Topic: MicroTrak - F'in POS - Or Defective Unit?

[sickrick43]

Just got my 24/96 in from Oade...

Flashed it with 1.2.0 immediately.  Brandy-new Kingston 4GB Elite Pro card...

Must be a defective unit.  Intermittantly won't connect via USB port, when it does, it drops right offline when you try to access the device.  Backlight flickers when handling the device (loose connection, bad solder joints?).  Won't record off the spdif at ANY bitrate/depth off the V3.

Gonna call Doug in the AM and get another one shipped out.  If this is the state of the M-Audio, maybe it's not time to retire the JB3 yet.  I LOATHE to spend the $$ on the 722, but if this is the only small, lower cost option for 24 bit recording, i am NOT IMPRESSED...

Rick

[sickrick43]

Just got my 24/96 in from Oade...

Flashed it with 1.2.0 immediately.  Brandy-new Kingston 4GB Elite Pro card...

Must be a defective unit.  Intermittantly won't connect via USB port, when it does, it drops right offline when you try to access the device.  Backlight flickers when handling the device (loose connection, bad solder joints?).  Won't record off the spdif at ANY bitrate/depth off the V3.

Gonna call Doug in the AM and get another one shipped out.  If this is the state of the M-Audio, maybe it's not time to retire the JB3 yet.  I LOATHE to spend the $$ on the 722, but if this is the only small, lower cost option for 24 bit recording, i am NOT IMPRESSED...

Rick

sounds like you got a bunk one Rick. 
I'm holding off buying one until they fix two key issues for me:
   Auto split at 2 gigs
   24/96 digi in recording is stable

When/if they fix that I'm all over this little box.
   

Personally, I'd be happy with 48/24 for starters.  Was even considering picking up a pair of "stealthy" mics (much as I hate stealthing).  May even consider an IPAQ, and attempting to ressurect the PDAudioCF card that I bought from Len (which was purchased for my LapTop and never worked - thanks for staying up on those drivers Len).

Crying shame that no one has really "closed the deal" yet, and put out a box/system that actually does what it claims to do.  The JB3 is the only one that comes close, and you can be sure it wasn't Creatives intent for it to be a tapers unit...

I'll get Doug to ship me another one, and go from there.  I'd hoped to have this stable enough for my CodeTalkers run next week...

Rick

Other complaints/observations -

1 - The thing's been on "charge" for 12 hours, and still doesn't show complete.
2 - The spdif in plug doesn't have enough clearance for the nice "Monster" digi cable to fit.  Have to go with my "home made"  75 Ohm Coax cable with the Gold Ends (resurrected from my D10 Pro rig).
3 - USB/Power & spdif port are "uncomfortably close".  Then again, for such a tiny unit - I expect the connectors to be pretty jammed together.

Again, not really too impressed - but I WOULD BE if the thing just did what it claims (or just worked in the first place for that matter).  I guess I can use the 4GB cards I now own in my camera if this doesn't work out...

[sickrick43]

OK - some additional observations...

1 - USB cable that came with the unit was BAD - plugged in another new cable and it now connects to the PC fine.

2 - Didn't like my nice coax cable, but recorded 48/24 with the Monster Gold Ends cable from my VCR (go figure).

3 - Soundforge 6 doesn't like the files created with this unit.  Wavelab 5 does.  Guess I'll install SF 8 and see if that makes a difference.

So right now the only "real" issue is the flickering backlight.  I'll get Doug to ship me another.  Make (or buy) a new digi cable.

I'll go out and "field test" this unit tonight...

Rick

[Ed.]

hey rick, just be patient, i think you'll be happy in time.  the bugs just need to work themselves out.

i had no problem with my files in SF8.

good luck with your field testing.  it might be worth it to bring out the jb3 and just run a truncated signal to it for a backup.  just incase.

[BC]

agree with Ed, definitely run backup.

[rodeen]

3 - Soundforge 6 doesn't like the files created with this unit.  Wavelab 5 does.  Guess I'll install SF 8 and see if that makes a difference.

This is a known problem.  The file size listed in the WAV header is not the actual file size.  There is some extra garbage at the end of the file.  CoolEdit, Adobe Audition, will still work with the file.  Pull it into CDWave and it will offer to fix the file for you.  Definitely work-arounds available.

