Topic: Microtrack 24/96 1.3.3

[JasonSobel]

Jason-  Two questions:

1.  Did you turn off the deck between sets?
2. When you started recording the second set, did you happen to notice how much record time was remaining on the display? 

1. No, I did not turn it off between sets.  althought I should say that with my excessive battery power, I have never powered it down between sets, and I've never had a problem before.

2.  yes, I did notice.  I've learned with the MicroTrack that you've always got to be on your toes and pay attention to things like that   When I started the recording for Set II, the "time remaining" display started to count down from 1 hour, 55 minutes, or something like that.  which is typical and exactly what I was expecting to see (both from the 2 gigs limit and the 2 gigs left free on the card, at the start of Set II).  I was checking periodically throughout set II, and the countdown timer was always what is should have been (i.e. a few minutes before the recording stopped, it said I had an hour left of record time...)

although I will say that your experience is very interesting.  if only I had been looking at the deck when it decided to stop.  I wonder if mine flashed "media full" 

oh, and thanks for trying to help and offering advice.  I may try to recreate this at home, but I don't know if I'll  have time this weekend.

[cmoorevt]

Interesting. The only correlation seems to be that both our decks stopped after about an hour of recording time on the second file.  You'd have to believe that the different rates (16/48 vs 24/48) would preclude us from having the stoppage for a file size reason, so maybe it is time related. 

With that in mind, I'm trying to think of some way that the addition of the 2gb split(a file size issue) in 1.3.3 would cause this(a time related issue), regardless of bit depth and sample rate, but I can't come up with anything. 

 I'll post my test results here this weekend.

[JasonSobel]

Interesting. The only correlation seems to be that both our decks stopped after about an hour of recording time on the second file.  You'd have to believe that the different rates (16/48 vs 24/48) would preclude us from having the stoppage for a file size reason, so maybe it is time related. 

With that in mind, I'm trying to think of some way that the addition of the 2gb split(a file size issue) in 1.3.3 would cause this(a time related issue), regardless of bit depth and sample rate, but I can't come up with anything. 

 I'll post my test results here this weekend.

yeah, it is strange.  I assume that you read my account from a couple of weeks ago (a few pages back in this thread), about how it mysteriously stopped during the opening set, about 29 minutes into the recording.  of course, that was on the first recording of the night, and not after leaving it on during setbreak.  so I don't know how that figures into the problem.  definitely post here if you can recreate anything at home.  for what it's worth, I've transferred about 10 DATs since moving to v1.3.3 firmware (obviously S/PDIF iput, all at 16/48), and I've never had it mysteriously stop on me at home.  so the only times I've had it stop on me is running at 24/48.  But, I'd still be interested in hearing about anything you discover.

[anhisr]

After recording a show on Wednesday night, I moved the show over to my computer.  The next day I put the card, 8gb Transcend, and then formatted the card.  When I checked how much time was on the card I got the -0.01.  I then switched the unit to do analog in and hit record.  After 2 second it stopped and said it was full.   I hit record again and it went for a couple of minutes and then said media full.  I pulled out the card and put it in a reader and the card had hardly anything on it.  I then put in one of my 4gb cards and all was fine.  When I put the 8gb card back in all was fine.  Scary

[natas43]

I'm still a rookie with the Microtrack, but I had my first issue the other night.  My first show was last week (Buzzcocks) and it turned out near perfect.  Must have been beginners luck.  Then I taped Sepultura a few nights ago.  The recording itself was fine, other than my levels being too high.  I got home from the show and powered on the unit.  It read "booting firmware" and in my haste to get to bed, I plugged in the USB cable to recharge the battery....and the unit completely froze.  No buttons worked.  Fearing the worst, I quickly removed the SanDisk 2 gb Extreme III card.

I popped it into my card reader and the file was there.  I ended up having to allow the battery to die before I could get the unit to work again.  I'm not sure if this bug has been reported here previously or not, but it seems that plugging the USB cable in while the firmware (1.3.3) is booting up crashes the unit.

My next show is tomorrow.  I am recording at 16/44 wav, so my 2gb card says I have approx. 3h08m of recording....and the band is scheduled to play 3-3.25 hours.  I think just to be safe I will have to swap out cards right before the encore.  I have been fearing that the battery would go after recording for that long, so I have purchased a USB box....but after reading the problems above I am scared to death that it will die on me!!!  I will post my results early next week.

[udovdh]

3 hours should work OK with CF (no microdrive) and no phantom.
When you swap the cards and start recording plug in the usb battery box and the last bit of the show should be OK.

[natas43]

Sorry...I forgot to mention that I am using CSBs with a battery box, so no phantom power, and the backlight is only on for 15 seconds at a time

[BC]

Wow, random stoppages in recording is definitely NOT cool for this thing. Is it only in 1.3.3 when these occur? I can't recall anyone reporting this problem with the last firmware, 1.2.3.

