Topic: New firmware for 7XX recorders

[Crumbo]

this is nice:

fixed - high-pass filter clipping

Anyone tested that one?  I'll believe it is fixed when I hear it

cranked the stereo at home today with the hpf set at 80/12 with the gain cranked, hitting the last red light many times and had no nasty clicks that we got before

ymmv

[boojum]

I am quite comfortable using 2.34 for any purpose.  I do not run it hot though, up to the "red" zone.  At 24 bit I leave plenty of headroom and take up the slack after I finish the pre work, then I normalize it to get the levels as high as they can go without clipping.  YMMV

[F.O.Bean]

I am quite comfortable using 2.34 for any purpose.  I do not run it hot though, up to the "red" zone.  At 24 bit I leave plenty of headroom and take up the slack after I finish the pre work, then I normalize it to get the levels as high as they can go without clipping.  YMMV

same here. I 'change gain' in WL 5.0 rather than normalize because I can customize the levels a bit more, but def the same concept I usually peak at -6db or so and add the rest of the gain to get near 0db in post

2.34 has been rock solid for me too the 2 shows(5 sets) I have recorded to WAV with it Im gonna get the balls to try writing to FLAC on tues for YMSB FLAC really has no benefit for me until I do another festival, but I'm just anxious/excited to try it out

[it-goes-to-eleven]

cranked the stereo at home today with the hpf set at 80/12 with the gain cranked, hitting the last red light many times and had no nasty clicks that we got before

Sweet!  The fix was taking so long it looked like some hardware limitation was preventing a solution.

[boojum]

I programmed computers for 20+ years and I have to tell you that all software is buggy.  Some software is more buggy than other software, though. 

[F.O.Bean]

OK, the last few days I have been running EXTENSIVE FLAC recording tests to mainly see if it would hiccup recording to flac or to see if there was considerable battery drain recording to FLAC on the cf card. I have been recording NONSTOP to the INHDD with FLAC to see if it would hiccup on a file and have to start a new one or anything. After MANY hrs of recording to the INHDD with FLAC, I havent noticed ANY failures, altho I havent listened to any oof it(listening to 60hrs of recordings isnt gonna happen). And recording to my 8GB cf card was also flawless.

The one thing that I dont like about recording to flac is, the numbers telling you how much recording time on both teh cf card+INHDD are WAY OFF. The 722 reads 16hrs recording time on my 8GB cf card, but this is WAY OFF. I imagine I could prolly get around 12 hrs recording FLAC to my cf card, but I doubt nomore than that. I wish SD would surely fix this so we can calculate how much recording time we ACTUALLY have left on tehd rives, instead of a roundabout number. I am recording to teh CF Card in FLAC right now to see how much recording time I can ACTUALLY get. The 8GB CF Card starts out reading 16hrs recording time, and now it reads 13hrs:53mins, and there is actually 1hr18mins recorded to teh 722. Thats WAY OFF. But, other than that, everything has been running smoothly. This issue DEFINITELY needs to be brought up to SD, and granted, if I can save 3-4 hrsd record time, thats better than nothing, but the counter shouldnt read 16hrs of record time/space if I realistically dont have NEAR that much, ya know?

Anyone else record to flac and notice this? Come on, and I and Boojum the ONLY ones to try this out and give a review Well, there goes getting 32hrs of record time with just (2) 8GB CF Cards I will also test out transfer speeds too.....

[Teen Wolf Blitzer]

I myself have been enjoying writing to all 3.  INT, EXT and CF.  Have been doing it since August and not one error yet.  Lovin the 7 series.  Really don't have a use for the direct to flac record as I have a 500 GB ext. and I never use batteries.

[boojum]

FLAC -  transfer times are the same as for a file of that size in another format.  Windows does not care the format but the size.  IO will check the SD board to see if anyone has posted a problem with FLAC times being wrong on the CF card.

<later>  Nope, nothing on the SD support board.   You may want to tell them:  http://www.sounddevicessupport.com/index.php

[F.O.Bean]

FLAC -  transfer times are the same as for a file of that size in another format.  Windows does not care the format but the size.  IO will check the SD board to see if anyone has posted a problem with FLAC times being wrong on the CF card.

<later>  Nope, nothing on the SD support board.   You may want to tell them:  http://www.sounddevicessupport.com/index.php

Thanks alot bro. I am writing to my 8GB CF Card right now and will see what I can come up with after the card is full so I can see how long it actually recorded. I am SURE its not the WHOLE 16hrs it says is available when I format the card and its fresh. MAYBE actually wrote 12hrs or so in FLAC out of teh 16hrs it says it can record. I am not bitching really, because 4 more hrs per 8GB card is better than NO extra recording time, but I would just like the copunter to say so accordingly, ya know?

