AATON CANTAR user-manual

Physical Description MixDown

Main selector 5 MixDown activation 16
Monitoring crown 5 Panning 16
Configuration crown 5 Track levels in the mixdown 16
Jog crown 6 Listening to the mixdown 16
Swivelling front panel 6 Recording controls
Getting Started Physical Parameters 17
Power on/off 7 Audio Levels 17
Battery check 7 Playing files
Display brightness 7 Files of the day 18
The file sorting system Flagging in-points 18
Project name 7 Browsing the Project Files 18
Project creation 7 Audio Setup
Working day 8 Parameter Settings 19
The FileTags 8 Parameter List 19
Timecode Technical
System setup 8 Operating parameters 20
Blinking TC icon 8 Software installation
Internal clock 9 Loading a new version 21
External clock (video cam) 9 Disk unmounting 21
LTC-out generator 9 Backups & Copies
Recording Prep Disk Formatting 22
Connecting inputs 10 Sorting Days and Files 22
Dynamic or Phantom mics 10 HD Disk copy 22
Limiter, Filter, Attenauator 10 CD-R Medias 22
Mic Coupling 10 CD-R Long Files 22
Solo checking 10 DVD-Ram 23
Routing Inputs to Tracks 11 Session management
MS declaration 11 New Project 23
PPR Pre&Post Record Inside, Outside or Both? 23
Keying Scene & Take before ‘Record’12 Connectors
Editing Sc & Tk, right after ‘Record’ 12 Remote, V-Sync, Power, TC 24
Editing Sc & Tk, later 12 Audio in/out 25
Erasing last recorded file 12
Erasing any file 12
Monitoring
Output grids 13
Check, create a grid 13
Headphone level 13
Line-out and Foldback level 13
Digital AES-out 13
Factory preset grids 14
Surround 5.1 15
2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 1
The three states of the INSTANT-VIEW front panel

inputs to tracks (15 routings)

tracks to l/c/r ouputs (26 routings)

audio levels, disk activity, etc.

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 2
Physical Description

battery 2
four line-input faders
line input five mic-input faders

headphone level
mic input

shift key
six solo-pan buttons

disk housing lock

main selector

mic coupler

limiter, filter, inverter,

phantom

six track mixer faders

configuration crown
message panel
jog
solo-mix-pan selector
monitoring crown

digital mixer faders line input faders mic input faders

track routing
shift key
view/select
headphone
socket

monitoring
monitoring crown view

message panel keys display brightness timecode jam battery control

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 3
 BATT 1 BATT 2

line line
mic mic mic mic 1&2 3&4
1 2 3&4 5

line1 line2 line3 line4

mic5

mic1 mic2 mic3 mic4

Lemo-5
TC 1/4” Jack
headphone

XLR5
CD/DVD+R line out
BURNER
3.5mm Jack
foldback out

sub-D 15
remote control
IEEE1384 video sync
FireWire

sub-D 25 2004 Feb 26

8 AES in/out Cantar v1.13 p. 4
 1. TECHNICAL
1 Warning tone 7 Serial Com (Palm)
2 Meters Mode 8 Factory Set
RECORD 3 Battery Alert 9 Unmount HDD
PPR 4 System Time 10 Equipement Number
5 System Day 11 Software Version
6 HDD Power Down 12 Software Loading

2. COPY BACKUP
TEST Period
�
1 5 File Name
2 Work Day 6 Media Label
3 Tracks 7 Start Backup

erase
� 4 Media Type

3. SESSION
STOP � 1 Project 1
2 New Project
3 HDD in Use
validate
�
4. AUDIO SETUP
� 1 Sample Rate
Bit Depth
7 Ltc Rate
�
2 8 Ltc-Out Generator
PLAY 3 Tone Generator 9 Scene & Take Template
4 LineOut Level 10 T7 T8 Mode
5 FoldBack Level 11 AES Power
TC Source
BROWSE 6 12 Pre-Record Lenght

6. MONITORING 5. ROUTING
1 Grid Phone 1Out 1 1
Inputs to Tracks

Main selector
The wide general selector (see above) controls the main operating functions.
Cantar features a position (which is new in the sound recording field) in between
TEST and RECORD. Called PPR for Pre-Post-Record, it activates a static recording
buffer and allows for sc and take keying prior to and after the recording.

Monitoring crown
Used to route and listen to ins & outs.
* the monitoring crown being on Solo [1] the config. crown successively sends all the
inputs (5Mic, 4Line-in, 6Digi-AES), and the activated tracks to the phones.
* the monitoring crown being on Phone [2] the config. crown routes the MX mixer
output, the 7-8 track stored mixdown, plus the phone devoted A to Q grids, to the
phones (see monitoring grids page 12).
* the monitoring crown being on Line-Out [3], Foldback [4], Digi-out [5], the config.
crown routes the MX mixer output, the 7-8 track stored mixdown, plus the outputs
devoted R to Z grids, to the selected output. Note: while monitoring an output, the
phone receives an identical signal.
Pressing the central button of the general selector shows the monitoring grid in use: the
modulometers become left ear, center, right ear listening displays.

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 5
Configuration crown
In Monitoring mode --default status-- the configuration crown selects the active
listening grid (see over), its action is immediate and not key protected, the operator
can instantly jump from a listening config. to another one since it doesn’t affect the
recording.
In Routing mode -activated by pressing the routing button top left of the swivelling
panel-- the configuration crown browses three banks of five “inputs to tracks” routing
configurations: A, B, C, 1 to 5.
Since modifying “inputs to tracks” routings can be destructive, they are protected by
a key and not active during a recording.

Jog crown
The ‘one finger’ jog is the jack of all trades. It is used to move the cursor in the
message panel, set Scene & Take IDs, select high pass filters, dim the modulometer
light, control the pan-pots, etc.

Swivelling front panel

The message panel displays contextual information. Every position of the main
selector displays a different set of data on the message panel. Via this panel, you
can enter system time, Scene & Take IDs, project name, etc. It functions similarly to a
standard cell-phone display.

