Topic: Microtrack Bug Report

[Brian Skalinder]

I understand you want it, but I would "not working with non-standard formats" not classify as a bug.

JasonSobel summed it up for me nicely:

Except that it was advertised that the unit would be able to record at 24/96 from all inputs, including S/PDIF.  If they say they are going to do it, and it doesn't work, than it classifies as a "bug" and not a "feature request"

I understand you want it. Recording media used to have time limitations. 60 minutes of 24/96k or 120 minutes of 24/48k is not even too bad. It is not unusual for merformers to have a break after 45-60 minutes. I would not classify it as a bug.

I'll disagree with the comment that it's not unusual for performers to have a break after 45-60min.  I can't remember the last time I saw a sub-60min set that wasn't an opening act or festival environment.  But you're right - 2 hrs at 24/48 will cover most situations.  And agreed, it's not a bug.  But it's still poor design.

If you really need these features, and you need them now, there are other solutions with a different pricetag.

Of course there are.  But I have a tough time self-justifying $2400 for a 722 to act purely as a digital recorder behind my V3.  If I needed and wanted the functionality now, I could do it with a laptop far less expensively than the 722.  I'm willing to wait to see if the MT pans out.  And if not, the next lower cost device to arrive.  Someone, sometime soon, will produce a reasonably priced 24-bit recorder that takes a 24-bit digital input and doesn't choke on 2GB files.

[BLOODYJACK]

I was under the assumtion that the 2gig limit was because of how wav files work and therfore not a bug?

[nic]

I was under the assumtion that the 2gig limit was because of how wav files work and therfore not a bug?

technically, wav files on a fat32 partition can be up to 4gb.
the problem came about when fat16 was the predominant consumer filesystem(think win95a/b and earlier).
fat16 was limited to partitions of 2gb.  the problem still surfaces today because apps are hard coded into the 2gb wav limitation, originially due to backwards compatability.

[Brian Skalinder]

I was under the assumtion that the 2gig limit was because of how wav files work and therfore not a bug?

It's the handling (or in this case non-handling) of the 2GB limit that's the issue.  The non-handling isn't a bug, since they didn't advertise it would handle the issue.  But it's still poor design.

[BLOODYJACK]

Don’t the other consumer flash recorders like the edirol and the marantz have the same 2gig limitations?

Also it looks like this company did all its firmware and the chip.
http://www.portalplayer.com/
Very consumer orientated by the look of things, this may explain the fact that they only have 16/44.1 spdif, in M-Audio’s advertising they only ever claimed SPDIF inputs and not 24/96 spdif inputs so technically they don’t have to upgrade this (naming it 24/96 refers to the internal codec’s) so Lets hope M-audio pushes them to upgrade the spdif above the consumer specs.

[cascademedia]

here is the response I got from M/Audio today:

BUGS:
-no 24bit S/PDIF   
- M/L/H switch is reversed   
- annoying glitch/pop in headphones when saving recordings, and sometimes  also when beginning recordings

ANSWER:
All three of these items – along with a bunch of other things they didn’t catch – are fixed in v1.5, which will probably be out tomorrow.

The L/M/H switch reversal was just dumb.  Apparently, the silkscreening was reversed from the T1 prototype to the T2 and mass production.  The engineers, of course, had T1 units. That has been fixed… and the engineers are now working from mass production units.


BUG:
- some sort of problem with the "first file" 

ANSWER:
This was just recently identified, and will be fixed in the next release.

BUG:

- no D/A during digital in (for monitoring)   
- no level monitoring on pause/stop   

ANSWER:

Both of these are really one thing – we don’t have input monitor mode at the moment.  That is slated for a later release.

BUG:
- unit freezing up at random   

ANSWER:
It sounds like they were using SPDIF, which is where we discovered several problems.

BUG:
- battery life seems to be falling well short of advertised life 

ANSWER:
The battery life depends greatly on how the unit is used.  Higher resolution requires more power for processing.  Different mics drain the phantom power in varied amounts.  Also, some people have thought the unit was fully powered when it wasn’t.  I’m not just trying to confuse the matter, I’m just saying there are many variables.

