Is your studio all wired up??

  • Thread starter Thread starter sweetbeats
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Well everything is plugged up except for one last cable which I may need to make (stereo RCA pair to stereo 1/4" TRS).

Next I'll have to clean up the clutter in the room a bit...tidy up...and then boot up the studio PC, run a bunch of updates, uninstall the old DAW software and install the new, and then configure the virtual patchbay to match the physical interconnects I setup.

Then I start trying to use it. I tell ya...this project has been a good exercise in mentally working through how the Tascam M-__ will be utilized. For those that aren't familiar with it, it's a one-of-a-kind early 80s Tascam 12 x 8 modular inline mixer with a ton of period bells and whistles...there are whole facets I don't wholly understand yet as far as how to effectively apply them. That will come with time and use. At the top of the list would be the configurable group source and monitor switching. And getting fluent with all the solo and mute options on each input module...sheesh. Really...it's dizzying having 5 different solo pick points...

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Finally sent tone to the Ampex from the mixer...2 channels on the Ampex aren't passing audio yet. Bleh. 6 outta 8 ain't bad I guess.
 
So this is the rub with vintage gear...and maybe part of why I drag my feet getting it all hooked up because I anticipate there will be a host of gremlins to address once I actually connect stuff up and start passing signal you know? I want it to just work, but there is work to do first. Hopefully once I get all the bugs worked out it will be a reliable setup, but the headphone amp on the Tascam console is sputtering and making Sputnik sounds...I've dealt with that on something in the past and I don't recall what the issue was; the low band on the console oscillator isn't working again, the 64Hz band. This is something evm1024 helped me fix and I'll have to review what he did.

Then there are a host of signal issues: 1 channel on the Ampex is not passing signal (channel 5)...it was two but it turns out one was just a repro amp card that needed re-seated. The other is a repro amp card problem and I'll have to research that. I think I have a spare...I *know* I have scads of spare 440B repro cards but I have 'C' revision cards loaded because its the 440C-8 heads in the headblock assembly that is presently mounted. 1 channel is not returning to the mixer (channel 2)...I don't yet know where but it is a cabling issue, not a mixer or Ampex electronics module issue; channels 7 & 8 are returning at a much lower level than the others, and channel 1 is hotter...I think channel 2 would be like channel 1 if signal was returning and I think that is because input modules 1 & 2 were recapped and have upgraded opamps...I'm not yet sure what the deal is with channels 7 & 8...it isn't the mixer. IIRC there are level trimmers on the Tascam LA-40mkII converter units I'm using so I'll start there.

I took this short no-dialog video to document what is not working right yet...just me turning the slate on and off, looking at the meters on the mixer and tape machine and then switching the source:

YouTube
 
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The studio is now all wired up...and tidied up...and I got to the stage of updating my DAW PC and uninstalling old DAW software and installing new software annnnnnnd...hard drive eats it. Didn't see that coming and unfortunately I don't have a backup image so I'm starting from scratch. Oh well.
 
I've lost so many hard drives at this point that I'm convinced they have self destruct timers built into them....sorry to hear about that, Cory. :(

Cheers! :)
 
Yeah, thanks, Jeff. Kinda surprised...it's a low hours Seagate drive but it started doing the spin up/down/up/down thing. It's out of warranty...not going to dicker. Just grab a new drive and do a new clean build and then later try freezing the bad drive and try to get my data off of it. If not, oh well.

I'm a real stickler for how I set my DAW PC up, and part of me is more comfortable starting clean since I'm changing software anyway...however THIS time I'll get an image once everything is setup. It's an extra good idea since I'm stuck back on XP secondary to my chosen interface hardware...drivers stopped being written for anything later than XP. XP is fine...no qualms, I just know support is going away for that OS.
 
I made some progress this weekend in the studio. 24 channels of microphones through the wall from the live room and into the control room. And from the wall penetrator to the console inputs. 24 direct outs to the 24 track machine. 24 tape returns back to the console. 8 channels of sub-mixes out of the console, through the wall into the live room. Monitors in both rooms.

Did testing of the mic inputs, found a flaky strip in the console. With the pad engaged and the level turned all the way down, still overloading, have to did into that one.

