QU-Pac multitrack recording-first two tracks not recording

[Mbirame]

Hi guys,
We are supposed to be able to record 18 tracks on the thumb drive right? I am using an approved sandisk and I have 0 errors. However the first two tracks only record 33KB and end. Tracks 3-18 are recording nonstop (one hour +). Any thoughts on what could be the problem?

[BBEgo]

Looks like you’re arming it, but not actually starting the recording.

You must hit play after pressing the record button.

[Mbirame]

This is a multitrack, so there is not individual track arming (right??). Tracks 3-18 are recording fine.

[Dave]

There is a routing screen for qu-drive where you can select what you want to record on those tracks. By default 1-16 would be on inputs 1-16, its possible that the selections for 1 and 2 were changed to a mix or something else.

[Mbirame]

There is a routing screen for qu-drive where you can select what you want to record on those tracks. By default 1-16 would be on inputs 1-16, its possible that the selections for 1 and 2 were changed to a mix or something else.

Yes-but no matter what the routing, the channels still records a blank track-even if they are set to “X”. In my case, two of the 16 channels are simply not recording. In fact I have discovered that the two channels that don’t record is random. I checked a session from last week of the same show and in that case it didn’t record track 1 and 3.

[Giga]

Happened to me once too where 1 random channel wasn’t recorded for no aparent reason. Never resolved even after consulting A&H technical support.

Giga

[Anonymous]

Have you tried the file recovery steps outlined for complete failures?

[rejd]

I get this problem too (QU-PAC). Always different channels which don’t record even though the scene is the same on the unit. Saturday night Tracks 1, 4 and 10 are silent whereas the previous week everything recorded fine.

[garyh]

Possible buffering problem? Maybe reformat? Have you tried a different stick or portable hard drive?

[rejd]

Thanks garyh.

Did a bit of experimenting in the studio today, reformatting the drive and also getting away from the ridiculous SPLs of a live situation. As is always the way, I couldn’t reproduce the error with our usual disc (a 2TB Lacie rugged USB3). Perhaps vibration from the low frequencies could be the problem? Has anyone had this same thought? And if so, has anyone had any success trying to isolate the disc from vibrations? The hifi community seem to use a ‘sandbox’ to isolate turntables from acoustic vibrations so maybe that would work…

I also tried a spare USB ‘stick’ (a SanDisk) but I got a lot of errors while recording and a lot of stutters on playback. Similar situation with a Kingston one. Does anyone have a recommendation for a suitable USB stick or SSD? If I’m going to have to reformat for each event then 64 GB would seem to be ample – that would give nearly seven hours of multi-track recording.

Documentation seems to suggest that you should reformat your drive before each session. Again, be good to know if anyone has solved this problem (or any other) by reformatting each time.

Finally, I should also add that my initial description of the problem was not quite accurate. It’s not that the audio files created are silent, rather that they seem to be corrupted. So, all 18 files in the multitrack folder are the same size (say, 1.6 GB for example), but some of them won’t open (either in Mac OSX or iTunes).

[Anonymous]

How are you stopping the recording?

[rejd]

Hi Bob, I hit stop and then wait while the QU-PAC clears its throat. As per the A&H advice (I think) we tend to just leave the recording running for the whole show, breaks and all. So, the post-stop processing does quite often take a long (so much so that I have wondered in the past if the unit has frozen up).

There have also been occasions when the plug has been pulled before I’ve had a chance to go through the proper shut down routine (or where I’ve forgotten to go through the shut down routine before pulling the plug myself if I’m being completely honest).

I’ve not noticed a link between any file problems and not following the shut down routine – but until you mentioned it, I’d not been looking for it. Could that account for it d’you think?

[Anonymous]

Normally I’d expect them all to be toast, but it sound similar in symptom…

[rejd]

Thanks Bob. Solution would seem to be a solid state of some sort. Does anyone have any recommendations for a USB stick or SSD drive that works well?

[Author]

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