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nova!


Olle Sjostrom

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Following the trend of lowercase topic titles ending with an exclamation mark where we discuss a new product announcement from one of the major manufacturers of recorders. 

Zaxcom Nova: 

https://zaxcom.com/products/nova/

Initial thoughts: 


Rado's experimenting with the OneUnit seems to have materialised into this. Not really surprised. Kind of a natural step for Zaxcom. 

Price point: 4995 without receivers. 

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8 minutes ago, Mattias Larsen said:

That looks very well rounded!  1.6kgs for a package with 4 stereopair of wireless and this functionality is really something. I would be lacking hands on gain knobs, but maybe I am missing something. 

Each knob is assignable to be a fader, input trim or zaxnet trim.

Since each knob is an encoder each knob can serve multi functions 

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Exactly, a logical step for Zaxcom. I feel like we were expecting them to reinvent the wheel, which is hard to do in the production audio world. But for those looking for a lightweight bag solution with that amount of channels this is surely very attractive. I personally still feel absolutely ready to take on any job challenge with an over 7 year old Nomad at the heart of my kit.

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It’s a better name than Scorpio. I liked it when sound devices just stuck to model numbers but whatever. 

 

Again, another recorder that has has more record tracks than analog inputs. 4 mic pres is fine but in a perfect world i think it would have 6 line inputs too and get you a full 10 analog isos. Same bummer with the Cantar mini. If I was using Zax wireless this would be a great setup for a mobile bag. Especially if you’re using the RX12 already and have the 212 modules. Looks like a very nice upgrade to both the max and Nomad somehow. 

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I believe that Nova has 'hooks' for bag use at the bottom.

 

Just to expalin about the 'faders'. The knobs are in fact 'encoders' - this means that they revolve through 360 - they go round and round and round. The knob is surrounded by a circle of (colour changing) leds. This means that we can 'flip' the 5 rotary faders, like flipping the banks on a grown up flatbed mixer. When you flip the leds will show you where the 'knob' is meant to be. It is easier to demonstarte than to explain in an email. You can have a number of levels of 'flip'. So - it should/could be possible to have a layer of flip that will be, say, 'input trims', and others that could be 'mix levels' - the leds could even change colour to indicate that for instance red = input trims, where green = mix levels. The possibilities are huge. This is a really clever feature, and could be very exciting.You could, like on big flatbed digital mixers, even have custom layers of flip, where you decide for yourself what each encoder does.

 

Exciting times - congratulations to Zaxcom - it looks like a really interesting product.

 

Simon B

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5 minutes ago, daniel said:

Very interesting. RRP?

 

US$5K

 

So heaps cheaper than Scorpio, nearly half its price. 

2 hours ago, Olle Sjostrom said:

 

But I think the name also is logical; NOmad and deVA, obviously. 

 

I wonder when we will see a Mava?

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Totally different? Yes and no. 

 

On on one hand there are indeed tonnes of differences with each having their strengths / features, they’re quite different indeed.

 

But also Scorpio and Nova are also each the top baggable recorders from their respective companies, with an overlapping niche that they’re targeting. Thus just as people compared Nomad va 688 in the past when considering what to buy, I’m sure Nova vs Scorpio will be a popular point of discussion as well. 

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2 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

Totally different? Yes and no. 

 

On on one hand there are indeed tonnes of differences with each having their strengths / features, they’re quite different indeed.

 

But also Scorpio and Nova are also each the top baggable recorders from their respective companies, with an overlapping niche that they’re targeting. Thus just as people compared Nomad va 688 in the past when considering what to buy, I’m sure Nova vs Scorpio will be a popular point of discussion as well. 

Yes, they can both go in a bag (as can the Deva 24) and were announced the same week, thats about it for me. Maybe SD/AL will make a 4 channel slot-in/slimline RX bolt-on for Scorpio but even then Nova looks perfect for primarily bag users and the Scorpio is picking up from the 788 for primarily cart use. 32 with dante vs 12 with integrated RX?

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2 hours ago, Bash said:

You could, like on big flatbed digital mixers, even have custom layers of flip, where you decide for yourself what each encoder does.

That's brilliant! Wish my Mixpre could do this. For me it makes sense to have gain for hardwired boom and faders for anything wireless. Still having to flip through is not always ideal, but with the integration of zaxnet for wireless it makes sense to have 'some' knobs multipurpose. 

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1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

But also Scorpio and Nova are also each the top baggable recorders from their respective companies, with an overlapping niche that they’re targeting. Thus just as people compared Nomad va 688 in the past when considering what to buy, I’m sure Nova vs Scorpio will be a popular point of discussion as well. 

 

Well.. Nova is clearly targeted towards bag work, with an all in one solution, whereas Scorpio is clearly targeted to bigger jobs, and it could also be bagged, scaled down, if you wish. That's how I see it anyway. 

 

The Flip thing, and digital encoders are a very nice touch.

1 hour ago, IronFilm said:

I wonder when we will see a Mava?

Well they couldn't call anything the Novaxx, seeing as anti-vaxxers is a thing...

 

Speaking of the Maxx, which Zaxcom claims is their best preamps, are these preamps new or the same as the Maxx or Nomad? Or better? 

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