I recorded ok with 1.3.3 last night for a 1:20 set taking SPDIF at 24/44.1, but I am thinking about switching it back to 1.2.3, I would be super pissed if this thing stopped during a stealth job.

[SClassical]

The first and last time I used version 1.3.3. was a few weeks ago and it stopped on me, too. It also damaged my CF card (Lexar 80X 2GB) at the end of the show. My setting was 24/48 with my V3.

Now I have a new compact flash card Kington 50X 2GB. I got a concert tonight in the New England Conservatory so it will be my second time using 1.3.3. If this messes up I really do not know what to do. I plan to do 24/48 with my V3 again. I'm going to use my M1 as my backup so if something happens I have a DAT.

Tomorrow I got another concert (this time only a 40 min concerto) so I plan to try 24/96 with my V3...can I use my M1 as the back up? I know my M1 can truncate the 24bit to 16bit. Would 96 kHz go down to 48kHz when going into the DAT? Is it worth trying 24/96 or should I just keep it at 24/48 tomorrow.

(like Jason, I'm also thinking of getting another 24 bit compact flash recorder...either a stock 671 or the tascam or even the 702 or 722. Jason, if I end up getting a new 24bit recorder this summer you can borrow it when I'm not using it, we both live in the same city anyway).

[JasonSobel]

Tomorrow I got another concert (this time only a 40 min concerto) so I plan to try 24/96 with my V3...can I use my M1 as the back up? I know my M1 can truncate the 24bit to 16bit. Would 96 kHz go down to 48kHz when going into the DAT? Is it worth trying 24/96 or should I just keep it at 24/48 tomorrow.

(like Jason, I'm also thinking of getting another 24 bit compact flash recorder...either a stock 671 or the tascam or even the 702 or 722. Jason, if I end up getting a new 24bit recorder this summer you can borrow it when I'm not using it, we both live in the same city anyway).

if you're running 24/96, the M1 won't lock onto the digi signal.  you can still run your m1 as a backup, if you go analog out of the V3.  I have a dual XLR > stereo mini for this purpose.  if you want to borrow it to run a back-up, let me know.

[JasonSobel]

Wow, random stoppages in recording is definitely NOT cool for this thing. Is it only in 1.3.3 when these occur? I can't recall anyone reporting this problem with the last firmware, 1.2.3.

I recorded ok with 1.3.3 last night for a 1:20 set taking SPDIF at 24/44.1, but I am thinking about switching it back to 1.2.3, I would be super pissed if this thing stopped during a stealth job.

yeah, I don't recall any reports of the recording mysteriously stopping under firmware 1.2.3, and it certainly never happened to me with that firmware.

[BC]

The first and last time I used version 1.3.3. was a few weeks ago and it stopped on me, too. It also damaged my CF card (Lexar 80X 2GB) at the end of the show.

Man, that is really bad. I hope everyone out there that has had recordings freeze on them is reporting the issues to M-audio.

IMHO, this new problem with the newest firmware of freezing up (and damaging media ) is the worst of the bugs so far.

I am putting 1.2.3 back on my MT right now. I would rather have flipped channels and do the 2 hour splitting manually, over having a recording freeze up. Man is this thing buggy. 

[coloartist]

Firmware 1.3.3 blows in my opinion. 

Crashed the lst two times I used it, at Zero. First set was fine. Second set died at about 1:30. 24/48

It said 1:55 time left when I started it.

Auto split didn't work, but I think it shut down before that time.

I'm glad I run a backup.

I take this all back. I think it had to do with me rearranging my recording bag. My MT was getting a bunch of my V3 heat, and just was overheating. I moved everything  around, and all seems well.

I ran NMAS last night. Had to start a new file since the set ran 2:40minutes, but missed nothing.
DDBB 2 nights before and ran 2 sets 55 minutes and 1:10 minutes.

OK. I am going with my previous assumption. Mine did this again with no heat. I recorded a 1:10 minute set, 24/48. Then another 1:00 set, 24/48. The next set died at 50 min., 24/48. I restarted it 4 times after that. I still had .5 gb on the card when I got home. I should be able to get 3:45 on a card at 24/48. 

[kbergend]

The Microtrack crapped out on me for no apparent reason during the encore of an Alternate Routes show I recorded in Bridgeport CT earlier tonight.  I was using a freshly MT-formatted 4Gb SanDisk Ultra II CF card.  There was reportedly about 19 minutes of time left on the file and it just stopped recording for no discernible reason.  Plenty of charge left, strong and constant signal (24/44.1) via S/PDIF from the ADC.  When I noticed the meters were dead I hit the REC button and the file closed fine, and I started another and the new file indicated there was about 1:40 of recording time left on the card (the opener's set was also on it).  I lost about 30 seconds of a great encore. 

At least I had my minidisc recorder running as backup.  I'm going back to 1.2.3, this is ridiculous.

[udovdh]

I see more problems when using SPDIF input than when using analog input.
Is this a correct observation?