[Troy Grady]

Ty-

Thanks so much for following up here, and sorry for the slow response time. I did actually place a call to Sennheiser a few weeks ago and the tech I spoke to wasn’t aware of any H6 compatibility issues. Since then, I’ve noticed the interference with other devices. Namely, a Centrance MicPort Pro portable audio interface, which has been dead reliable for a decade. In use with a MacBook Pro and a six-foot mic cable, I was still getting interference no matter how much distance I put between the receiver, transmitter, and MacBook.

I’ll probably put in another call so they’re aware of this. If it’s simply, as Lachlan says, the digital wireless is a little problematic with interference, that’s a shame. These were pricey units and the sound quality is good when they work.

In the mean time we’ll be looking into those new Tascam body pack recorders, the DR-10L, for anything where wireless isn’t strictly necessary. Those look pretty cool and the price is right.

Troy

[Troy Grady]

In this case proximity to the recorder seems to be what’s doing it, not so much proximity to the transmitters. It’s when you bring the compact little receiver units near the Zoom unit, and also near to each other while being near the Zoom, that the buzz is more prominent. Which is a shame because the receivers are designed to directly plug into portable recorders without the need for cables.

The effect is random and I’m not sure I’m properly isolating this, but that appears to be in broad strokes what’s happening. Whether it’s a shielding issue with the Zoom, or something with the AVX, I don’t know. My fear is that it’s more like a dreaded “inter vendor” interaction between both units, which neither company is aware of / can fix.

[Troy Grady]

Hi Ty-

Indeed, the studio runs on 16 channels of transformer preamps. Over the weekend we did another shoot with the Zoom where the receivers were plugged into six-foot XLR cables into the Zoom, and located as far away from each other and the recorder as possible. Those recordings were (as best I can tell) noise free. But I don’t know how reliable this is going to be moving forward.

[Troy Grady]

Hi Alan! Thanks for the response. Nothing with an SDI output on it in our bag. Even when I just use the Zoom on its own, with no other gear fired up, I’m getting this interference when the receivers are plugged directly into the XLRs on the recorder.

[Troy Grady]

Hi Bruce! Thanks for the notes. We’d love to do a wired setup but we do a mix of walking and talking and sitting and talking, and the wireless affords us that flexibility. It’s also less to pack in the bag. When it works, it sounds great.

I probably misspoke re: the digital-over-the-air signa, but in general, every digital wireless system I’ve used has delivered a lower noise floor, more neutral frequency response, less intermittent compander noise when the talent speaks or stops speaking, and no occasional analog “hits”. In this case the buzzing seems way out of spec.

We did another shoot over the weekend where the receivers were plugged into six-foot XLR cables and located away from the recorder, and away from each other, and that seemed to work. Not sure how reliable that’s going to be though. And it really defeats the purpose of plug-receivers with integral XLR jacks.

[Troy Grady]

Awesome, thanks Bryan — that’s super helpful. Decisions, decisions!

Troy

[Troy Grady]

Fyi I did end up filing that bug report on this. If two audio files can be that similar and still not suffice as a relinkable substitute, then that’s at least problematic if not an outright bug.

For reference, rather than eq-ing the underlying file, I ended up manually pasting Channel EQ on the 110 clips here. Took about 45 minutes diving into and out of compounds to do this, but sometimes brute force is the most reliable way out.

[Troy Grady]

Hey Brian-

Why did you end up selling the 72s? Looking at those as a replacement for a 200W Lowel Rifa that won’t generate as much heat. The 2415 looks a little smaller than the 72. Do you think either of these has enough power to replace the Rifa?

Thanks!

Troy

[Troy Grady]

Thanks Jeremy — lucky me!

Filing now…

Troy

[Troy Grady]

Mike – just chiming in here to say that you totally saved my hide with this tip. 160GB library with about a billion compound clips and two weeks of work. I saw that journal file but didn’t think to trash it — everything came right back as described when I did.

Thanks!