MicroTrack 24/96 Beta 1.2.3

[bagtagsell]

I guess most of us are too young, to have tape flipped... But I was getting into the scene when that was an issue.  IMO this is a lot easier.  I had this phish tape that was split in the middle of a raging whipping post jam...

[anhisr]

I am moving my DATs to DVD using the Microtrack.  I am using a SV-3700 into the  MT.  After I updated I noticed that the Microtrack will not start until I hit play on the SV-3700.  Use to be I would let one or two seconds go by before I started the tape.  Now it stays at zero on the timmer when there is no levels.  Soon as I start the tape the timmer and recording starts up.   Kind of like a stealth pause.

[Scooter]

could be that the panasonic doesn't put out a continous clock signal.  As in when it's not playing, there's no sync output that the MT can lock to.  The MT needs to lock to something to record...

[anhisr]

On the old drivers it worked the old way.  With the new drivers the new stealth pause.  Something changed. 

[it-goes-to-eleven]

The jb3 is the same way.  If there is no digital signal, it does not bother storing the silence.

That once helped me quickly find an AES cable problem at a show..

[Scooter]

On the old drivers it worked the old way.  With the new drivers the new stealth pause.  Something changed. 

No doubt something has changed, I was speculating on why it's behaving like it is.  The updated firmware must be more picky about syncing before recording.

[anhisr]

It does not stop the recording at the end of the A-time, pause or stop on the DAT.  Only at the begining of recording the file on the MT. 

[jtessier]

Sorry, I wasn't clear.  The counter issue is not merely a reporting issue.  The recorder actually stops when the falsely reported timer countdown reaches zero.  Sure, I suppose if there was an auto-split, it would automatically start a new file at that point whether it had reached 2GB or not, but...IMO it makes more sense to fix the obvious, fairly fundamental bugs first, then implement new functionality.

The issue here appears to be that the Microtrack does not properly recognize volumes over a certain size. Maybe it's 5GB, definitely 6GB volumes are not handled properly. 4GB volumes, Microdrives included, do not have this problem. As a workaround, I've found that if you copy 2 GB's of data to a 6GB Hitachi Microdrive (or make a 2GB recording on it) the problem goes away. If you use the method of making a dummy recording to fill the space, what you can do is as soon as you've made a couple of 'real' recordings, enough to take up another 2GB of space, you can just bring up the 'dummy' file on the Microtrack and delete it, thereby freeing up that space for yet another 'real' 2GB recording.  Until that first 2GB of space is 'used up', the Microtrack thinks it's dealing with a 2GB volume and will limit your recording time accordingly (in other words if you have the first 500MB of space used up it will only allow recording a 1.5GB (2GB - 1.5GB = 500MB). At least that's my experience.

J.T.

[Brian Skalinder]

4GB volumes, Microdrives included, do not have this problem.

My experience with two different MTs and CF cards (both 4GB, Kingston Elite Pro 45x) indicates it's still a problem - for me.  I've not yet tested on 1.2.3, but I had the problem on 1.1.5 and 1.2.0.  I hope 1.2.3 fixes it - I rarely see performances longer than 2hrs at a stretch, so if the latest firmware allows the full 2hrs as it should (twice on each card), then I'm all smiles.

[Ed.]

Sorry, I wasn't clear.  The counter issue is not merely a reporting issue.  The recorder actually stops when the falsely reported timer countdown reaches zero.  Sure, I suppose if there was an auto-split, it would automatically start a new file at that point whether it had reached 2GB or not, but...IMO it makes more sense to fix the obvious, fairly fundamental bugs first, then implement new functionality.

