It wasn't marketed as a beta product and that is what it is. Given the number of bugs, I expected more fixes by now.
Please detail the
showstopping bugs of which you're aware. Beta schmeta, call it what you wish. The reality is that companies of all sorts release highly complex technological devices before they're perfect. It helps stimulate the market and plenty of early adopters are happy they do so. If it works reasonably well - and IME it does - then it doesn't matter what you call it.
You're obviously not an early adopter. Instead of getting so wound up about how companies like M-Audio *should* act - esecially since there's nothing you can do to change it - why not just let it go? We've heard the moaning about releasing it too early, etc. before, and frankly, it's tiresome. If it doesn't perform as you wish, wait for M-Audio to fix the problems about which you care, or get another device. Ahhhh, it seems you have the 722 already. Does it suit your purposes? Excellent. (I'm sure *it* didn't have any probelms when it came out.)
Well, for ~$2,000 less than the 722 I'm now recording at 24-bit without compromising the pre/ADC of my preference. I, for one, am glad they released it "too early".
Why should anyone have to figure out input levels?
The MT's level meters prove stable for roughly 10-25min. That's more than enough time to set levels for most people's purposes. Sure, it's a bug, but not a showstopper.
Why can't the vendor document the gain?
It's a consumer device, despite marketers' suggestions to the contrary. Consumer-level users generally are not concerned with such specific matters - if they can plug a mic into it and have it work reasonably well, they're all set. Do what everyone else does if you have questions not covered by the documentation - write M-Audio tech support.
Why should I have to spend hours measuring gain?
You shouldn't, that's why tech support exists. But most users - and tapers make up a tiny, insignificant percentage of their market base - don't care specifically how much gain each L/M/H stage adds. They plug it in, and if it records in any one of those settings, they're happy. If you don't want to test the gain for yourself, call them. If they still don't address the question, escalate it to a supervisor. If you don't receive the answer and you're unhappy with their support model and the device, then move along to something else. This is how the market functions. Moaning doesn't accomplish anything.
Fortunately, I've only been using it for analog. If I was having the lockups and random channel swaps that the digi users complain about, I'd be really pissed!
I've encountered neither channel swaps (hardly a showstopper, anyway) nor lockups while recording. This device is not as utterly unstable and useless due to showstopping bugs as everyone seems to think.
The R-1 seems to be a Much Much more solid product. As far as I know, it didn't have so many issues when released. But the way things look, I don't think Edirol is doing any dev work on it. I doubt it will ever support 2 gig splits, etc. I'd also guess there are already more MTs in the world than R-1.
For the taper market, anyway, they serve two different purposes: one primarily as a stealth analog-in recorder, the other as an analog-in recorder, but more importantly a bit-bucket. The reason it seems more tapers have bought MTs than R1s is because of the digi-in capabilities, IMO. That's why *I* have it, and I suspect plenty of others as well.
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Topic: Poll: Are you sorry you bought A Microtrack? (Read 18678 times)