The circular displays based on icons and pixels are used for modulometers, inputs to
tracks routing, monitoring grids, and several physical parameters to be permanently
controlled.
The icons do not all show at once except during Cantar’s power-on phase. You will
find examples throughout this manual as to what they display in each mode.

The routing button is a very important tool, it triggers the momentary display of
the current ‘inputs to tracks’ routing on the three circular displays. It also activates
the configuration crown which lets the operator select another routing configuration
(TEST position only).

tracks 1 & 2 tracks 3 & 4 tracks 5 & 6

routing button internal disk external disk DVD/CD burner

message
panel

left ear monitoring right ear monitoring

internal or external TC clock monitoring & routing configurations
2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 6
Getting Started
Power on/off
To start Cantar up, put the main selector on STOP (9 o’clock); press either batt-1
or batt-2 for a couple of seconds. All displays flash and the message panel lights up
internal disk icon
to confirm that Cantar has started correctly. On the leftmost circular display, the
internal disk icon blinks for 3 to 5 seconds, the times it takes for the disk to wake up;
it is surrounded by the icons of the currently routed tracks. At startup, the message
panel shows batt-1 and batt-2 voltage, plus the system time and date.
To shut Cantar down, put the main selector on STOP, maintain pressure on the blue
[Shift] key then [batt]: ‘Goodbye’ shows on the message panel.
display brightness battery control
Battery check The battery voltage is displayed every 10 seconds while the main
selector is on TEST (10 o’clock) or whenever you momentarily press the batt-1 or
batt-2 buttons. Pressing longer on one of these buttons selects the on-duty battery.
At 10.5 V an alarm tone can be heard and the display shows ‘left (or right) bat low’.
As soon as the voltage of the active battery drops under10V, i.e. too low to run the
recorder, both batteries are automatically put on-duty. ���� ����
If during a recording you have to change a battery, press the two buttons to put them ������������
in parallel before you remove the depleted battery, this is a safety measure in case ����������
you unplugg the wrong one... Battery one
Battery two
System time
Display brightness � System date �
To adjust the display backlights, press on the eye icon of the front panel, and jog-dial
to the desired luminosity (active in any position except STOP). The default brightness
is 100%.

The file sorting system

Made of “Project, + Working day + UniqueFilename + TC”, the Cantar file sorting
system is both ultra simple and very safe. It doesn’t rely upon disk partitions.

Project name
When you cold-start Cantar, it assumes you want to continue working on your latest
project, which is therefore displayed at the bottom of the message panel.
When you rent a Cantar, its project memory should be empty; the message panel
should read “No Project” since it logically assumes that you’re about to embark on a
new assignement.
Once created, a ‘project name’ regroups all data related to the project, such as the
days of recording, the tracks and the disks used... the project name is stored in the
audio files as metadata, there is no risk for a file to be lost in a maze of terabytes.

Project creation
To give a new project a name (eight letters and/or numbers), switch the main selector
to SESSION (3 o’clock). Run the jog to “New Project”, press OK. A triangle points
the character to be modified. Run the jog to choose a letter, then press an horizontal
arrow to move on to the next letter. Once the full name is entered, press OK. �������
If you are in a pinch, and have no time to create a new project, directly go to �������
����������
RECORD, your audio files will be stored in a project called AACANTAR.
Later on, with a lap-top you will move these audio files out of AACANTAR, into your
project directory. � �
2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 7
Working Day
Cantar thinks like this: a working day is from about 8 am to 4 am the next day. If
there is a pause after midnight that lasts more than one hour, Cantar thinks the
operator has gone to sleep. But if your ‘work day’ is continued in the wee hours after
�����
a midnight snack, you would probably not want it to be considered as a ‘new’ day. ���������
That is why Cantar asks ‘Start New Day?’, giving you the opportunity to decline the ������������
offer.
Cantar tries to be smart about this, but it cannot foresee the sleeping patterns of
the technicians, how hectic things are on location, etc. The ‘new working day’ is not � �
related to the actual time of day (which is tracked by the machine); it is only an
interpretation of the ‘human’ day. Thus, if you stop working at 2am one day, the audio
files are still part of the (technically) ‘previous’ day folder.

Never twice the same FileTag

The unique FileTag is the base of the Aaton filing system. This is the safest way to
sort huge amounts of files and never overwrite one. It also is the simplest way to
insure unattended autoconformation between the polyphonic 16bit bounced files
sent to the editor, and the original monophonic 24bit files going to Pyramix or Pro-
tools (through Titan3).
The FileTag of the file name is generated by Cantar itself, do not try to impose
anything else and remember that it must remain untouched all the way through to
the final mix.
The Sc&Tk IDs are stored within each audio file, they are later extracted during the
bounce to stereo tracks, and inserted in the filenames for the editor to read them
directly. In the Backup chapter you will find how Cantar constructs these long file
names. ���������
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���������

Timecode ���������
System Time Setup ���������
The system ‘Day and Time’ setup is of primary importance to Cantar file management.
It must be checked for coherence (±5 minutes) with the time-zone you are working
in. Think about this when you get off a six-hour flight! The day and time show on the
message panel when the main selector is on STOP.
To change system ‘Day and Time’, go to TECHNICAL (1 o’clock) and jog to “System
Day” or “System Time”, and press OK. The double triangle points to the modifiable
element. Using the jog, adjust that element to the desired value, then press a
horizontal arrow button to move on to the next adjustable item. Press OK to
validate.

