First Serious Glitches With DL32R and MF

[JMc]

Last night during our gig, I named the "song" to be recorded "08-08-15" and hit record.  Went back to the main mix screen.  Sometime later, I noticed the red "recording" light was no longer lit, so I went back into the record panel and tried starting the recording again.  No luck.  I pressed the button to "eject" the disc, waited for it to reboot and once indicating "ready" tried the record button yet again.  Nope.  I couldn't reboot the DL32R because I control the mixer from the stage and we're in the middle of a set.  In the recording section, under the HDD, it's indicating "ready".  The only think I could think of was perhaps my 2T drive was already full?  How can that be?  And if so, shouldn't there be some sort of indicator for that? 

I haven't recorded that many shows on it and after recording the first two shows, it barely made a dent in the storage I had left.  So for the moment, I am at a loss and feeling very perplexed.  We had a great concert last night and it's killing me that either little or none of it recorded.  I was trying to see if there was a way to erase some recordings already on the disc in order to test to see if storage capacity was indeed the problem, but could see no way of doing so.  I also tried selecting a previous recording and hit record again, in the hopes of adding to it or writing over it, again, no dice.  The red recording light never came on again and I could see that no recording had commenced from the timer in the recording window.  So I was forced to give up.  I guess my takeaway from this is that I would like some future version of MF to show the current capacity of the drive that is connected and the ability to easily erase a recording from within MF if that's what you really want to do.  At this writing, I still have no idea what the problem was.

The second glitch occurred at the beginning of a song.  I had another window up with my set list on it, and noticed that my acoustic guitar player was not coming through.  WTH?  As soon as I brought MF back to the front on the iPad, figuring the acoustic channel must have been muted (the only logical conclusion so long as the guitar was plugged in), the acoustic channel came to life and un-muted all by itself, as soon as MF synced up again with the DL32R. 

Very weird.  Thoughts on either or both problems I rant into?  This is the first time I've had any issues at all after about 10 gigs using this mixer.

[RoadRanger]

Are you doing all the necessary things like force closing all the programs on the iPad and then rebooting it at the gig before you start? Shutting of Wifi autoconnect and deleting all known networks? Have a read through the FAQs here...

[JMc]

Are you doing all the necessary things like force closing all the programs on the iPad and then rebooting it at the gig before you start? Shutting of Wifi autoconnect and deleting all known networks? Have a read through the FAQs here...

I had no idea I had to "force close" all the programs on the iPad and reboot it at the gig before I start.  News to me.  I don't even know what "force close" means, frankly, but I assume that rebooting the iPad would have the same effect anyway.  The only open programs I had on the iPad were SetList Maker and Master Fader, just like every show I've done before.  BTW, just checked the HDD and see that I have 1.64 T left in storage, so clearly that wasn't the issue and I was able to play back recordings from the drive during intermission as well, so there didn't seem to be any communication problems between my iPad and my network.  Wifi auto-connect is indeed shut off.  I'll check the FAQ's, but I'm not optimistic of ever knowing for sure what the problem was/is, particularly since I only see an FAQ for the DL-1608 and not the DL32R.

[JohnMHoyt]

The iPad is a wonderful machine - it reboots and everything that was running when it was rebooting starts right back up.   Sometimes in the same "broken" state as before the reboot.  I'm not sure, but I imagine it just saves a snapshot of the running image and reloads it on top of the OS.

I have several apps that I have to force to close and then restart.. Here's how:

If an app is unresponsive and your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch still reacts to button presses, you can force the app to close:
Press the Home button two times quickly. You'll see small previews of your recently used apps.
Swipe left to find the app you want to close.
Swipe up on the app's preview to close it.

Sometimes my iPad 2 tablets will freak out and just not work well - I do a hard reboot on them and fixes them, usually:

Here’s how to perform a hard reboot:

— Hold down the Power and Home buttons at the same time for close to 10 seconds.

— Ignore the Slide to Power Off bar across the top of the screen when it appears and just keep holding the two buttons until you see the iPad screen go black and then see the Apple logo on the screen as it restarts.

Hope that helps.

For what it's worth, my iPad Air 2 has a lot less problems, a LOT less.

Good luck.

[JohnMHoyt]

Also, don't rule out the hard drive being the issue. My business is IT, we work with the SMB market and I see LOTS AND LOTS of USB hard drive problems. Many manufacturers of USB drives put the slowest, cheapest drive they can into that enclosure. You don't exactly know what you are getting in some cases. 

They might not have sustained write speeds, they might spin down when there is no activity (power saving, battery saving, etc) all on their own.  It just might not be a good mix for our environment. 

When I was selecting the drive to use for my new DL32R last week, I went for a USB 3.0 7200RPM drive.  But at the gig on Friday, I used a slower USB drive, and it seemed to work okay. 
I'm SURE that Mackie has some specs and recommendations (which I should have read but didn't).

And two last things - even brand new drives fail. A bad sector could be enough to cause a glitch. So you might try another drive if you have this issue again.    Lastly.. .FORMAT IT from the mackie...    That will insure it is happy with the drive format.   

Good luck!

[JMc]

Thanks for the replies, John.  I think more was at play than just the hard drive.  I brought it in, connected it, and it isn't showing errors.  It's a 3.0 USB Seagate Passport with a shock case and doesn't get banged around at all.  That, plus the weird thing happening with the channel that was never muted coming back to life when I brought the Master Fader App front and center.  Another forum member and local buddy of mine suggested that it might have to do with memory resources being eaten up by some of the other apps I have on the iPad and that functions in MF allocating that memory might have been the difficulty.  Given what I now know, I will do a hard reboot before every gig.  Not a huge deal.  It HAD been several days since the last hard reboot, so I supposed there could have been at least two or three other apps running in the background that I wasn't aware of.  Hope that takes care of it!  I'd still like to see improvements to the MF app and if it's not getting the resources it needs, there should be some way of indicating that so a failure like the one I experienced can be prevented.  Either that, or make it so MF SEIZES whatever resources it needs from other apps that might be running in the background.

