First Serious Glitches With DL32R and MF

[JMc]

I'm pleased to report that last night, everything seems to have recorded just fine.  I checked the recording periodically during the show and stopped and started the recording process several times, at the conclusion and beginning of each set.  I see the files on the drive and made sure to hit "eject" before powering down.  I've got another show tonight, so I haven't actually offloaded the files into my sound editor yet, but I feel confident that they're all there and everything is fine again.

I want to thank all of you for the tips and particularly Ben for isolating the problem away from the iPad and for providing a clear path for troubleshooting and restoring proper function.  I admit that I have not been the best about doing "eject", but I will be certain to get into the habit.   We had a great set last night, so I'm excited to hear what we've got on there.  Again, sincere thanks to all.  I LOVE, LOVE LOVE this mixer. 

[dpdan]

that's great news JMc !!!!

[WK154]

I hope everything went according to plan last night. It would be informative if the cause of your problem could be identified at this stage. This would give others a heads up. Can you state what physical hardware if any you changed out? Any procedure you may remember doing differently? Here are my thoughts on what transpired and possible remedies.
BenO your otherwise excellent manual may need some fine tuning. This was brought out by some of your instructions to solve this issue. The MF update and firmware update instructions need to include timing information. For example:
"Here’s how to force a firmware update: first, turn the mixer off. Now, with a bent paperclip, poke the force
update button, then power up the mixer with the button depressed. The mixer will boot and you will be
prompted with an update bubble the next time an iPad with the Master Fader app is turned on."
Makes no mention of the hold time of 5 seconds or warns about waiting a minute or two after the update signals it's finished and really isn't. I wouldn't hesitate to use red for text this important. Of course it will only help those that read manuals. 
On the recording and finalizing the disk although they are mentioned it may be best to stress their importance and the reasons behind this will usually reinforce the importance. Conventionally stop/finalize was sufficient to finalize CD/DVD recordings and Toc were written. Since we are talking about a file system (Fat32) and uLinux there may be buffers that need to be written to disk. If I had what I asked for over two years ago from Mackie and you promised to send I might have a better insight to this mechanism 
In conclusion I am not ruling out a problematic download and firmware install process since the solution over many a version of MF over the years has been to reload MF. This can only mean that on occasion errors occur during this process. CRC's are a weak verification if that's what your using.
For those interested in the finer details of Fat32 here is a good overview.
http://www.go-embedded.com/FAT32%20article.pdf

[JMc]

I hope everything went according to plan last night. It would be informative if the cause of your problem could be identified at this stage. This would give others a heads up. Can you state what physical hardware if any you changed out? Any procedure you may remember doing differently?

There have been no physical hardware changes.  HOWEVER, when I first discovered the missing recordings that I thought were there, I ran a check on the HDD and it turned up a few errors.  I had the errors corrected in the hopes that the files would then appear, but no such luck.  While I used the same HDD, I did reformat it with the DL32R after rebooting the mixer.  I then hit "eject", plugged it into my PC, dragged the previously saved "Music" folder back onto the drive with my recordings for intermission, and then I created a new "Recordings" folder.

I think the biggest takeaway that I got from this was the bit about needing an additional minute for the firmware to update after it says it's ready...  THAT is something that definitely should be added to the manual.  Because I am all but certain whenever I updated the firmware last, I didn't wait a minute before launching the app.  I also was not in the habit of "ejecting" the HDD before powering down at the end of each show. 

So in conclusion, I think the latter two items were the most important - wait after the firmware updates for a good minute after you *think it's ready to go and get in the habit of ejecting the HDD before powering down.  Last night's show recorded with no discernible problems, but again, I haven't had the chance to offload the files yet, but remain confident that they are just fine. 

UPDATE:  I've started mixing down some tracks from the shows.  All is right in my world, again.  Hallelujah! 

[beno]

Great! Glad everything is working.

And we'll look at adding more detail to that section in the next manual update.

Thanks

[Rdmitch]

Im sure your manual authors will find a way to put a humorous spin on the revision.
Possibly skull and crossbones warning if you don't eject and format properly

[JMc]

Well... $%&@!!  So, after the last two recorded shows, I removed the drive from my PC, re-installed the drive to the DL32R and waited for it to scan and mount for last night's show.  I named the new show Euro090415, hit record, and all was fine.  I noticed the counter advancing and the red record light was on.  I stopped recording after each set, played the intermission music, resumed recording for each subsequent set.  After the show, I stopped the recording, it verified that I wanted to stop.  I said yes, and after it was finished cycling, I hit EJECT before powering down the mixer. 

