PC Fader bugs??

[George Cumbee]

Has anyone else had problems with faders just quitting several times a day. ie: Usually fader 8. It will just stop working, no touch control or no screen movement. Turning off the PC and restarting always clears it.

Yesterday I had to do that 8 or so times in a 12 hour session.

Is this a PC bug? It happened in 4.3.1 and is still there in 5.0.

George Cumbee
Classic Recording, Franklin TN www.classicrecording.com (http://www.classicrecording.com)

[Jules]

Once or twice a day, when it does I usualy find its when I have a plug in on screen, I take it off screen and wiggle the fader a bit, then I regain control, next time I will try Gannons trick........

Jules

[This message has been edited by Jules (edited January 28, 2000).]

[agus]

I've only had Pro Control for about a month now.. I love it. This problem just happened to me today and it also was fader 8. I powered down the PC and on reboot it was fine. Only happened that one time though. Hope it doesn't become an issue. It kind of destroys the 'aged' unit theory. Hey Digi.. what is this??

[George Cumbee]

Ours does it several times a day.

Usually fader 8, but sometimes 6.....

I have just gotten used to it.


George www.classicrecording.com (http://www.classicrecording.com)

[gk]

Hi George,

Here's the answer I got from the firmware developer on Procontrol:

This happens when a fader thinks its stuck or blocked. Perhaps this test is too sensitive as units age; it could be made more tolerant with a firmware change.

So, can I take an informal poll here an see how often this is happening to the folks here? On my machine, it would happen a couple of times a week. Not a big deal.

One more thing... instead of power cycling your ProControl, you can reset the faders by entering Utility>Prefs>Faders and choose Recal. Easier than a reboot.

Hope this helps!

-Gannon Kashiwa
ProControl Team

[Branko]

I have 32 fader system, and it happens 3-4 times a week, sometimes on a same day.No rules, no pattern. I also use the RECAL function in the fader menu.I don't find it very annoying. It happens on every automation, on every console.Of course, if it can be fixed, do it.
Branko

[Ray Fabi]

Mine has done it ounce or twice in the past ten months, but however do have another problem. Some of the faders will not hold their position at +6dB position if I push the fader to that point - it comes back down to about +5.3 dB ... What is strange though is that if that defective fader is grouped and I push the adgacent grouped fader to +6dB (thus forcing the defective fader to also go up to +6dB) then the defective fader will stay in the correct +6dB position ???

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Ray Fabi
Ton of Bricks Studios Montreal
514-990-2713

[agus]

Come on Digi, chime in on this one...

[Jules]

The 'high position, creeping back' problem is an old one...do a search..
If I recall, there were tweaks that were done on the tension of the pullies that are under the faders, didgi offered to fix dud ones in the early days, but have learned how to tweak the latest ones to work well nowadays....Ray, is yours a realy early days model? Perhaps you need a tension service on the fader (s)...

Jules

[Toko]

Hello !
We have a 32-Channel and a 8 Channel ProControl. On the 32 Channel unit we have the 6 and 8 Fader problem nearly every day, most of the time on the main unit. The other 8 channel PC has no fader problems. But we often have the problem that main unit or only one fader packs locks out or disapears. Anyone else has this problem ?
Regards
Toko

[Dave Lebolt]

Hi Ray Fabi (and all),
Beyond the initial mechanical problems that Jules mentioned in his post, there should be a fix in for the problem you mentioned about "fader fallback" in the firmware revision that shipped with v5.0 software. The new firmware offers a new preference under UTILITY>PREFS>FADERS. It's an adjustment for "fader back tension" and you it comes factory defaulted to "8." This controls the amount of electromotive backtension applied so that the fader won't slide back (even if the fader is at an angle). It also has the effect of being able to adjust the overall fader feel from very stiff (full on) to very easy to move ("0"). Hope this helps you out, and let Gannon and me know how it works for you.

[Jules]

wow! Cool! I find the faders a bit too 'glidey' or 'slippy' without resistance I wonder if I can tweak here to get them more the way I want...?
P.S. does anyone find the mechanic to audio action of the faders a little 'late'? One digi staff said he does vocal rides with the fader but then goes back and draws them a bit earlier using what the fader 'tried to do' as a guide.
Any opinions here? Can one offset ones fader performance to happen a little earlier? "One" wonders....Fader action, discuss please.

Jules

[gk]

Hi all,

Sorry, been swamped! Thanks, Dave for answering the fader fallback issue. It's a pretty cool solution. I also found the faders to be a little slippery and the back tension fixed it right up for me. It should also get rid of the any fallback problems. Please let me know if it doesn't.

As far as the automation not tracking in time, that is a stumper! I've never had a problem with it and I have mixed a lot on ProControl. Jules, are you on a network? That's the only thing I can think of that might cause a delay. It should be extremely accurate timing wise.

Good news on the faders going to sleep issue. I'm testing a new build of the personality that widens the tolerance window a little bit. So far, it seems to be working, but it's one of those things you have to look at for a while before you notice an improvement. If all goes well, I should be able to post it for you guys to try out. I'll let you know.

