Topic: Microtrack 24/96 1.3.3

[alienbobz]

I think everyone has that "problem" with the available recording time. I think either way (s/pdif or trs) you should be able to get 9 hours at 16/44.1 even if the available recording time screen says 4 hours. When you are recording, does it say 3 hours? That should be the right time for 16/44.1 (3 hours @ 16/44.1 = 2 GB).

Ok I just wanted to make sure it wasn't an isolated problem (sorry... i try to keep up on all the quirks but I miss a few).

So the time remaining on the recording screen is the time remaining for that file and if you start a new file, that counter will reset?

Yeah the time is for that one file. If you stop the recording and start a new one, the time should reset itself. Either it will be another 2GB or if will be the space left (if you have less than 2GB left on your card, it will show the time remaining for the bit/sample rate you are using).

Edit: Did you use the new firmware last night? How did it go? I plan on using it on Thursday.

I did use the new firmware and it worked great.  Didn't run at 24/48 like I wanted to just because I didn't want to fuck up and miss some of the headliner's set.

That is good to know. Did you have a dummy.wav file on your card? I have had a dummy file since December just so I don't have that timing issue. I know that it said it is fixed now via the firmware, but I haven't deleted it yet.

[bconnolly]

I think everyone has that "problem" with the available recording time. I think either way (s/pdif or trs) you should be able to get 9 hours at 16/44.1 even if the available recording time screen says 4 hours. When you are recording, does it say 3 hours? That should be the right time for 16/44.1 (3 hours @ 16/44.1 = 2 GB).

Ok I just wanted to make sure it wasn't an isolated problem (sorry... i try to keep up on all the quirks but I miss a few).

So the time remaining on the recording screen is the time remaining for that file and if you start a new file, that counter will reset?

Yeah the time is for that one file. If you stop the recording and start a new one, the time should reset itself. Either it will be another 2GB or if will be the space left (if you have less than 2GB left on your card, it will show the time remaining for the bit/sample rate you are using).

Edit: Did you use the new firmware last night? How did it go? I plan on using it on Thursday.

I did use the new firmware and it worked great.  Didn't run at 24/48 like I wanted to just because I didn't want to fuck up and miss some of the headliner's set.

That is good to know. Did you have a dummy.wav file on your card? I have had a dummy file since December just so I don't have that timing issue. I know that it said it is fixed now via the firmware, but I haven't deleted it yet.

I didn't have a dummy file on the drive.  I think you should be ok without one with this firmware.

[udovdh]

as others have mentioned, the auto-split featute doesn't really meet our needs.  it only took 5-9 seconds to stop a file and start a new one anyway, so nothing has changed.  myself, I'm never going to let it autosplit, because it might happen during a song.  I'm going to continue to do it manually, so that I know the split will happen between songs.  I guess it's a step in the right direction, but it really does need to be seamless...

Amen! This is exactly what I mean.
So everybody, please contact M-Audio to tell them we need seamless 2GB splits.
What good are teh 2GB/4GB+/SPDIF fixes if we loose a few seconds of audio every 2GB?
It is like the electricity company, they get paid for avoiding breaks in the power. No blackouts.

[Vismars]

Did you observe any changes of the noise due to the new firmware?

[jtessier]

But please don't expect too much from the Portal Player platform.  As I mentioned before, I seriously doubt the CPU has nearly enough power to seamlessly flush the buffers, close the file, open a new file, and write to the new buffer all at the same time... 

I couldn't agree more. I would not expect seemless splits either.  This is after all a playform designed around playing MP3 files essentially.

J.T.

[JackoRoses]

is this thing doing 24/96 via spdif reliably yet? Or is everyone still using it 24/48 only?

[JasonSobel]

is this thing doing 24/96 via spdif reliably yet? Or is everyone still using it 24/48 only?

in my testing (admittingly limited testing), the 24/96 is just as reliable as the 24/48 via S/PDIF.  However, the reasons that I'm still running 24/48 are the following:
I don't own an 8 gig CF card yet.  On my 4 gig card, that's only 2 hours at 24/96, not enough for a whole show.  but with the 4 gig card, the 4 hours I get when running 24/48 is enough for a whole show.  sometime in the fairly near future, I'll probably get an 8 gig card, as those prices are dropping.  on the other hand, the longer I wait, the cheaper the 8 gig cards will be

the second issue is the non-seamless 2 GB file size limit.  at 24/96, that's every hour.  when running at 24/48, I've got 2 hours of continuous record time.  sometime in the 2 hours, I can usually find a good place to break and only miss crowd between songs.  but I might not have that option every hour.  so until that issue is resolved, I'm going to continue to run at 24/48.  another great thing would be the ability to run dual-mono files.  that would basically double the time before the 2 gig file size limit is reached.

so to sum up, I'm pretty sure that 24/96 is reliable over S/PDIF, it's just not practical yet, due to the 2 gig file size limit.

