Yamaha MD-8

[vendros]

I am a former Tascam Porta Studio user, and have recently purchased a Yamaha MD-8 (used.)

I have noticed that I get a lot of "DISC ERROR" messages and the recording stops cold.

Is this common? What is the fix?

Any help would be appreciated. I really like the MD-8, but don't know if it's worth fixing (if fixable.)

Thanks in advance.

[Son of Mixerman]

Could be a bad disk. It could also be that its not properly ventilated. In the summer time my md8 gets disk errors alot because its just too warm to run it for very long, like 45 minutes max. Once the machine heats up too much the thermal differential between the laser and the disk goes out of alignment. Keep it cool and see if the problem goes away. If not, its probably going to cost a few hundred to fix it.

Good Luck,

SoMm

[mjbee]

I also have used an MD8 quite a bit in the past (not mine).

The original model that was bought crapped out quite a lot on this. Didn't matter what brand of disks, there would be some point when recording would stop dead, leaving either a hole in all 8 tracks, or an unusable bit of disk.

It seems to come up fairly often that the MD8 struggles with DISC ERROR xx problems. This was definitely and reproducably heat related. Using the unit on a hard surface, allowing normal air circulation, it would conk out and become unusable for playback or record eventually. Firing a desk fan into the base of it kept it running fine.

It was returned for repair, a brand new unit came back, which still does it occasionally.

What's annoying is the realisation that an error on record damages ALL 8 tracks, not just the armed ones, as the recorder has to read the "sector" containing 8 channels worth of data, before altering it and re-writing it back. This can fail ... losing you either a bit of audio, or the ability to play through a particular range of time ...

Nice unit, the disk I/O worries me

Mike.

[vendros]

mjbee... that's EXACTLY what's going on with my MD8. I wrote Yamaha and they said that it was a "laser allignment problem" and the the unit would have to be shipped back to California for repair, since the local service folks wouldn't have the proper tool to get the job done.

I did do something that seems to keep it in control, however... I took the MD8 off the table and put it on an AMP STAND, and now air can get at it from underneath. It seems to have solved the problem, so I DEFINITELY agree that it's a heat related problem.

It is discouraging to get a hole across all 8 tracks... now when I get a clean take, I write it to the disk and go on.


Misery loves company, no?

[mjbee]

Originally posted by vendros
"laser allignment problem"

Seems reasonable, that would explain why it can damage the disk to the point where a reformat is needed to get the disk usable again (which is a pain, as you lose the other songs on the disk, so not a preferred fix!)

It seems to have solved the problem, so I DEFINITELY agree that it's a heat related problem.

Your other answer would be a DC fan, pushing air through the unit from the underside, mostly through the holes under the mechanism. Convection is just not enough to cool these things, although many people report having them switched on and tracking for hours and hours without trouble.

Mike.

[Nilbog]

I was one of those lucky ones who nevr had a porblem with my md8. It's long been sold off now, but it always worked great in my cold, musty basement.
Just be careful, if you do use a fan, that the noise doesnt make it onto your tracks.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo GOBLIN:

Where the hell you been hiding?

I, also, never had any real problems with my MD8 which still decorates my studio -- I haven't turned it on for a long time; however, I like to look at it. I'm using the Yam 2816 and it is a nice SIAB.

Hope you're making lots of $$$ and enjoying music.

Green Hornet

[Nilbog]

The Green Hornet! It has been a while hasnt it??

[username3001]

Has anyone tried to retreive tracks which were not saved (by pressing the Stop/TOC write button)? The audio is definitely there as a song, and was even copied to a further song, all of which happened without ever having to use the Stop button. Then the power was switched off.... So can I get my songs back?

[Nilbog]

I've heard of some kind of thing where you can make another disc with the same TOC on it, then switch the discs and press STOP to write the TOC to the messed up disc. You have to defeat the switch that tells it it's open though.