Be well!

-GK

[Jules]

Thanks for all the attention to ProControl questions latley Digi!

Jules, tight fader, Standen

[rogergreen]

Don't know where else to put this, so I'll start here.

When we do a mix, and automate with PC, when we stop, PT puts a "stop" edit point and all the volume information returns to the point the faders were before the automation pass. This may be handy for dropping in on a mix in 'touch' mode, but becomes very annoying when you want to continue the mix in 'latch' mode. To put it amother way, I want the faders to stay where they last were when I press stop.

At present I have to delete the last edit point that PT puts in when I press stop, and the faders behave as I would expect. Or, quickly touch all the faders in the run up to the edit point to latch them into write mode. Both are a bit of a pain.

Does anyone else have an irk with this? or am I not running PT in the correct mode?

Suggestions?

[Greg Malcangi]

Roger: If you press the "go to end of session key" while holding down the clt key during an automation pass, playback will stop and a dialog will popup asking if you want to write the current automation data to the end of the session. http://www.digidesign.com/ubb/images/icons/cool.gif

Greg

[agus]

Roger... be careful because everything that is enabled for automation will be copied to the end. If you want level automation written until the end, make sure you don't have the plug ins, sends, etc set to record automation. Check out the manual... it's in there somewhere.

[Toko]

Dave ! Is there a way to use the new firmware of PT 5.0 with PT 4.32 ?
Regards !
Toko

[gk]

Hi Toko,

I'll answer for Dave. The controller personalities for the different versions of the app are not meant to be mixed. It can be done, but it can have a destabilizing effect on your system, so best not to do it.

-gannon kashiwa
ProControl Team

[rogergreen]

About the automation thing.

Thanks everyone, I thought it was just something I was doing wrong..I've now mapped the cntrl-click to a quick-key.

[Ray Fabi]

Thanx Dave and Jules. I am still resisting installing Pt 5 cause I am running a 9600/300 and am not convinced that it'll run smoothly, but if and when I do jump to Pt 5, I'll let you know if the firmware thang works.
Thanx again

------------------
Ray Fabi
Ton of Bricks Studios Montreal
514-990-2713

[George Cumbee]

Ray:

We have been using PT5.0 on our 9600/300 since early Dec with few, if any, problems. The PC fader problem that started this thread was there before 5.0. Strangely, the last two big projects I have done have been free of it.

I think you will really like switching to 5.0. It does offer a better look on screen (in the edit window) and the markers are great. I have not gotten into a lot of the features, like the variable tools. I do like the comment windows in the mix screen. Allocator is included ( I WISH MLCD WAS).
The stat. head scrolling is a waste. Too slow, even on G3's 4's I here.

We went to OS9 when we upgraded, so a few things at first I think we just a matter of getting used to 9. I do think the overall speed is slower. I am not sure how much of that is 5.0 vs OS9. I have considered getting OS8.6 and going to it.

I have complained about several issues on various sections of the DUC, but most have been leftover things and in a couple of cases, my fault. Our problems were always mainly with Waves and 2.8.1 seemed to solve most of that. Overall stability on our system has been fine. I did project a few weeks back for 7 days 10-12hrs, day and maybe had 1 or 2 lockups. To me, that is wonderful. We were doing huge files, 24-30tracks 48K/24bit that were from 10-36 min long. 240min worth of music total. We were doing multiple AIT/Mezzo backup/restores since we only had 2 18g drives. I felt we were lucky to have so few problems.

I still think the meters on both the screen and PC are slower than before.

Lynn Fuston of 3D Audio in Nashville came by to see ours. He works in our main room a lot, but has his own PT Mix Suite. He was reluctant to change. He is on a G3266(I think). I convinced him to make the move and he said he is thrilled now. Wish he had sooner. Check out his site at www.3daudioinc.com (http://www.3daudioinc.com) He has a message board there that is very helpful and widely used.
He is a Digi beta tester too I think. I know he is for Waves.

Hope that helps

George Cumbee
Classic Recording, Franklin, TN www.classicrecording.com (http://www.classicrecording.com)

[Jules]

Ray,

PT 5 is FINE on my 266 OS 8.5.1, 224 Meg Ram, Bit 3, 7 card ext chassis...Dual Monitor card etc...No crashes today! Usualy 5 a week or so...

Jules

[Ian Greaves]

I recently got an ex-demo (5 month old) 16 channel PC set-up which I'm running with my Pro-Tools (v4.3) system on System 8.6 on a 9500/200 processor with 256Mb RAM. I haven't had any of the problems described previously (Yet !) but perhaps I just haven't used the set-up enough yet (still getting the rest of my equipment connected, not enough interfaces etc.).

What problems am I likely to encounter upgrading to PT5 ? Will it run ok on this system ? I'm holding on for a G4/450 based system (with expansion chassis) later this year when the money appears.

[This message has been edited by Ian Greaves (edited February 23, 2000).]