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Lightweight bags


Simon Paine

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Inspired by this topic, I decided to buy one of those 607 bags and try to fit my basic ENG kit into it. And it fits perfectly!

There's room for my 302, SRa, Zaxcom ZFR100/STA150 backup recorder, 2ch cam hop (Audio Ltd Envoy) and IFB (Sennheiser G3).

Everything is powered by a SWIT vlock-battery in the front pocket. (Which will propably last at least three days with this equipment.)

Too bad I'll still have to carry my 15kg camera and let the sound mixer enjoy this lightweight setup.. :)

post-2183-0-30514000-1319316808.jpg

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Simon, Your setup is great but there is one thing I cannot understand: how can you mix channel 3 and 4 ? You have no faders for those channels? So it is either all opened or closed? Thanks Simon

On the MixPRE-D you do a little bit of kung fu button pressing and (if I remember right) the headphone pot becomes the fader for 3 or 4. That's how the SD rep demo'd it to me yesterday at AES. Not as easy as controlling inputs 4+5 on the 302 (which are still not great).

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how do you do it on the 302? Dont you need an extra "custom fader boxe " as used by Simon ?

You have to go into settings and make the Return minijack flip to become (unbalanced) input 4 and 5. http://www.sounddevices.com/download/guides/302-setup-chart.pdf

Then, like Derek said, the little RETURN R, RETURN L trim pot knobs on the right side become your faders. It works in a pinch.

http://www.sounddevices.com/products/302master.htm the right side image shows the pots.

I spent 6 months on a job where I needed 2 lavs and a boom most of the time. Maybe once or twice a week we shot about 5 minutes with a 3rd lav and this was perfect. I was using a wireless camera hop, so I didn't have a return from camera anyway.

Anything that required more wires meant all hands on deck, and I was using a lot of wireless and switched to a multitrack recorder.

This rig made life a lot happier.

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Simon,

Your setup is great but there is one thing I cannot understand: how can you mix channel 3 and 4 ? You have no faders for those channels? So it is either all opened or closed?

Thanks

Simon

Like Johnpaul mentioned,

inputs 3 and 4 are controlled by holding down the silver buttons just above faders one and two (above fader 1 for channel 3 and above fader 2 for channel 4), and turning the headphone knob as the control fader. Obviously, not as easy as a dedicated fader but easier then I originally imagined, and definitely worth the savings in weight and size.

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Mine is exactly the same as Jason describes except mine is active and gives roughly a 20dB boost in gain. I tried a passive box first but was constantly maxing out the faders trying to get enough gain out of my SRa into the (line-level) Mix In. With the 20dB boost I can ride my faders around the 12 o'clock position.

Here's a closer pic with the box pulled out of the bag a bit more. Unseen on the bottom are the breakout cables (two TA3 inputs which go to the SRa, and one TA3 output which goes to the Mix In), and the DC power input.

post-1262-0-14963400-1319507597.jpg

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Wow... great job.

Something I dont understand: you have one L/R switch for each input: that would mean that you can send both inputs to the same channel (L or R) ? This acts as a mixer then (or can you only send one input to one channel) ?

With gain control, this is fabulous. I absolutely need to build one of these myself for my Sonosax SXM32 which have also a Mix In input. But I am so bad in electronic, would you have the schematic (and name of the components especially for the boost in gain) ? It would be wonderful.

Very thanks in advance

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Simon, both channels have an L/C/R switch for panning so they can be assigned to the Left, Right, or both channels in whatever combination I want. I'm not that great at electronics either so I've been working on this with Harry Quan here in Toronto, Canada. We've gone through a couple models over the past year trying to get it just right, but this is still essentially just a prototype. I'm still having some issues with RF interference sneaking into the system. It works well enough for me, but until we solve that final problem I wouldn't say it's ready for "public" use. Hopefully when work slows down for the winter we can re-design the box with some added components to make it rock solid. At that point I'd be happy to share!

Jason, everything in this bag is powered from a 7.2V Swit battery. No BDS, just a custom cable array with an in-line master switch. The power requirements of the fader box are negligible so it doesn't affect battery life in any noticeable way. The amps are built from scratch... I believe using simple transistors, but I could be wrong on that one, as we did balance the inputs in an attempt to reduce the RF interference so that might mean they are transformers now? I'll have to check.

