Ed Denton
Forum Replies Created
-
I just heard about the Zaxcom Nomad tonight? I had to do a double take. Could this thing possibly be as good as it seems?? I have recently been close to getting a SD 744t to add a multi-track recorder to my SD 552. But this thing seems to be all that and more. It is a mixer and recorder all in one, and for under $5k! A 552 + 744t would cost me at least $7k and then I have to carry around the 2 units. Please someone tell me I’m not dreaming. I so hope there’s not a catch. But then again it’s Zaxcom, they’re not likely to make an inferior product and ruin the good reputation they’ve made with the Deva etc. There’s not a lot to read about it yet. Has anyone got one? This might be my new bit of gear…
Sound Devices 552
Lectrosonics UM400a/UCR411a
Sanken COS-11 D
Rode NTG-3
Oktava MK-012 -
Seem like a strange idea. The whole point of using a good mixer like the 302 is to make use of the nice pre-amps so dropping the level out of the mixer and amplifying it again on the camera pre-amps is not a good idea. Should be line out from the mixer and line in on the camera. Set your TX and input levels around that.
Sound Devices 552
Lectrosonics UM400a/UCR411a
Sanken COS-11 D
Rode NTG-3
Oktava MK-012 -
I bought my mk-012 about a year ago and have hardly used it because handling and wind noise is so bad. With a foamy on the end, just moving the Oktava through the air causes wind rumble. I’m 99% sure mine is a real one but there are a lot of fake mk-012’s out there. And turning the gain up to usable levels induces so much white noise that it is a real problem. My advice is avoid the oktava and go for the AT4053b if you want a hyper-cardioid under $500. That is going to be my replacement for the mk-012.
Sound Devices 552
Lectrosonics UM400a/UCR411a
Sanken COS-11 D
Rode NTG-3
Oktava MK-012 -
I probably want to use it for a number of these purposes. I do a lot of location sound recording where I want to give the director a wireless feed. Also I want to be able to set it up so the talent can receive messages from the director. Also I want to have a wireless communications link with a boom operator so he can be listening to the sound mix but also receive messages from me that are not recorded to the mix. But like I said in my first post, I’m not so much asking you to answer all my questions and explain IFB to me but rather hoping someone could point me in the direction of more in depth information about IFB. Maybe a good website or book where I can learn about it.
Sound Devices 552
Lectrosonics UM400a/UCR411a
Sanken COS-11 D
Rode NTG-3
Oktava MK-012 -
Obviously if I’m only using one mic then it doesn’t matter. Throughout the shoot I was using different combinations of mics, sometimes 2 radio mics, sometimes a boom and a radio mic, sometimes 2 boom mics. But at all times I had one routed to camera channel 1 and the other to camera channel 2. It seems very strange that monitoring on the camera doesn’t include a 1/2 split only a 1+2 mix.
Sound Devices 552
Lectrosonics UM400a/UCR411a
Sanken COS-11 D
Rode NTG-3
Oktava MK-012 -
I’ve heard good things about the Sign Video mixer as an entry level mixer. As a cheaper option I’d go that over the Azden. But I agree with Sam that you might be better off with a Sound Devices MixPre. For what you are doing you are not going to need more than two channels. From the sounds of things you don’t even have four mics to occupy the four channels of the Sign Video ENG-44. You’d be better of with 2 good channels of audio than 4 ordinary channels. And the MixPre is not much more expensive than the ENG-44.
The other problem you may run into is the fact that with the ENG-44 you’d be mixing 4 channels of audio down into 2 channels when you record it on the camera. So if one of the mic signals from the mixer has a problem (eg. clothing rustle from a lapel mic) you would ruin the other mic signal that is mixed in on the same camera channel.
As for mics for booming indoors check out this thread https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/30/865231#865231 as it contains lots of information about different hyper-cardioid mic options.
