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Zaxcom Nomad - operating questions, plus tips & shortcuts


Jack Norflus

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OK used autoMix today. I was impressed. Certainly made my job much easier. 

 

It was one of those four people around the table with a host asking questions all in a conversational manner. 

 

It switched between mics almost seamlessly and the back grounds remained smooth. I like the way which mic is open is displayed. Not saying it is perfect, but it is a damn site better and quicker than I could possibly be on a non scripted situation. Look forward to using it again and adjusting some of the settings. Sometimes clothing rustle of a non speaking subject would be louder than the Mic open threshold and make it into the mix. Alas I had one subject with an all synthetic wardrobe who would constantly nervously played with her clothes. A combination of fading her out when not contributing and AutoMix really helped. I know at the end of a three hour interview I handed in something the editors will be happy with.

 

I had my setting at:

 

Post Fade

Mic on Thresh  -30

Attack                2ms

Decay              80ms

Noise reduction -3dB

Attenuation       -30

 

I have limited experience with auto mixers, but next time I use AutoMix on the Nomad I will change the Mic on threshold to -25db. Other settings I need to play around with.

 

Honestly, AutoMix wasn't that high on my priority list and I don't know how often I will use it, but it is a tool I sure am glad to have and look forward to refining.  

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Jack sorry accidentally posted before I finished writing up my post. Have since added setting. No I didn't change the mic on threshold as I didn't want to attempt it during mid take. Probably would of been fine but didn't want to risk it mid take. The short cuts we had I was usually trying to sort other location/costume issues.

 

No complaints about AutoMix not removing rustle. In fact it made it much easier to be able to pay more attention to the subject with a rustily costume so as to fade down when they decided to play with their jacket or fade up when they were about to talk and not have to keep a close eye on the rest of the subjects while keeping an eye on meters. 

 

I am a very happy camper.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Is usb keyboard available for Nomad 10 yet?

Also was expecting a call back from Zaxcom as it has been two days and they never returned my call. Trying to sort out why when I send a 0db tone from the lectro venue that its comes in on my Nomad zeroed out and on line level at around -23db on every channel. They said they would get the software engineer to return my call but nada. Thx if u have any information...also xlr cables have no attenuation.

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I think so. Shield Pin 1 on XLR to pin 8 AES 1+2, +ve to pin 7 -ve to pin 6 Then AS 3+4, Shield to pin 8 and +ve to pin 10 and -ve to pin 9. As I look down on the back side of the DB-15 plug I am soldered along the middle row with pin 10 on the left and pin 6 on the right.

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Analog input 1 to out 1, 2 to out 2 and so on through 8 to 6. Also Input 1,2,3,4, is routed to out 4.

The analog outs all work fine and I can work that way , I would just like to try and keep everything in the digital domain once I'm in there.

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First actual Nomad scare so far - some fine folks from the UK were doing some interviews over here in Helsinki. A day after the wrap I got a call from the UK saying the last interview file is missing. I checked my mirror card, and sure enough, it wasn't there. I just figured I hadn't given it time to mirror the file or something and checked the primary card on the recorder - and the file wasn't there either. I hastily checked all the other folders on the mirror card and primary card and couldn't find it. Yikes.

 

Being 100% sure I was recording when I was supposed to, I figured either there was a software bug, something wrong with the media or that I'd messed up after the take. Luckily a quick google led me to ZaxFile, which had it's way with the CF card and brought the file back to me.

 

Whatever it was that led to these events, thanks to Zaxcom for the file system and ZaxFile!

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I'm running on 3.13 at the moment. I really doubt I'd have pressed stop twice, since I'm running on the mode that requires a press of a second or so for the rec and stop buttons though. For me it's stop twice then pressing menu for a while to delete a false take.

It might not hurt to have an option which, when turned on, would move false takes to a special "trash" folder instead of outright deleting them.

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I'm running on 3.13 at the moment. I really doubt I'd have pressed stop twice, since I'm running on the mode that requires a press of a second or so for the rec and stop buttons though. For me it's stop twice then pressing menu for a while to delete a false take.

It might not hurt to have an option which, when turned on, would move false takes to a special "thrash" folder instead of outright deleting them.

Wow, 3.13 is a very old firmware now. Firmware 6.08 is the current version. Howy recommends every Nomad user be at 5.16 or higher.

 

Nomad has the ability to either mark false takes or delete them. This may have been added in a newer firmware.

 

Mark O.

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