"virtual track" count on D1624 still EIGHT????

C

Cratinus

Member
just curious. didn't know if the latest software upgrade somehow enabled the 1624 to gain the extra v-tracks that the "mysterious" D1624 MK2 supposedly boasted (what was it,..24 virtual?).
 
1.8 doesn't. The rumored 2.1 may, or it may not- I'm still trying to get ahold of it to find out if it is real, And if it does that, and gets rid of the punch-out mute, and so on...

I can't think of any hardware reason whatsoever that you shouldn't be able to have more virtual tracks: all they should be is an entry in a pointer table. Make the pointer table bigger, and viola': more virtual tracks. It should be all typing, and shouldn't have much if anything to do with which generation of hardware you have...

Stay tuned. At least one member has a MkI D1624 with the 2.1 firmware on it, from the factory. Hopefully we'll hear more from him, and I'll let you know whatever I can find out...
 
Yup. It's the first thing that comes up on the display when you power it up: the firmware version and build date...
 
I'm now much more all over this than I was before. I just got off the phone with the US tech support folks for Fostex, and they told me that they would not support the 2.x firmware on a MkI machine under any circumstances. And the reason is that hard disks formatted for 2.x cannot be played in a 1.x machine, and vice versa. And that is apparently the *only* reason. He wouldn't say that the punch out mute goes away, or that the virtual track count would got up to 24: he just said that they didn't want the support headaches from having incompatible disk formats.

Fine: they already have that with the D2424 anyway, since it uses the new filesystem. Where's the beef?

I'm now on a mission to get that firmware from one of the international distributors, if needed. Stay tuned!
 
skippy said:
I'm now much more all over this than I was before. I just got off the phone with the US tech support folks for Fostex, and they told me that they would not support the 2.x firmware on a MkI machine under any circumstances. And the reason is that hard disks formatted for 2.x cannot be played in a 1.x machine, and vice versa. And that is apparently the *only* reason. He wouldn't say that the punch out mute goes away, or that the virtual track count would got up to 24: he just said that they didn't want the support headaches from having incompatible disk formats.

Fine: they already have that with the D2424 anyway, since it uses the new filesystem. Where's the beef?

I'm now on a mission to get that firmware from one of the international distributors, if needed. Stay tuned!
Click to expand...

Yeah, going foreign is your bet. I"ve dealt with Fostex USA and they flat out suck. I've even dealt with them concerning Terratec issues and they suck even worse there! One of the best things I found, was to found out the file name or something and do an extensive web search. Don't forget to search newsgroups and the such. I've found just about everything I've needed that way.
 
Hi,
I'm working with my D824 MKI for over a month with V2.02 (from factory) and haven't found a single MKII feature that isn't included so far.
I called the German distributor to send me the file to upgrade other older machines for disk compatibility (thats what I told him exactly. BTW, it's possible to make a MKII disk readable for MKI machines).
Unfortunately, I still didn't find the time to test the punch in/out issue yet, but I can email the firmware to anyone who likes to try it.

Skippy, I sent you the firmware in my last email, have you tested it, allready?


Nils
 
It hasn't arrived- I was wondering about that. Could you possibly resend it? It might have encountered my maximum-mail-size filter (familiar story, eh?) and been lost. But I've now temporarily turned that off. Please try again, and many thanks for doing that for me!
 
I now have the v2.02 D824/D1624 firmware from two different sources, and I'll be loading it up and evaluating it over the next few days. Many thanks to NoKi and Ausrock for their help in getting this going. It just goes to show that HR really is quite a valuable resource!

I also have the Fostex release notes for v2.02, and the added capabilities sound like a very good thing. It does indeed appear that the punchout mute issue is gone, and I do believe that the virtual track count is increased (although these notes don't reflect that, as it was changed in a prior release). It also adds support for up to 137Gb disks, adds a new footswitch mode, and has several bugfixes. I'm trying now to get the release notes for v2.01 and/or any prior releases, so that I can have a firm knowledge of the sequence of changes from v1.08. I'll certainly post here once I have more verified facts.
 
skippy,
thanks for your persistence on this matter. i look foward to hearing your results/feedback on the new firmware. having the extra virtual tracks (as well as the "punch-in fix") would be WELCOME additions to an already powerful machine.

p.s. if the firmware upgrade proves to be a success for you,..might you (perhaps) "share the wealth" with the rest of us "D" enthusiasts ?? cheers.:D
 
I'm sure that we can come up with some mechanism to do that. if Fostex USA remains resistant. However, I'm beginning to think that a grassroots campaign of D-series owners calling up Fostex USA (800-936-7839) and outright demanding that they provide this update to their current customers would be useful as well. They really do need to support us now and into the future, rather than forcing us to scurry off to the international distributors for the updates to keep our machines going!

