uTrack24 + WD MyPassport = hundreds of dropouts

That’s issue is a really strange one, because we also tested the uTrack with this type of HDD.
Actually I have couple of idea which possible to cause similar issue.
1. If you using too long USB cable there’s a power loss on the cable, in this case the HDD switch to some “power saving” mode, in this case the read and write speed reduced, that’s possible cause similar issue. If you using the stock cable (which was included with the HDD) that shouldnt be a problem.
2. Some HDD have internal protection to avoid from the damage when the HDD moving or falling down. If the music too loud (especially the low frequencies) some HDD push the head to parking position for a while, in this case the data transfer stopped for couple of seconds, that’s possible cause similar issue. Actually I tried to reproduce your issue, I used 3 different HDD for the test (WD My Passport, Toshiba Stor.E partner, Seegate Expansion) the result: the WD was the much more sensitive drive, so I’m pretty sure that caused your issue. For avoid this problem you can put some soft material below the HDD.

Sorry if this seems like I’m repeating with some of the forum questions. But I have both the LP-16 and the U24 which I’m only using it as playing backing tracks. Has any one found out the best HDD to use that would be compatible with no drop outs, or stopping in the middle of a performance? I was looking into the SSD Drives that were at least 500gb capacity. Whatever the HDD is that will be reliable I have to buy two as back up.

And is there anything out there that I could practically run 2 HDD(parallel) together like a mirror effect so if one drops out the other one takes over without any interruptions on the backing track being played. I heard of something like the “NewerTech Guardian MAXimus RAID-1 [MIRROR] Quad Interface Solution” But I was told I need a software or program to use it. Any help would be great…. Thanks 🙂

Larry

Thanks FOH for responding. I’m in the air with the HDD which I actually use the external 500GB USB HD. The only reason I do so because I have seen and read about from the Cymatic company that best to use the “moving” disk type of drives …as they said that the Sand Disk and Flash drives won’t be compatible with their LP-16 and U24 units. I’m glad to hear that the USB Flash drives have been working well so far! Can a 64gb or 128gb hold 50 (24ch/48kHz songs)? I need it for the whole night if possible. So, if a flash drive would work then do you think that a 500gb SSD external drive do the same?

Did you mean Kingston flash drive? Want to make sure I’m getting the right item 🙂

Thanks OBDave! This really helps keep me in the right track of things.

uhh… may be it’s me but aren’t obdave and laszlo missing the point that we are trying to make here?
My answer to lilpyro was about using standard flashdrives for playback, not recording.

There is indeed a lot of stuff on the internet to read about the differences of WRITE and READ performance on flashdrives, so it the statements of obdave and laszlo make sense to me in regards to using standard usb flashdrives for recording.

The point that I merely was trying to make to lilpyro, was that READ performance of flashdrives is mostly much better than their WRITE performance, and for that reason it seems that uTrack (and most likely LP as well), has no problem playing back multitrack files from standard USB flash drives.
At least, it is working flawlessly for me for 10+ shows already playing back 48Khz/24bit content varying from 8 to 24 channels from several 128Gb and 64Gb sticks.
And as my setup has litterally no moving parts, there is no skipping of HDD heads or any of the problems that lilpyro is experiencing with his HDD application.
So I do not know if I am now working completely out of the specification of Cymatic, or if Cymatic has done any testing in this area, but it seems to be working absolutely fine for me with several different USB sticks.

And lilpyro to answer your question on capacity:
using the audio filesize calculator https://www.theaudioarchive.com/TAA_Resources_File_Size.htm#File_Size_Tutorial you will find out that 1 minute of 24channel audio at 48Khz/24bit uses up around 203Mb per minute.
So leaving providing me well over 310minutes or well over 5 hours of 24ch content on a standard 64Gb flashdrive. In my case, more than enough to cover a full show, especially as several of the songs contain less than 24channels of audio.

And as I have paid less than EUR60 for a 128Gb Sandisk data traveler the other day, I simply always keep 2 extra with me as backup, should one of these babies suddenly decide to give read errors. Live is good 🙂

[quote=”FOH” post=535]…but may be someone from Cymatic can make a firm statement on the topic of playback here?[/quote]

The things what I described in my previous post also valid for the playback as well. So the allocation unit size have impact on the drive performance.
But the fact the read speed usually faster than the write speed, for this reason less problematic.
Because of the lot of different controller inside of the SSD or USB sticks, for this reason all the time strongly recommended to test before the live gig.

Hi OBDave,
nothing misspoken!
I guess we where both trying to explain the same thing from different perspectives 🙂

What about this SanDisk Cruzer Fit CZ33 64GB USB 2.0? It seems really low profile but would it be too small for consistent playback?

Oh good! I will have to start testing a few then….thanks again OBDave.