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Production Sound System

User’s Manual

Portable Multi-track Digital Audio Mixer / Recorder

Firmware Version:

2.61

Updated: 2012-01-24 - 14:57

230 West Parkway, Unit 9, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444 USA

Tel: 973-835-5000 Fax: 973-835-6633

Email:

[email protected]

Website:

www.zaxcom.com

NOTE

: All specifications in this manual are subject to change without notice.

Written by: Glenn Sanders and Jack Norflus

Edited by: Ray M. Owen, PSM

interstage

Phistersvej 31, 2900 Hellerup, Danmark

Telefon 3946 0000, fax 3946 0040

www.interstage.dk

pro audio with a smile

Summary of Contents for Nomad

Page 1: ...n Plains NJ 07444 USA Tel 973 835 5000 Fax 973 835 6633 Email info zaxcom com Website www zaxcom com NOTE All specifications in this manual are subject to change without notice Written by Glenn Sander...

Page 2: ...TIONS 12 MEDIA ACCESSORY RECOMMENDATIONS 12 CompactFlash Cards 12 GETTING TO KNOW YOUR NOMAD MIXER RECORDER 13 Front Panel Description 13 Left Side Description 16 Right Side Description 18 Back Side D...

Page 3: ...IGN PAGE 30 MONO OUT PAGE 31 TAPE IFB OUT PAGE 31 HEADPHONE 2 PAGE 31 CARD MIX 1 4 PAGE 32 CARD MIX 5 8 PAGE 33 CARD MIX 9 12 PAGE 34 ANALOG INPUT CHANNEL SETUP PAGE 35 HEADPHONE 1 PAGE 35 MAIN MENU P...

Page 4: ...RE PAGE 55 IFB DEBUG PAGE 55 FALSE START PAGE 56 ENTER TEXT PAGE 56 CHAPTER 3 SETTING UP THE POWER AND AUDIO CONNECTIONS 57 POWER 57 Internal Power 57 External Power 57 Battery Life 57 Battery Display...

Page 5: ...DIO INPUT OUTPUT CONNECTORS TA 5 69 MONO TAPE OUTPUT CONNECTORS 1 8 TRS 69 SLATE MICROPHONE INPUT CONNECTOR 1 8 TRS 70 HEADPHONE OUTPUT CONNECTORS 1 4 TRS OR 1 8 TRS 70 AES DIGITAL INPUT OUTPUT CONNEC...

Page 6: ...2 37 MEMORY PAGE 43 FIGURE 2 38 STORE MEMORY PAGE 43 FIGURE 2 39 CLEAR FADER ASSIGN PAGE 44 FIGURE 2 40 RECALL MEMORY PAGE 44 FIGURE 2 41 FACTORY RESET PAGE 44 FIGURE 2 42 STORE TO MIRROR CF PAGE 45...

Page 7: ...les TABLE 7 1 XLR 3 PIN DESCRIPTION 69 TABLE 7 2 HIROSE 4 PIN DESCRIPTION 69 TABLE 7 3 TA 5F TA 5M PIN DESCRIPTION 69 TABLE 7 4 MONO TAPE OUTPUT PIN DESCRIPTION 69 TABLE 7 5 SLATE MIC INPUT PIN DESCRI...

Page 8: ...Hours select button Set Date Time page HP Monitor Names page HP Beep Battery enable button Warnings Setup page OBJECT NAME PAGE IT APPEARS ON HP Beep Loudness select button Warnings Setup page HP Beep...

Page 9: ...imecode Setup page TC Transport select button Mode page Threshhold select button Card Limiter Parameters page Threshhold select button Input Limiter Parameters page Threshhold select button Output Lim...

Page 10: ...ng User Manual Conventions Throughout this manual the following conventions are used button refers to an on screen VIRTUAL object that represents a parameter that can be changed and or viewed CF card...

Page 11: ...s Input 6 XLR 3F mic line level balanced 4 balanced line level camera return or mix 115dB dynamic range External slate mic input Zaxcom ultra low noise ultra low distortion transformerless preamps Out...

Page 12: ...ble IFB transmitter antenna 1 x WiFi dongle not yet being delivered 1 x 6 AA battery holder 1 x fader decal strip Nomad Accessories Additional 6 AA battery holder External power supply 110 240 VAC 50...

