MT II problems

[upsonr]

This might be a simple question, but have you formatted the cards in the MT itself ?

Yes. I've tried both MT II formatting and XP formatting.  Same results.

I've heard through a reseller that M-Audio is working on a fix for a widespread freezing problem.  Supposedly they will have a firmware upgrade within a week.  I hope the problem is really a firmware one and not a hardware problem be covered up by software.  It concerns me that so many units seem to work.  Maybe they will be transparent about the origins of the problem, but somehow I doubt it.

It sounds like they have also had a lot of complaints about how noisy the pre-amp is.  Mine is definitely quite noisy. I also get some bleed from the 1/8" input when I am recording from the 1/4" mics.  It is hard to know if this is just the nature of the product or if these are problems with the curent manufacturing run.

I had both of these problems, freezing and 1/4 input noise.  I sent the unit to M-audio a month ago and no word from them except that it was received.  If they solved one problem, I doubt they've solved both. 

[guysonic]

Update. I just ran my CA Omnis straight into the 1/8 Mic input and was astonished at the sound quality that I got without running the CA9100 preamp in front of it. Could make for an excellent stealth setup.  Did a living room test with some acoustic and bass infused funk and noticed that you have to run the input level at about 33% so that it doesn't clip.  Going to test it out at my buddy's studio sometime this week. As far as the 1/4 in is concerned, the noise is only present when internal gain was turned up all the way and it was dead quiet. Going to try a couple more tests on the 1/4 inputs.

MT2 1/8" input tested decently for being low (enough) noise AND without ugly switching noise of MT1.  (see MT1 review on my site www.sonicstudios.com/mr-1revw.htm#spectrum

ONLY real problems is using unbalanced 1/4" inputs being fed with mics, but will work again to be low noise being driven from unbalanced low output impedance preamplifiers with noise almost identical to graph below showing balanced preamplifier noise plot into TRS inputs.



MY MT2 deck was sent in several weeks ago for 'repair' of excessive unbalanced noise problem, lockups, and fault in 88.2K bandpass frequency.  I haven't heard anything from M-audio as yet  

[rustoleum]

I've played with my MT II a couple times and have been pretty pleased.  I did note one issue that I can't explain:  I have an 8GB CF card in it.  With 'Available Timed based on Media' as the default time setting, the MTII reports that I have 3:54 of recordable time.  I'd expect it to be more like twice that amount at the 24/48 setting I'm using.  Interestingly, I can record for an hour, stop the file and begin a new one and I'll see a new available time of 3:54 (so its apparently fine with writing > 4GB... just not all at once from one press of record).  My PC detects it as an 8GB card, so I'm not sure what's going on.  Any thought?

In other news, I've run digi-in @ 24/48 for over 4 hours on the internal battery (there was still juice left) and have also done some 4060-BB-MT testing and was quite impressed with the sound.  If the issue above is the only problem I encounter I can definitely live with this.
 

[willndmb]

I've played with my MT II a couple times and have been pretty pleased.  I did note one issue that I can't explain:  I have an 8GB CF card in it.  With 'Available Timed based on Media' as the default time setting, the MTII reports that I have 3:54 of recordable time.  I'd expect it to be more like twice that amount at the 24/48 setting I'm using.  Interestingly, I can record for an hour, stop the file and begin a new one and I'll see a new available time of 3:54 (so its apparently fine with writing > 4GB... just not all at once from one press of record).  My PC detects it as an 8GB card, so I'm not sure what's going on.  Any thought?

In other news, I've run digi-in @ 24/48 for over 4 hours on the internal battery (there was still juice left) and have also done some 4060-BB-MT testing and was quite impressed with the sound.  If the issue above is the only problem I encounter I can definitely live with this.
 

the record time is showing at 24/96, basically 2gb/hr
you get approx 1gb/hr at 24/48

[rustoleum]

are you saying that even if it's configured for 24/48 the record time will display as if I'm recording in 24/96?  that makes zero sense if that is actually the case. 

edit: also, this explanation does not explain why if I record for an hour, stop the recording and then start again I still see an available time of 3:54.  If what you're saying is true, then I'd see a different available time because there is now only 7 gigs of free space which is more like 3:30 @ 24/96.

edit2: just read the whole thread a little more carefully... guess I should update to the beta 1.04 firmware... I immediately updatead to 1.01 before running what little testing I've done, but perhaps the beta version is better?

