Audio-Technica System 10 - Now With Battery-powered Receiver & More

System 10 with AC-powered Receiver

I was very interested in Audio-Technica’s System 10 roll out a year ago. The first System 10 only offered an AC-powered receiver. That kept it from camera or bag use for location audio. It appeared that Audio-Technica was looking first at the Church, PA and Musician markets and coming in with some nice pricing. $300 for a handheld mic and receiver is head turning. The audio is compressed, using an APTX codec.

BTW, here's my previous review with sound samples.

Now there's a new battery-powered receiver designed to fit on a camera and a stomp box for guitar players. That certainly changes the game, but let's backtrack.

System 10 is more than just a new, remarkably affordable wireless system, it's a technology shift. Not VHF. Not UHF, but up in 2.4 GHz with Wi-Fi. I need to make a point here; System 10 does not require Wi-Fi to operate. In fact, a thick Wi-Fi environment may make it operate closer to Audio-Technica published specs. In addition to passing 24-bit, 48 kHz, 3.8 mSec low latency audio, the System 10 transmitter and receiver are in constant communication with each other and they shift automatically as needed and without dropout or frequency coordination. Read on…!

5/2015 Addendum: While the System 10 works quite well with the Audio Technica 830 Lav, I found digital RF problems and noise when using Audio Technica's BP892 and BP896 mini lav and headworn mics. It's apparently a shielding problem. More on that as it develops.

11/6/15 Addendum: The BP892 heqdworn lav has now been altered to reject the 2.4 GHz noise. They are still working on the BP896.

AT8691 Double Receiver Mount

11/6/15 Here's some solid good news for existing System 10 owners. Audio-Technica has released a new bracket, the AT8691 that allows you to stack two System 10 receivers on top of each other. The AT8691 comes with a shoe terminal for camera or stand mounting. The bracket also ships with the AT8351 Y-connector that allows both receivers to be connected to one piece of gear via its 1/8" mini TRS jack for split track audio.

3/17/16 The Countryman B6 works well with the Audio-Technica System 10 transmitter. 

Maximum Performance?

OK, the manual for this receiver makes me a little concerned. "Place the receiver at least three feet above the ground and three feet from any wall or metal surface. In bold letters; Keep System 10 receiver 30 feet from any wireless access points. In multi-channel systems, keep receivers at least three feet apart." Well that means you can't mount two of them on top of a camera or in a location audio bag. But what about the AC-powered receivers? Those you can stack eight high? That doesn't make sense.

Audio-Technica's
Gary Boss

I called Gary Boss at Audio-Technica US for some background. "We've been working with digital wireless for more than a dozen years, if you count when we began research. Our current upscale product, SpectraPulse Ultra Wide Band, has been out for seven years. When we submitted it to the FCC for approval, we had to send one of our engineers because the FCC couldn't find the signal. The nature of the system has the signal buried in the noise floor."

Zoom Q4: 1080p with LCD viewer and 24/96 kHz audio

For $299, I am amazed by this little "toy." I have locked my wallet and credit card in the trunk of my car for the last year to keep the "impulse buy" demons at bay from this sort of technology. The GoPros are also very hard to resist. When I had the chance to get one here to play with, without nicking my credit card, I did. After looking at both GoPro and Zoom, I chose the Zoom for a test ride because of the audio and because of the detachable LCD screen.

This review will be an editorial departure for me in that I'm letting the video do most of the talking. This first "show and tell" video is a tour of the Zoom Q4 features. Blogger doesn't seem to allow text beside videos, so there's more white space than usual.

Neumann TLM 107 - Medium Diaphragm, 5 Patterns, Quiet

Neumann TLM 107

With the U 87 ai, U 89 i and TLM 170 cresting past $3,000 USD, what’s an average guy or gal to do to get a multi-pattern Neumann in the studio? My ears told me that the TLM 107 has more in common with the U 89i than the U 87ai. I've always enjoyed the more natural response of the U 89 i, TLM 170 and TLM 67 mics in Neumann line. Here's my TLM 67 review. 

The TLM 107 is a pin two high, transformerless, five-patterned, medium diameter, studio mic with, high-pass and pad features. The three main patterns are augmented by a wide cardioid and a hypercardioid.

Christopher Currier

According to Sennheiser's Product Specialist, Christopher Currier, "The U-89i and the D-01 are the mics we compare the TLM 107 to in terms of frequency response. It’s not as bright as the U 87 ai or the TLM 103."  

"It’s designed to be a little more linear. The navigation switch is a cool feature. The new grille has been designed to reduce sibilance and popping. The headgrille mesh is new and it's breaking up the high frequencies more than with the TLM 103." 

ZOOM H5 - Somewhere Between H4 and H6

This may be the longest review I’ve written in some time. No magazine I‘ve ever written for would allow me to put this much information in a review. There's just not enough space available. I felt obliged to cover the many features offered by the Zoom H5. If you begin to lose traction, swim to the edge of the pool and hold on until you get your breath. Then dive back in.

