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Zaxcom Nomad - Real World Impressions


Jack Norflus

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BTW I'm using a Transcend 32GB 133x card. I tried powering down and re-doing this operation to no avail. Then I powered down, put the CF card in a Mac and erased it, then put it back in the Nomad. I'm getting the same message and I'm past the 6 minute mark.

I'm using the same cards and I don't recall ever seeing that message. Do you have a different card to try?

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OK - the first problem was that I had the card in the MIrror slot, not Primary. That's my fault.

But after putting the card in the Primary slot the Nomad doesn't acknowledge a card is in that slot, making me think the Primary slot is not working. Then I put the CF card back in the MIrror slot and tried to format the Mirror card. The Nomad recognizes a card is present, and initiates a format but churns way past the 6 minutes it said it would need. I shut everything down after 15 minutes and started the procedure again. I tried this several times and then called it quits for the night.

Do I need to have cards in both slots to format either card?

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Anyone able to explain why FAT32 formatted in a Mac or PC or 788T has to be re-formatted a different FAT32 in a Zaxcom machine - it's the same with the Fusion? Not all FAT32 is equal it seems.................

Not speaking for the Zaxcom gear specifically, but about machines reformatting in general, although the basic structure may be FAT32, machines often create their own directory structure and metadata when they format an already formatted card.

Someone will probably comment more specifically about the Zaxcom formatting.

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Christian - Thanks very much for your help. I formatted the card FAT32 in Mac's Disk Utility and it was then able to be formatted in the Nomad and is ready for use.

With my Fusion I found that it just works best if I format them with the OS X disk utility as FAT32, THEN format them in the Fusion (as primary or mirror). I dunno why, but it works. I don't know if the Fusion works differently than Nomad in this department, but that's what I do.

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Here are a few items I'd like to see added to the Nomad's functionality. If these features are extant, please let me know where to find them and apologies for using up bandwidth.

A screen display icon or other indicator to indicate whether or not the Nomad is in "shifted" or "unshifted" mode.

A file viewing browser to look at recorded file names, size, duration, and other info. Similar to Sound Devices recorders function when HDD button is pressed.

Is it possible to select only a few of the home screens as "favorites" so that toggling screens would take you between, for example, the ENG screen and Card Tracks (with track names) screens without having to toggle through all of the other screens? It seems that in "unshifted mode" this can be done by toggling between "Com" and "Slate", but I would like the "*" button do this so that "Com" and "Slate" function are un-compromised.

According to Jack Norflus, upon startup the Nomad defaults to NOT recording to the Mirror card even if the user has set up Mirror recording during the last usage of the machine, instead, Mirror recording has to be enabled on every start up. I don't understand the logic of this - the Mirror card is the one I'm going to give to the client!

I don't want to have to go into the menus and toggle MIrror recording on and off each time I power up the machine. If I have Mirror recording activating in the menu, the Nomad should record to an installed Mirror card EVERY time I power up the machine. This should be a fail safe.

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+1 for the folder browser

and I'd also like to see an option to display segment time (instead of time code) and the segment's number/name so I know what I'm listening to. Playback as of now is not very practical, but according to Glenn's and Jack's posts these two things are being worked on?

Right now I think the Nomad is a great mixer with display, TC and recording function, thus perfectly fit for working on documentary and reality shoots. In order to use it for scripted/fiction productions (which is my main field), I think these two features would be crucial (as well as Mix8 support, which is also announced to come soon).

But I love the machine so far, I am stunned by the potential it has, once the announced features will work. Needless to say audio quality is excellent.

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There is a reason Zaxcom doesn't automatically mirror. I read the reasoning for this when I got my Fusion, but I can't remember what it is. Somebody else will eventually chime in.

Might not have been the official reason, but one I learned was so you select where to mirror, and what to mirror and how. The big Devas can mirror to internal DVD-Ram, internal CF card, or something hooked up via firewire. The Fusion can mirror to internal CF card, or something external on the firewire port (presumably a DVD-Ram or external HDD).

Most Zaxcom users make a folder per day of recordings. Some film users set their Deva to mirror just the mix track(s) to something that will be handed in at the end of the day for dailies. At the end of the week they will then mirror the recordings for that week (all tracks) to an external drive that goes to post. At least on the Deva, there are options for mirroring. The primary card records in MARF format, so when it is converted to WAV, there is the ability to pick settings. The Nomad has (will have) the ability to mirror to the CF card and/or external USB device. I don't remember if external can be WAV, but it can be MP3 (great for transcription or even dailies). That workflow means changing mirror settings every 5 days, not once per project. While the Nomad is intended for ENG-type use, it may still have the Deva legacy software settings. They might not seem as efficient for somebody doing a bagged doc/reality show with the same setup for 6 months at a time. Hard for me to say, I was well used to the software before using my Fusion on a run+gun doc TV show.

Mirroring is fast enough that even if you don't immediately start it, you can easily catch up.

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