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Zaxcom Nomad - operating questions, plus tips & shortcuts


Jack Norflus

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A great feature that could be a time saver for run and gun dslr shoots would be to have a small pre-recorded voice to vocally auto name on scratch track the take number right after the bloop slate function. It would go: record, press tc button, press menu button and then "bloop (voice) take 1".

It s a bit of a long shot feature demand but hey that d be pretty cool.

Just thinking out loud here.

why not say it yourself with the slate button?

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why not say it yourself with the slate button?Yeah you re right, i could do that too. It would probably be neater to have something pre-recorded than a loud slate mic on top of the track. If i'd do that every take, i would get a microphoned pair of headphones. The built in slate is too far from me when i stand up. Food for thought
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And is usually greeted with questing looks as to why they are being given multiple cards. Then, when the benefits of TX recording is explained I have been answered with, "So there were dropouts from the audio? Our other audio guy didn't have any. What were the problems? I usually just get one card."

 

Ahh, producers.

 

It s unfortunate that there is still no way to do this. It is cumberstone and risky to deliver bunch of cards.

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A great feature that could be a time saver for run and gun dslr shoots would be to have a small pre-recorded voice to vocally auto name on scratch track the take number right after the bloop slate function. It would go: record, press tc button, press menu button and then "bloop (voice) take 1".

.

Good idea. +1

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On the Nomad can the two outputs of the Schoeps Super CMIT AES42 ( DSP and non DSP) be routed as digital inputs 1 & 2 to card tracks 1 & 2, I assume they can?

Also can a compressor / limiter be applied to the AES42 input, the manual  doesn't mention it as far as I can see, so I assume it can't?

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On the Nomad can the two outputs of the Schoeps Super CMIT AES42 ( DSP and non DSP) be routed as digital inputs 1 & 2 to card tracks 1 & 2, I assume they can?

 

 

Don't know which one you have, though I have a Lite. I assume it'd work out the same way where you'd choose which input would go to which track in "Record Routing" in the Main Menu. 

 

Also can a compressor / limiter be applied to the AES42 input, the manual  doesn't mention it as far as I can see, so I assume it can't?

 

You know what they're going to say:

 

"Why would you want to put a compressor on the input when there's NeverClip?"

 

etc. etc. 

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I work with an AE on set who I trained but for any other job I bring my tablet and convert the files before delivery. I put them on the mirror CF card and only deliver one media...

 

Producers are very impressed with the fact that each TX is a TC recorder...

 

 

 

"And is usually greeted with questing looks as to why they are being given multiple cards. Then, when the benefits of TX recording is explained I have been answered with, "So there were dropouts from the audio? Our other audio guy didn't have any. What were the problems? I usually just get one card."

 

Ahh, producers."

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Limiter on AES input makes no sense.... if you are clipping your AES input you are clipping the TX input and transmitting distorted signal.

Don't know which one you have, though I have a Lite. I assume it'd work out the same way where you'd choose which input would go to which track in "Record Routing" in the Main Menu. 

 

 

You know what they're going to say:

 

"Why would you want to put a compressor on the input when there's NeverClip?"

 

etc. etc. 

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Limiter on AES input makes no sense.... if you are clipping your AES input you are clipping the TX input and transmitting distorted signal.

Thanks but where did transmitters appear from? :)

Also if you add gain to an AES42 input so you can mix it with other analog inputs or monitor conveniently at the same level then you can risk clipping the input if things get unexpectedly loud I would have thought, hence asking if an AES42 input can be limited? The neverclip answer is a thought though.

I'm just going to have to get hands on and answer these questions for myself as I see we could be talking at cross purposes here for sometime maybe?

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Sorry I was thinking in trx 742 terms.

Still the AES input is digitally calibrated to the AES microphone AD converter. If your nomad AES input is clipping the microphone AD is clipping. At this point limiter would not help at all. You can always engage a limiter at the card tracks.

BTW if you are using AES input the never clip does not work since you need an analog signal to take advantage of it.

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Limiter on AES input makes no sense.... if you are clipping your AES input you are clipping the TX input and transmitting distorted signal.

On a 788T you can add gain to the AES42 input so that it can be mixed with analog inputs and be monitored at the same level as analog inputs and then you can clip the 788T input and there's no limiter to stop that, so I was asking if the Nomad could limit the added gain?