Waiting for a TC Reference

When starting Cantar up you will no doubt notice a blinking “intc” or “extc”. This
means that Cantar is waiting for a reference timecode to stamp the audio files either
from its 1ppm accurate Internal Clock (intc or incl) working as a master or from
a permanently linked External Clock (extc or excl) such as a video camera, Cantar is
then in slaved mode.
The choice between “intc” or “extc” made in AUDIO SETUP, is explained next page.
The factory default is “intc” (internal clock).
In an urgent situation press [Shift] then [jamTC] for more than two seconds: the
internal system day & time will be used to load the internal timecode reference clock, 2004 Feb 26
Sys becomes Stc. Cantar v1.13 p. 8
Internal Clock (master mode)
Cantar itself generates the production timecode to be stamped in the audio files
with its 1ppm clock (driven by a very accurate temperature compensated crystal
oscillator). This clock can be set in three different ways: .
* ASCII, by an OriginC. When shooting with cameras* recording TOD (time of
day) on the film, and free-run TC on the tape, the internal reference clock is set by an
ASCII message from an Aaton OriginC.
* LTC Jam, by an Smpte generator (recorder, camera, etc.). Pressing [Jam TC] for *Film camera with
more than two seconds the LTC timecode entering the Lemo-5 sets the internal Aaton or Arri time
reference clock. ‘Jtc’ shows. If at jamming there is no LTC on the socket, the message recording coder,
panel shows ‘failed’ and the ‘intc’ icon blinks. or video camera
* SysTC, by the Cantar CPU system time permanently generated by a relatively genlocked to an
accurate time keeper. Pressing [Shift + JamTC] for more than two seconds transfers Aaton GMT-1 or an
the system time to the 1ppm clock. ‘Stc’ shows. Ambient TC/Trilevel
generator.
The TimeCode being set, the blinking stops and leaves a stable ‘intc’ icon. The time
displayed in the message window is preceded by Atc (Ascii OriginC), Jtc (Jammed by
LTC ) or Stc (System CPU time).
The internal reference TC is available for the entire session until you shut Cantar
power down.
do not power down Cantar without a reason during the day, the internal reference
timecode (1ppm) would be lost! In STOP position, the disk goes iddle after one to N
minute (N is programmable), and the power consumption becomes a mere 270mA.
When repowering Cantar the ‘Intc’ icon blinks again, you must reinitialize the reference
clock, don’t forget to reinitialize all the equipments which were carrying the same TC
as your Cantar.

External Clock (slaved to a Video-Camera)

Through the Lemo5 or subD-15, Cantar may be hooked up to a permanent LTC
generator such as a video camera in record-run mode. While in TEST, the time
displayed in the message panel is preceded by ‘Extc’ if there is an active external
timecode.
Knowing that the audio recorder usually starts recording before the camera starts
shooting and sending a correct timecode, Cantar doesn’t use the time received when
triggering RECORD; it monitors the incoming LTC, and waits until a stable coherent
timecode appears to take it into consideration. Don’t worry if the Extc acknowledge
doesn’t show up instantly.
At the end of the take, before closing the file, Cantar stamps the file TC using the
latest valid timecode so as to eliminate spurious transmission errors and false camera
starts.

LTC-out generated from a file

When playing back a recorded file, the timecode of this file is sent to the Lemo-5
regardless of the frame rate Cantar is currently set to. If you switch to record, the
output TC folds back to the current setup frame rate..

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 9
Recording Prep
Connecting inputs
Cantar can mix fifteen inputs: 5 microphones:1, 2 and 5 on XLR3s, 3
and 4 on an XLR5; 4 lines: 1 and 2 share an XLR5, as do 3 and 4; 6
AES: 110 ohm SubD25 (see pin-out page 23). Cantar can also route the
8 AES inputs to the eight tracks, and as of version 1.05 directly route
the AES 7&8 inputs to tracks 7&8 (see Audio Setup/AES Power).

Dynamic or Phantom mics

Cantar’s default setting is activated Phantom-48 on all mic inputs. To
use a dynamic microphone you must switch the 48V supply off (the
preamp gain is boosted by 12dB).
To toggle from phantom to dynamic, turn the main selector to TEST
(10 o’clock). Push the Shift key (blue button) and the right-hand button
situated just below the mic fader. When the phantom power is deactivated,
the small triangle disappears from below the mic number on the rightmost
modulometer.

Limiter
The limiters increase the dynamic range before clipping occurs by applying
a reduced gain once -8dB is reached. Push the left button of the pair below
each mic fader to toggle limiter/no limiter. A triangle (dis)appears below the
mic number on the leftmost display.

High-pass Filter and attenuator

The default setting is ‘linear’ on all mic inputs. To select a corner
frequency/slope couple as seen in the message panel [60Hz/-6dB to
180Hz/-12dB, LFA, and -10dB which converts a mic input into a line-
input], press the right button of the pair and rotate the jog. This button
is also be used to listen to that mic only (solo mic).

Mic Coupling
The 1&2 and 3&4 mic inputs can be paired by pressing the Control key
(blue button) and the button located between the mic faders. Phantom,
limiter and high-pass filter are applied to both inputs. The left fader
becomes the master of the pair, the right fader the ±12dB balance.
Coupling 1, 2, 3, 4, makes fader one become the master.

Solo checking
To check inputs independently, put the main selector on TEST (10 o’clock)
and the Monitoring crown on ‘1’. ‘So’ is displayed on the central display,
browse the inputs using the Config. crown: Mic, Line, and Digi (Digi is
accessible if it is powered, see Audio Setup/AES Power). Solo levels are
monitored on the rightmost modulometer.
When accessed from the Solo list (MX), the mixer is stereo monitored on
modulometer tracks 5 & 6.

The Solo-Mix-Pan selector being in its ‘bottom’ position, the six digi-mixer
top buttons become Track Solos. Maintening pressure on a button and
pressing another one makes the first go to the left ear, and the second go 2004 Feb 26
to the right ear. Cantar v1.13 p. 10
Routing Inputs to Tracks

Since Cantar doesn’t occupy disk space on unused tracks, do not hesitate to
put your stereo pair on tracks 5&6 while the boom is on track 1 and
the RF mic mix on track 2: this will leave tracks 3 & 4 unoccupied
and not waste space.
Routing is performed by linking any input – line, mic or digital AES
– to any track. Each circular display is in charge of the two tracks
engraved at its top left, i.e. 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6.

