Jump to content

Zaxcom Nomad - operating questions, plus tips & shortcuts


Jack Norflus

Recommended Posts

I was talking to a friend of mine last night who just got his Nomad - and he had some operations questions that I thought that other users may have as well. So I figured that we needed a thread to address specific operations questions.

And some shortcuts and tips that are not in the preliminary manual can be added - because at this point Nomad is evolving quicker than the manual.

First my friend had an issue that Nomad wasn't booting up quickly. It turns out that he didn't have a formatted primary card installed in the unit. If there is no card Nomad will search for a card during boot up - Nomad will boot up but it will increase the boot time.

He also had an issue with getting audio from the tape out – the problem was that he was using a tip ring sleeve mini connector. But both the tape out and the mono out are wired tip / sleeve and the ring is floating and not connected.

Also lastly he wasn’t able to get tone out of all of his output busses – to fix this I had him go to the Aux Bus Assign where he needed to assign tone to all individual output bus he wanted to send tone to.

Now a couple of quick tips to make navigating Nomad a bit easier – but please keep in mind that some of these are software dependent items – so depending what version of software you are running these items may or may not be available to you yet.

Headphone selection – if you push the headphone knob you will advance to the next headphone preset – if you push and hold the HP knob you will go back one HP selection.

Meta data / Information entry – you no longer need to hit “OK” to input the info you just entered - if you push and hold the HP knob after inputting data it will act as an you hit “OK” The same holds true for inputting track names as well as headphone names.

Also if you are inputting any text from the key board if you push and hold the menu knob while the keyboard is on the screen the key board will go to lower case letters and give you different symbols to choose from.

Those are just a few items off the top of my head – I will add more items when I remember them. And if any users have any operations questions fire away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1.8k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Hi Jack,

this thread is a very good idea. I have some questions myself:

1 When I activated the HPF on input 1, the input was muted. deactivating HPF brought it back. This didn't happen on the other inputs.

2 Where can I set the frequency for the HPF?

So is what you are saying when you engaged the High Pass Filter for channel 1 Nomad muted your channel 1 input? Is it still doing this? Can you duplicate this? As far as I know none of the beta testers has experienced anything like this. Silly question - when you were in the channel setup menu are you sure you didn't accidental turn off phantom power?

Regarding setting the frequency - as Glenn mentioned this is a feature coming soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another neat shortcut that is in the latest software - which is still being tested, but after it has been cleared you will now be able to toggle through the different meter screens the traditional way (pushing the menu button and hitting either the slate or com button) - or by just pressing the star key. The star key will now easily enable you to change your meter screens.

Depending what version of software you are running you may already have these features already but here are some items that have been added recently:

The diamond that shows you where your trim is set now appears in each input meter - not just the auto trim meter.

Headphone labeling was also added recently - so you can label each of your headphone setups with up to a 6 character name.

Auto-increment was added to the take in the meta data - so if your previous take had a number in it the next take will advance one number - until you change the scene name.

And the way you engage tone has also changed - there have been some issues with users accidental engaging tone. So in the latest software all you have to do is press and hold the tone button for approximately 1.5 seconds to engage tone. So now tone is no longer a shifted item so you can engage and disengage tone with one finger - and there is no way you can accidentally engage tone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So is what you are saying when you engaged the High Pass Filter for channel 1 Nomad muted your channel 1 input? Is it still doing this? Can you duplicate this? As far as I know none of the beta testers has experienced anything like this. Silly question - when you were in the channel setup menu are you sure you didn't accidental turn off phantom power?

Regarding setting the frequency - as Glenn mentioned this is a feature coming soon.

Yes, engaging HPF mutes ch 1 input. Inputs 2 through 6 don't mute upon engaging HPF. This is clearly a bug, so I will direct this to Zaxcom. When HPF is engaged on ch 1 and I shut the unit off and back on the input is not muted and works. Only mutes after turning HPF from off to on. I just reproduced this a couple of times.

