Zaxcom nomad chat!!!!

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wbrock001

Well-known member
Oh my this was interesting video posted by Gotham sound of the president of sound devices being told about nomad by zaxcoms president....I can feel the heat. Seriously, if nomads analogue and a/d are at least as good as sd's then sd has a lot of catching up to do. 4 channels with timecode etc for $3300 and upgrade paths to more channels without having to buy a whole new box.

http://vimeo.com/22308103

I love how zaxcom mentions the no heat...I've heard 7 series get pretty warm.

I was going to pickup a 702 but after this I may wait to see how the nomad stacks up when it's in the wild. I do like the led meters of the 7 series more but the potential value of the nomad at $800 less and full mixing capability and upgradeability does sound pretty good. We live in great times!
 
Old video but its funny how one person can see this video as a zaxcom "win" and someone else can see this as Jon not being that impressed at all.

I'm speaking as someone who owns a lot of sound devices gear..and also zaxcom technology and I'll just say
I wouldnt touch another zaxcom product with a 10 ft pole unless its been out for AWHILE with MANY people before me being the guinea pig.

Never again.
I was one of the very very first people to get the QRX100 and 8-9 months later the thing still doesn't work in an acceptable manner.
Best part? There are many people with the same issues I have, yet with this nomad announcement I personally feel like all of their attention
is directed at selling this new product instead of them devoting more time into fixing the problems with "last years" cutting edge ground breaking gear.

I mean seriously, who the heck cares about a display that doubles as a "smart slate"?
First off the camera would always have to be hand held in order for it to constantly pan over to see the display.
It would involve the camera being just a few feet away from the display in order to read it..etc..etc.

No serious shoot that needs timecode would find those limitations acceptable and would request a standard time code slate.
 
True! I have heard zaxcom had some issues in the past and I'm sorry to hear that you had that trouble...but if all works as intended it does have potential...what I mostly hope comes out of it is ultimately more for less money out of the manufacturers. Didn't he say the slate was for dslr shoots?

The only zaxcom gear I own is a zfr100 with an sta100 stereo adapter...and it has worked well for it's purpose. But going in I was a bit shocked to learn that they use a proprietary compression so that all audio, mono or stereo, is compressed to near 400kbps...and that stream is what is then transmitted. I was shocked because they vaguely talk about it then don't give any real details about it in any literature...it wasn't until I emailed them and specifically asked that I learned the true nature of how they handle audio. But I do have to admit that it still sounds pretty good. So if I end up getting the 702 then I could compare and see if I can hear any difference.

I didn't really see Jon as being impressed or unimpressed...it was just the way zaxcom guy was speaking to Jon had an "attitude" in it...the true nature of why and what escapes me. But Jon did end it saying we'll see how it goes...so you're right, early adoption is not probably a good idea based on zaxcoms history.

By the way, does the 702 get pretty hot? Or is it only the hard drive models that warm up? Thanks!
 
Sorry I don't have any experience with the 702. The 788T does get hot. It was designed that way. The case acts as the heat sink.
I've never personally had shut downs related to heat (maybe 1 a couple years ago but I cant be sure)
but I do know a couple others that have in more extreme temps.
 
I'm really curious about the Nomad, but I won't be an early adopter either. I like that it appears to be super high-quality, and it kills several birds with one stone. One of the biggest concerns I have with my bag is weight. I really like the idea of having the mixer integrated into the multi-track recorder. If it works as promised, it will be a huge win for the spinal cords of hardworking sound people. I also like that it will sort of force Sound Devices to come up with some kind of competing product. I love their mixers and recorders, but having both in one bag is a bit unecessarily heavy, IMO. The other problem is that I'd love to go out and purchase a 788T and a 552 today, but I don't have anywhere near that much cash... nor will I anytime in the next 6 months or more. Maybe never! However, with some noodling around and selling of some other gear, I could make a Nomad happen.

I agree that the workflow of pointing the camera at the sound person's chest in order to read timecode is totally weird and wrong, but I think it's cool that the feature is there. Smart slates are $1200. Yes, having one on set is a million times better, but it's cool that a redunancy is built into the machine.
 
Rippie said:
Old video but its funny how one person can see this video as a zaxcom "win" and someone else can see this as Jon not being that impressed at all.
Click to expand...

And a third person can watch and see something that was completely contrived. That felt like poorly-acted reality TV (redundancy?).
 
Interesting awkward video. I like the marketing speak of having an "auto trim" that doesn't auto trim but a trim that auto selects the channel you last touched. Much better than a real auto trim but very misleading name.

Seems like it's designed for bag work. Makes sense then that the "slate" is upside down since you would tilt the bag away from you so the camera can shoot it.

Personally it feels a bit like marketing got too much say in the features.

For instance the email dailies to a transcription house? I could be way off but that seems like one of those marketing features that is really impractical. And the meters seem way too small.
 
I agree, that I much prefer the LED meters of the SD recorders, but if the nomad really works reliably, sounds at least as good as SD, then they may have a real winner there. I mean if I want TC for two channels its $2500 with SD, for a few hundred more, getting 4 channels and timecode is pretty sweet. I don't really care about zaxnet and wireless functionality. Has anyone had major problems with zaxcom recorders? I know Mr. Willett mentioned zaxcom analog wasn't as good as SD in the past...rating Sonosax the top, nagra, sd, then zaxcom. Since they had working units at the show, its either show magic, or they're doing this one right...we'll see I guess.

Hopefully, it will drive better quality and more features for less money.