Page 13: ...cameras that record four to eight tracks of audio The Nomad is ideal for use with Holophone and SoundField microphones This section describes the Nomad s physical features and their location Front Pa...

Page 14: ...egments E When a D for user bits is required double click it 8 PFL 5 E key One of the multi function keys A Pressing Only in Home page p 23 sends pre fader listen to the primary headphone B In Playbac...

Page 15: ...r is active for Auto trim 16 SLT 8 0 key Slate Mic key A Press and hold it to open the current Slate source int ext and the audio is routed according to the Slate S column in the busses The source INT...

Page 16: ...o 18 VDC 1 2 A 12 VDC See Power Connector Hirose 4 Connector p 69 WARNING Do NOT connect the external power connector to a source higher than 18 0 VDC This is the ABSOLUTE upper limit If you exceed it...

Page 17: ...keep the batteries topped up and ready to use when external power is lost The built in charger may take up to 24 hours to fully recharge the installed NiMH batteries 6 ZaxNet RF connector SMA F 7 Ser...

Page 18: ...with the SLATE SOURCE button on the Mode page p 46 and the level is managed by the Input Levels page p 51 See Slate Microphone Input Connector 1 8 TRS p 70 6 Headphone 2 1 8 3 5mm TRS jack Optimal 10...

Page 19: ...phrase turn the MENU knob to scroll through the available choices Once the new correct value is displayed press the MENU knob This will enter the new value and close that parameter to further changes...

Page 20: ...input limiter is not needed a soft knee compressor is provided on each mic line input each output and each recorded bus Digital Inputs Nomad has four AES input pairs with sample rate conversion allowi...

Page 21: ...Input Limiter 3 Input Gain 4 Analog to Digital Converter 5 Prefader Meter 6 Input Compressor 7 Delay Processor 8 Equalization Processor 9 Linear Fader 10 Digital Input Router 11 Disk Limiter 12 Input...

Page 22: ...NT 0 0 EXT 0 0V 48V 8 1V C 0 0V Aud 13 Main 55 DSP 0B Flash system init Loading saved settings DSP SPEED 294 912 Initializing battery backed clock RTC INIT PASSED Minutes ON 26106 Synchronizing clocks...

Page 23: ...d the name in the Headphone Monitor field is replaced with PFL alternating with the selected channel number s as follows Pressing the corresponding multi function key will select the channel you are l...

Page 24: ...on Card Track Home on Figure 2 3 p 25 With the Card Track Home page configuration displayed it is possible to identify tracks that are not enabled not being recorded Disarmed tracks in the middle will...

Page 25: ...not enabled use the TRIM parameter in the Analog Input Channel Setup page p 35 Home Page Configurations Figure 2 3 p 25 There are eight different Home page configurations You can quickly cycle through...

Page 26: ...isplayed in the top of the Home page as follows Figure 2 6 Indications of Stop mode Timecode Slate page Page purpose This page displays the current audio timecode for recording by the associated camer...

Page 27: ...TC TC comes from another source such as a camera or a master TC unit JAM UB User bits come from another source such as a camera or a master TC unit JAM DATE User bits are created from the local date Y...

Page 28: ...ected source TC Frame Rate To set the timecode frame rate press the TC FRAME RATE button and select the appropriate value Nomad supports all standard frame rates 23 98 23 976 24 25 29 97 29 97 NDF 29...

Page 29: ...and select the appropriate choice UB Date Style To set how the date transmitted as part of the TC is formatted press the UB DATE STYLE button and select the appropriate choice ZaxNet Channel page Page...

Page 30: ...ight Rotate the MENU knob to scroll through the matrix Stop in the matrix at the intersection of the input channel and output channel where you want to send that specific input Press the MENU knob to...

Page 31: ...tor In addition this bus also sends audio to the IFB feed in the ZaxNet transmitter How to get here BUS key Tape Out button Figure 2 15 Tape Out page Headphone 2 page Page purpose This page controls w...

Page 32: ...line of the three sets of pages indicates the following sources 1 6 six mic line level inputs S slate mic T tone generator TC timecode 1 8 eight digital inputs The vertical line of numbers on the rig...

