SX-R4+ to you?

Wasn't able to test the pre's but I'd imagine you couldn't go wrong with either as they are both top notch companies.

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i’m in the US and use the sx-r4+. i got it used second hand and its the normal version with the extended dynamic range. i love the size and weight. it seems smaller and lighter than a 633 even with the inspired energy battery installed. the fact that it has a hirose output is super nice. i can rock a small bag (small mindshift rig) with 4 wireless without need for a power distro system, cabling and such. its also super power efficient. 

my main qualms with it are a few things:

 

1) no slate mic and switch(these features available with the rc8 unit but meh)

2) screen could be brighter. specially under sunny conditions.

3) when using the ad8 or the rc8, the package is really small which is nice—i just havent found a small bag to fit it ergonomically! i have a big orca bag but it seems overkill and leaves a ton of space on the sides lf the recorder setup.

4) i wish faders 5/6 were assignable like 1-4. being able to assign faders like that is super sweet. jumping from ambisonic/stereo to dialogues is quick and easy.

 

overall the pres and superb. excellent for music and overkill for dialogue. still, the cantar x3 limiters are the best for me up there with the cooper mixer and the neve 33609/2264’s.

 

for music nothing beats a console though. they just have the full feature sets that location setups dont have for obvious reasons. 

 

just my 2cents. hope it helps!

 

 

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hey patrick,

 

yeah, i have the daylight/night time switch programmed into a  button on part of the screen screen so i can change it on the fly. but still, its just not bright enough. i got a delkin 2.5inch digital camera collapsible screen hood which works and helps a bunch. its also nice because you can take the hood on and off. works like a charm. screen is definitely not as bright as the x3 screen or the sound devices and zaxcom screens though.

 

ivan

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6 hours ago, ivanovich said:

hey patrick,

yeah, i have the daylight/night time switch programmed into a  button on part of the screen screen so i can change it on the fly. but still, its just not bright enough. i got a delkin 2.5inch digital camera collapsible screen hood which works and helps a bunch. its also nice because you can take the hood on and off. works like a charm. screen is definitely not as bright as the x3 screen or the sound devices and zaxcom screens though.

 

ivan

 

I'm the same and find the screen hood really helps, even then I'm struggling to see the screen on a bright summers day at times.

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  • 2 months later...

I've picked up a unit and find it excellent. The mike pres/AD sound lovely, detailed and effortless. The DAC/Headphone amp is especially nice. 

 

I do have a few questions. 

 

The wifi operation is really convenient for my purposes: I throw the R4+ in a backpack, run 2ch mikes handheld and I'm off. I was chasing down some frogs through thick chaparral in So Cal the other night and loved having the unit fixed to by back. 

 

Am I right that it is not possible to adjust gain via the wifi web app? 

 

One other question: has any one noticed a low-level peak at ~17kHz? When recording at 96k, I notice another, possibly harmonic peak, at ~34kHz. I've attached a spectrogram to show what I'm talking about. The noise seems invariant between P48 and +20dB and +20dB with external P48 powering (though the levels are about 6dB lower). The peaks disappear when P48 and +20dB are disengaged and an external preamp is used. 

 

To be clear: I only noticed this when looking at the files in a sonogram. I can't hear it and I can notice no discernible degradation in the sound file. But it is there, so I want to check to see what might be going on, if only for the purposes of knowing the recorder better. 

 

I have an email out to Sonosax, but it's been a couple of month since I've heard back. 

Screen Shot 2018-11-10 at 5.12.22 PM.png

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2 minutes ago, Constantin said:

 

You think you can’t hear it because it’s so quiet or because it’s so high? What happens when you pitch down?

 

Because it's so high. I haven't pitched down yet, but will try that.  

 

Quiet is relative, of course, and these recordings captured the ambient noise inside my home with levels cranked up. On louder subjects, such as a recent capture of a stream, the levels of the subject are greater than the ~17kHz peak. I've yet to encounter a subject that exceeds the ~34kHz peak (though perhaps this summer I'll run into some crickets!). 

 

For reference, I'm attaching snippets of the recordings. There were captured within minutes of each other in my living room. 

 

sx0dBextpre.wav - R4+ with External Preamp, i.e. Line Level 

sx20dBextP48.wav - R4+ with External Phantom Box, i.e. internal mike Preamp with no phantom powering 

sx20dBP48.wav - R4+ with internal mike Preamp and phantom powering engaged 

 

 

sx0dBextpre.wav

sx20dBextP48.wav

sx20dBP48.wav

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Per Constantin's suggestion, I've transposed the files using Logic and find a couple of interesting things: one, at -36 transposition more peaks appear, and; two, once audible, I hear what sounds like crickets. The curious thing is that the same "noise" shows up in recordings taken in my place in Portland, Oregon and at my relatives' place in Los Angeles, California and seems to disappear with an external preamp. 

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16 hours ago, Gordonmoore1 said:

Just a thought - 17K is right about at the refresh rate for some monitors - I ran into this several years ago and found we could make it go away by turning off the monitors in the room. 

 

Good suggestion and and I double checked to see if a monitor was the culprit. No such luck.

 

The peaks are nonexistent when testing the recorder by itself with nothing connected. So I had thought that perhaps the issue was with my microphones or even cables, but I've used them with a number of other recorders and have never come across this issue. 

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22 hours ago, Constantin said:

 

That demonstrates nothing. Something needs to be connected for any meaningful test

 

I had thought that it would rule out that the machine was self-oscillating at those frequencies. 

 

In any case, I'll reach out to Sonosax again. 

 

In the meantime, can any owner of an R4+ confirm whether their machine shows similar peaks? 

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Firmware 3.3

 

- Current playback: Choose the file - switch play - you hear the file. To exit from playback, you have to go into menu and press "exit from playback". Is there a shortcut or something else to make this routine disappear?

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