is it safe to pull the plug when recording?

[John]

We plan to multi-track record our shows to the SD card and I’m wondering how careful we need to be when wrapping up for the night.

I saw that the latest firmware update includes a software-power-down feature, but old habits die hard. There’s about a 100% chance of us pulling the plug at the end of the gig, having forgotten to stop the recording or use the software shutdown!

Will the recordings survive?

[KeithJ A&H]

@John

Not really – data will have been written to the card or drive, but will not be accessible until finalised correctly.
So make sure you stop the recording!
…but if you don’t – there is an article here which may help – https://support.allen-heath.com/hc/en-gb/articles/22346839625745-CQ-Recovery-of-corrupted-SD-USB-A-recordings

Thanks,
Keith.

[John]

Thanks Keith. I assume that using the new software-power-down feature also stops any active recordings. Is there any other reason to use that shutdown feature if we’re not recording, or is it safe to just pull the plug?

Thanks
-John

[Lee7]

@John,

I wouldn’t assume that at all, best practice is to get into the habit of physically stopping any recordings, be it stereo 2 track or multitrack, give the CQ time to finialise those recordings to disc before shutting down.

🙂

[KeithJ A&H]

@John

The software shut down is there to ensure a ‘graceful’ shutdown before powering off and prevents issues with audio and data recording/storage.
As @Lee7 says however, it’s always better to follow best practice!

Thanks,
Keith.

[Author]

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