Topic: Microtrack Bug Report

[Simp-Dawg]

just tested mine, if the hold switch is on, pressing the power button gives the message "HOLD switch is on"
however, if I hold down the power switch for about 10 seconds, the unit will shut off (this is the same amount of time needed to shut off the unit after it has frozen).

yeah i meant if i hold it down...not likely to be a big problem for me as i don't stealth (yet ) but if something gets stuck up against the MT and holds the power button down it will turn off.  try it...

[mikey10123]

I finally got my 4gb cf card yesterday, so I was able to take the MT with me tonight to a show.  From this, I can confirm at least two bugs, and maybe a third.

1.  Meters (not peak level bars though) stop being displayed after a time.  They came back after a while longer, though.

2.  Simultaneously, I had no control over record levels on the MT, it was as though the level buttons did nothing.  In other words, turning up the record volume had no effect on the record level being reported by the meters.  I'm not sure if that ever came back, as I didn't try to monkey with the levels after the opening act.

3.  Also, and I'm not sure this is a bug per se, but from a programmer's point of view it's definitely sloppy code - the MT *hates* it if you change sample rate while you've got a file on record/pause.  That broke bad and had to be rebooted before anything would work again, and it left a corrupt, uncopyable file and a "tmp" folder on my cf card.  I hope a format will get rid of all that; I presume it will.

Hope that's useful...I know the first two have been reported already.

[tightglobes]

firmware update is available at m-audio - fyi.

here's the link:
http://m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers

[fuzn]

just tested mine, if the hold switch is on, pressing the power button gives the message "HOLD switch is on"
however, if I hold down the power switch for about 10 seconds, the unit will shut off (this is the same amount of time needed to shut off the unit after it has frozen).

yeah i meant if i hold it down...not likely to be a big problem for me as i don't stealth (yet ) but if something gets stuck up against the MT and holds the power button down it will turn off.  try it...

This is a HUGE problem for me. My first experience ever with this thing, I lost a entire set because the power button got stuck in with the hold button on. For some reason, if I push the power button in and it gets pushed down, it'll stay stuck! So this is the biggest problem ever for me right now. I don't want to open the thing up, but I don't know if I have a choice.

[udovdh]

From this, I can confirm at least two bugs, and maybe a third.

If they are also present in the latest firmware, just report them with enough info (how to reproduce them) via the link near the firmware.

[plucks]

i just had a weird one after last nite.
I had NO problems starting it up or anything like that, but in both sets at exactly 598,281kB file size it would stop recording!!??  I found that extremely strange to have it happen twice with the exact same file sizes.
I am using the Dane-Elec card.  It would start back up immediately when i hit record tho. 

Fortunately i was running backup DAT so i can splice it, but how bizzare. 
oh yeah...this file size was at 16/44.1 which is 57:34 time

[udovdh]

Fortunately i was running backup DAT so i can splice it, but how bizzare. 
oh yeah...this file size was at 16/44.1 which is 57:34 time

Latest firmware?
I could try and see if I can reproduce that?

[Simp-Dawg]

i've had problems the last 2 nights at mule...
MT records first set no problems.  stop recording, left it turned on through set break.
second set, start recording and it freezes.
shut down, restart, no luck, froze again.
shut down, pull out cf card, replace, restart.  freeze.
tried external power, frozen again on record.
todd got it to work briefly the first night on external power, but it froze and shut itself down after a couple minutes.
any idea if the firmware will fix it?  i'm gonna do it anyways...

[JasonSobel]

with the new firmware, it says:

New Items:
   - S/PDIF is enhanced to 24-bit/48kHz, and is more reliable

with the old firmware, I had also experienced the freezing when I went to record via S/PDIF  in about 5 or 6 recording tests today, the unit hasn't frozen on me yet.  granted, time will tell how reliable it actually is.  but at this point, the S/PDIF does seem more stable with the new firmware.