The issue here appears to be that the Microtrack does not properly recognize volumes over a certain size. Maybe it's 5GB, definitely 6GB volumes are not handled properly. 4GB volumes, Microdrives included, do not have this problem. As a workaround, I've found that if you copy 2 GB's of data to a 6GB Hitachi Microdrive (or make a 2GB recording on it) the problem goes away. If you use the method of making a dummy recording to fill the space, what you can do is as soon as you've made a couple of 'real' recordings, enough to take up another 2GB of space, you can just bring up the 'dummy' file on the Microtrack and delete it, thereby freeing up that space for yet another 'real' 2GB recording.  Until that first 2GB of space is 'used up', the Microtrack thinks it's dealing with a 2GB volume and will limit your recording time accordingly (in other words if you have the first 500MB of space used up it will only allow recording a 1.5GB (2GB - 1.5GB = 500MB). At least that's my experience.

J.T.

Great information +t.

Like Skalinder said, I hope 1.2.3 fixes the problem, but if not, I guess I'll be making dummy files on my microdrive.

[udovdh]

FWIW: upgraded yesterday and used the device last night. It did record. Currently I am transfering the recording to hear how it sounds. Even at USB 1.1 it is twice the old speed! Whew! 

Update: So we got what appears to be a nice recording. Overall margin is less than 6 dB (got to cut off pre and post show parts) with the MT at line in and levels all the way down. See what I posted about earlier? No room left to go down with levels when in front of the stacks or something. (and even now you could feel the music here and there)
Maybe this also illustrates that the gain setup of the MT needs some adjustment.

[jcrab66]

at least they are cranking out the updates at a regular pace...

[BC]

The channel swapping is as likely and spdif format issue according to Doug.  He thinks the format has always had some ideosyncrasies that may never be fully addressed. 

Rick

Damn, I wish they would have fixed the channel flipping. I don't get why it should be flipping on SPDIF in, look at how many other devices can take a 24 bit SPDIF in without channel flipping. Yes, I know it is not a huge deal and that you can either reverse the mic>pre connections or flip in post, but for some reason this issue bugs me. 

[Todd R]

The channel swapping is as likely and spdif format issue according to Doug.  He thinks the format has always had some ideosyncrasies that may never be fully addressed. 

Rick

Damn, I wish they would have fixed the channel flipping. I don't get why it should be flipping on SPDIF in, look at how many other devices can take a 24 bit SPDIF in without channel flipping. Yes, I know it is not a huge deal and that you can either reverse the mic>pre connections or flip in post, but for some reason this issue bugs me. 

This issue is far worse for me than the 2G limit.  I've made 3 or 4 recordings at 24bit that would have gone beyond the 2G limit.  So far I haven't had a problem starting a new file.  No music lost, not even any inter-song talking lost, just a little bit of the crowd.  So not really a big deal thus far.

But the channel-swapping.  Argh!  Not consistent at all, sometime it swaps, others it doesn't.  So I can't just swap my cables.  Swapping in post isn't a huge deal, but knowing when to is.  Each set I've got to remember to snap fingers in front of one mic to double-check the swapping, and then at the end of each set I need to do the same thing (since I might need to start a new file mid set due to the 2g thing).  Then I need to remember to look for those early recording and late recording snaps to double check the channel status (and do this before I use Cooledit to trim off the early and late excess).  Total PITA.  Really, if it just consistently swapped, it wouldn't be an issue.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

But the channel-swapping.  Argh!  Not consistent at all, sometime it swaps, others it doesn't.  So I can't just swap my cables.  Swapping in post isn't a huge deal, but knowing when to is.  Each set I've got to remember to snap fingers in front of one mic to double-check the swapping, and then at the end of each set I need to do the same thing (since I might need to start a new file mid set due to the 2g thing).

Exactly.. There are the cases where I'm giving an opening band a copy of their show.  It is something I'll never listen to  But if the channels are swapped funky, it makes you look bad.  Then there are cases of shows that you might not get around to dealing with for months.. And you're stuck trying to remember the stage layout, etc, to decipher the audible queues..

My Pat Metheny Hill Auditorium on the MT was cut short by the 2GB limit. Fortunately, it was just a backup for mk21>722.  But the 4061>mt on the metheny sounds Really good.