I just brought the hard drive inside, plugged it into the PC and guess what?  NO SHOW FROM LAST NIGHT is in the folder list.  The previous two shows I recorded are there, but not the one from last night,  Right clicked the drive UNchecked "automatically fix" and scanned for errors and here's what I got:



I haven't done anything else at this point.  But I'm more than a little frustrated to be having this problem again after I thought everything was sorted.  Must I reformat the drive every time I use it?  Why would it show that it is recording and everything is fine, yet when I put the drive in the PC, there's no folder with the files???

[WK154]

Well at this point repair is you only choice, what do you have to loose. After that I would send it back to Mackie and tell them you need one that works. El'Limon as far as I'm concerned unless they admit that it's a software problem.

[JMc]

I may have to.  Something isn't right here...  I think it's software based, because I really didn't have any problems before the last firmware update.  Now something is corrupting the drive.  The most frustrating aspect for me is that it appeared to be working and recording just fine.  Until I went to look for the folder after ejecting.  I hope Ben sees this latest wrinkle and can weigh in...  If not, I'm calling tech support on Tuesday.

[Harpman]

Jeff, Were you able to play around with it after we spoke yesterday? (i.e. formatting the drive in Windows, ejecting then connecting to DL).  I know Mackie suggests formatting from MF, but FAT32 is FAT32.  I think they suggest that because people don't always eject their drives from the PC and doing so may corrupt files (write cache enabled).  It's tough to check your recordings during a short break also.  I know Ben mentioned to you about after applying firmware to leave the unit alone for a few minutes after getting the "Firmware Complete" status. If this has been an issue since the latest firmware upgrade, then maybe it needs to be reflashed or there is a bug in the latest version in regards to recording (hard to say). Based on the CHKDSK you ran yesterday, something is corrupting the File Allocation Table. I think when I move to the DL32R, I'm going to use SSD's. Has anyone who owns a DL32R tried a memory stick? I just bought a 128G SanDisk for $30 US.  Jeff, I was curious how much of the 1TB drive your using between your break music and recordings.  One other thought is noise. Since the drive gets it's power from the DL, is there an issue there?

[wkndwarrior]

I've been following this thread with interest as a DL32R user. I record nearly all of the shows I do as a sound engineer for various bands and so far, have never had any problems. Until now I wasn't aware that it might be necessary to 'eject' the HDD from the mixer before shutdown.  That is something I had never done before. I do however, eject it from my PC whenever it's connected to that. Over last weekend I recorded two full shows with two different bands, and did not eject the HDD either time. No issues, and the recordings came out fine.

From what I can tell, the OP is still using the same HDD that is having issues. Might be time to try a different drive. If the same issues occur, then it would positively be the unit or software that is causing the problems. If not, then it's the drive that is the issue.

[Harpman]

I've been following this thread with interest as a DL32R user. I record nearly all of the shows I do as a sound engineer for various bands and so far, have never had any problems. Until now I wasn't aware that it might be necessary to 'eject' the HDD from the mixer before shutdown.  That is something I had never done before. I do however, eject it from my PC whenever it's connected to that. Over last weekend I recorded two full shows with two different bands, and did not eject the HDD either time. No issues, and the recordings came out fine.

From what I can tell, the OP is still using the same HDD that is having issues. Might be time to try a different drive. If the same issues occur, then it would positively be the unit or software that is causing the problems. If not, then it's the drive that is the issue.

Always a "Best Practice" to eject drives (PC or DL) since if a write is happening in the background, file corruption may occur.  Also, I don't rely on drive lights to tell me if a drive is being read or written to.

[Harpman]

Also, when I was on the phone with Jeff (JMc) and had him run CHKDSK F: /f, it stated that the volume was in use.  He had Adobe Audition open as well.  My recommendation is to close any app (iPad or PC) that has it's hooks into the drive volume before ejecting (with the exception of MF on the iPad of course  ).

[beno]

Hey JMc. Sorry you are still having issues. As again this is an issue that I have heard no other user reporting, I have to think the next step is trying another hard drive.

[JMc]

Hey JMc. Sorry you are still having issues. As again this is an issue that I have heard no other user reporting, I have to think the next step is trying another hard drive.

I guess so.  Will do.  It's just hard for me to understand why a drive that is new, that I am otherwise having no problems with, and recorded a good dozen shows with previously, is now suddenly corrupting itself?  It also doesn't really explain why the DL32R is showing that it is recording, but not ultimately saving the folder containing the files.  Or why it worked fine two shows in a row recently after going through all the instructions, but crapped out again after removing from the mixer to offload the files once it was plugged back in.  But yes, I'll try a different drive.  A Samsung EVO 1T solid state drive, this time.  Wish me luck.