24 track playing back through console and played with mixdown using the new (for me console).

Next is the two track outs, processing rack and cable to the 2 track. Then I need to cut all the tape returns and route them through a PB in the multitrack processing rack. It takes time when everything is basically X24 :confused: Also going to scrap out two racks. They just arent rugged enough, too flexy. I bought two short steel racks that formed the basis for my console furniture. I will get two that match them!

Lastly, and its not even important at this time is the "alternate media" rack, CD recorder, Dats, MD, cassette, turntable, computer etc.....
 
Annnnnd after some wayward troubleshooting it turns out the PC had a bad HDD and a failing optical drive. It hummin' now...OS is in along with all drivers, service packs and some initial tweaks and software utilities.

Old HDD is in the freezer. Tried to get to it to pull old data off and with it hooked up it brings the entire IDE channel to a halt...BIOS can't even see either drive with the bad one connected and I only have one IDE channel on this PC. If the freezer doesn't do it I guess the silver lining is I don't have to organize and archive all the data on that old drive...there wasn't much.

I tell ya...save for a EMP burst there just really isn't anything that could happen to analog tape masters on the order of a hard drive eating it.
 
Tapes stored in a gun vault/old unplugged freezer/anything in an all metal case would probably survive an EMP. Same goes for most unplugged gear.

Though there won't be an electrical grid to power them after that! :D

Cheers! :)
 
Digital storage is really becoming a real problem.
I've had three external drived die in 2 years - 1 & 2 Tbs.
In 1 case all was lost. In the 2nd - a week ago I recovered about 20% of the data - fortunately almost all my old Cakewalk Pro Audio files - but there was a lot of "cyclical error" stuff happening as I copied so some of that stuff may be useless.
I did better saving to CD & DVD in the days gone.
I still have cassettes from the mid 70's and reels from earlier that play well.
technology moves too fast for the companies to actuially invest time & energy into long life.
What's the point of external backup drives that have oly 1 year warranty?
 
sweetbeats said:
Annnnnd after some wayward troubleshooting it turns out the PC had a bad HDD and a failing optical drive. It hummin' now...OS is in along with all drivers, service packs and some initial tweaks and software utilities.

Old HDD is in the freezer. Tried to get to it to pull old data off and with it hooked up it brings the entire IDE channel to a halt...BIOS can't even see either drive with the bad one connected and I only have one IDE channel on this PC. If the freezer doesn't do it I guess the silver lining is I don't have to organize and archive all the data on that old drive...there wasn't much.

I tell ya...save for a EMP burst there just really isn't anything that could happen to analog tape masters on the order of a hard drive eating it.
Click to expand...

Did you try a usb IDE external drive reader unit? These are pretty cheap and the advantage is that the PC does not "see" the drive as something it wants to mate with. Note, the drive to be copied must be jumpered to "slave".

As for Analogue Disasters: Never heard of "Sticky Tape Syndrome"? And spinning a 24track master around over a big speaker magnet can result in fun!

Dave.
 
STS doesn't usually happen an year or two after recording & storing & the magnet mess - well that applies to digital data as well doesn't it.
 
rayc said:
STS doesn't usually happen an year or two after recording & storing & the magnet mess - well that applies to digital data as well doesn't it.
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No, digital data stored on a thumb drive or SSD is not magnetically sussceptable, nor of course is optical storage. (well, an EMP might take it out but who would be around to care?!!)
I have no idea how strong a field would need to be to affect a mech' hard drive but I suspect an order or more greater than that which affects tape?

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
No, digital data stored on a thumb drive or SSD is not magnetically sussceptable, nor of course is optical storage.
Click to expand...

Optical seems the better bet, though that can have problems where the coating degrades.

Flash has problems with data retention. It's basically a grid of very small charge traps, and the charge slowly leaks out. The smaller the cells, the more economical the stuff is to produce because you can make more of it per wafer, but that also means that you have fewer electrons in each cell to say if it's a 1 or a 0. Each time they shrink the process, the more fragile it gets.

There is a rather interesting slide about Intel's current SSD units - the data is only guaranteed to remain readable for a few months (I forget if it was 3 or 6) without power.
 
jpmorris said:
Optical seems the better bet, though that can have problems where the coating degrades.