In TEST, PPR, and RECORD you can at any time check the routing
setup by pressing the routing button top left of the front panel. In
TEST and PPR this button allows you to select another routing
scheme with the configuration crown. Fifteen factory default
configurations are available (see TECHNICAL/Factory Set page
17) and can be replaced by ‘user-defined’ configurations.

To create or modify a routing configuration, rotate the main selector

to ROUTING (5 o’clock). The last configuration in use is displayed.
With the configuration crown, select the configuration you want to modify: a
blinking cursor awaits your orders near the star icon of the leftmost circular

Routing mic1 to track 1, mics 3&4 to tracks 5&6 (MS declared)

display.
To erase an existing configuration, press the main selector red button, and
keeping it pressed down, jog through the tracks. It’s easier to create a new
configuration from scratch.
Example: to route mic 1 to track 1, jog the blinking cursor to number 1 of the
mic segment (jogging five positions up). To validate, press the main selector
black button. If you now want to route mic 3 to track 5 and mic 4 to track 6,
jog the cursor round through tracks 2, 3, and 4 until you land on track 5 (odd
tracks are on the outer circle of pixels, even tracks on the inner circle). Go
to the pixel opposite mic 3 and validate (black button).

MS declaration
If two tracks, say 5 & 6, carry the MS pair sounds entered on Mic Inputs
3&4, you must activate the MS icon (lower left of the pixel circle). The
filenames of these tracks will carry an hyphen instead of an underscore.
This allows Cantar and Aaton InDaw to automatically decode the MS
tracks into AB stereo.

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 11
PPR Pre&Post Record (11 o’clock)
Pre-Record activation
As soon as the main selector is on PPR, the •REC icon blinks under the detected
disk(s). This disk icon central platter disappears as soon as the pre-record buffer
reaches its AudioSetup programmed lenght (from 1 to 35sec @48kHz).

Key Scene & Take before ‘Record’

The Cantar Scene & Take template goes like this :
Sequence = 3 figures + a b c d e, r t and space.
Scene = 2 figures + a b c d e, r t and space
Taketype = ‘w’ for wild take, ‘p’ for pick-up, ‘s’ for sync sound (default)
Take# = 2 figures.
The Taketype entry is made by scrolling w>p>s with the main switch red button.
Using the horizontal arrows, move along the IDs and increment them with the jog.
Press OK to store, press again to exit.
The Seq/Scn of the preceding file is maintained and the Take # is incremented by one. NEXT EA0180
Modifying the Seq/Scn IDs makes the Take# fold back to 1. Seq Sc Tk
124a/12R s14
The message panel shows the filename of the ‘NEXT’ recording.
To use another Scene & Take template, select it in ‘AudioSetup’ pos. 9.

Edit Sc & Tk, right after ‘Record’ EDIT EA0181

Once the recording is done, move the main selector back to PPR. The Scene & Take
IDs and the filename of the future recording show. When pressing [Shift+ main 032a/12Bw14
selector central button] the message panel displays ‘Edit’ plus the filename and the
Sc&Tk IDs of the just recorded file. Press OK and use arrows and Jog as explained in
the preceding paragraph. Press OK to confirm, then [Shift+ central button] to close
the Edit menu.

Create new file, uninterrupted audio

To partition a long continuous recording over several shorter files, make a quick back
and forth from ‘RECORD’ to ‘PPR’, a new file is created, it carries the same Seq&Scn
IDs but Tk+1. Pre-Record insures slight overlaps.

Edit Sc & Tk, later

Scene & Take IDs can be later modified by selecting the desired file in BROWSE (7
EDIT EA0181
o’clock), and then going to the PPR position (same Editing operation as above).
Erase file
No
Erase last recorded file
If the file you’ve just recorded has some kind of defect, or is a false start, you might
want to get rid of it entirely. [Control + main selector central button] opens the
Edit. Click on the right arrow or jog to get ‘Erase’ . Press OK. Jog the “No” into “Yes EDIT EA0181
careful”, press OK. The file is deleted. Erase file
NB : To protect previous files from manipulation errors, only the last Yes Careful
recorded file can be deleted. The latest main selector position must have
been RECORD, and the power supply must not have been switched off.
Cantar refuses to erase a file but the latest recorded, the only way to erase a file is to
connect a PC to the Cantar internal hard drive. ‘File’ means a ‘file group’ sharing the
same Filetag, e.g. CD2234 represents files from CD2234_1 to CD2234_8..
To erase and format a complete disk, see the Back-Up chapter. 2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 12
Monitoring 6 o’clock
Output Grids
The six tracks, mic, line and digital inputs can be routed to the headphones.
Seventeen (A to Q) user configured headphone grids can be stored.

The six tracks and all inputs can be routed to the Line-out, Foldback, and
AES-7&8 outputs; nine (R to Z) user configured grids can be stored.

Two other factory grids are available: MX which monitors the six fader
mixer ‘live’ output, and T7:8 which monitors the physically recorded 7 and 8
tracks. Note that selecting the Solos, MX and T7:8 monitoring grids makes
the signal level appear on the rightmost modulometer.

Check an Output grid

To control the current monitoring grid in TEST or RECORD, press the
main selector central button; as long as it is held down the circular
displays representing the left ear, both ears (center), and right ear provide
the operator a quick overview of the output grids without affecting the
ongoing work.

Create an Output grid

Put the main selector on MONITORING. Let’s create the headphone ‘hA’
grid in which tracks1 & 2 are sent to the center, track 3 to the right ear and track 4
to the left ear. Put the monitoring crown in pos. 2, [Ph] shows. Rotate the config.
crown to get [hA] on the rightmost display. The blinking selection cursor is near the
star of the leftmost display. Jog the cursor to the ‘track1’ box of the center display,
and press the main selector black button to enter (red
to erase); repeat the operation for ‘track2’ next to it,
then ‘track3’ on the rightmost display, then ‘track4’ on
the leftmost display.