I now have all the release notes for the chain of releases leading up to V2.02. The added features (V2.02 vs V1.08) are as follows:

1. Removal of the punch-out mute: the machine now switches instantly from record-monitor to playback-monitor with no 2-second mute. Big win.

2. The total track count has been increased from 24 to 56: so a D824 will have 8 physical and 48 virtual tracks, and a D1624 will have 16 physical and 40 virtual tracks. However, data recorded in 56-track mode under V2.x will not be readable by a V1.x machine without doing a destructive conversion: more on this next.

3. Conversion of V1.x 24-track data to V2.x 56-track data via an entry in the Setup menu, allowing your old disks to be safely updated to the new format *without* having to delete everything and start from scratch. You can apparently also convert from 56-track back to 24-track as well, allowing v1.x and v2.x machines to share disks (although the data from the new virtual tracks 25-56 and the Multiple Undo data will be lost, if you go backwards). Wonder what Fostex USA is so damned worried about?

4. Addition of a Chain Play function, which allows you to set up a list of programs to play in sequence.

5. Mark Stop mode, to force the machine to automatically stop at every memory locate point if desired.

6. The foot switch can be used to control either play/stop or the standard punch in/out functionality by a screen in the Setup menu.

7. Auto EE mode added: puts the machine into input monitor mode automatically when stopped, if desired. I'll use this a lot, to use the internal D/As to monitor 16 tracks from my DAW. This will be much easier and less risky than having to use record-pause! A big win, and completely unexpected...

8. Addition of the 88.2kHz sampling frequency as an option.

9. Allowing each program on a disk to have a different sampling frequency if desired (instead of being locked in to one sampling rate when the disk is initially formatted). Another unexpected big win.

10. Support for Maxtor drives (write verify speed incompatibility, write verify has to be turned off).

11. Support for disks up to 137Gb.

12. Ability to display up to 100Gb remaining.

And a handful of bugfixes. All in all, it really does make the damned thing into a MkII unit, just as NoKi pointed out- you just don't get the sexy black faceplate and the new drive carrier.

I still haven't installed it on my machine yet: I was backing up all my old data, thinking I'd have to reformat from scratch. If time permits I'll do that tonight. And time probably will permit, given that I have over 4 feet of snow on the ground...
 
excellent, EXCELLENT stuff, skippy! i've studied your "12-point feature list" and see nothing but impressive upgrades for the 1624. it's a "home run" in my book.


I'm sure that we can come up with some mechanism to do that. if Fostex USA remains resistant. However, I'm beginning to think that a grassroots campaign of D-series owners calling up Fostex USA (800-936-7839) and outright demanding that they provide this update to their current customers would be useful as well. They really do need to support us now and into the future, rather than forcing us to scurry off to the international distributors for the updates to keep our machines going!
Click to expand...

i emailed Fostex (again) the other day. i sent an email to SUPPORT regarding the "MK2" upgrade and an email to PARTS concerning an expansion board availability. i got a response from Fostex Parts IMMEDIATELY. i HAVE YET (now 7 days later) to get ANY response from Fostex "Support". go figure. i'll try the "old-fashioned" PHONE method this week (but have a sneaky feeling that i'll be forced to LEAVE A MESSAGE and subsequently never receive a return call).

at any rate, skippy , thanks again for your research and "firmware testing". keep us posted. cheers.
 
Just did the update to V2.02. It is *exactly* as advertised. Huge win all around, and completely trivial. Remarkably, my machine works with the V1.x formatted disks with no problem: apparently, the only need for the conversion item in the setup menu is to *downgrade* tunes recorded under 2.02 to be playable in a 1.x machine. Otherwise it is simply plug and chug!

All thanks to NoKi for speaking up and saying thtat this firmware existed at all- without that, we would never have known, here in the US anyway...

I'm now a happy camper. Call up Fostex USA and give them a ration of grief: there is exactly zero reason for them to suppress this, as it really is a win all around.
 
Skippy,

Glad to hear it has worked out.

It has me wondering what further upgrades are available for my D160..............guess a phone call to Syntec is in order shortly.

regards.....:cool:
 
For sure! Thanks for all your help in this as well. I think the whole D-series community will benefit from this...
 
Skippy,
have you also noticed that if you format a large HD (>40 GB) with the multiple undo option turned on, only about 24 GB are left for recording, as I posted in "d824"?

Nils
 
Checking, will advise. Right now all my big disks are still formatted in V1.08, so I'll have to free one up to try that: the 30Gb drive I did format in V2.02 doesn't seem to have any such problem.

I also now have to get some 100Gb drives to try: they're cheap enough, for sure.
 
I'm just maring this so I can find it later.
hey Skippy.....haven't heard from you in a while. I'd still like you to do some drums for me.
 
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