Flash has problems with data retention. It's basically a grid of very small charge traps, and the charge slowly leaks out. The smaller the cells, the more economical the stuff is to produce because you can make more of it per wafer, but that also means that you have fewer electrons in each cell to say if it's a 1 or a 0. Each time they shrink the process, the more fragile it gets.

There is a rather interesting slide about Intel's current SSD units - the data is only guaranteed to remain readable for a few months (I forget if it was 3 or 6) without power.
Click to expand...

Ah! So even thumb drives would be degradable if the field was strong enough?

But the bit about SSDs is interesting. If they "leak" information when un powered do they do some sort of "refresh" every now and again?

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Ah! So even thumb drives would be degradable if the field was strong enough?

But the bit about SSDs is interesting. If they "leak" information when un powered do they do some sort of "refresh" every now and again?

Dave.
Click to expand...

I don't know any figures for thumb drives or SD cards. A lot is likely to depend on how good the brand is and also the technology used.

There are three flash storage mechanisms currently in use: SLC flash is the simplest, fastest and most reliable. Each cell stores a single bit, 1 or 0. MLC uses four voltage levels to store two bits per cell. Most recently TLC has appeared which uses 8 levels to store three bits. High grade SLC memories on a large process can support millions of rewrites. MLC is more like 100'000 rewrites or 10'000 depending on the process density. With TLC it varies, but 2000 seems to be very good, and the worst are in the low hundreds.

Since the charge slowly leaks, the more voltage levels you have the more prone it is to the contents getting corrupted. I will say now that I have not yet seen a thumb drive lose its contents by being left, but I would absolutely not use them for archival storage.

As for refreshes, yes. Hard disk replacements such as the Intel drive mentioned earlier will do periodic data refreshes to prevent it all turning to soup. Using a self-checking filesystem such as ZFS or BTRFS (when it becomes stable enough for prime-time use) seems to me a sensible precaution as well.

The elephant in the room is whether these refreshes eat into your precious rewrite cycles. I believe that they do, because that's how EPROMs work - the erase process sets the high voltage levels (0) and the required bits are programmed to 1 by shorting them to ground. I have not yet been able to get a clear answer on that. If it doesn't work that way I'd be fascinated to know how it does.

One final point, there are different grades of flash as well. What I'm talking about is consumer flash for thumb drives and HDD replacements. There are also EPROM replacements, and these tend to be better stuff with a 15-20 year data retention. These are the ones you'd find on your motherboard that hold the BIOS or an embedded OS inside a synthesizer etc.

Though that's no reason to be complacent - remember that Sony decks and certain other devices are starting to suffer from EPROM corruption (again, 15-20 years).
 
I found this after doing an hour or so of research online. Most sites won't even hazard a guess - fear of repercussions maybe.
AGOGIFIED
Media Durability

Computer storage media devices vary in how long they last. The quality and construction of individual media items differ widely. The following estimates for media life are approximate; a specific item can easily last longer–or fail much sooner.

Floppy disk: 3-5 years. Though no longer made, many still exist; examples include 8”, 5.25” and 3.5” disks, along with items such as Zip and Jaz disks.
Flash media: 1-10 years. This category includes USB flash drives (also known as jump drives or thumb drives), SD/SDHC cards and solid-state drives; all generally are less reliable than traditional spinning-disk hard drives.
Hard drive: 2-8 years. The health of a spinning disk hard drive often depends on the environment; excessive heat, for example, can lead to quick failure.
CD/DVD/Blu-ray optical disk: 2-10 years. There is large variation in the quality of optical media; note that “burnable” discs typically have a shorter life than “factory pressed” discs).
Magnetic tape: 10-30 years. Tape is a more expensive storage option for most users–it depends on specialty equipment–but it is the most reliable media available.

I did cross reference the info and it seems consistent across avariety of sites - only one of which lifeted the info (& didn't quote the source).
The one thing I found that was odd was that one original source gave the CD (pressed not burned) from 2 -> 100 years!! I doubt that I'd trust a CD more thana few years since the ones an average person would use for starage would be home burnt.
 
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