Don’t need six tracks that the Zoom H6 offers? (I know, who doesn’t need more tracks?) Like the idea of real level knobs instead of menu buttons? 

EXH-6 XLR/TRS Input Module

For $269, the Zoom H5 sits between the $229 H4n and $399 H6 and strikes me as a nifty little hand held 4-track recorder that’s capable of doing a number of odd jobs. Let’s see what it can do, and what it can’t. First off, no surprise - no SMPTE.

I was also sent the EXH-6 Dual XLR/TRS input module and SGH-6 Shotgun with furry, but not the MSH-6 Mid/Side mic or any other accessories. The H5 also takes the H6 modules. 

Handy Phone Recording Rig Improves Webinar Audio

Sometimes high fidelity takes a back seat to content. In this case, a company that does a webinar series asked for my help in cleaning up and streamlining their audio. I heard their previous webcast and, wow was it bad! Way too much data compression. Intelligibility was suffering. Surely I could do better.

I was asked to record the panelists in different cities in advance of the event, sequence their audio with other voice recordings and create a master .wav file that would be the bulk of the presentation. There would be a live Q&A and a pre-recorded good bye. The webinar would run a little less than an hour. I was also hired to be on site for the show to help the producer.

There are lots of ways to get audio off a phone line. Perhaps the easiest is a phone hybrid and I just happened to have a JK AutoHybrid in my bag of tricks. The phone line plugs into the hybrid and although it has XLR in and out, it has no level adjustments.

Between the hybrid and Pro Tools, I put a Sound Devices MixPre-D so that I could adjust levels as needed. I could have used the MixPre-D's USB out to get into the computer, but chose my RME ADI-8 DS A/D converter. It uses ADAT optical to get into my Digidesign DIGI003R.

Getting US Service on a Neumann U 89 i

Five weeks ago during a session here in my studio, my client's head grazed the suspension mount for my Neumann U 89 i. A minor "bonk" was heard. The U89 i stopped working! My client didn't bang into it, just a slight bump and my favorite mic was gone!

HISTORY
I got the mic in a straight across trade for an RCA 44B ribbon mic over 15 years ago. Neither mic was new at the time. The serial number, C 615, on the Neumann seems to indicate that it has quite a few years on it. After emailing Neumann, I found out that my mic was made in 1980. Because of logos on the box, I do know it was sold by Gotham Audio in NY.

Schoeps V4 - Not what you'd expect from Schoeps!

Here's a link to voice, acoustic guitar and electric guitar/amp sounds. 

$3,000 for the Schoeps V4, a cardioid only condenser microphone with no bells or whistles. I'll give you a moment to think about it. Oh, and remember, it's a Schoeps.

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OK. That should do it. As you may know, Schoeps doesn't do anything halfway. I expect there was, first, some arm twisting from within the company to even entertain the idea of a vocal studio mic. And why bother to position a small diaphragm design as a Studio Vocal Microphone? 

Countryman B2D Cardioid Lav - Another Useful Tool

Small Size and Multiple Colors

As I continue to shine light on professional audio gear, I hope you'll join me in my search for tools that make the job easier and sound better.

This time I'm talking about a directional lav; the Countryman B2D Cardioid Lav. That's right, a cardioid lav that comes in five different colors. Most lavs are omnis, and as you may know, even omnis are somewhat directional at high frequencies.


You can see that the B2D is a pretty small mic. Not quite as small as a B6, but a lot smaller than you'd expect. The diameter of the diaphragm is inversely proportional to the selfnoise of any mic. That means the smaller the diaphragm, the noisier the mic. If your ambient noise is high enough, it'll mask the hiss of the selfnoise, but if you're in a really quiet environment and don't have something like music to mask the hiss, you'll hear it.

You can use some of the many noise reduction softwares to reduce the hiss. I like iZotope's RX3 Advanced. You may find you get acceptable results with the less expensive non-advanced version.  With any of these, you need to have a keen ear and know when to stop because at some point you can hear the effect of the noise reduction. The audio begins to sound "underwater" or unnatural.

Here's a short video that demonstrates the difference between a Countryman EMW omnidirectional lav and the cardioid B2D. Hear for yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r98ci7xUbg4

Detachable cables

Shure Triple Threat Shotguns

Shure VP89 L, M & S

The VP89/L, VP89/M and VP89/S are long, medium and short electret condenser shotguns from Shure. The bodies are charcoal-grey metallic painted aluminum alloy with a stainless steel screen. They require 11-52 V DC phantom power. Each interference tube capsule comes with and use its own Shure VP89 XLR-terminated power supply with high-pass filter. There is no pad.

Each mic comes in a handy and sturdy vinyl-clad hard tube holster that’s large enough to accept the mic with its included foam wind filter. If more wind protection is required, Shure has three sizes of pistol-grip based windshields, one for each length and a Rycote Lyre suspension mount.