SONOSAX SX62R AND SX-R4+
Small but strong!
I chose the SONOSAX SX-R4+ for the sound recording on the film “Gueule d’Ange”, first feature film of Vanessa Filho, with Marion Cotillard and Alban Lenoir, which was shot in Marseille, France, this autumn.
Being a SX62R’s enthusiast user for several years for the quality of its preamplifiers (I use it in documentary and fiction shootings since 2011), the choice of the more recent and more powerful SX-R4+ was an natural evolution of my way of working.
Gueule d’Ange
UN CERTAIN REGARD
CANNES 2018
Available 12th of May 2018 (Cannes Festival), 23th of May 2018 (France)
Written by Vanessa Filho
Produced by Carole Lambert et Marc Missonnier
With Marion Cotillard, Alban Lenoir, Ayline Aksoy-Etaix
Sound recording Xavier Dreyfuss
Boom operator Guillaume Hurmic
Audio Equipment
- SONOSAX SX-R4+ and SX62R
- CMIT 5U/ M160 / MKH40
- HF Zaxcom QRX100 /TRX900LA
- HF Lectrosonics SSM / SRC
Xavier Dreyfuss has been working in sound recording and mixing for over 20 years. He has collaborated on numerous documentaries as well as many independant feature films.
During his early days, he worked a lot and forget his sharp ear. He discovered the SONOSAX SX-PR while shooting a short film as an assistant. Since then, he has never left the SONOSAX brand by following and accompanying its evolution.
The choice
In order to take advantage of the new SONOSAX SX-R4+ 16 tracks recorder, its interface and its new functions while increasing the number of its inputs, we decided, with Michel Pierre from Areitec, to connect the 2 machines with a digital link. We have equipped the SX62R with a digital output option card, connected to the SX-R4+ 3M MDR 26-pin digital inputs connector.
Digital link
Thanks to this completely transparent link between the 2 machines, I benefit from 10 preamplifier inputs with the same sound color on SX-R4+ recorder. I also keep 2 analog line inputs on SX-R4+ and an additional AES input. This configuration does not change the number of outputs of both machines: 10 analog channels, 4 of them are AES switchable.
Security
With this configuration and thanks to the internal routing of the SX-R4+, I was able to record 2 boom poles, 6 HF inputs, a MS couple and 2 additional inputs for extra microphones. All these sources have been pre-mixed internally to set up a mixdown on 2 tracks. That’s a total of 14 channels (from 16 available).
The easy switch from analog inputs to AES allowed me to use a SuperCMIT without changing my basic configuration.
The mixdown was fed back into the line input of the SX62R via the line output of the SX-R4+ and recorded on 2 tracks to maximize safety. Both machines were synchronized with the same TC. My emergency recorder was then the same quality as my main recorder!
Routing
The very intuitive routing grid allowed me to switch easily my sources to the SX62R’s inputs, which benefit from a rotary low frequency cut and additional limiters. The possibility of adding delays on all inputs of the SX-R4+ allows a perfect alignment of the digital HF (8 ms delay) with wired mics. The dynamic range of the analog inputs is so high that it is almost impossible to saturate them during difficult moments of sound recording. The compactness of the 2 machines allowed me to pack them in the same bag in order to always keep my full setup even in field recording.
Conclusion
The choice and use of that unconventional setup really paid off in terms of ergonomics, reliability and above all sound quality. A perfect match with Schoeps and Beyerdynamic M160 microphones achieve a clean and precise soft sound, in perfect harmony with the idea of the film.
I look forward to the launch of the SX-R4+ mixing control surface to finalize that setup in a cart version.