Good luck.  I'm taking mine to Hot F'ing Tuna tonight.

-Rick (not that one but the other one)

[JasonSobel]

3 - USB/Power & spdif port are "uncomfortably close".  Then again, for such a tiny unit - I expect the connectors to be pretty jammed together.

take a swiss army knife and shave off some of the extra plastic on the mini-USB end.  easy to do, and you can get it so that the USB and S/PDIF don't touch at all.

[F.O.Bean]

there are other options rick, the tascam HD-P2 is their new flash card writer and the marantz PMD-671 is another, already proven reliabel(somewhat), recoprder

[L Ron Hoover]

It sounds like you've just got a bum unit Rick. I couldn't be happier with mine. (running V3>MT Kingston 4GB @24/44.1-24/48)  When you get the new one, charge it before you do the firmware upgrade.


Oh yeah. Go to Rat shack and get a 90 degree RCA adapter, then you'll be able to use your fatty cable.

[ajprog]

All files recorded on my MT work fine in Soundforge 6

[bconnolly]

Oh yeah. Go to Rat shack and get a 90 degree RCA adapter, then you'll be able to use your fatty cable.

But wouldn't that defeat the entire point of using a nice cable? Running it through a crappy Radio Shack connector?

[plucks]

rick-
try getting a custom digi cable from ToddR for the MT2496.  you can get a right angle for the digi-in & should be very pleased.
it does sound like you got a problematic MT2496 tho
I recorded fine 24/48 last week digi in from V3, so dont give up your hopes yet!

CDWave does notice the header size & fixes it with no problem...Wavelab doesnt even pop an error message but it works out fine. 

[sickrick43]

Thanks for the replies folks...

Got it pretty much ironed out.  Doug is shipping me a new one (to take care of the flickering backlight).

Picked up a high quality (yeah right) 3' dubbing cable from RatShack (video & toslink - ripped the toslink cable off).
Got in 2 of the Digital Concepts LIon batt's. 
Just need to hack a mini-b 4 pin USB cable for the power & I'm set. 

Thing appears to record fine from spdif 48/24 - so this should do the trick for the soon-to-be-retired JB3.  Gonna try it out on some "throw-aways" this weekend to see how it runs.  With an Oade line-mod on the input, this would probably do very acceptable stealth jobs.  Looks like a pair of CCM4/MK4's might be in my near future...

Rick

[BC]

just FWIW-
remember to check for channel flipping, mine was flipping L-R whenever recording at 24 bit.

[spyder9]

Rick,

What exactly is the mod to the Microtrack? 

[sickrick43]

just FWIW-
remember to check for channel flipping, mine was flipping L-R whenever recording at 24 bit.

doing some more 'sperimenting...

Only flips channels 48/24, records normally at other bitrates/depth.  Also appears to record stable at 88.2/24, though filesize restictions only give you an hour at that rate/depth.  88.2 sounds like it might be interesting, though Oade seems to think anything higher than 48/24 is pretty much a waste.

I'm gonna try and run this 48/24 @ Brian Stoltz tonight, just for laughs.  Got my batteries in, got my mod'd power cable, and digi cable.  Shaved a bunch off the mini-b end of the power cable (which I soldered without burining myself - 30 years as an electronics tech, and I STILL hate to solder) to clear the RCA connector.  Doug suggests popping the cover and drilling out the spdif hole a little larger to clear the larger monster-style connectors.

Funny, he (Doug) won't do bench work anymore (and I need to find someplace to send my 3700 & D-10 Pro out to), but he's planning on mod'ing these.  Nice to have him on the order line though, - you could never get him on the phone when he was back in the shop...

Rick

Dan - I didn't get into great detail with Doug what the planned mods were.  I'd assume it's a line-input variety he's planning.  Putting better caps & a quieter IC in there would likely lower the noise floor a great deal...

[bluegrass_brad]

Funny, he (Doug) won't do bench work anymore (and I need to find someplace to send my 3700 & D-10 Pro out to), but he's planning on mod'ing these.  Nice to have him on the order line though, - you could never get him on the phone when he was back in the shop...

Have no worries. Paul at Pro-Digital will fix those decks right up for you.