Hope that helps,
Ed
Sound Devices 552
Lectrosonics UM400a/UCR411a
Sanken COS-11 D
Rode NTG-3
Oktava MK-012 -
I understand that Ty and I’ve taken that into consideration. I’m strongly considering the Schoeps and may wait a few months to save for that mic. Thanks for your comments. They really do help.
Ed
Sound Devices 552
Lectrosonics UM400a/UCR411a
Sanken COS-11 D
Rode NTG-3
Oktava MK-012 -
I’m not entirely sure what you mean by pop filter Ty? I’ve got a foam cover for my Octava much like this: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/298936-REG/WindTech_1212_Windtech_1200_Series.html and also it is in a Rycote suspension shock mount. I just can’t seem to avoid wind sounds even indoors.
As I’ve been looking around a little more the AT4053b is standing out to me as a good choice. It seems similar to the the Audix or the AKG in price range but has the advantages of having an in-built low frequency rolloff and -10db pad and greater tolerance of high SPLs. It is also modular like the AKG. I’d love to put all these mics together and be able to compare them but unfortunately over the pond here in Australia we don’t have anywhere that stocks all (if any) of these mic so I can’t test for myself. So keep the comments coming in!
Ed
Sound Devices 552
Lectrosonics UM400a/UCR411a
Sanken COS-11 D
Rode NTG-3
Oktava MK-012 -
I’m writing this approximately 3 months after my last post where I was enquiring about the Audio Technica 1800 series wireless systems. In this time I have bought them and can now comment on my experience. I bought 2 ATW-1801 beltpack transmitters and an ATW-1820 dual receiver. I found the range to be great, far better than the Sennheiser evolution kits and very little dropouts. Occasionally you could hear a flutter in the diversity system as the receiver switched between antenna 1 and 2 but that was only noticeable in really quiet areas and when you were really stretching the distance range of the gear. Battery life was reasonably ok on the transmitters running off two AA batteries. The dual receiver runs of six AA and will struggle to get you through a full day unless you switch it off at every opportunity that it’s not being used.
Now for the bad news, these units have a serious fault. I have just returned all my AT 1800 transmitters and receivers to the retailer for a full refund. There is a fault in the gear that causes the audio to distort, become saturated in static, compress and sound generally horrible. At times I would get these issues happening in my sound but I thought it was due to some external interference. Changing frequencies would sometimes help but not always. Then I worked out that whenever u used it in cold weather it would happen. Then about 2 weeks ago I used this gear on a shoot in the arctic which cause permanent problems. The output on one transmitter became permanently hot and I couldn’t stop it from distorting. The other had a fuzz in the audio which nothing could fix. The retailer told me that since I’d bought it they’d been notified of this fault being brought on by certain environmental conditions and therefore offered me a full refund when I came to them with this problem.
My conclusion, if it weren’t for this fault they’d be a great buy. But at it is, they are unreliable and if you get a faulty one that cracks up during an unmissable moment of filming you’ll never forgive yourself. My advice: Don’t buy Audio Technica 1800 series. Save a little more and buy Lectrosonics. Well worth the extra investment.
Hope this info helps!
Ed Denton
-
Sorry to confuse, I don’t have any info to suggest that they not selling. What I meant was that in comparison to the Sennheiser G3, which as far as I can tell seem to be their equivalent in price and function, there is very little info and discussions on various forums about the AT 1800s. All the lower budget sound kits that I’ve used recently are equipped with G2/G3 or Sony systems. And to top it off I can hardly find any retailers in my area (Melbourne, Australia) that stock or sell Audio Technica. But from what Joel was saying they seem to be great (thanks Joel!). Anyone else please add your experiences with the 1800s to this forum, particularly about the dual receiver. I’ve got a chance to get to clearance items but I didn’t want to buy them not knowing what I was getting. Apparently Audio Technica are bringing out an updated version some time in the next 6 months. Anyone know about them?
So compared to compared to the Sennheiser G3s, the AT 1800s are not as good, equivalent or better?
Thanks all
Macbook Pro 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Final Cut Pro 6.0.5
Logic Pro 8
Photoshop CS1