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Simon im sorta in love and awe of your use of the D4 for the hops and director ifb. Im sure lots of others use this but i really dig it. After i get some more money and start doing some more gigs with my bag i may have to upgrade to one D4 system. It has given me some ideas for future upgrades. thou Its a pricy for the use of the comtek may be just crazy for myself.

Im going to have to get a picture of my current set up. I want to keep my bag as small as can be but be super functional. No more than 4 channels, I have a 302 and use an RX emergency with the mix in, if i need an extra wireless, i also have a 702 in my bag since i do alot of 5/7D shoots. Im give a full description later when i post the picture.

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A passive fader box for the 4/5 inputs (returns) of the 302 works great if what it is sending are the outputs of wireless RX. I can "range" the pots by changing the output gain of the 411s, keeps the box small and simple. My box sends the 2 outputs to the two unbal input channels 4/5 as separate feeds--in the 302 menu you can choose which mix bus channel to send each input to. I generally tape the small side-mounted input trimmers in place (up full) so I don't hit them by mistake (black on black--hard to see etc). The 302 rocks. If they make a recording version that keeps the rest of the features it currently has I'll be at the head of the line to buy 2 of them (please).

phil p

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Heres my small bag.

SD 302, with the rx emergency for a 4th channel. two lectrosonics 401s. For show, i put my back up Senn reciever going into the RXem which goes into the mix in of my 302. BDS is in the front pouch, np1 is in the belly pouch for now(sometimes i put it in the front pouch) Since i get called to do a lot of 5/7D shoots i keep a 702 in the bag. I also have(not shown) 2 extra senn that i could use for a cheap stereo wireless link.

For future kit upgrades i could see me using one of those D4 systems in the front pouch like simons. Or just a SR system. Then to make better use of space i could get a battery bud II, to replace the bds and hide it under the mixer, since i still have space under there. Maybe taxes this upcoming year will be good to me.

I am really digging on Simons 4channel mixpre system.

I also wanted to say that i really like the process of how the mixpreD 3/4 channel are controlled. I think its sounds better than the small pots on the side. Im sure something like that will be added to the next gen 302.

post-2620-0-27918100-1319647919.jpg

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Simon im sorta in love and awe of your use of the D4 for the hops and director ifb. Im sure lots of others use this but i really dig it. After i get some more money and start doing some more gigs with my bag i may have to upgrade to one D4 system. It has given me some ideas for future upgrades. thou Its a pricy for the use of the comtek may be just crazy for myself.

Hi Colin,

While it is more expensive then a traditional setup, it's not that much more. With the D4 in this bag I've eliminated the need for 3 extra transmitters (2 channels to camera and Comtek or equivalent) When I use it with my 788T bag it replaces 4 transmitters.

For me it was a question of simplifying and reducing size and weight. The bonus features for me were, stronger TX signal to camera (D4 is 200mw's as opposed to my older camera hop wireless which were 50) Digital options in and out of both the TX and RX. Better sound quality for both the hop and the IFB and virtually no competing signals on the frequencies in which the D4 operates.

Potential downside that I think about every day, is that if that one piece of gear goes down, I loose a lot of functionality. And since the D4 is relatively new and it's not as widely used yet, finding a rental unit to replace can be hard. However, i must give a plug here to Lectrosonics. When I had trouble with my unit this summer, they overnight Fedex'ed me there own demo unit to get me back in business while the issue was taken care of.

The d4 looks like a great piece of gear but i'm surprised to see how large it is when seated in the bag. Is it too big to fit in a petrol side pouch? I always figured it was about the size of a 411 but it actually looks much larger.

Yes the D4 is larger then a 411. But it's not quite as tall (or I guess deep, if talking about the perspective of the picture)

BEC finally came out with a box to hold the D4 to a camera. It's about the same width as a V-Mount battery you would see on a typical camera.

I'm currently having a Petrol side pouch modified to be able to take the D4. That way I can free up the front pouch for TX's, lav mics, tape, batts etc...

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