2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

Hi all- 2 Carbon-related questions:

1) Is it ok to turn Carbon on and off from a master power strip, as opposed to always using its built in power switch? It'd be easier to not have to remember to turn it on and off separately from my master power switch (which is on my Equitech balanced supply).

2) There seems to be a limit of tracks I can simultaneously record successfully while Quick Punch is enabled: I can only successfully record 15 tracks. If I record-arm any more, Pro Tools will simply not record any of them... I can see the record and stop buttons momentarily flash when I initiate recording, but recording doesn't start. With Quick Punch off, I can record all 24 tracks from all 24 inputs. Is this a Carbon limitation? I could always record all 18 inputs while in Quick Punch from my last Lynx Aurora TB system.

I'm on a MacPro 2013 12-dual core, OS 10.15.7, PT 2021.7 NOT Ultimate

Thanks!

Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

Re #1-Based on my experience with many other Digi/Avid interfaces, it should be fine. I have always had my interface(going all the way back to the 002) on the same strip as my computer(which are always on a UPS).

Can't help on #2 but it doesn't seem right:o

Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

#1 Yes, that's fine. And, Carbon will retain the last power state (on or off) when the main power is cut. In other words, when you switch the main power switch on, Carbon will power back on if it was powered on when the main power switch was switched off.

#2 This does sound odd. Are you trying to record-enable >15 tracks at once? If so, any luck with trying to record-enable tracks a few at a time instead? We may have a bug here.

Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

#2: FYI I've already recorded in Quick Punch 16 tracks without any problem.

Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

Thanks for the replies, all.

Kyle-
Great news about #1. Thanks.

Re#2: I can successfully record enable all 24 tracks. But when I try to start recording I see a brief flash of lights on the transport graphic and PT just stops. No audio is recorded. The transport and playback head do not move.

It seems to work properly with up to 15 tracks rec enabled, but beyond that, with quick punch on, PT won’t record. If I turn off quick punch, I can record all 24 track simultaneously.

I’m hoping it is a bug and not a limitation. Thoughts on how I can resolve this? Thanks.


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Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

Sure thing.

For #2, do you see the words "record pause" in red in the bottom-left corner of the Edit window when the transport buttons flash and you can't actually record? I was looking into this yesterday and I think we have a bug here that we'll investigate further. By chance, are you at a HW Buffer Size of 512 or 1024? If so, will you try using a HW Buffer Size of 256? That helped on my end.

Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

Kyle- Sorry about the delay- been out of the studio the last 2 days.

Yes- I see "record pause" briefly in that bottom L window when I try to record in QP mode, but it doesn't work. Changing buffer sizes seems to make no difference.

Curiously, when I kept trying to record by repeatedly pressing the 3 key on the number pad, it successfully worked about one time out of 10! IT seems to help to leave QP mode, record, then command-. to stop, then re-enter QP and try again. But it's not consistent.

Also, I got a hard PT crash or two when trying to record 24 tracks in QP a few times. It's not super stable and is kind of disconcerting...

I'll keep you posted as I discover any other connected issues; please let me know what you discover on your end. Thanks.

Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

Thanks for the update, Bennett. We'll look into it. As a workaround for the crash will you see if enabling 4-5 tracks at a time, doing a short record pass, then record enabling 4-5 more tracks at time, doing another short record pass, etc to get to the number of tracks you need record enabled helps?

Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

Kyle-

Here's some more evidence: when transport is in Play and QP is on, it appears that I can reliably enter record mode (with the 3 key) with all 24 tracks rec-enabled.

If I try to start recording (from a Stop) then mostly I just get the "Record Pause" message, the transport doesn't start and there's and no recording. Sometimes with rapid, repetitive presses of the 3 key I can get all 24 tracks into active recording from a stop, but mostly not.

Trying your strategy of arming a few tracks at a time didn't seem to matter. It always works normally until I get to 16 or 18 tracks, then it's hit or miss (mostly miss).

The good news (for now) is that if I'm actually trying to punch something in from existing playback, it seems to work. So I'll just have to remember to leave QP off unless I really need it. (On my old TB system, I just mostly left it on all the time out of habit... maybe bad habit.)

Keep me posted. I'll do the same. Have a great weekend.

Re: 2 questions: quick punch track limits & power up from strip
 

I have this issue too but thought it was because I am on an unsupported MacBook Air. Recording from stop does not work when Quickpunch is enabled with a high number of tracks.

What works though with Quickpunch enabled is to start playback and then punch in using 3. Not ideal, but can work as a bandaid.