Topic: New Sound Devices MixPre II-series coming?

[jerryfreak]

The Zoom comment was not a reference to comments by you at all.  There have been several bitch sessions about F series Zooms in the FB Taper Section group, primarily by people who hate Zoom no matter what the product is like. I owned and heavily used a F8 for a couple of years and now I own a 3.6 and 10T and have used the 6 heavily. I generally like both products but I can also see why Gordon was frustrated.

I have stuck with 1.53 on all my Mixpres.

There haven't been that many hardware issues as far as I know also, but one lucky guy apparently had trouble with both the series one and series two he purchased. Gordon has his hardware issue. I've read anecdotal reports of freezing from two other, reliable sources with II series (could be firmware however)

4.01 froze up my first gen mixpre. first time id ever seen that

[Gordon]

one lucky guy apparently had trouble with both the series one and series two he purchased.

I was following that thread and didn't he say both worked on AA but started having issues when using USB?  If so to me that points to a non compliant battery.

[rippleish20]

one lucky guy apparently had trouble with both the series one and series two he purchased.

I was following that thread and didn't he say both worked on AA but started having issues when using USB?  If so to me that points to a non compliant battery.

I asked a series of questions, attempting to see if he was using one thing in both cases that might have been the problem but based on his answers, he wasn't and Paul concluded at least the problem with the II was a hardware problem. With the II he was using a SD AC adapter.  And he was using a USB-c based battery when he was using a battery with the first one. I think, as we've seen, trying to use a USB-a battery is error prone, but any reasonable USB-c battery should be ok. He indicated the wattage and it was well above the requirements. There did seem to be any common thing like power supply choice, firmware version ,etc. There are a lot of potential subtleties and it's possible there was a common thing wrong in both scenarios and he wasn't reflecting it well in his answers, but it did not appear so to me.

[justme]

As I’m not using Facebook.
Would you be able to describe what kind of problems those in the group are experienceing?

If you are reading the SD FB group, others have had some interesting problems. I love the quality of my Mixpre-x recordings but am not so convinced the Mixpre-x series is in line with the traditional quality of SD products.

[aaronji]

I have stuck with 1.53 on all my Mixpres.

It's good to hear that I am not the only Luddite to stick with the venerable 1.53! After that update, I took a "wait and see" approach before installing another. The updates kept coming, so the "wait and see" period just never ended. I guess I will update when the next really stable release comes out...

[Gordon]

As I’m not using Facebook.
Would you be able to describe what kind of problems those in the group are experienceing?

If you are reading the SD FB group, others have had some interesting problems. I love the quality of my Mixpre-x recordings but am not so convinced the Mixpre-x series is in line with the traditional quality of SD products.

lots of folks with lockups and issues powering down because they didn't wait for the "copy to usb" to finish.  that is more user error than anything else. well they didn't realize it was still copying and tried to power down.

I just scrolled through a lot of post and besides my issue and the one Alan mentioned the only issue I saw was the above usb copy thing.  Believe it or not I didn't see any regarding SD write failures though I know there were in the past and most involved preroll.

[Gordon]

I have stuck with 1.53 on all my Mixpres.

It's good to hear that I am not the only Luddite to stick with the venerable 1.53! After that update, I took a "wait and see" approach before installing another. The updates kept coming, so the "wait and see" period just never ended. I guess I will update when the next really stable release comes out...

2.21 was solid.  I moved to 3.02 to fix the headphone preset issue and have had zero issues wtih it.  New mixpre 6 II came with 4.0 and I'll stick to it for now.  Tested 7 hrs yesterday without issue.

[rippleish20]

As I’m not using Facebook.
Would you be able to describe what kind of problems those in the group are experienceing?

If you are reading the SD FB group, others have had some interesting problems. I love the quality of my Mixpre-x recordings but am not so convinced the Mixpre-x series is in line with the traditional quality of SD products.

People obviously go to support forums to talk about problems they are having so a lot of it is normal confusion. There are endless threads about using USB-A cables/batteries, etc. The auto backup to USB of files also causes lots of confusion - people turn off their device and can't understand why it doesnt power down. But I have seen reports of several people seeing their devices freeze during recording and it's hard to tell if it's version two or firmware 4.01 issues. Pre-roll related issues are common, even with "fixed" firmware. One recent thread from a guy in Germany was "interesting". He bought a version one Mixpre-x and he indicated it worked ok for a while but then started locking up. He returned it and they gave him a new, version two device and he really had problems with that one. He was using the SD AC power supply and it would lock up, flash colors on startup, with or without a SD card, freeze while recording, and eventually just stopped powering up. He generally seemed to be doing reasonable things in usage power wise, etc and, at least based on his responses, there was no one thing he did wrong with both devices, but having trouble with two devices seemed odd. I have been reading the Zoom F* and Mixpre-x* threads for a while and, while people ave trouble with both sets of devices (the F* had had "white screen" issues in the past), the Mixpre-x's firmware updates sure seem to have more than their fair share of issues.