[willndmb]

well the mt1 shows you the total time based on 24/96
and the 4hrs adds to the same way
so i assumed thats whats its doing
but who knows, after all it is maudio we are talking about here


edit i just double checked my mt1
if you are running digi in then it 100% gives you the total time based on 24/96
if you set it to 1/4 in you can then set the sample rate as well and it gives you a different time based on the settings

[BC]

ONLY real problems is using unbalanced 1/4" inputs being fed with mics, but will work again to be low noise being driven from unbalanced low output impedance preamplifiers with noise almost identical to graph below showing balanced preamplifier noise plot into TRS inputs.

damn that 1/4 unbalanced mic input plot is ugly!! 

ONLY real problems is using unbalanced 1/4" inputs being fed with mics, but will work again to be low noise being driven from unbalanced low output impedance preamplifiers with noise almost identical to graph below showing balanced preamplifier noise plot into TRS inputs.

just wondering, why would you get high noise with a mic feed but low noise from an unbalanced low output impedance preamp? Thanks for sharing your findings. +++

[rustoleum]

well the mt1 shows you the total time based on 24/96
and the 4hrs adds to the same way
so i assumed thats whats its doing
but who knows, after all it is maudio we are talking about here


edit i just double checked my mt1
if you are running digi in then it 100% gives you the total time based on 24/96
if you set it to 1/4 in you can then set the sample rate as well and it gives you a different time based on the settings

That is awful... might not be such a big deal for the MT1, but given that one of the II's selling points is the ability to auto-magically & seemlessly switch to a new file this is suddenly a lot less useful.  If I'm recording at 24/48, I'd expect to get about 8 hours out of my 8GB CF card.  Unfortuately, if it's calculating the amount of record time based on 24/48, then it's going to assume I'm running out of space at about 4 hours when I've still got twice as much space left.  I appreciate you looking, will... just not the answer I was hoping to hear.  Guess I need to run some long term digi-in tests and see what's up.

[busterr]

well the mt1 shows you the total time based on 24/96
and the 4hrs adds to the same way
so i assumed thats whats its doing
but who knows, after all it is maudio we are talking about here


edit i just double checked my mt1
if you are running digi in then it 100% gives you the total time based on 24/96
if you set it to 1/4 in you can then set the sample rate as well and it gives you a different time based on the settings

That is awful... might not be such a big deal for the MT1, but given that one of the II's selling points is the ability to auto-magically & seemlessly switch to a new file this is suddenly a lot less useful.  If I'm recording at 24/48, I'd expect to get about 8 hours out of my 8GB CF card.  Unfortuately, if it's calculating the amount of record time based on 24/48, then it's going to assume I'm running out of space at about 4 hours when I've still got twice as much space left.  I appreciate you looking, will... just not the answer I was hoping to hear.  Guess I need to run some long term digi-in tests and see what's up.

Are you formating it in the MTII? Did you update to the BETA 1.0.4 FW? If you haven't updated yet, that would probably be my first suggestion, the BETA seems pretty solid(like the MT1 I would use a small card for the update though). For 24/48 mine reports I can record for 07:59:05(transcend 8gb 120x card), so I'd guess there is either something up with your card or the MTII just thinks it's a 4gb card for some reason .
I've got the 1.0.4FW and never looked prior to updating if it showed the correct time remaining, so I'm not sure what is was saying before that.

On another note M-Audio seems rather confused still about the "no backlight on hold" issue, I got a note from them asking if I had it switched to "always on" or not... . They just don't seem to get the problem. It's been almost a month since I first reported that to them, and am just now getting a response that doesn't help.

[anhisr]

They closed my report about the backlight. 