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On a 788T you can add gain to the AES42 input so that it can be mixed with analog inputs and be monitored at the same level as analog inputs and then you can clip the 788T input and there's no limiter to stop that, so I was asking if the Nomad could limit the added gain?

are you adding gain to the input or it is post fade? If you do post fade you can have a limiter on card tracks or output. You can not limit the aes... The whole idea of digital connection is that you don't need to calibrate. 0dbs on the microphone ad is 0dbs on the nomad aes42 input. You can not limit the signal. It makes no sense to have a limiter.
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are you adding gain to the input or it is post fade? If you do post fade you can have a limiter on card tracks or output. You can not limit the aes... The whole idea of digital connection is that you don't need to calibrate. 0dbs on the microphone ad is 0dbs on the nomad aes42 input. You can not limit the signal. It makes no sense to have a limiter.

OK thanks, on the 788T I'm adding gain to the input using the input trim (which switches from analog to digital if the input is switched to digital), generally 15-25db (ie. quite a lot) to bring the mix level and monitoring level in to the same ballpark as the analog inputs. It could be left at unity but then it would be tricky to work with alongside the analog inputs.

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Hey guys, 

 

 

I wanted some tips on how one might go about working on the Nomad without Mix-8 or Mix-12. In other words, dealing with the way it's set up now without adding those interfaces. 

 

I suppose the attenuation lets me just leave the trims alone. Okay. What I was wondering about is that the buttons are a little loud on the headphone and menu side. I like the whole PFL thing and listening to individual tracks, but when I have to switch back to my headphone setup I have to click that loud headphone button. Any other way out of PFL mode? 

 

I don't really do a mix at my level and I was wondering if I should use the mix as my headphone listening. It's difficult to hear all the microphones in just the L/R headphone matrix assignment without also adjusting the individual volumes a bit to make it easier to identify what I'm listening to. Be careful what you wish for: The Nomad's headphone output is so clear/transparent that it makes it difficult to identify what I'm listening to (maybe this will improve as I adjust to it over time). 

 

Also anything you guys doing for inputs 7 to 10? I haven't had a shoot yet where I needed to use those inputs so I don't know yet what I would do. Is changing the menu to 7 to 10 and then using the menu button the only way to adjust those inputs? Again I have to deal with that loud menu button.... 

 

 

I've wondered. Have the button sounds been chosen to be declick-able by declicking programs like Izotope's Declicker? 

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The "click" will go away when the knob is broken in.
Regarding mixing inputs 7-10 zaxcom has the virtual faders. Some people like them some don't care for them. There is a bit of back and forth on another thread right now about Zaxcom building an additional fader module that will attach to Nomad to give actual hardware faders. The product was spoken about a while back but has been put on the shelf due to the apparent lack of intrest in such a product. Though if there is enough of an interest Zaxcom may reevaluate this.

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The "click" will go away when the knob is broken in.

Regarding mixing inputs 7-10 zaxcom has the virtual faders. Some people like them some don't care for them. There is a bit of back and forth on another thread right now about Zaxcom building an additional fader module that will attach to Nomad to give actual hardware faders. The product was spoken about a while back but has been put on the shelf due to the apparent lack of intrest in such a product. Though if there is enough of an interest Zaxcom may reevaluate this.

 

The multi-function keys are actually pretty quiet/inaudible if you press them from the sides. Comparably, the headphone and menu knobs are pretty loud. Of course, I try to do it between words so post can cut it out if I accidentally tap something too loud. 

 

I'd be fine with the virtual faders with the menu knob if the knob were quieter. I remember someone suggested giving the ability to fade the channel being PFLed. Not sure if that makes sense since you can PFL multiple channels too. I would only care because the multi-function keys are pretty quiet. Of course, there is the issue of how to exit. 

 

How long does that actually take? To break it in? Tapping it right now, it doesn't really get any quieter. Do I have to do it a thousand times? I'll just sit here and do it if it'll make it quieter. 

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I am working on a project that is shot in 50p. The Nomad only supports up to 30p. That is a real problem. How can I sync the sound to the image? Would it be possible to upgrade the Nomad to 50/60p anytime soon?

What audio recorder do you work with that does 50p? I'm guessing you're on pal, so you could do 25fps, but really your TC rate should be run past your post department.

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I am working on a project that is shot in 50p. The Nomad only supports up to 30p. That is a real problem. How can I sync the sound to the image? Would it be possible to upgrade the Nomad to 50/60p anytime soon?

 

You need to use 25 frame time code. Since the time stamp on the file has nothing to do with frames per second it will work fine. Unless there is somthing going on that is new 25FPS code is where you should be.

 

Glenn

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