[dallman]

With any new deck that has multiple features and multiple ways of doing various functions there is a learning curve. I find all my problems are user error, but I try to experiment all the time with menus and features as this teaches me and allows me to get comfortable with each deck. (Unfortunately I am at an age though where it is easy to forget when I do not use a deck for a while  )

The up side is that I do get very comfortable with using each deck and it's features and I find the way that I like best for settings and how I will use the deck. I have not had any problems with 4.01 firmware nor any of the earlier firmwares and I think 4.01 is way better than any of the earlier firmwares, but everyone should do what they like best. I usually record 6 mics on my MixPre6 and now MixPre6II, but I record at 24/48 and now 32/48 and that sounds great to me. I mostly use Sony and Fuji 128GB cards and a few 64 gb San Disc too and have never had an issue.

There is always a risk that a new firmware will have a glitch though, but usually I am willing, sometrimes I might wait a week or two and listen to what if any complaints arise.

Regarding the USB backup feature...In my opinion this may be good for a film person or a person working long hours in the field, but for me recording shows, it is not useful. The backup is slow, it takes a very long time to copy a 6 mic 75 minute set which at 32 bit float with sampling at 48kHz is often 2 files, a great deal of data. There is no way it will copy the entire first set in the break between sets and of course no chance for copying the 2nd set before I break down (or multiple bands with even more sets).

I have never had a card failure in, so the backup would be nice, but not anything I need. It turns out that it is much easier to go home throw the card onto my PC and back it up that way. It takes a few minutes and flies through the data transfer.

I have not experienced a lockup or inability to turn off my deck while it was attempting to transfer, but I did get a 0 kb file until I asked SD about it and got their instructions and tried the backup at home. Like I said it is slow, so I will not use it, but I think it very likely that many of the issues and lockups could be from having the copy feature enabled. It is just one example of where not fully understanding the deck or the settings chosen can seriously affect the outcome.

That is one of the reasons we have these threads, so we can all learn form each others mistakes. 

[Gordon]

agree that the usb backup is of no use to us.  would be if it were actual dual record but as it is I won't be using it.

[justme]

I see.
Thanks for sharing some the user group trouble discussion.
Sound like an ordinary blend of user failures, misunderstandings and hardware/software troubles.

[WiFiJeff]

agree that the usb backup is of no use to us.  would be if it were actual dual record but as it is I won't be using it.

It's helpful to me.  The SD card is under the sled, whether you use AAs or the NP sled.  It is a pain to get the sled off and on, and I worry about the plastic or contacts breaking.  I use a 128 GB thumb drive, usually the yellow warning light switches off while I break down and stow my setup, then I stick the thumb drive directly into my computer USB to download the files.

Jeff

[jerryfreak]

As I’m not using Facebook.
Would you be able to describe what kind of problems those in the group are experienceing?

If you are reading the SD FB group, others have had some interesting problems. I love the quality of my Mixpre-x recordings but am not so convinced the Mixpre-x series is in line with the traditional quality of SD products.

lots of folks with lockups and issues powering down because they didn't wait for the "copy to usb" to finish.  that is more user error than anything else. well they didn't realize it was still copying and tried to power down.

4.01 locked up my series1 mixpre, which doesnt offer 'copy to usb' feature

[Gordon]

agree that the usb backup is of no use to us.  would be if it were actual dual record but as it is I won't be using it.

It's helpful to me.  The SD card is under the sled, whether you use AAs or the NP sled.  It is a pain to get the sled off and on, and I worry about the plastic or contacts breaking.  I use a 128 GB thumb drive, usually the yellow warning light switches off while I break down and stow my setup, then I stick the thumb drive directly into my computer USB to download the files.

Jeff

Why not just transfer via USB C? Or c to a etc? No need to take the card out to get the files on your computer.

[dogmusic]

I read somewhere that a MixPre-6 II user thought that the preamps were superior to his original MixPre-6 preamps. I know SD says the preamps are identical but I wondered if anyone with experience of both units agrees with that user’s assessment.