BUG:
- 30v max on Phantom on stead of advertised 48v   

ANSWER:

I believe our marketing mentions “Phantom Power”, but never states 48v.  We took a prototype down to an equipment rental store, and they let us go through their mic closet.  The MicroTrack provided enough power for everything we tried, from the U87 to Sennheiser shotgun mics and some esoterics.   So, is this a complaint that a mic didn’t work, or is it a complaint that the Volt-Ohm meter needle didn’t go where they wanted?

BUG:
- 2GB file limit   

ANSWER:
This is not an issue that is likely to change.  We are planning to put some safeguards in place to prevent this from causing problems.  (For instance, auto-stopping at 2GB and saving the file and offering the time remaining countdown from the lesser of the space available or 2GB.)


My take- All of this seems acceptable and its nice to see that they are stepping up quickly.  That said, I am mainly concerned with the phantom power issue and answer.   The current draw is the issue that needs to be addressed as well, but I can't see this unit powering many mics with 30volt phantom.  I would like to hear some people who have tested this give some feedback.

I will continue to keep you all updated and pass along feedback.

Frank

[cascademedia]

after I posted this I had a chat with them and made mention of an auto-split feature.    they said that it was a do-able fix so its not a dead issue.   more to come.

[Brian Skalinder]

after I posted this I had a chat with them and made mention of an auto-split feature.    they said that it was a do-able fix so its not a dead issue.   more to come.

Shoot, I don't even care if it's auto-split - pressing a button to make it happen would be fine for open taping.  But don't tell them that - keep 'em thinking auto-split. 

[John Kelly]

Yet another +T to Frank.  Can't wait for the release tomorrow.

[udovdh]

BUG:
- 2GB file limit   

ANSWER:
This is not an issue that is likely to change.  We are planning to put some safeguards in place to prevent this from causing problems.  (For instance, auto-stopping at 2GB and saving the file and offering the time remaining countdown from the lesser of the space available or 2GB.)

Thanks you for passing along the bugs to M-Audio but their 2GB reply is really unacceptable.
No `auto-open new file` makes the device a nono for everything above 44.1/16 which would nullify the '2496' name tag.

For the battery life they do not state how one can get close to 8 hours (asked support about the conditions, got no reply).

Vague.

[JasonSobel]

thanks Frank for keeping in touch with M-Audio, and acting as a laison from our community.  I'm looking forward to the 24-bit S/PDIF, very much so.

I think we should keep on pushing for either the auto-start next file at 2 Gigs, or at least be able to start a new file seamlessly with the push of a button.  That is a critical point, IMO.

it is nice to see that M-Audio is serious about getting new firmware versions released.  Hopefully it will be a frequent thing and everything will get resolved sooner rather than later

[John Kelly]

Thanks you for passing along the bugs to M-Audio but their 2GB reply is really unacceptable.
No `auto-open new file` makes the device a nono for everything above 44.1/16 which would nullify the '2496' name tag.

For the battery life they do not state how one can get close to 8 hours (asked support about the conditions, got no reply).

Vague.

after I posted this I had a chat with them and made mention of an auto-split feature.    they said that it was a do-able fix so its not a dead issue.   more to come.

[Colin Liston]

BUGS:
-no 24bit S/PDIF   
- M/L/H switch is reversed   
- annoying glitch/pop in headphones when saving recordings, and sometimes  also when beginning recordings

BUG:
- some sort of problem with the "first file" 


BUG:

- no D/A during digital in (for monitoring)   
- no level monitoring on pause/stop   



BUG:
- unit freezing up at random   


BUG:
- battery life seems to be falling well short of advertised life 



BUG:
- 30v max on Phantom on stead of advertised 48v   


BUG:
- 2GB file limit   

Answer:

Keep your JB3's

[cascademedia]

I bet there were bugs in the JB3 when it came out...

and when was the last firmware  update from Creative? 

[MoFo2]

If I can record 2-3 hrs at 16bit (CD-quality) and not be afraid of the battery running out or the device locking for no reason, that's enough for me to change from Jb3. So... it's actually just a smaller JB3!1!!

MoFo2