Page 33: ...es the following sources 1 6 six mic line level inputs R1 R2 line camera returns TC timecode 1 8 eight digital inputs The vertical line of numbers on the right shows the recording tracks Rotate the ME...

Page 34: ...ates the following sources o1 o4 four outputs CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE R1 R4 four line camera returns 1 8 eight digital inputs The vertical line of numbers on the right shows the recording tracks Rotat...

Page 35: ...ell as the MENU knob NOTE The HPF button does double duty Turning it ON turns on an analog filter with a fixed cutoff frequency of 100 Hz and a digital filter with the cutoff frequency controlled by t...

Page 36: ...his page displays metadata about the next recording as well as allowing entry of the Scene ID Take and a short Note about the Take NOTE for the most part you will use this screen to maintain the Scene...

Page 37: ...er s tracks are enabled How to get here MENU knob once Record Enables button Figure 2 25 Record Enables page This page enables which tracks will be recorded on each media In the example above 12 track...

Page 38: ...g media How to get here MENU knob once My Nomad button Primary Card button Figure 2 27 Primary CF page This page allows for the control of the primary CompactFlash card Delete last segment erases the...

Page 39: ...atible with Mac or PC by using the free file conversion utility ZaxConvert This utility may be downloaded from www zaxcom com All recorded files are directed to individual folders The Primary Folder p...

Page 40: ...ored a folder and need to erase it to make room for more recording files on the primary card REMOVE the MIRROR card before doing the erase If you don t the folder will be ERASED FROM BOTH CARDS Erase...

Page 41: ...once the unit has gone into Stop mode This is useful when a high track count is mirrored and recorded files are of short duration CONTINUOUS while the unit has gone into Record mode audio is copied t...

Page 42: ...le above fader 1 5 are set to control the fader functions of the channels 1 5 Fader 6 is set to control the input trim of channel 6 The 6 hardware faders are routed with the fader routing matrix Analo...

Page 43: ...ings If factory defaults are recalled you will need to reapply your user settings Nomad allows you to save settings to and restore settings from the mirror CompactFlash card This allows for settings t...

Page 44: ...all of the parameter settings from the specified memory How to get here MENU knob once Memory Store Recall button Recall 1 button Figure 2 40 Recall Memory page NOTE With the exception of Preset 1 th...

Page 45: ...Mirror CF button Figure 2 42 Store to Mirror CF page Recall from Mirror CF page Page purpose This page recalls all of the parameter settings from the file on the current mirror media How to get here...

Page 46: ...ill be assigned to the two channel ENG pan routing feature This mode would most likely be used when sending two channels of audio to be recorded directly to camera When selected each pan pair will act...

Page 47: ...e setsup Nomad s engineering parameters How to get here MENU knob once ENG Setup button Figure 2 48 ENG Setup page This page is designed to configure the device for your specific application This page...

Page 48: ...ng when the power is turned off Limiter Enable page Page purpose This page manages which tracks and outputs are using the common limiter settings How to get here MENU knob once ENG Setup button Limite...

Page 49: ...ter button Figure 2 52 Output Limiter Parameter page This page maintains the Limiter Compressor parameters for the output busses The settings are effective on a global basis meaning the settings estab...

Page 50: ...er track How to get here MENU knob once ENG Setup button Track Names button Figure 2 54 Track Names page This page allows for the naming of recorded tracks The track names are displayed within the car...

Page 51: ...page Return 1 4 Input Adjust These inputs are continuously adjustable in 1 dB steps from 4dBu to 15 dBu to accept a line level input Since these inputs can also be used as line level inputs the retur...

Page 52: ...s from 12dBu to 21dBu Advanced Setup page Page purpose This page is for changing aspects of the machine that most people will not need to do How to get here MENU knob once ENG Setup button Advanced Se...

Page 53: ...et here MENU knob once ZaxNet Setup button Figure 2 61 ZaxNet Setup page Page Notes For this page to useful the following must be true for the associated wireless kit s Zaxcom unit s Transmitters must...

Page 54: ...rol ALWAYS LOW the transmitter will always be run at the low power setting DYNAMIC the transmitter will run at low power between Takes and run at high power during a Take ALWAYS HIGH the transmitter w...

