Hey everyone..... I'm back with the same issue on my Soundfield. All the backstory information is in this thread....
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,105664.0.htmlThat was about customer service at Sound Field, this is more specific to the problem I'm having, so I thought I should start a new thread.
Where I am today....I received the unit last week and tested it on Saturday, this is the replacement mic and preamp that I used in Las Vegas that worked perfectly. The unit started locking up again after about 1-2 minutes now, so it's much quicker than before. After switching settings on the 744 a few different ways (sample rate, bit depth, poly wav, mono wav, etc) and going from B Format to the 744 and Stereo to the 744, no changes, it continued to lock up. I noticed when the deck locked up channel 1 would always seem to peak as if the channel was overloading, that's when the deck would lock up. So I thought to try channels 3 and 4 only going line in from the 350 preamp. The deck recorded fine for 30 minutes or so, no issues. Promising news...we're getting somewhere. I then went back to the 1&2 channels to see if it would lock up again, and it did after 3 minutes or so. The only way to get the rig working together was to power down both the 744 and the 350. So now I know it's specific to channels 1 & 2 only.
So now I'm thinking I've got a voltage issue. The only difference between the deck and preamp I used in Las Vegas was the battery supply they gave me. Using my own batteries the deck locks. However Soundfield said they tested the battery sled and cable I bought from them (but not my actual batteries) and said everything worked fine. These are the same Lion type batteries you'd find in a 7xx series. So thinking it was a voltage issue of some sort and because channel one locked up when the signal in it seamed to peak I decided to enable the limiter just to see what happened. The limiter seemed to resolve the issue. I ran at 2 hours of a test file Sun am and it was fine, then I taped Wilco last night, again with the limiter enabled, and again no problems.
So what's the take here? Is there a possibility there's some distinct voltage issue specific to my 744 and the 350 that can be causing this? It should also be noted this same issue happened on a 722 I borrowed. What effect would the limiter have on the recording that mitgh prevent whatever's making my deck lock up from happening?
Help is always appreciated. I guess the good news is, I have a band aid, but I still don't know what the problem is. For the record I emailed Soundfield and talked to Sound Devices to make them both aware. At this point I'm going to go to Sound Devices since it seems like an issue with the deck, but is related to the 350 preamp. I think I can justify that logic by saying running channels 3&4 line in wiith or without the limiter worked perfectly.