[BC]

i just had a weird one after last nite.
I had NO problems starting it up or anything like that, but in both sets at exactly 598,281kB file size it would stop recording!!??  I found that extremely strange to have it happen twice with the exact same file sizes.
I am using the Dane-Elec card.  It would start back up immediately when i hit record tho. 

Fortunately i was running backup DAT so i can splice it, but how bizzare. 
oh yeah...this file size was at 16/44.1 which is 57:34 time

Could you try a different flash card? Strange that it would stop at exactly the same (and relatively small) file size each time.

FWIW someone else posted that his friend was having problems with his dane-elec card also.

[tonyvt]

My new Microtrack is unable to provide sufficient phantom power to my MBHO 603's.
I was able to send phantom power to my buddies Neumann 184's and have determined that
the phantom power is operable on my Microtrack.

Has anyone been able to power MBHO's with their Microtrack?

[eric.B]

Silent Mark updated his firmware on the MT2496 today, after running it on the shipped firmware a few times for gigs at 16/44.1(v3>MT and modsbm1>MT).  His MT (at 16/44) ran just fine on a Kingston 4gig CF for all the shows.  Loaded fine to the HD blah blah blah
..  allthough our opinion of the level meters is marginal (slow, not accurate), the unit appears to be a DAT replacement (so far)..  which is good!   

__concerns at 16 bit via spdf with this unit__

Allthough our opinion of the level meters is marginal (slow, not accurate), the unit appears to be a DAT replacement (so far)..  which is good!   
Im also not sure what the red clip lights mean on the MT..  They will flash even though the v3 has not clipped..   
One last issue we had was the need to reboot the unit upon every recording session.  Run a set, stop/save file, hit record button for second set and freeze..   So it goes..  Run a set, stop/save file, shutdown, power up, start recording..  not that big of a deal.. 

thats pretty much all the issues that weve seen with the MT(mind you, just running spdf)

__updated firmware__

Smark and I are sitting here right now running a 24/48 (v3>spdf> MT2496) of just ambient sound..  its at about the 30 minute mark and it still says its recording data.  The level meters, however, are not functioning correctly.  It appears that the right channel peak meters sort of work (verry slow), but the overall bar shoots to peak with every ambient spike(handclap).  The left channel, on the other hand, has the same peak meter slowness ( ),however the bar is full on (clipping, but with no red light) and only dissapears when there is enough ambient sound to make the right channel spike.  Basically it appears that the bar meter on the left channel is reverse of the right channel(so right now, right channel nothing, left channel full).  Like I said, the little peak meters operate on both channels(albiet with a very slow response time).

as of right now..  neither of us like the meters one diddlydang bit on this unit..   

btw ..  the recording is now at the 56 minutes in, and appears to still be recording.. same level issues..

edit..  typos crossposted here...  http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=51241.msg673321#msg673321

[Simp-Dawg]

rec time available on a 4gb card set to 16bits with the new firmware shows only 03:01:59 which is not correct.  maybe i'll test it out to see how much time i can get.

[jbraveman]

i just had a weird one after last nite.
I had NO problems starting it up or anything like that, but in both sets at exactly 598,281kB file size it would stop recording!!??  I found that extremely strange to have it happen twice with the exact same file sizes.
I am using the Dane-Elec card.  It would start back up immediately when i hit record tho. 

Fortunately i was running backup DAT so i can splice it, but how bizzare. 
oh yeah...this file size was at 16/44.1 which is 57:34 time

I had *exactly* the same problem exept I was using a hitachi 4gb microdrive. I was trying 16/48 via the spdif input.  I have not retried again with the new firmware.

[eric.B]

rec time available on a 4gb card set to 16bits with the new firmware shows only 03:01:59 which is not correct.  maybe i'll test it out to see how much time i can get.

found that when you set the analog in stats ( bit rate, freq) in the menu.. it gives you the correct time and still records spdf..   and while recording via spdf, the time is correct if you set the analog stats..   setting the unit to "auto" give you an incorrect time at both 16 and 24 bit.