[rustoleum]

I did format in the MTII.  I am running 1.0.1 so I'll give 1.0.4 a try before my next test, but you've got me optimistic and I'll be sure to let all know.  Thanks!

[willndmb]

well the mt1 shows you the total time based on 24/96
and the 4hrs adds to the same way
so i assumed thats whats its doing
but who knows, after all it is maudio we are talking about here


edit i just double checked my mt1
if you are running digi in then it 100% gives you the total time based on 24/96
if you set it to 1/4 in you can then set the sample rate as well and it gives you a different time based on the settings

That is awful... might not be such a big deal for the MT1, but given that one of the II's selling points is the ability to auto-magically & seemlessly switch to a new file this is suddenly a lot less useful.  If I'm recording at 24/48, I'd expect to get about 8 hours out of my 8GB CF card.  Unfortuately, if it's calculating the amount of record time based on 24/48, then it's going to assume I'm running out of space at about 4 hours when I've still got twice as much space left.  I appreciate you looking, will... just not the answer I was hoping to hear.  Guess I need to run some long term digi-in tests and see what's up.

oh no don't worry about that
see it gives you the total time based on 24/96, but once you start recording at 24/48 it will give you a total time for the 2gb split (which should be around 1:55)
and you do not lose any time
the reason it gives the time in 24/96 for the digi in is because with digi in you get the sample rate from the signal, so until it has a signal to know what sample is being fed to it it assumes the highest settings (24/96)
so although it seems like you are only getting 4hrs you will really get close to 8 and the mt will know it once it sees the 48 vs 96 sample rate coming in

[busterr]

well the mt1 shows you the total time based on 24/96
and the 4hrs adds to the same way
so i assumed thats whats its doing
but who knows, after all it is maudio we are talking about here


edit i just double checked my mt1
if you are running digi in then it 100% gives you the total time based on 24/96
if you set it to 1/4 in you can then set the sample rate as well and it gives you a different time based on the settings

That is awful... might not be such a big deal for the MT1, but given that one of the II's selling points is the ability to auto-magically & seemlessly switch to a new file this is suddenly a lot less useful.  If I'm recording at 24/48, I'd expect to get about 8 hours out of my 8GB CF card.  Unfortuately, if it's calculating the amount of record time based on 24/48, then it's going to assume I'm running out of space at about 4 hours when I've still got twice as much space left.  I appreciate you looking, will... just not the answer I was hoping to hear.  Guess I need to run some long term digi-in tests and see what's up.

oh no don't worry about that
see it gives you the total time based on 24/96, but once you start recording at 24/48 it will give you a total time for the 2gb split (which should be around 1:55)
and you do not lose any time
the reason it gives the time in 24/96 for the digi in is because with digi in you get the sample rate from the signal, so until it has a signal to know what sample is being fed to it it assumes the highest settings (24/96)
so although it seems like you are only getting 4hrs you will really get close to 8 and the mt will know it once it sees the 48 vs 96 sample rate coming in

Willndmb, I thought the same thing when I was first reading that, but the MTII does have an option to show either time left to 2gb split, or time left on media. When I checked mine, the default was time left to 2gigs, so I had to switch it to time left on media, then I set it for trs in at 24/48 and it does give the total time left on media which for my card was 07:59:05. So there is something iffy going on with his card or MTII. But yeah if the FW update doesn't fix what it's saying, I would definitely just run it until stops and see if goes the whole 8gigs regardless of what it says.

[willndmb]

hmm well i don;t know
hopefully whatever the issue is it can be worked out

[rustoleum]

Last post until I get to update the firmware and play some more but the 3:54 was showing after I was locked onto and recording a 24/48 signal (and it ticked down from 3:54).  I'm not sure if a signal was running prior to plugging in and starting up the MTII, so I'll check that out, too.  One more potential gotcha - for ease of testing I was recording from the coax-out of my computer.  I'll try firing up the minime since that's ultimately what I'll be using this with.  Thanks for the help, guys.  I'll send another update soon.