I have found that in custom mode with basic gain and everything else advanced, it keeps the tracks armed when I power it on or change to that preset. When I switch to a preset with advanced mode or power on when the last state was in advanced mode, none of the channels are armed and the gain is reset back to 6, no matter where the gain was previously set. I'm not sure about the USB mode, why channels would be unlinked or not able to start a recording.