(N12) To start off the current situation, the N12 of which I’ve owned for about 3 weeks now is about to make it’s second trip back to the factory for a faulty LED light on ch#2 and a component that went back on ch#1 that’s affecting the phantom power from delivering proper voltage when booted up. As it stands now, the fix is to change the channel from mic to line, back to mic, and then flip on phantom power again for things to work properly again (sucks).

(664) In the mean time, I was able to get my 664 last thursday (Nov 1, 2012) and am very happy that everything is working properly and is a very well built machine. I tried out the Porta Brace bag for it, but returned it the next day due to the typical sag PB bags have, and that I’m not able to keep my power cables protected “inside” the bag when using the bag battery pouch in the back. I’m waiting for the Petrol 664 specific bag to become available, but in the mean time my older PEGZ-2 (PS602) fits the 664 fairly well. Only issues is no access to the bottom comms and word clock connectors of the 664 and the memory card door can’t be opened all the way without lifting the mixer up a little first. 664 has a very easy and fun feel to getting around the controls and menu system. My only complaint I share with another mixer that’s used the 664 lately, is some of the menus, like the meta data are buried too deep in sub menus, and the hotkey shortcut to get close to that access is fairly hard to do with one hand on a boom. I would like to see a single menu (that’s quickly accessible), that has scene/take/notes/track names. Also, current firmware v1.01 does not allow slate or tone to be routed to any of the ISO channels (problematic for post).

(N12) Current firmware v4.03 allows routing of tone to all outputs and ISO tracks, and slate to all outputs but only tracks 1-4. Routing for slate to the rest of the card tracks is coming up which should make room for additional routing of tracks 7-10 to additional tracks for creating a “full” mix track, which currently is limited to the first 6 inputs.

The pictures are in order top to bottom, the top being a test of RF spill the receiver (SRa block 22) was getting from the TRX900/STA150 being about 6 inches away from each other.

Here is where I applied the strands to try creating an enclosure of the STA connection area with the copper tape.

Here is the same test using the same parameters as before but with the copper tape inserted. A slight improvement, but not perfect. Keep in mind that my block 22 scan before the TRX was even on produced no wide open frequencies in my area.

Below is the spacing I tested between the two units.

Below is a side shot showing the gap given from the velcro between the sled and the top of the QRX100. This gap will continue to allow proper venting for the QRX100.

Below is a video of my current idea for weather protection for the QRX hop while on camera.

I decided to try using a simple “J” shaped piece of thin aluminum lined with velcro to mount inside the inside of the front large pocket of my Petrol PEGZ-2 bag. Also, I added a very thin strip of velcro to the bottom portion of the TRX900 to give the unit a little extra friction from falling or sliding out of the mount if I was to fall, jump, bounce, etc…etc.. This position allows me to view the unit and access the buttons while maintaining protection from weather or other mishaps too. Another bonus is not having to purchase the 90 degree SSMA adapter since it’s sitting upright as designed. I have yet to test the system in a real world situation, however my at home tests have all be good with not noticing any issues with RF spray from the TRX being physically closer to my Lectrosonic receivers.

I took the new Fusion 10 out for a hike in Yosemite to go up the Nevada Falls trail and see what I could get.  The top of the Nevada falls area just sounded as basic as any rushing water river or creek, however down below at the bottom of another waterfall (Vernal Falls), the water slapping the rocks made for a more interesting sound.

Vernal Falls

Yosemite Valley ambience

I tried finding a quiet area, to get some general ambience of the ambient wilderness, a few bird noises, ravens in the background.  I think this situation is where the Oktava’s start to fail with their self noise presence in the recordings.  Again, recordings were done at 24 bit / 96k, on the Fusion 10, M/S config using the Oktava MK-012′s.

Deuce_In_Stop_Idle_Away

Deuce_Fast_By_Away

So I have all the parts, and I wanted to post a few pictures of what I got going so far for those interested. I have a plan for the back cap, so I’ll have to get back on that. At first glance, this fig 8 capsule was HEAVY… bigger than expected, but still worked and fit inside the Rode Blimp. The suspension bands I used were the original ones the Rode came with for the top set.  I went to the hardware store to get some others that were not as flexible for the bottoms.
At first I attempted to use the fig 8 without the capsule caps on which was a bad bad mistake. These caps are to eliminate interferance between the two capsules, without them you’ll get a bad hum… possibly 60Hz. Working as intended though, they seem to sound rather nice and the bi-polar pattern seems very solid.

So here’s what I finally ended up with for dealing with the 2nd cable. Having a nice dual cable was just too expensive, “ideal”, but too expensive. This worked great as well, and even better with the fur over to help hold the cable snug.  I’m just going to tie off the two cables lower down the slack so they don’t knock each other during a gust of wind or shifting.

Finding a good place to record the ambience of the upper Amazon area was more difficult than I expected.  The terrain was so thick and steep getting off of the road was tough.  This recording was done with a spaced pair of Countryman B3’s, spaced about 8 ft. apart along side the infamous “Death’s Road”.  Sound was captured via wireless with my Lectro UM400/UCR411’s, recorded at 24/192k to the 702T.  I didn’t have my MS rig with me  to save space in my luggage for the extended trip, the wireless B3 didn’t turn out half bad though.

Amazon