[OFOTD]

So has anyone tested the auto-split yet?  Is it cutting out that 5-10 seconds for sure or does it possibly buffer those seconds?

[Trevor A]

I wonder if the mono recording feature is the first step
toward a dual mono implimentation, since there is the gap
with the autosplit. Or hopefully they'll just be able to do
seemless autosplitting in the next firmware update...

[Ed.]

late to this thread, just putting in a comment so i can follow along.

[natas43]

I'm new here, too, and just bought a micro track today.  The place I bought it from was adamant that I cannot use a CF card bigger than 2gb.  I see mentioned here that people are using a 4gb+ card....is that true?  I need to be able to record for 3 hours continuously in wav format. 

Also, once the file gets to 2gb, it stops recording then restarts after 7 seconds?  Is this true?  If so, should I stop taping at a crowd break after a set period?  Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

[svenkid]

I'm new here, too, and just bought a micro track today.  The place I bought it from was adamant that I cannot use a CF card bigger than 2gb.  I see mentioned here that people are using a 4gb card....is that true?  I need to be able to record for 3 hours continuously in wav format. 

Also, once the file gets to 2gb, it stops recording then retsarts after 7 seconds?  Is this true?  If so, should I stop taping at a crowd break after a set period?  Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

most people on here use 4g cards or higher. I use a kingston 4g 45x card. I hear of people using 6g microdrives as well. and definately, if youre coming up on the 2 g limit, and there is a pause in the music, or setbreak, start a new track.

[JasonSobel]

  is there a recommended way to reset the mt when it hangs like this?  pulling the drive is definitely not good for it or the mt. 

if you just hold the power button, for maybe 15 or 20 seconds, it'll shut off.

[natas43]

I'm new here, too, and just bought a micro track today.  The place I bought it from was adamant that I cannot use a CF card bigger than 2gb.  I see mentioned here that people are using a 4gb card....is that true?  I need to be able to record for 3 hours continuously in wav format. 

Also, once the file gets to 2gb, it stops recording then retsarts after 7 seconds?  Is this true?  If so, should I stop taping at a crowd break after a set period?  Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

most people on here use 4g cards or higher. I use a kingston 4g 45x card. I hear of people using 6g microdrives as well. and definately, if youre coming up on the 2 g limit, and there is a pause in the music, or setbreak, start a new track.

Again...I just bought the thing, and it hasn't been delivered yet so if my questions seem stupid, I don't even have the unit to try!!! 

Will  the screen tell me when I am approaching the 2gb limit?  Does the microdrive work like the CF?  And if so, on average, how long can I record at the maximum wav quality settings on a 6 gb microdrive?  Thanks again!!!

[OFOTD]

alrighty everybody, I ran 1.3.3 on Saturday and Sunday night, here's my experience.    I used two empty 6gb hitachi/apple microdives over the course of the weekend, recording spdif in @ 24/48.  m20>jk labs>psp2>v3>mt.  all three bands I recorded came out fine, no issues whatsoever.  the mt read the drives as 6 gb's available on both cards and time remaining was correct also.  i started a new file via the double click of the record button and the time remaining updated accordingly then also. (~1:55). 

the only issue I found with the firmware was during playback, but I think this was due to user error.  hell, it may have been covered already, I dunno.  on the way home saturday I was listening to the show and hit the record button, trying to stop the recording, since I don't know how to stop a file from playing back.  the input was set to spdif in and it started recording, but the timer never started since there was no spdif signal present.  i then tried to save the recording, and the mt hung up at the "writing file" screen.  i could navigate through the menus, but when I tried to shut down it would give me an error message saying that "shutdown cannot occur until file is written" (paraphrasing).  Since I was tired and not really with it, and didn't want to lose the files already on the microdrive by fucking with the box,  I just put it in my bag and let it shut down by itself when the battery died.  the next day I woke up and plugged it in, all the files were there, plus the 0 byte file I "recorded" the night before.  I re-enacted the same thing and when the mt hung up I just removed the microdrive.  this immediately shut the unit off.  is there a recommended way to reset the mt when it hangs like this?  pulling the drive is definitely not good for it or the mt. 

Tim, did you use the autosplit feature?  Did it leave a 5-10 gap in music or did it buffer that transition time?