Headphone level
The headphone fader attenuation appears in the
tracks 1 and 2 are sent to both ears,
message panel whenever you modify the headphone track 4 to the left, track 3 to the right ear
control fader. This is the number which momentarily
appears at power on.

Line-out and Foldback level

Rotate the main selector to AUDIO. Jog to Line-out or Foldback, adjust the
attenuation from 0 to -94dB and mute. Note that the track modulometer being at
0dB FS, the line-out delivers a +8dBu signal; this means that a -18dB FS reference
tone deliver a -10dBu output. This is 10dB lower than the common practice.

AES-out
The stereo digital out is sent to the AES-7 and AES-8 outputs. They are used as
a stereo output to a video camera with built-in AES inputs or equipped with the
miniature Aaton AES-to-Analog converter. To get the mix-down on AES 7&8, select
Do = MX.
In ‘Test’ & ’Record’, the AES 1 to 6 deliver the signal sent to tracks 1 to 6. Called
Dig-Out, the AES 7 & 8 deliver stereo signals like the Phone, Line-Out and Foldback
2004 Feb 26
outputs. In the «direct to disk 8 AES-in» the AES 7&8-out are mirroring the 7&8
Cantar v1.13 p. 13
inputs.
Factory preset grids
The configurations below are delivered as factory defaults. They can be user
modified.
The Solo-Mix-Pan selector being in its ‘bottom’ position, the six buttons become
Track Solos. Maintening pressure on a button and pressing another one makes the
first go to the left ear, and the second go to the right ear.

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������ �� ���� 2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 14
��
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5+1 surround

The microphone side

Use a Schoeps double MS “l-c-
r-sl-sr” head. It is made of two
cardioid and one ‘figure of height’
microphones internally connected
to an XLR-7 socket (with Cantar
the Schoeps decoding accessory
is no longer necessary). Schoeps
delivers an XLR-7 extension cable
to which a home made “XLR-7
female to XLR-5 male plus XLR-3
male” Y-cable should be connected.
* XLR-7:
1= gnd, 2=+Mfront, 3=–Mfront, 4=+Sfront, 5=–Sfront, 6=+Mrear, 7=–Mfront.
* XLR-5 Mfront (yellow), Sfront (red):
1=gnd, 2=+M front, 3=–M front, 4=+S front, 5=–S front.
* XLR-3 Mrear (grey):
1=gnd, 2=+M rear, 3=–M rear.

The Cantar side

* The XLR-5 goes to the 3/4 mic
inputs. Routed to tracks 3 and 4
which should be MS declared, the
output is automatically left/right
decoded for monitoring.
The track 3 & 4 digi-faders being at
100%, the front stereo is heard.
* The XLR-3 goes to the 5 mic-
input and routed to track 5; the
pan pot of this track should be put
in central position (mono listening).
The track 3 digi-fader being at 0% and the digi-fader 5 at 100%, the monitoring
output becomes the sum of the S figure of eight mic on track 4 (a+ a–) and the M
rear mic on track 5, the rear stereo is heard. It is thus easy to alternately listen to the
front or rear MS; or both with a 5+1 double capsule headphone.

The Final Mix side

Remains to convert the Cantar recorded three tracks into the standard five track
system. Export the Cantar files into a Pyramix, since the files are monophonic bwf the
Pyramix multifilefixer first makes a 3 track media (hint: first modify the Cantar track 5
underscore into an hyphen, e.g. **0021_5.wav becomes **0021-5.wav).
Launch Pyramix and make two MS strips, one for the front, one for the rear: lay
down the 3 Track media on the MS tracks (the Pyramix CW (center width ), copy
track 2 (S front) onto track 4 which becomes track S rear also. Reinject the M front
onto the surround of the MS front (on top of that you can also make an extraction
for the ‘sub’), here is your 5+1 sound.

Exprimented at NSM Switzerland by Francois Musy and Gabriel Hafner.

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 15
MixDown
MixDown activation
Most image editors don’t want to work with multitrack sounds; they prefer a single
stereo mixdown. It is wise to activate the mixdown recording to tracks 7 & 8 while ������������
recording multi tracks, since at the end of the shooting day it is quicker to burn the �������������
���������������
mixdown on the CD to be delivered to the post facility for telecine transfer and
dailies syncing.
Go to AUDIO SETUP (4 o’clock), jog to “Mixdown” and activate ‘On’. The “mix”
letters appear to the right of the track 7 and 8 boxes. � �

Panning the Tracks

Put the SMP* three position selector, –left of the mixer panel– in its ‘up’ position.
Each track can be sent to the left and right mixdown tracks T7:8. Press the pan
pot button –top of the linear fader panel– of the track to be redirected and jog the
pan-pot marker to the left or the right of circular track display. You can pan from
complete left to complete right, plus all positions in between. The center position
provides mono monitoring. The value in dB of what is left for the other side shows
on the message panel.
When a track pair is declared ‘MS’ the pan becomes unavailable since these tracks are
automatically decoded for stereo monitoring.

*The SMP ‘bottom’ position makes the buttons become Track Solo Monitoring
actuators; maintening pressure and then pressing another one makes the first go to
the left ear and the second to the right ear.

Mixdown Track Levels

Once you have determined what track goes on which side/track of the mixdown (left
on track 7, right on track 8), you can adjust the level of each track’s contribution, using
the sliding faders. This can be done in TEST or RECORD.

