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Sound Devices MixPre version 3.0 Now Released


jon_tatooles

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v3.02 just released: https://www.sounddevices.com/support/downloads:

 

Last update December 21, 2018

Changes introduced in 3.02 include:

Fixed

  • Noise floor no longer increases when phantom power is turned on and off.
  • MixPre no longer crashes when maximum note character limit (200 characters) is reached.
  • Shortcuts menu remains visible after setting nanoKONTROL2 to anything other than gain pots.
  • Ambisonics: binaural recordings now have proper spatial image.
  • Ambisonics: binaural monitoring with FuMa is now spatially correct.
  • L/R Gain no longer changes when a USB controller is connected.
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On 12/21/2018 at 6:20 AM, soundmanjohn said:

Having updated to Firmware V3.01 on my 10T, I had the rather strange experience this morning of not being able to turn the thing off. I was doing test recordings of my OctoMic/Cyclone combination, powering an AudioRoot BDS and Remote Audio Hi-Q battery, with a fully charged set of Eneloop AAs in the battery sled as back-up, and when I'd finished recording, I went to power down and the switch was totally inactive. Disconnected the BDS, still nothing. I'd had WIngman running on my iPad and wondered if that was something to do with it, so turned Bluetooth off, and initially that didn't seem to make any difference. Eventually, after a fair bit of head scratching and switch clicking, the unit decided it did want to turn off after all. I can't replicate it at the moment, but will persevere.

 

John

 

If you had a USB thumbdrive inserted, it was probably still auto-copying. Power down is prevented during this process. Copying status is displayed on the USB drive status bar at bottom of LCD. Just touch it to toggle to toggle to this view. Hope this helps.

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Hi Jon and Paul 

 

Glad to see you here following this topic,I love my MixPre6 a lot on a recent hiking gig, really saved my back,but there are a few things I noticed during using it :

 

"I’m using MixPre 6 V2.21, it’s fine for the first week on my current project, and I have been using usbC cable to copy the file into my laptop all good for the first week. I’m recording 24bit 48KHz and one day the MixPre6 auto changed its sample rate to 44.1KHz without my awareness until I got back and transferred files into wave agent. Ah pain! To convert all the files back to 48KHz in pro tools and re-entry all the metadata in wave agent. Then I tried several times try to re-produce this problem, sometimes my mixpre6 would change its sample rate to 44.1 and sometimes it stays at 48KHz and there is no any kind of warning message when sample rate changes. So I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem ? I’m on latest Mac OS 10.14?.

And I was using Wingman all day everyday, for such important info I do wish either on MixPre’s main screen or on wingman the sample rate should be shown and at least give a warning/checking message with the user when it’s auto changing sample rate.

Beside this I also want to see current frame rate on either main screen or wingman’s main screen when I’m feeding a tc signal to MixPre.

And also, currently MixPre takes time ode but it did not take external userbits, I’m feeding it from Tentacle UB is set to date and everyday MixPre has same userbits “$00000000” when reading from wave agent. "

 

I posted in the FB MixPre group months ago and many other users had these problems, but I did not see any changes in the latest firmware so I put them here again. 

 

Best

 

Cloud 

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There is a setting to determine wether the USB port is used only for power or for audio as well. If you use it for audio it will obey a request from the computer to switch the sample rate.

 

System->USB-C

 

By default it’s set to “Audio”. Try setting it to “Power Only”. After you do that it won’t appear as an audio interface when connected to the computer. 

 

 

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I experienced the same bit rate changes when I’ve been recording on the field in 192k and then connect it to the computer only to later notice it’s at 96k. 

Because that’s the max the MP6 support over USB and what used for usb I/o earlier. 

 

From that on it have not been a problem for me as I know what to check. But it would be very nice if the mixpre returned to the previous setting again on USB disconnect. Or asked the question to do so. 

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3 hours ago, Display Name said:

From that on it have not been a problem for me as I know what to check. But it would be very nice if the mixpre returned to the previous setting again on USB disconnect. Or asked the question to do so. 

 

Playing devil's advocate here, it's a tricky issue. What if a user, no matter how much it violates the philosophy of a field recorder, uses the computer to set up the sample rate? I've seen weirder, trust me!

