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Zaxcom Nomad - operating questions, plus tips & shortcuts


Jack Norflus

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Zack, I guess if you want to give your inputs names, you should probably be able to do it. I for one won't, because inputs are inputs, and I see no need in labeling them, as opposed to tracks, which are not as clearly described by numbers as inputs are. Plus, my track names show up in the post files and the sound reports. So inputs naming is only for the operator. For me, it's unnecessary. Do Deva and Fusion allow input naming?

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Has firmware 4.0 been really unstable for anyone else? Over the weekend I gave 4.0 a shot and it locked up on me constantly, sometimes even during a shot. When I updated the firmware I made sure to format all my cards, reset the mixer to factory defaults in the recall menu, and then built my settings back up from scratch.

Lockups would happen at random. Sometimes it would happen when I was rolling and sometimes I would leave my mixer for a bit only to return to an unresponsive machine. It's frustrating and scary, especially considering that I start a feature in a week. I'm thinking I'll try resetting the machine again and applying the update one more time, but if this keeps up I might just have to switch out for another bag. It's a very ambitious product and there are a lot of things I like about my Nomad, but the platform is often unintuitive, unpolished, and unstable to the point where I'm seriously questioning my decision to go the Zaxcom route. I'm seeing a lot of people have similar issues with their Nomads out there so I'm hoping that the rough edges eventually get sanded out with time.

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Zack, I guess if you want to give your inputs names, you should probably be able to do it. I for one won't, because inputs are inputs, and I see no need in labeling them, as opposed to tracks, which are not as clearly described by numbers as inputs are. Plus, my track names show up in the post files and the sound reports. So inputs naming is only for the operator. For me, it's unnecessary. Do Deva and Fusion allow input naming?

My reasoning is purely due to the way the Nomad's screen is designed. On the Fusion, my inputs were my tracks... so I labeled my Tracks and they corresponded to each other and they were visible on one screen along with my output busses. You can't have your tracks and inputs visible on the same screen on Nomad and that's the basis of the idea of the option of naming. You own the option to not label yours (perfectly fine), but for those that would... i think it needs to be available. That or Zax finds a way to meld together a screen that shows tracks with the bottom half of the ENG screen to allow visualization of input/auto trim functions/panning/and possibly vFader control (good luck with that on the size of real estate).

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Has firmware 4.0 been really unstable for anyone else? Over the weekend I gave 4.0 a shot and it locked up on me constantly, sometimes even during a shot. When I updated the firmware I made sure to format all my cards, reset the mixer to factory defaults in the recall menu, and then built my settings back up from scratch.

Lockups would happen at random. Sometimes it would happen when I was rolling and sometimes I would leave my mixer for a bit only to return to an unresponsive machine. It's frustrating and scary, especially considering that I start a feature in a week. I'm thinking I'll try resetting the machine again and applying the update one more time, but if this keeps up I might just have to switch out for another bag. It's a very ambitious product and there are a lot of things I like about my Nomad, but the platform is often unintuitive, unpolished, and unstable to the point where I'm seriously questioning my decision to go the Zaxcom route. I'm seeing a lot of people have similar issues with their Nomads out there so I'm hoping that the rough edges eventually get sanded out with time.

Do another factory reset, and then do not store your changes at all and see if that works. Same thing happened to me but it has stopped since I tried not storing my changes to a preset.

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Has firmware 4.0 been really unstable for anyone else? Over the weekend I gave 4.0 a shot and it locked up on me constantly, sometimes even during a shot. When I updated the firmware I made sure to format all my cards, reset the mixer to factory defaults in the recall menu, and then built my settings back up from scratch.

Lockups would happen at random. Sometimes it would happen when I was rolling and sometimes I would leave my mixer for a bit only to return to an unresponsive machine. It's frustrating and scary, especially considering that I start a feature in a week. I'm thinking I'll try resetting the machine again and applying the update one more time, but if this keeps up I might just have to switch out for another bag. It's a very ambitious product and there are a lot of things I like about my Nomad, but the platform is often unintuitive, unpolished, and unstable to the point where I'm seriously questioning my decision to go the Zaxcom route. I'm seeing a lot of people have similar issues with their Nomads out there so I'm hoping that the rough edges eventually get sanded out with time.

I've been running 4.0 for a couple of weeks now and haven't had any crashing issues.