Listening to the mixdown

Put the output crown on headphone (pos. 2). Select ‘Ph = MX’. Adjust the mixing
level of each track with the sliding faders. You are still free to check other monitoring
grids while the mixdown takes place.

track 1 2 3 4 5 6 left to right progressive panning into the mixdown

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 16
Recording Controls
Physical Parameters alternate top lines
��������� ��� ����� �
In RECORDING mode, a red LED lights up in the message panel,
and a [•REC] icon shows under the active disk drive. ���� ����
The internal-disk icon appears on the leftmost circular display, the external-disk icon ��� �������
appears on the central display and the CD/DVD burner appears on the rightmost ��������������
display. ���������������
��������������
The message panel middle and bottom lines show the clock reference (Atc, Ltc, Stc,
Etc), the timecode attached to the file, the filename root and the duration of the Red LED
recording.
The message panel top line alternately shows three messsages:
• battery voltage of both batteries,
• remaining disk free space in Megabytes, Gigabytes and Terabytes.
• available recording time under the current settings (depending on the number of
tracks, sample rate, etc.),

Tone generator
In RECORD as in TEST, the [Shift+ Red button] triggers a 1Khz -20dB tone, which
shows up on the active modulometer tracks. Two levels can be selected in the
TECHNICAL menu: –18dB and –20dB.

Modulometers
In RECORD as in TEST, the signal actually sent to a track activates its correlated
modulometer. The modulometer ‘pitch’ is 1dB in the work zone, e.g. from -35 to
-12dB. The ballistics is the same as that of a needle modulometer, the decay time
can be adjusted in the TECHNICAL menu from 1 (fast) to 5 (slow), default is 3. The
peakmeter is always on.

Limiters
When the limiter does kick in (–8dB), the on-off limiter triangle of the relevant
microphone starts blinking.
In 24bit recording mode it is common practice to adjust the input gain so that a
‘normal’ signal does not go over the –20dB level. When the limiter is activated, the
32dB head-room above the –8dB kick-in point gives 24dB above the ‘no-limiter’ full
scale. Thus the operator can count on a 44dB reserve over the ‘normal’ –20dB level.
If the signal does reach the zero dB level, a CLIP icon appears at the end of the
modulometer scale.

Inputs surveillance
When several inputs are routed to the same track, the routing configuration can be
checked – even in RECORD – by pressing the ‘routing’ button top left of the front
panel. It is then easy to monitor the relevant inputs by going to ‘SOLO’ (position 1 of
the MonitoringCrown).

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 17
Playing files 8 o’clock
Files of the day
Put the main selector on PLAY: the last recorded file starts playing. The message
panel shows the play/stop status, the jog entered in-point, the percentage already
played, the current timecode, the filename and the elapsed time from start of file. status inpoint

Use the horizontal arrows on the swivelling front panel to browse all the files ��������������
recorded within the last working day. Once selected, the file is immediately played; ���������������
to stop, push the main selector central button; another push, the file plays from the ��������������
beginning. To make a pause, i.e. to continue from where you left off, you must lay
file name
down an in-point. Read on!

Flagging in-points � �
This can be done even when a file is playing (and of course on stop). For instance, if
you stopped playing the file at 00:30, rotate the jog to put an in-point at 00:29 then
push the main selector central button to start playing at 00:29.

Note-1: to x60 accelerate the seeking speed, press the [Shift] key while rotating the
jog wheel, each tick makes for a one minute instead of one second jump.
Note-2: only one in-point can be entered. Placed before or after the first one, the
new in-point replaces the former one; it is not stored in the file metadata. A future
software version will allow for storing in-point and out-point flags.

Browsing the Project Files

Put the main selector on BROWSE (7 o’clock): by default Cantar opens the current
work day. To browse other days, press the OK button to go down to the last line of
the display and use the jog or arrows. Validate with OK; the cursor in the message
panel goes back to the middle line; with the jog, toggle to ‘file’ and press OK. The last
file of the selected day is displayed on the bottom line; browse the files of that day
with the jog or arrows, press OK to select a file. You can now go to PLAY (8 o’clock)
to play the file or go to PPR (11 o’clock) to edit its Scene & Take ID.

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 18
Audio Setup (4 o’clock)

How to set a Parameter

In the message panel the parameter descriptor is in the center line. To select a
parameter, use the jog or the horizontal arrow buttons. When pressing the OK
button, the cursor goes down to the bottom line showing the value of the parameter. �����������
Using the jog or the horizontal arrows, select the desired parameter value. Press OK �����������
to validate; a small ‘ok’ briefly appears at the bottom right to confirm the validation; ��������
the triangular cursor moves back up to the center line so as to allow the selection of
another parameter.
�����������
Audio Parameter List �
������������
��������
Sample Rate from 47952 up to 96096ks/s, defaults to 48000ks/s.

Bit Depth 16 or 24, defaults to 24 Bit.

� �
Tone Generator -20dB, -18dB, Off. 1kHz tone on all activated tracks and ‘audio
out’.

Line-out Level from 0 dB to -94 dB or Mute.

XLR-5, two channel symmetrical output.

Foldback-out Level from 0 dB to -94 dB, and Mute.

3.5mm stereo jack, two channel asymmetrical outputs.

TC Source Internal (Cantar 1ppm TCXO) or External (Video camera). defaults to

Internal.

Ltc Rate from 23.98 to 30.00 Fps, Drop-Frame (DF) or Non Drop Frame (ND).

Ltc-out Generator On or Off. Defaults to Off

Scene & take Template two templates are available:

* Sequence(999A) / Scene (99Z) and take x99 where x=w (wild sounds), x=p (pick-
ups). These entries end up as 234A;12r w12 where (;) is a neutral separator, (+) is
a OK separator, and (-) is a NG separator.
* 7 char. and 3 char separated by a blank space.

T7-T8 attribution Off (unused), 6to2 MixDown, AES-in 7&8, Line-in 3&4.

AES Power On or Off, defaults to Off. The AES circuits consumption is 110mA at
48Ks/s and 200mA at 96Ks/s, It is wise to put them Off if the AES in/out are unused.
As soon as an AES input is routed to a track, the display starts flashing as a reminder
for the operator to switch the AES power on.

Pre-Record from 0 to 35 seconds @48kHz (17seconds @96kHz),

defaults to 3 sec.