 

Coming from a security background I find it much more convenient to prevent mishaps by restricting the functionality to what you need. The designers provide two different menu options in order to determine exactly what you want to do when you connect it to a computer.

 

- You may want to use the computer only for power. In that case, file transfer is off and USB-C mode is "power only".

 

- You want to transfer files? USB-C mode in "power only" and activating the file transfer. 

 

- You want to use it as an audio interface? Then set USB-C mode as "Audio". It will become a class compliant USB audio device.

 

There is a good principle in software design, albeit sadly it's being forgotten nowadays: The Principle Of Least Astonishment. Having the recorder somewhat "decide" to switch sample rates is (in my opinion) a bad choice because it's a POLA violation. Moreover, it may cause a conflict with some use cases or, who knows, future features.

 

Given that I make a living working on computer and network security I am going to give you some free advice. Never connect a USB device to a potentially untrusted USB port unless you are certain that the device will survive unexpected USB commands. As a silly example, maybe you are in the field, you connect your recorder to a friend's laptop with who knows what audio configuration settings and you are busted ;)

 

Maybe SD should rename the USB-C menu to "safe sex" :D:D:D to make it clearer!

 

 

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12 hours ago, Paul Isaacs said:

 

If you had a USB thumbdrive inserted, it was probably still auto-copying. Power down is prevented during this process. Copying status is displayed on the USB drive status bar at bottom of LCD. Just touch it to toggle to toggle to this view. Hope this helps.

 

Aha, that'll be it, then. I'd totally forgotten there was a USB drive connected, as it's one of the tiny ones.

 

Thanks for the problem solving.

 

All the best.

 

John

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Hi All,

 

Still think it would be extremely helpful if Sound Devices had product specific FAQs and current status bulletins (and a running archive) where all these kind of questions and solutions could be found on their own centralized manufacturer's official site. For example, all these big and little issues popping up lately with the recent MixPre firmware would be so much more readily and conveniently researched from a central FAQ and bulletin location.... preferably laid out by Sound Devices.

 

Slogging through both the Sound Devices and MixPre user Facebook pages soup for current info is a big PITA when you are needing to know about a very specific product issue asap. I am not looking for "social conversations" when my unit has an issue - I'm looking for accurate timely technical information and solutions.

 

Thanks for considering going back to the old but efficient FAQ method of information presentation.

Have a great night.

 

Cheers,

Dave

 

 

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Freeheel, I agree about Facebook and looking for manufacturer information there.

 

Facebook, for better or worse, is often the first place a customer interacts with us today. That is a challenge. Facebook is designed so users spend time on Facebook. Search is non-existent so the same questions come up every 15 days. And the FB forums these questions come up are user-generated and we have no ownership or management of them. While user-to-user data is very valuable (and there are some incredibly sharp end users) it more often than not telephone tree with incorrect information being mentioned by someone (the loudest) who presents themselves as an authoritative user. 

 

For many years we had our own forums. Over time customers abandon it as Facebook came to be the place they spent time, since it was where all their "brands" were and didn't have to hop around. 

 

At least for SD gear, the first place anyone should go if they have questions is to Danny, Dan, Dennis, or Sean in our tech support. Real humans with phones and email. 

 

The others are good suggestions. I personally love FAQ's.

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2 hours ago, Philip Perkins said:

I liked your forum.  It was a great repository of info, and as you say, searchable.  FB is a waste of time.

 

I wholeheartedly agree. 

But this has been the way for many great sites. This one here, too, has lost a lot of participation recently with a lot of it moving to Facebook. Unfortunately. I really hate Facebook for discussions. 

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9 hours ago, Philip Perkins said:

I liked your forum.  It was a great repository of info, and as you say, searchable. 

I worry about five or tens year from now, when people might be trying to search up info one some older and now "obscure" piece of gear. 

Because all the wealth of discussion and knowledge that got shared could very well be inaccessible/hidden (especially if in say ten years from now Facebook has gone under and been replaced, or simply morphed into something else totally different, who knows!) in ten years from now. 

Rather than like forums such as this or RAMPS we can dig up gems from ages gone by. 

