Neuros 2 20GB - Freezes while recording

[drew(at)drewhall.net]

Apologies if we've already covered this and I've missed it, but I've done exhaustive searches and can't find a solution.

I'm using my Neuros 2 at nightclubs to record our DJs' live-to-air mixshows for dissection/station mixshow backup/etc etc blah blah.

I'm running the line out from my mixer (-10dBV) into the 1/4" Line In jack using a 1/4" to RCA Y-cable.  I'm using it off the AC power adapter, so battery life isn't an issue.  I'm also running the most recent official firmware, and I'm ensuring that the gain control is set to allow a max peak of -6dBFS with program material playing at full volume.

Every once in a while, the Neuros will just freeze while recording.  It will do this at random times (57:13 in, 2:41:48 in, 3:04:21 in, etc), so it's not stopping at the same point every time.  

I'm thinking it's one of two things:

1. The vibration from the bass in the clubs messing with the disk write.  It doesn't seem like the vibration situation is extreme (i.e. our non-buffered CD players don't skip in the same case), but I suppose we could make a case for that.  It's an intermittent problem, though, and it would seem that if it was a vibration problem, it would happen every night.

2. Maybe the line-in plug coming loose during recording?  I can't verify this myself, but it might be a thought...

Just thought I'd ask...

Drew Hall
Creative Services Director
96-1 Kiss WKST-FM Pittsburgh

[kborn(at)neurosaudio.com]

One thing I wanted to post as a general note:

I use my recorder every day, doing lots of database changes, delete from PC, add to MyMix, lots of recordings.

After some time, a few weeks or so, there can start to be some errors and crashes. I thought my hard drive was getting beat up, but I reformatted the hard drive and reloaded my music and everything has been fine.

So for you, and anyone who is having lockup issues, you may want to give this a shot.

Kathryn

Neuros Support

[manuel(at)mvst.ch]

I recognized the same problem as drew has. I'm recording also dj-sets with line-in to wav-files. The neuros freezes at different points. the recording is unusable at the time it freezes, sometimes also at different places during the recording and makes it totaly unusable. It sounds like the buffer gets empty and suddenly new data is recorded with double and triple speed!! I've got the 60GB-Drive and during recordings the Neuros gets very warm. Is the temperatur the problem?

I've formated the drive in diagnosis-modus several times, but without success. I've tried several firmwares, 2.25, 2.27, 2.28 and garbage. with all firmwares i have the same problem.

is there probably a problem with my device?

Hope you can help me

Manuel from Switzerland

[keyboards]

As the Neuros is a Harddrive, and while recording a 44.1K Wav file is constantly writing to it, it is very sensitive to vibration. Put it in a camera bag, suspend it from something, or put some cushioning underneath it. I've found that eliminates vibration glitches in the loudest clubs. Also, to make sure it's a disk write issue, try recording to Mp3 and see if the problem disappears.

Cheers

[guttrhead(at)gmail.com]

quote:Originally posted by kborn(at)neurosaudio.com

One thing I wanted to post as a general note:

I use my recorder every day, doing lots of database changes, delete from PC, add to MyMix, lots of recordings.

After some time, a few weeks or so, there can start to be some errors and crashes. I thought my hard drive was getting beat up, but I reformatted the hard drive and reloaded my music and everything has been fine.

You may want to try defragmenting it next time if you dont want to lose data.  If you were changinf things around so much over a long period of time, your hd was probably very fragmented.  The heads having to move all over the plates to find all the different pieces of a file could result in errors more often.

[manuel(at)mvst.ch]

I have formatted my neuros before the last test and was completely empty. I'don't think, it is a fragmenting problem. I did not try the mp3 recording function but will try out soon if i have the same problems.

Generally question. Why is no 192, 256 and 320kB recording function implemented? This would be an alternative to wave-recording... [?]

Cheers
Manuel

[drew(at)drewhall.net]

An update, since it's been about 4 months...

Upgraded firmware to 2.28, pulled all files off (thankfully an easy task) and re-formatted.

Here's the kicker: if I set up at the club early, and get it recording and pause at 0:00 in, and THEN un-pause when we start the show, it works great.  No freezes.

If I start it and immediately start recording, or if I start recording with any type of signal going in (i.e. something playing already), it tends to lock.

This is the closest I can get to isolation of the problem.  Wondering if anyone else has any thoughts on this...

Drew

[DJ FLIP]

quote:
Here's the kicker: if I set up at the club early, and get it recording and pause at 0:00 in, and THEN un-pause when we start the show, it works great.  No freezes.

Drew, to date are these the only methods to prevent freezing?

I am interested in the unit soley for recording and I plan to record my 4-5 hour DJ sets in WAV format.

Also, how would you rate the WAV recording quality? Transparent? Any hums or noises? -FLIP

I really appreciate your response and I hope to use this unit without recording issues.

[drew(at)drewhall.net]

Since the last time I posted, I noticed one or two instances where the unit froze even after the steps I refer to above.  I still can't track it down exactly, but where it was freezing once every other show in a 3-show week, it's now doing it about twice a month.  

I will stand by the statement that if you start recording, with a cable plugged in to the line in but no signal being fed, and then start feeding signal once it's rolling, it gets the entire thing more often than not.

Note: I'm using for 160kbps MP3 recording, not direct to WAV. Maybe it has something to do with the encoding process?  In any case, it's pretty transparent: no hums, no artifacts that I can detect once I get back in the studio.  I'd wholeheartedly recommend it for our intended use, but expect that you might not get all the material you wanted sometimes.  

Drew