Frustration

[Rusty G.]

O.K. . .I'll admit it. . .I bought a used TDM system off ebay about 3 weeks ago. First the computer's tower was too small, then it's been one thing after another. To make matters worse, the guy who sold me the Mix Core card didn't send the manual and Digidesign has been out of them so I'm trying to do this blind. I have downloaded the manual from the Digi site, but it's tedious using it. Who sells something without the manuals?

Anyway, here's my problem today. First, everytime I load a song that I was working on, the 888/24 Interface on channels 1 and 2 goes up to about halfway and there's no audio that plays. It goes up there when I load up the song. What's up with that? I can't get anything to play. Please help.

Secondly, everytime I exit the ProTools software, the computer shuts down and reboots itself. Is this normal?

Thanks for your help,
Rusty

[King Kevlar]

what kind of CPU are you running?

[Rusty G.]

It is a Dell Dimension 8300. By the way. . .The program and Interface worked when I started a new program. I imported an audio track from an earlier program (drums) and laid down a new guitar part. The machine worked great. I decided to save the session, just in case I screwed up the next track or something, so I did. Then, when I tried to reload the system, the same problem. I'm looking at the 888/24 I/O and the levels on channel 1 and 2 are about mid-way up and I'm not sending anything. They just seem stuck there and nothing plays. I don't understand what's happening.

[flanker7]

"Who sells something without the manuals?"

Who buys something like this without the manuals is a more accurate question?

I would try going to the setup menu, select playback engine, choose a different interface, and then reselect the actuall one your are using. When doing the switching, wait for all the LEDs to settle each time. Click Ok, this will restart the session/application and reboot the hardware.

If this doesn't work then I'd suggest getting in contact with your local office to sort out the registration and get support. It is far easier that way.

[jasona]

This may be relevant to your situation.

I've seen this before when I accidentally set the playback engine for an 888 (16 bit), but the I/O was actually an 888/24. It was the same symptoms, active meters but no audio. The problem went away once I selected the correct interface. So, if you have an 888/24, make sure the selected hardware for the corresponding port is set correctly.

Hope this helps.

[steve at Your Heaven]

RE the manual - If you want the manual on paper (I agree it's a handy way to work), just print it out. It's a big job, so you might want to give it to Kinko's or some such (find out the price ifrst, though).

Setting up these TDM systems takes some work, thought the results are worth it (assuming you need TDM rather than an 002 or 001). It might make you feel better to assume that it will take a week or two to get it set up and running - at least that is my experience, and I feel better starting out thinking it will take time and debugging.

[Rusty G.]

Thanks for all the great replies. In answer to some of the questions, I don't know if I need TDM. I just want it. I'm not a studio owner. I'm an attorney by day whose passion is making music. So, I imagine that I could make do with an 002, but now that I've got the TDM system, I'm going to use it.

It seemed to work for about a day or so and then it started with this problem. I could run a signal through the 888/24 and I could see the meter bouncing up and down, just like it was supposed to. When I loaded ProTools, the meters would peg at about half-way and not move. I could enable record and see the signal was going onto into the computer, but nothing was coming out. I could even record the signal and play it back, but there was no sound and the meters would not move. I could switch screens from the mix window to the edit window and see that there was something recorded to disc, but could not play it back. If I switched channels on the Setup from channels 1-2 to say 3-4, then 1-2 would drop down and 3-4 would peg at half-way up and not move and we could not get anything from the system.

I contacted Digidesign today through the proaxxess and spoke with a gent there for about an hour while we tried to de-bug the system. We tried just about everything. In the end, I'm sending the 888/24 Interface and Mix Core card to Digi tomorrow to let them have a look at it. If nothing's wrong, then it's my new Dell Dimension 8300. In the meantime, I have been advised to contact Dell and learn how to dis-able their hyper-threading as this may be the root of some of the problems I'm experiencing.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Once again, thanks for all the positive comments and guidance.

[Rusty G.]

Everything checked out at Digidesign. That means the problem was with my new Dell 8300 computer. Was advised there were too many problems with Pro Tools and Windows XP. . .Maybe. . .Maybe not. Not interested in starting a flaming war. . .I just want to be able to record my music.

Decided I was too tired of messing with the computer and sent everything (Mix Core, Mix Farm & 888/24) to MWAudio.com to install and tweak a new G4. I just want the thing to work. I'm not a recording engineer or computer expert. Hopefully I'll get the machine, fully loaded and tweaked, back next week. I'll post a final post on this forum before moving over to Mac.

Thanks for all the help and responses!

[Rusty G.]

I got my G4 this Tuesday and have set it up at home. It's incredible. Everything works like it is supposed to. I'm using a G4 with 1.25GB RAM and "ROCSTOR" 120GB firewire hard drive for storage. I'm using it strictly for my music, so I don't have to worry about changing parameters on the "family" PC. I guess the moral of the story is this. Since I bought the system off of ebay, there was no support. Even the guys at Digi, ProAxxess, though nice people, really couldn't help me with the problems I was having on my PC. Thus, I decided to buy a new G4, dedicate it just to music and have somebody set it up for me professionally, so that if something went wrong, they would warrant their work. I guess they could have done the same thing with a new PC, but the guys at the shop where I went for help suggested/pushed me in the direction of Mac.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions you guys/girls have offered. I'm going over to the mac forum and hopefully, one day I'll be offering helpful suggestions to people like me just getting started with TDM.

See ya!
Rusty

[NuBus]

Why didn't you go with a G5??