Boojum, what size CF Card do you have did you record until your cf card was full and see how long it actually recorded in real-time you shoudl try it. I knwo it sounds like a PITA, but its now. just record the tv a few nights and put your gear right inf ront of it, just format your cf card and set it to record to flac on the CF Card(because while writing to FLAC, you can only choose ONE (1) recording medium. its EITHER CF Card or INHDD or EXHDD, no combination of the 3) so yeah, just get it so your cf card is formatted and 100% fresh and set the 7xx to flac and let her rip. then go back to the cf card after its empty and see how many 2hr:20min files you have. I can almost GUARANTEE that your card does the same thing. I bet it reads 16hrs(if you have an 8GB cf card) and once you actually record to teh card and let it fil itself up, taht you only have about 12hrs of actual record time on it. PLEASE do this for me/all of us, so we can see if this is an isolated incident or if its widespread and they have to do a firmware fix

TIA,
Bean

[boojum]

Bean (AKA Dr. Science)  -   

OK, I will try recording FLAC to my CF.  I have a 4GB card: four hours of WAV and s/b eight hours of FLAC.  I will xfer off the flanked omnis set and run the recorder to the CF and let you, and the world of science, know.

Cheers

[orechall]

ran two shows with the new firmware and no issues at all...but I still record to wav. 

[dennisrtyler]

ran two shows with the new firmware and no issues at all...but I still record to wav. 

::cough:: reset ::cough::

[F.O.Bean]

OK, after running tests on my 8GB CF Card writing to FLAC, I BARELY got over 9hrs of actual recording, while the counter on the cf card once the cf card is formatted reads 16hrs of recording. I think a letter to SD is in order........So what my tests have shown me is this: recording to FLAC is ABSOLUTELY USELESS AT THE MOMENT. I BARELY got better recording times than I do writing to WAV. The 50% space reduction is NOWHERE NEAR accurate Liek I said, I BARELY got 9-10hrs of recording writing to FLAC on my 8GB CF Card. I SHOULD HAVE gotten enar 16hrs recording to FLAC on my 8GB CF Card.

Also, another HUGE DOWNFALL recording to FLAC is battery drain. I had a FULLY CHARGED 6000mah 722 battery when i ran my last test writing FLAC to my 8GB CF Card, and I ONLY GOT 2hrs and 40mins on the card written because my battery died after ONLY 2hrs 40mins That is FREAKIN HORRIBLE IMO. I NORMALLY get about 7hrs SAFELY when writing WAV to JUST my 8GB CF Card. So I saved next to ZERO recording space recording to FLAC and I DRAINED my 6000mah battery only 2hrs 40mins. DEFINITELY not wortyh it recording to FLAC on the 7-series ANYTIME SOON.

Has ANYONE besides myself and Boojum run any tests to see if this is JUST on my end, or if SD has ALOT of work to do with their on-the-fly flac encoding/writing as a realistic option? Like I have said previously, I could really care less if SD ever gets the flac recording bugs worked out, because my 722 has been ROCK SOLID and 100% RELIABLE while recording WAV to both my 8GB CF Card+INHDD, so I am a HAPPY TAPIR just having it write WAVS reliably to my cf card/inhdd. It would be sweet if they could wrinkle out the flac bugs so if you needed that extra 50% reduction in record space in a pinch, it would be there, but I am not going to whine and cry about it, thats for sure. I simply will buck up and get another CF Card, and since theyre SOOOO cheap nowadays, then that is def the option we will have to go with our 7-series. I just wanted to run these tests to see if flac recording was there for me if/when I needed it. IM VERY GLAD I ran these tests first, because if I went to use the flac recording option in a pinch and got SCREWED because it simply doesnt save 50% of your space, not to mention the HUGE battery drain it has on the batteries, I would have been PISSED. I not only wouldnt have gotten the whole show show due to running out of cf card space recording in FLAC, I would also have been BUMMED when my battery ran out after only 2.5hrs of recording So for that reason alone, Im glad I ran those tests. I am not done yet either. I will continue to do these flac tests until i go thru ALL (4) of my 722 batteries and get consistent results TWICE with every battery I am thorough to say the least

I would be HAPPY to hear from anyone else recording to FLAC and to hear their test results to see if this is an isolated incident with my 722, or if this is a widespread problem and if SD should be notified

Bean

[JD]

OK, after running tests on my 8GB CF Card writing to FLAC, I BARELY got over 9hrs of actual recording, while the counter on the cf card once the cf card is formatted reads 16hrs of recording. I think a letter to SD is in order........

A little over 1 hour a GB. That doesn't seem right. That's close to the same size as a 24/48 wav file not?
I would have thought Flac would give you more run time then that.

[boojum]

OK, after running tests on my 8GB CF Card writing to FLAC, I BARELY got over 9hrs of actual recording, while the counter on the cf card once the cf card is formatted reads 16hrs of recording. I think a letter to SD is in order........

Strange.  I am going to run my on the 4GB CF tonight.  I would think I would get twice the amount of recorded time for the same bit depth/sampling rate as WAV.  I will try it at 16/44.1 for the first test and then try it at 24/48. 

L8R