Before you reset save your settings to CF card. This way Howy can figure out why you are crashing.

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My reasoning is purely due to the way the Nomad's screen is designed. On the Fusion, my inputs were my tracks... so I labeled my Tracks and they corresponded to each other and they were visible on one screen along with my output busses. You can't have your tracks and inputs visible on the same screen on Nomad and that's the basis of the idea of the option of naming. You own the option to not label yours (perfectly fine), but for those that would... i think it needs to be available. That or Zax finds a way to meld together a screen that shows tracks with the bottom half of the ENG screen to allow visualization of input/auto trim functions/panning/and possibly vFader control (good luck with that on the size of real estate).

I agree. I have a Nomad and Fusion. I like naming the tracks and inputs, having it all on one screen. One thing I don't like about the Nomad has ten thousand home screens. I really only need two. One for my outputs and the other for my card with named tracks and my mix.

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i would love to be able to choose wich home screen i want and to deactivate the others !!

+1 this or a user custom homescreen ....

the com and slate shortcut are to tricky do be done quickly with one and in the middle of the fire of an eng day, and cycling thru all the screen is a pain too...( even more if like i do often you try to do it fast and do one more click than needed and have to cycle all over again.)

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+1 this or a user custom homescreen ....

the com and slate shortcut are to tricky do be done quickly with one and in the middle of the fire of an eng day, and cycling thru all the screen is a pain too...( even more if like i do often you try to do it fast and do one more click than needed and have to cycle all over again.)

+1

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You can't have disc tracks automatically take the input name, because a mix track's name would become mud.

Card tracks could default to the name of the input which is routed to it, but also allow for the user to change the card track name independantly.

ie. if a card track has inputs 3-6 routed to it, the name of the card track would default to, say, "in3-4-5-6". The user could then edit that name to "RadioMix"

i would love to be able to choose wich home screen i want and to deactivate the others !!

+1 very much

I would also LOVE to be able to do the above with headphone presets.

Having to deconstruct the matrix of a headphone preset cell-by-cell in order to remove it from the list is very time consuming. Then I have to reconstruct it the next time i need it. Could be slicker no?

I would also LOVE to be able to 'park' headphone presets under the Com anad Slate buttons like we do home screens.

A push of the headphone knob could be used as the star key is used in parking/retrieving home screens.

Anyone else want these last two?

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My reasoning is purely due to the way the Nomad's screen is designed. On the Fusion, my inputs were my tracks... so I labeled my Tracks and they corresponded to each other and they were visible on one screen along with my output busses. .....

On my Fusion I picked the home screen setup I liked, and that was that. I didn't flip them like we do with Nomads.

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On my Fusion I picked the home screen setup I liked, and that was that. I didn't flip them like we do with Nomads.

Exactly Johnpaul, there's just a lot of wasted space on the nomad screen(as in dead space) that I would hope could be redone to show less of what we don't need and more of what we do. Here's my general idea of what would be "my" ideal nomad home screen:

ND1.jpg

Here is one that has already designed this into their display:

TIO1.jpg

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Exactly Johnpaul, there's just a lot of wasted space on the nomad screen(as in dead space) that I would hope could be redone to show less of what we don't need and more of what we do. Here's my general idea of what would be "my" ideal nomad home screen:

ND1.jpg

Here is one that has already designed this into their display:

TIO1.jpg

That is some solid photoshop work Zack. ;)

I agree with you on the Nomad home screen. As far as useful information, I think what you have designed is pretty darn close to what I would want to see as well.

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Jack, that thought was definitely going through my head, and the only thing I can think of was using the current example that happens when you add and subtract tracks from that screen, it squishes and expands on it's own currently. I would hope the programming would allow that to still happen inside that space. And I agree with John, something I missed would be the segment counter.

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You can scroll back using the headphone knob. Just push and hold.

I think he means going one page back in the home display by holding down the star key like headphone knob do. +1 for that

Also +1 for only having the homescreens u want

And record duration too. Alternating with remaining time on card. 5d's cameras cut after 12 min so sometimes it s good to be able to stop the action before it cuts in the middle of something.

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I actually think the home screen of the 664 consolidates all the information nicely and appropriately as far as size is concerned. I feel a lot of the screen on the Nomad is used by things that maybe are not sized/labeled optimally.

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