Another question, Jack: I set transport controls to unshifted. Now when I want to listen back to my recorded segments and skip through the files I can only go backwards (unshifted). When pressing the >> button alone I get the PFL screen, when holding menu or com and pressing >>, nothing happens. How do I skip forward?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, engaging HPF mutes ch 1 input. Inputs 2 through 6 don't mute upon engaging HPF. This is clearly a bug, so I will direct this to Zaxcom. When HPF is engaged on ch 1 and I shut the unit off and back on the input is not muted and works. Only mutes after turning HPF from off to on. I just reproduced this a couple of times.

Another question, Jack: I set transport controls to unshifted. Now when I want to listen back to my recorded segments and skip through the files I can only go backwards (unshifted). When pressing the >> button alone I get the PFL screen, when holding menu or com and pressing >>, nothing happens. How do I skip forward?

So let me get this straight -just trying to rule out that it isn't a hardware issue - you can run the HPF on ch 1 and not have the ch muted after a power cycle? Because the HPF is a hardware switch and there is the possibility that the switch is bad.

The >> un-shifted is an issue that was recently discovered. Zaxcom is aware of this and a software fix is on the way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

v2.20b - on then website the software is 2.14 so I suppose mine is newer?

Yes 2.20 is newer - I don't recall any specific bugs in that version that may be causing this. Try this - route ch 1 into your headphones with no mic plugged in. Turn on and off the HPF of ch1 - do you hear a bit of a click (it may be faint) of the HPF engaging and then disengage? Then try this for the other channels. Is there a difference?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes 2.20 is newer - I don't recall any specific bugs in that version that may be causing this. Try this - route ch 1 into your headphones with no mic plugged in. Turn on and off the HPF of ch1 - do you hear a bit of a click (it may be faint) of the HPF engaging and then disengage? Then try this for the other channels. Is there a difference?

There are clicks audible on all channels when (dis)engaging HPF.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are clicks audible on all channels when (dis)engaging HPF.

Ill be on my job in a few hours and I will try to duplicate this. But my gut feeling is this may be a hardware issue. If Glenn is here he may be able to comment further on this. But I would call Zaxcom directly and see what their thoughts are. It may be a sticky or intermittent switch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just spoke to Glenn on the phone. He was very helpful and the solution is being worked out. It seems to be specific to my unit, as others don't seem to have that problem.

That small issue aside, I'm enjoying my Nomad more and more each time I play around with it. I love the display and the way the meters work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The current high pass filter is fixed frequency and implimented in hardware. We will add the variable HP filter soon that will have a variable frequency adjustment.

Glenn

Just an update - I received new beta software tonight which allows for setting your HPF on each channel. It allows you to select your frequency from 40 Hz to 230 Hz in 10 Hz increments. Once this version is cleared it will be posted on the Zaxcom web site.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been playing around with the Nomad simulator and have some questions.

The fader assign screen:

faderassign.gif

What does the 1-8 across the top refer to?

What do the A, D, T, and Z stand for?

How would I assign a fader to control the level of R1 or R2?

A similar question for the "Play Out Router" and "Play Hph Router" screens. What do the 1-8 refer to?

playoutrouterq.gif

playhphrouter.gif

I probably wouldn't have to ask these questions if there was a manual online. I'm trying to understand as much as I can about the Nomad as mine will arrive in the middle of a shoot.

Thanks,

Mark O.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just thought about a feature that would be nice to have. I've always appreciated that on the SD recorders you can hit record to start recording, regardless of what menu you are in. It would be great to have this feature on the Nomad.

Mark O.

You can. There is an option for unshifted transport controls.

I've been playing around with the Nomad simulator and have some questions.

The fader assign screen:

faderassign.gif

What does the 1-8 across the top refer to?

What do the A, D, T, and Z stand for?

How would I assign a fader to control the level of R1 or R2?

A similar question for the "Play Out Router" and "Play Hph Router" screens. What do the 1-8 refer to?

playoutrouterq.gif

playhphrouter.gif

I probably wouldn't have to ask these questions if there was a manual online. I'm trying to understand as much as I can about the Nomad as mine will arrive in the middle of a shoot.

Thanks,

Mark O.

Top column are the Inputs. You assign fader 1 to Input 1 by marking the field on the top left with an X (it's not A, D, T, Z anymore). If you want to use another fader as a trim (pre-fader) then you would mark a T instead of an X.

It doesn't take long to read through the manual once you get your Nomad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...