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 19
Technical menu (1 o’clock)

How to set a Parameter

In the message panel the parameter descriptor is in the center line. To select a
parameter, use the jog or the horizontal arrow buttons. When pressing the OK
button, the cursor goes down to the bottom line showing the value of the parameter.
Using the jog or the horizontal arrows, select the desired parameter value. Press OK
to validate; a small ‘ok’ briefly appears at the bottom right to confirm the validation;
the triangular cursor moves back up to the center line so as to allow the selection of
another parameter.

System Parameters

Warning Tone On/Off. Audible ‘heads-up’ of the error messages or warnings

displayed on the message panel.

Modulometer mode 1 (fast decay) to 5 (slow decay), default is 3.

Battery Alert from 10.5v to 12.5v. Minimum value is 10.5v. This does not control
the battery emergency switch over.

System Time used to stamp files. Enter a time close to the time of your watch (say
±5 minutes), especially if you recently went through different time zones.

System Day used to organize the audio folders. Sounds are filed within folders
named after the system day, changing the system day may create new and empty
folders.

Hard-Drive Power Down saves battery power. The user can set the hard-drive
power down based on how long it has been idle in STOP position. From 1 to 255mn.
The hard-drive accounts for nearly half of Cantar’s power consumption, so it’s good
to put it in sleep mode (the disk icon starts blinking). To spin the disk back up, go to
TEST mode, the disk icon stops blinking after three to five seconds.

Palm/PC Port activates either the DB15 (RS232) or the BlueTooth port.

Factory Settings user’s technical parameters as well as routing and monitoring

settings are erased and reset to factory defaults.

Unmount HDD puts the internal hard-drive out of Cantar control but keeps it
powered (see next page).

Equipment ID the Cantar serial number is stored in the metadata of the sound files.
It cannot be modified.

Software Version shows the current and stored software versions.

Software Loading the latest software version is permanently available on the cantar-
users site, installing it is a quick and simple operation (see next page).
2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 20
Loading a new software version (Technical)

• First download the ‘latest software version: 1.xx’ from http://sound.aaton.com

and put it on your Mac/PC desktop.
• Verify Cantar is shut down and link your computer to the Cantar Firewire port
using a 6p-6p cable. The Cantar internal disk automatically shows on your PC/Mac
desktop. (If your PC is four pin Firewire socket equipped only, it can’t power the
Cantar internal disk, see ‘Unmount HDD’ below).
• Copy the can_1xx.flb file to the root – highest level– of the Cantar hard disk.
• Dump the disk icon out of your computer desktop, and disconnect the Firewire
cable.

• Plug two on board batteries to be 100% sure there is no power interruption

during the following operations:
• Start Cantar up, simultaneously pressing the two battery buttons.
• Rotate the main switch to TECHNICAL -->Software Load, -->enter ‘Yes’.
• If several versions are present on the Cantar disk, choose the latest and press OK.
Note that you can revert to a former version by the same process.
• This is a four minute operation. All Cantar controls are out of commission while the
new software is being loaded. Do not touch anything until you read ‘SUCCESS’.

• Shut Cantar down by pressing the [Shift] blue button.

• Rotate the main switch to ‘STOP’’
• Start Cantar up.
• You can go to ‘Software Version’ to check that the new version has been installed.

Note: if you prefer to perform this software loading from an external Firewire
connected disk, you could plug it into your laptop and copy the ‘can_1xx.flb’ file to
the root of that external disk. Unplug the disk from the laptop and hook it up to the
Cantar Firewire port; during ‘Sftwr Load’, Cantar will check the external disk first.
Please follow the instructions above.

Unmount HDD (Technical)

This operation puts the Cantar internal hard-drive out of the processor control but
keep it powered. This allows a PC laptop with a narrow Firewire connector (four
point to six point cable) to see the disk even though it can’t power it.
The Cantar disk is seen by the laptop as a standard external disk.
Once the HDD is unmounted, leave the selector in the ‘Technical’ position.

To remount a disk which has been unmounted because of a Firewire 4 to 6 point

connection, you must first dump the disk icon out of the computer desktop, then
rotate the Cantar main switch to any other position than ‘Technical’.

Note: If the Firewire link to an external computer is a 6 to 6 point cable, it is easier

and simpler to simply leave Cantar in complete powerdown and not to unmount its
HDD.

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 21
Backups & Copies (2 o’clock)
Disk Formatting
Cantar carries IEE1394 LaCie 40 or 60GB disks. For the external disks on which to
save your files, preferably use LaCie FireWire connected disks, size up to 120GB.
When buying a new disk ask your vendor to deliver it FAT32, with one Primary
partition (not a Logical partition). Keep a “PartitionMagic” software CDR ($90 at
amazon.com) in your accessory case to allow you to erase and (re)format HDDs
from any FireWire able wintel PC.
A MAC with OS-X can directly reformat a hard drive under FAT32, please go to
www.sound.aaton.com to get proper instructions.
As soon as a new disk is connected, the latest used project name and working day
are recalled from the Cantar flash memory.

Sorting Days and Files

The following choices must be sequentially made
• Period: one day and all days (‘all days’ is locked as it is not yet available)
• Systel Day: the date.
• Tracks: all tracks, tracks 1 to 6, mixdown tracks only.
• Media Type: CD-R, External HDD, DVD-Ram, DVD±R.
Send an email to Cantar-Support to get an updated list of tested DVD burners.
• File Names: short (BA1234_1.wav)
or with Sc&Tk (BA1234==123A;12Rw14==_1.wav) for direct access to Scene and
Take IDs from the editors’ timeline.
If you back-up on an external HDD, the file names are forced to ‘short’ since long filenames
are not yet supported by Cantar.