[wkndwarrior]

Thanks for the replies, John.  I think more was at play than just the hard drive.  I brought it in, connected it, and it isn't showing errors.  It's a 3.0 USB Seagate Passport with a shock case and doesn't get banged around at all.  That, plus the weird thing happening with the channel that was never muted coming back to life when I brought the Master Fader App front and center.  Another forum member and local buddy of mine suggested that it might have to do with memory resources being eaten up by some of the other apps I have on the iPad and that functions in MF allocating that memory might have been the difficulty.  Given what I now know, I will do a hard reboot before every gig.  Not a huge deal.  It HAD been several days since the last hard reboot, so I supposed there could have been at least two or three other apps running in the background that I wasn't aware of.  Hope that takes care of it!  I'd still like to see improvements to the MF app and if it's not getting the resources it needs, there should be some way of indicating that so a failure like the one I experienced can be prevented.  Either that, or make it so MF SEIZES whatever resources it needs from other apps that might be running in the background.

When you connected your portable drive to your computer, did you check to see how much storage was left?  The DL32R records in WAV files, and those are very large. I have a 1T drive, and it is about 3/4 full already, and I have recorded maybe 10 full shows on it. 

Also, what model iPad do you have? Many users report that the older models do not work as well as the new models with the DL32R. You should also check your iPad to see how much capacity it has left after all the programs and apps you have loaded on it. I bought a new iPad Air once I got my new DL32R and have not had any problems like you have described.

Personally, I would not try to use my iPad for other programs during a show. Changing back and forth from Master Fader to other programs or apps will leave you unable to make fast sound adjustments if something gets out of hand.

[Keyboard Magic]

I carry 2 iPads to all gigs with the DL1608. One for actual wireless operation (iPad Air 2) and the other is docked (iPad 2) in case of wireless pooch out. Then I have an iPod Touch for music playback via AirPlay. Absolutely ludacris dollar wise, but practical if I want the show to run without problems, barring any bizarre incidents of course. 

[JohnMHoyt]

I carry 2 iPads to all gigs with the DL1608. One for actual wireless operation (iPad Air 2) and the other is docked (iPad 2) in case of wireless pooch out. Then I have an iPod Touch for music playback via AirPlay. Absolutely ludacris dollar wise, but practical if I want the show to run without problems, barring any bizarre incidents of course. 

Wait, you can dock the iPad to the DL32R with that USB port on the back???  Does it charge it too?

I'm I realize that this confirms that I didn't read ANY manuals, I know

[RoadRanger]

Wait, you can dock the iPad to the DL32R with that USB port on the back???  Does it charge it too?

http://cacophony.aspinock.com/index.php?topic=1033.0

[JohnMHoyt]

Wait, you can dock the iPad to the DL32R with that USB port on the back???  Does it charge it too?

http://cacophony.aspinock.com/index.php?topic=1033.0

Oh, I see....   Old iPad 2 would be a hodgepodge hack...    30pin to usb, to powered hub to usb to ethernet, yada yada....   (Or build the all-in-one solution)....
The newer iPad might be a snap with straight lightning->ethernet....   http://redpark.com/lightning-ethernet-cable/

Oh well..... Thanks.

[JMc]

Upon further inspection of my iPad (iPad 2, BTW), there were a %$!#load of apps that were apparently in need of force closing.  I'm just going to chalk it up to memory allocation being the problem I encountered the other night and hope that a hard boot takes me back to a happy place for our next show.  I'll find out soon enough.  Got a gig on Friday...  Fingers crossed.  Sheesh.  I hasten to add that up until this incident, I had used the same iPad with the DL32R and had ZERO issues, so I am optimistic that the force close / hard boot solution is probably all I really need.  Thanks for all the education and input.  Cheers.

[JohnMHoyt]

Upon further inspection of my iPad (iPad 2, BTW), there were a %$!#load of apps that were apparently in need of force closing.  I'm just going to chalk it up to memory allocation being the problem I encountered the other night and hope that a hard boot takes me back to a happy place for our next show.  I'll find out soon enough.  Got a gig on Friday...  Fingers crossed.  Sheesh.  I hasten to add that up until this incident, I had used the same iPad with the DL32R and had ZERO issues, so I am optimistic that the force close / hard boot solution is probably all I really need.  Thanks for all the education and input.  Cheers.

Good luck!  Let us know how it goes....

[Keyboard Magic]

I carry 2 iPads to all gigs with the DL1608. One for actual wireless operation (iPad Air 2) and the other is docked (iPad 2) in case of wireless pooch out. Then I have an iPod Touch for music playback via AirPlay. Absolutely ludacris dollar wise, but practical if I want the show to run without problems, barring any bizarre incidents of course. 

Wait, you can dock the iPad to the DL32R with that USB port on the back???  Does it charge it too?

I'm I realize that this confirms that I didn't read ANY manuals, I know

I did say I dock my iPad to a DL1608 Sorry if I wasn't too clear on that fact. And there should be some way of physically connecting an iPad to the DL32, just sayin'  But maybe you were just having a little fun, maybe? 

[RoadRanger]

Upon further inspection of my iPad (iPad 2, BTW), there were a %$!#load of apps that were apparently in need of force closing.

Apple swears you should never need to "force close" anything. The rest of us swear at Apple .