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10 hours ago, jon_tatooles said:

At least for SD gear, the first place anyone should go if they have questions is to Danny, Dan, Dennis, or Sean in our tech support. Real humans with phones and email. 

 

It's the first place I go... One phone call and my questions are answered, and I always get the care I need from people who I believe actually care about my situation.

  PERIOD

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21 hours ago, IronFilm said:



Rather than like forums such as this or RAMPS we can dig up gems from ages gone by. 

My life is so very much better since I gave up on RAMPS. I am so very happy not to have to read the bile that Roberto and Oleg used to sling at each other 😉

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have owned a 633 for several years and recently I've acquired a mixpre 6 as a backup recorder or to use it in small gigs. Although I like the device, I can not understand why it is not possible to access the Headphone preset list by just pressing the HP gain knob, like 6 and 7 series do. I sincerely believe that it would be a good improvement to consider in future firmware updates.

 

Greetings, Andres

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  • 1 month later...

Does mixpre 3 Or mixpre 6 now Support copy to usb thumbdrive?

Cant find it. Also soundreport still only on mixpre10?

 

 

one Thing I found on v3.02:

Rec preroll is not availible in Advanced mode. 

You Need to Go to custom mode and set everything to advanced. Now you have it availible in the record menu. 

 

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12 hours ago, Armin Siegwarth said:

Does mixpre 3 Or mixpre 6 now Support copy to usb thumbdrive?

 Cant find it. Also soundreport still only on mixpre10?

I believe the answer is no, the MixPre3/6 can't back up to a USB drive. 

12 hours ago, Armin Siegwarth said:

 

 

one Thing I found on v3.02:

Rec preroll is not availible in Advanced mode. 

You Need to Go to custom mode and set everything to advanced. Now you have it availible in the record menu. 

That is plain bizarre! 

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  • 2 months later...

I thought this might be the right section to ask this question. I have seen many on the web talking about how the analog limiters on the MixPre 3-10 series have some odd issues with the way the limiters work and react with some long release times that can cause strange pumping when trying to record loud sounds in comparison to the the way they work and sound on other older SD gear. Have others on here had this issue and if so has this been fixed? I would think and hope they should be able to fix that via firmware update if it is still an issue as I know they have always been known to have some top notch limiters that due wonders when recording SFX like gunshots and other loud sounds, and would think they would want to continue to do so? Does anyone have info on this?

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On 3/2/2019 at 8:46 PM, Armin Siegwarth said:

Ah its different. 

 

If you turn on Timecode in on Aux - pre roll disappears in the rec menu. 

 

So no Timecode with preroll. 

 

Actually when choosing Aux 2 as the TC source instead of Aux 1, preroll is showing up again. Don‘t ask me why...

 

I tested that running LTC from my DAW to the MixPre. But for using this with my Tentacle syncboxes I would have to resolder all my TC cables.

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7 hours ago, sfxdude said:

I thought this might be the right section to ask this question. I have seen many on the web talking about how the analog limiters on the MixPre 3-10 series have some odd issues with the way the limiters work and react with some long release times that can cause strange pumping when trying to record loud sounds in comparison to the the way they work and sound on other older SD gear. Have others on here had this issue and if so has this been fixed? I would think and hope they should be able to fix that via firmware update if it is still an issue as I know they have always been known to have some top notch limiters that due wonders when recording SFX like gunshots and other loud sounds, and would think they would want to continue to do so? Does anyone have info on this?

 

No, you still only have the one default set up for the limiters that the user can't change like you can on say a 6 series. 

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    The limiters are analog and in that case the limiter parameters are governed by actual components (good old resistors and capacitors). So no firmware update can correct that unless the software defined electronics part allows some changes to circuit topology/components. 

     

    Anyway, consider this. If the limiters were digital (like in the Zoom F8) you will achieve the same results by lowering microphone gain leaving more headroom and, if some dynamics correction is required, some post processing after recording. The result will be equivalent. 

     

    I have never recorded shots but I guess it won’t be necessary to disable the limiters, just give it more headroom so that the limiter acts just on the highest peaks.

     

    The pres are so clean I doubt it will be an issue. Maybe a bit less convenient, though. 

     

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