I think much of the heat from these devices comes from the hard drives, so it may not be SD's fault that things get toasty. The nomad uses redundant CF or SD cards, so that produces little to no heat there...perhaps moving to solid state all around would reduce some of the heat issues and zaxcom with two ports seems to diminish any media reliability issues there.
 
I'm not going to say whose stuff sounds the best (because it's a subjective thing IMO), but I think it is safe to say that the manufacturers you mentioned...Nagra, Sound Devices, Sonosax, and Zaxcom, ALL have great sounding gear. I've used all kinds of stuff from all of them. What it really comes down to is what feature set works best for you, and what works best with your budget.
 
I'm not actually knocking it. It looks decent and could be a nice box. There DEVA is pretty well liked and I can see where this fits their line up since the DEVA isn't really bagable. I'm sure it's possible but it's really designed for sitting on a cart. So this fills a gap in their products. THey are a production focused company and seem to pay attention to those users needs so? All of these recorders are basically computers so you generally don't want to be on version 1.0.

I don't like the size of the SD recorders. I think they are too small. Unfortunately this box looks like it's the same size, though that may be an illusion. The lay out may work better though? Also the SD recorders (2 and 4 track anyway) only have trims and not level controls. It's not a huge deal but you can't for instance turn a track all the way off, just make it very quiet. And I don't like the menu system. They may have "fixed" some of it but I found it not very intuitively laid out and it scrolled backward. They all have their quirks. Personally I like more switches and fewer menu options. But that is my personal taste.
 
i'm kinda on the fence about the nomad. i don't do a whole lot of multi track gigs that require timecode so my 680 is fine for now. but going forward, if i do need multi channel timecode i think i'd look more towards a fusion 10 or a 788/cl8. but i want to wait and see what people say once they get the nomad in their hands(and myself too) before i get a decision.
 
Anyone out there have the 788 with SSD drive? If so, does it run any cooler than with a standard hard drive? Thanks!
 
To me Jon looked like he was trying to remain cool on the outside. but fighting the urge to grab Glenn's neck and yell "THIS IS SD's TURF! WHO THE H-E-Double Hockey Sticks DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? YOU"RE IN MY HOUSE!!!" You could see the stress in his eyes and he was locking his eyes on Glenn's, and it was making Glenn fidget. The height difference was intimidating too. There was a battle going on.
 
Noiz2, I put my hands on it at NAB, and it's around the size of a 552...if I remember correctly..maybe a teeny bit bigger. I didn't actually pick it up, so I have no idea how heavy it is. I'm sure it would work OK on a cart, but Zaxcom's idea is that this would be a bag unit. People really liked having the XLR's on the back of the Aaton Cantar, so I imagine that's where they got that idea. I could see it working both in a bag and on a cart.
 
Jon did say there were some clever ideas...with a we'll see how it goes. Yup we will see and either sd will be able to sit and do nothing or they'll have some catching up to do...

I think healthy competition is good for us as consumers. At it's price point it could be a game changer...
 
wbrock001 said:
I think healthy competition is good for us as consumers. At it's price point it could be a game changer...
Click to expand...

Not sure why. You can get a Tascam with more inputs (than the base level) for less and it has "auto level" ;~)

It's another choice in that same $3K to $5K range.
 
If the 552 had instead a mix record but had an option to do iso record(pre or post) that would be an a$$ kicker of epic proportions. Nothing too fancy. Same recording options that it has now but just iso or mix. If the dr680 can do what it can do in it's size I think the 552(or an adaption of it) could do that. Send mix to camera an have iso's on board, that would be nice...
 
manglerBMX said:
If the 552 had instead a mix record but had an option to do iso record(pre or post) that would be an a$$ kicker of epic proportions. Nothing too fancy. Same recording options that it has now but just iso or mix. If the dr680 can do what it can do in it's size I think the 552(or an adaption of it) could do that. Send mix to camera an have iso's on board, that would be nice...
Click to expand...

Hey at least the 552 can do 2x iso's!
I do like the fact that you can assign different tracks/mix to the recorder and you're not stuck with "just" mix.
 
That's what I hope is that the nomad might push SD to counter with its own mixer/recorder...I remember reading a while ago that that was ultimately the direction they were going in anyway.

Noiz2 are you saying the Tascam HS-P82 is as good as the SD and Zaxcom offerings for less money? Thanks!
 
wbrock001 said:
Noiz2 are you saying the Tascam HS-P82 is as good as the SD and Zaxcom offerings for less money? Thanks!
Click to expand...

That is a good question. Not really just pointing out that it isn't really a "game changer", there are options that already exist. It adds another option and that is good. All of these devices are a bit of a compromise so you sort of need to find the one that compromises the fewest things you care about. That could be the Tascam for some.
I was also making fun of the Zaxom "Auto Trim". The Tascam level control follows channel select the same way they just didn't give it a silly name.

Of the three (four if you count the H4n, I wont) (over two tracks under $5K or so) none really fall down in the basics. I'm making assumptions about the Zaxom but based on reputation.

A lot comes down to exactly what you need and how much your willing to pay for it. The american need to rank things really gets in the way when you start to look at devices like this because generally there is no "best", just a "best for your needs". The "sound" of them is going to pretty close and the differences are probably not significant out side of the lab. So really your talking features, reliability, durability, UI, size. weight, battery life... If you need to be able to easily see your meters in the desert well then you pretty much knocked everybody but SD out. Or maybe you have fat fingers and have a hard time with the somewhat cramped SD UI so maybe Tascam feels better.

You can get into long discussions on this stuff but once you cross over into the pro market it's mostly about features because the core is generally solid.
 
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