Yamaha aw16g problem

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Paragon

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Hi, Hope someone out there can help me with this problem: I've spent several months recording a total of about 12 songs and started to mix them down onto the stero track -so far so good, however when I went to put them onto CD I keep getting the ATAPI error message: problem communicating with the CDRW drive. I'm also finding it impossible to back up data with the same message occuring. Clearly I need to get the unit looked at by a professional repairer but does that mean I'm going to lose all my hard work over the last several months? do you think the problem will be able to be fixed without wiping the HD? alternatively is there another way of saving my data and can you tell me if there is anyone who offers this service? I'm in the north west of England. Please help if you can.
Thanks in anticipation.
 
Sounds more like the CD drive is the issue rather than the hard drive, if both types of writing to it are failing. There's no reason to think that your data and tunes are at risk. Putting a new CD drive in is just a matter of disconnecting the old one and putting a new one in. Or maybe the driver is corrupted - and putting a new driver on shouldn't lose you data in either.

Can you play CDs? Or restore a song from a previous back up on CD? That would be a further indication of what the issue actually is.

I'm not so familiar with the AW16G (I have an AW4416 that I no longer use) but is there no other back up option apart from the CD? I know there isn't with the 4416 but I would have hoped a direct interface with a computer would have been possible in this newer model.

Finally, and I don't know if it works for the AW16G, but for when your machine is working again, track down the (now obsolete and hard to find) software AW Extract - it allows your PC to read the machine's back up disks (at least for the 4416 and 2816) and you can then edit and mix on your PC, something which you may want to do in the future, when you grow tired of the limitations of the machine itself.... good luck.
 
Sorted

Hi Guys,
Thanks for your replies. I'm pleased to say that I've solved the problem. It was a buffer underun which I solved by slowing down the write speed. I'm much relieved. Cheers.
 
There you go... now hunt down AW Extract anyway, and for god's sake by bulk CDs and back up, back up, back up...
 
You're quite correct Armistice, it's a lesson learnt! Not sure what the AW Extract is or how to go about finding it?
 
AW Extract

Let me sell it to you this way.... if your AW16G's hard drive ever dies (and it will at some stage) ALL your music that you've backed up religiously on CDs is completely and irrevocably lost unless you can get a new drive into your machine - it may not be possible to replace a drive that old with something new - they may no longer exist or be purchasable.

Or if your machine otherwise dies (someone drops it, the fader motors die, the power supply goes etc.) and is not repairable, then all your music suffers the same fate unless you buy another similar machine - and again, that may not be possible, or convenient.

Why? Because those CDs are in a Yamaha proprietary format that nothing else will read.* Try putting one in your PC and see what it makes of it.

AW Extract is a very simple (and clunky) program that allows your (PC) computer to read those disks and extract the WAV files which are on them, meaning you can then use them in some other way, such as a DAW program. I finally moved on from my AW4416 about a year ago and I'm resurrecting older tunes and remixing and altering them in Reaper from the back up disks created in the AW4416.

It's a very small program and doesn't actually install on your PC, you just run it from the file. So download it and keep it somewhere just in case, is my advice. Just in case. :D

You know that very smart people say that data doesn't exist unless it exists in THREE places. Your data only exists in two. I used to burn two lots of CDs to solve that but that still leaves you at risk of machine failure. Archiving your backups via AW Extract is another way to get that third copy.

* I don't know this for a fact with the AW16G, perhaps they got a bit smarter with its data storage. Nor do I know that the AW16G format is the same as the AW4416, or that AW Extract will work with AW16G backup disks, but you'll be able to work it out easily enough.
 
Gord B.

Hi Guys,
Thanks for your replies. I'm pleased to say that I've solved the problem. It was a buffer underun which I solved by slowing down the write speed. I'm much relieved. Cheers.

Hi, I hope that you are still in this forum. I have the Yamaha AW16 g and have the same problem that you had and I am aware of the solution but I do not know HOW to reduce the write speed and reduce it to what? Maybe you can help me?? Thanks, in advance. Gord B.
 
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