HDD Disk copy

Once the copy operation has been launched, it is wise to immediatly position the
main selector on STOP. Since the display lights will switch off at the end of the copy, its
completion will better show.
Note: you can copy the Cantar disk into a Macintosh by connecting the laptop to the
unpowered Cantar through a Firewire 6p to 6p cable. With a PC (using a 6p to 4p non
powering cable) you must first switch-on Cantar to power its internal disk and unmount
the disk from the processor to let your PC drive it (see Unmount Disk, page 22).

CD-R Medias
Cantar calculates the number of medias needed to perform the backup of the selected
files, then composes a different “Media Label” name for each media. For instance
“CD_MXDN_005” means CD media, mixdown tracks only, element of a five media group.
When CD-R burning starts, the message panel displays in Megabytes the remaining data to
be burnt. Once the burning is completed, the CD-R is ejected.

CD-R Long Files

The size of the files to be backed up can easily make it impossible to copy all tracks onto
a single CD-R; for instance if one track takes 200MB on the hard disk, and you have 6
tracks to back up, you would need a 1.2GB disk. In this type of situation, Cantar breaks the
planned backup down into individual tracks in order to minimize the number of CDs to
be burned. The labels respect the following syntax : CD_2_D072, where CD is the media
type, _2 for track 2, D072 for the last four characters of the filename. 2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 22
DVD-Ram
DVD-RAM drive: LaCie D2 Multidrive, Disc: Panasonic 4.7G DVD-RAM Type II Single
Sided Formatted: FAT32 on a PC running Windows 2000 (or Mac OS-X). Placed a
blank disc in the drive, right-click on the drive icon (F:) and selected «Format». The
Windows format utility asks you to select either UDF 1.5, UDF 2.0, or FAT32. Select
FAT32, give the disc a volume label, and click OK. Formatting takes about ten seconds
(physical format not selected). After connecting the DVD-RAM drive to the Cantar
via the firewire port, power up Cantar. After a few seconds, the center modulometer
indicates that an external drive is present by displaying a drive icon.
In the Session Setup window, select Int&Ext HD, and rotate the main selector to the
PPR position. Cantar set to record 4 tracks of 24-bit/48kHz with mixdown activa-
ted for a total of 6 tracks 24/48 going to both drives.
Every time you set Cantar to record, you see the disc activity light flashing on the
DVD drive. When you stop recording a file, the red LED «record» indicator light
remains on for a few seconds. This correspond to the disc activity light on the DVD-
RAM drive itself, since it is still writing data after the Cantar has stopped recording
on its internal Hard Drive.
Using the jog, scroll through the media labels of the backups to be done. Choose the
one you wish to start with, press OK and go to Start Bckp (right arrow); press OK
again, switch to YES using the jog and press OK. The backup of the label you specified
starts. Once done, go back to Media Labels and choose the next one and so on until
everything has been backed up.
You can interrupt the process between two disks and return to it later. To simplify
your work, don’t forget to write the media label, the date and project name onto the
burned CDs as it comes out, so as not to waste time looking for the ones you haven’t
done yet!

Session management (3 o’clock)

Current Project
A new Cantar contains a factory preloaded AACANTAR project on the internal disk.
If the disk has been reformatted or emptied by the rental facility, “no project” shows,
meaning the disk selected in the HD menu (see below) contains no project folder.
If you need to check the name of the current project, go to ‘new project’.

New Project
The bottom line of the message panel shows the current project ID. Press OK to
create a NEW project. Once its name is entered the usual way, press OK to validate.
You must have an internal or external connected hard drive for this operation to take
place. See paragraph below.

Internal, External or Both?

This let you specify where the files of your current project are to be recorded: on the
internal drive only, on the external drive only, on both the internal and external drives
simultaneously.
Note-1: when listening to recorded files, only the internal drive is playing; to listen to
the external drive files, switch to ‘Ext only’ and don’t forget to switch back to Int &
Ext afterwards.
Note-2: if an external and an internal discs are being used simultaneouly, the message
panel displays the available space value of the disc offering the smallest amount of 2004 Feb 26
remaining free space. Cantar v1.13 p. 23
Connectors

Remote, V-Sync, Power, TC

SubD15, XLR4, Lemo-5

8 1

SubD-15 ������ �� ���� ���� ��� �������

15 9

Remote & Sync

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

GND VIDEO IN LTC OUT WORD CLK RESERVED RESERVED RX TX

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

12V/250mA max out LTC IN RUN RESERVED RESERVED GND GND

4
XLR 4 1
3
2 12V power
1 2 3 4
GND NC NC POWER +

1 5
LEMO 5 2
4
Time code in/out
3
1 2 3 4 5
GND LTC IN ASCII NC LTC OUT

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 24
 Audio in/out
Analog: XLR-3, XLR-5,
Headphone: 1/4” jack. Foldback: 3.5mm mini-jack.
Digital AES: 110 Ohm SubD-25

XLR 3 1 2

mic 3
Mic inputs 1, 2, and 5
1 2 3
GND HOT + COLD -

XLR 5 1 5
2 4
mic 3
Mic inputs 3 and 4
1 2 3 4 5
Channel 1 = left or M Channel 2 = right or S
GND HOT + COLD - HOT + COLD -

XLR 5 1 5
2 4
line-in 3
Line inputs
1 2 3 4 5
Channel 1 Channel 2
GND HOT + GND HOT + GND

XLR 5 1 5
2 4
line-out 3
Line outputs
1 2 3 4 5
Channel 1 = left Channel 2 = right
GND HOT + COLD - HOT + COLD -

13 1

SubD-25 ������ �� ���� ���� ��� �������

�������� ����� ���������
digi-i/o
25 14

AES inputs AES outputs

CHANNEL PAIR HOT + COLD - GND CHANNEL PAIR HOT + COLD - GND

{ 1-2
3-4
5-6
24
10
21
12
23
9
25
11
22
1-2
3-4
5-6
{ 18
4
15
6
17
3
19
5
16
7-8 7 20 8 7-8 1 14 2
(open 13)

2004 Feb 26
Cantar v1.13 p. 25