Page 55: ...axNet Setup button IFB Debug button Figure 2 63 IFB Receiver Channel Setup page Burn ZaxNet Software page Page purpose This page installs the ZaxNet software How to get here MENU knob once ZaxNet Setu...

Page 56: ...cter turn the MENU knob until the character is highlighted and then press the MENU knob to select it After you have completed entering the data to accept the data press the HEADPHONE knob for 1 second...

Page 57: ...iod of time and need to record during this time connect an external battery to Nomad when the internal battery is low When an external power source is used the Nomad automatically switches to this pow...

Page 58: ...ting and stopping recording ensure that the HP BEEP REC STOP button is set to ON To have beeps for low power level ensure that the HP BEEP BATTERY button is set to ON To have beeps for low remaining P...

Page 59: ...age the Nomad does not allow you to apply power to any channel set as a line level input Adjusting the Trim Analog Digital To change the trim click the TRIM button and adjust the parameter as required...

Page 60: ...In all associated pages these connectors appear as analog input 7 10 Camera return cables are available from retailers Pin outs for it are provided in this manual if you want to manufacture your own...

Page 61: ...g 1 Click the button below each track you want recorded An X is placed in the button indicating it is enabled for recording 2 Once a track is enabled for recording pressing the button again disables r...

Page 62: ...Take Once that is done the audio coming from each of the inputs is stored in the current Take until the STOP key is pressed IMPORTANT In order to use the pre record functionality you must have previou...

Page 63: ...Retaining Your Headphone Mix with a Monitor Preset In a lot of cases once you have setup monitoring options you don t need to change them that often But once changed Nomad allows you to restore those...

Page 64: ...hat Post wants Some follow Load with the shooting date e g MM DD YY xx DD MM YY xx x doesn t matter or zero Load with the shooting date and Take MM DD 00 00 or DD MM 00 00 Load with the Take 00 00 00...

Page 65: ...Operator has encountered But every once in a while they come up with some truly ground breaking additions to the system This chapter is dedicated to letting all of you the Owners and Operators know a...

Page 66: ...Range 56 dBu to 26 dBu Digital Inputs not available in Nomad 4 Channel Count 8 3 x AES 3 pair 1 x AES 42 pair Connector 1 x mini DB 15 DE 15 shared w digital outputs Sample rate Converters 4 pairs An...

Page 67: ...A 12 VDC ZaxNet RF Interface not available in Nomad 4 Function Transmit or Receive RF Power Output 50 mW RF Modulation Digital Spread Spectrum RF Frequency Range 2 403 2 475 GHz RF Frequency Step 0 0...

Page 68: ...A x 10 D x 8 Freq Range Off or 40 to 240 Hz Input Delay A x 10 D x 8 Time Range 0 to 100 ms Output Limiter 1 set of settings across 6 outputs Attack 1 to 100 ms Decay 0 to 100 ms Threshold 20 to 0 dB...

Page 69: ...7 1 XLR 3M Left and XLR 3F Right Pin Numbering Pin Description Pin Description Pin Description 1 Ground X shield 2 Hot L live 3 Cold R return Table 7 1 XLR 3 Pin Description Power Connector Hirose 4...

Page 70: ...Pin Description Tip Left Channel Ring Right Channel Sleeve Ground Table 7 6 Headphone Output Pin Description AES Digital Input Output Connectors DB 15 The Nomad uses a mini DB 15 AKA DE 15 connector f...

Page 71: ...ed it and Advantages to Upgrading the Firmware By upgrading the software the range and feature set have and will continue to dramatically increase over time Zaxcom has a reputation for constantly addi...

Page 72: ...cator on metadata page Changed headphone beeps are now 2 kHz so they are not mistaken for tone Added 3 second segment number display after pressing RECORD key and after boot up V2 57 2011 12 12 Fixed...

Page 73: ...11 14 Changed no longer allow compressor ratio setting to go down to 1 0 Fixed user bits ordering mmddyy00 was ddmmyy00 Added primitive Playback page triggered on any press of PLAY button V2 40 2011...

Page 74: ...orm to Zaxcom s specification for the particular Product Limitation of Remedies Your exclusive remedy for any defective Product is limited to the repair or replacement of the defective Product Zaxcom...

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