Bluebox Recordings cut short BETA 1.1.2

[Matt Plomell]

All of my recent jams are getting cut off upon playback. For example, one jam that was 8 minutes long last night and had been playing back fine is now ending abruptly at about 6 minutes into the track. I thought it was because my SD card had run out of space, but I cleared it all out and the problem persisted on two different jams.

[Matt Plomell]

So it seems to be a problem only on the playback of the bluebox. When I import the wavs into Ableton, I can still playback the entire recording, but Bluebox will end it for some reason. Happened again today! A track I recorded yesterday was 6:45 and now it ends at 5:35 or so. Is my SD card glitched out? Ordered a new one today hoping it's just that. I'll repost this topic on the Support forum.

[Matt Plomell]

All of my recent jams are getting cut off upon playback. For example, one jam that was 8 minutes long last night and had been playing back fine is now ending abruptly at about 6 minutes into the track. Upon importing wavs into my DAW, the entire recording is there, it just won't all play on the Bluebox. Really weird!

[Steve]

Have you tried to load that file into a fresh project?

[Matt Plomell]

Steve, thanks for that suggestion. It worked! However, is this an expected part of the workflow or do you think this is a bug with the firmware? It was an extra task to have to set up a new project and reconfigure all of the mixer settings and such.

[Steve]

That is a bug. One option is to use Save As Template to duplicate the project with all settings - then import the audio.

You can also try to REMOVE and ADD that same file from the same project. I would bet that also works and is slightly less dreadful!

[systemexklusiv]

I experience the same problem as Matt described. In my case it looks like the playback is going on but there is no Volume indication and no sound either.

[Steve]

Are you able to reload that wav?

[arnoldmoon]

Perhaps related, I notice input monitoring is not properly turning off while playback on the problematic track when this happens. Perhaps bluebox thinks the track is empty? I suppose otherwise it should switch off input monitoring while playback. Unless this is expected.

arnold

[Steve]

Which version firmware are you using?

[Steve]

Have you experienced this in 1.2.7?

[datagreed]

> Have you experienced this in 1.2.7?

I just ran into this on 1.2.7, this is very annoying.

When recording, the time reading goes slower than it should (midi is jacked in, polyend tracker is used as a source clock). I don't see the same problem with synths receiving midi clock from the tracker, only with bluebox.

It seems to record everything anyway, but you cannot check the recording on the bluebox, you have to remove the sd card and get it to your computer.

Any solution or workaround for this, yet?

[datagreed]

Okay, this is ridiculous, now I randomly receive errors when starting recording saying "ERROR <some number here>K", e.g. "ERROR 7.2K" and the number keeps changing. Rebooting helps, but I expected more from a product that actually shipped and recevied some post-shipping updates

[Lucas1010]

The sd card may be the culprit. Format the micro sd card using SD Card Formatter.

[datagreed]

The sd card may be the culprit. Format the micro sd card using SD Card Formatter.

Well, rebooting actually helped with "ERROR XXK", but the problem with timing, midi clock and truncated recordings does not seem to be related to SD card at all.

[Lucas1010]

How do you know? Have you tried other cards, have you tried formatting? What are the specs of the sd card?

Timing and MIDI clock aren't related but truncated recordings would certainly be.

[Lucas1010]

Format your sd card and also, you may want to try 1.2.14.
Regarding MIDI clock issues, we'll need details, like what is the clock source and how is it hooked up?

[datagreed]

Regarding MIDI clock issues, we'll need details, like what is the clock source and how is it hooked up?

The MIDI source is Polyend tracker connected to RK-006 via TRS. TRS output of RK-006 is connected to the bluebox.
When I press play on tracker, the time goes normally on bluebox.
When I arm bluebox with a record button and press "Play" on tracker, recording starts but time on bluebox progresses slower than it should.

It still records everything, but the recording appears truncated on the "edit" page.
Sometimes I can listen to the recording until the truncation point, sometimes I cant listen to it at all.

Whenever I eject the SD card and insert it in my macbook, I see the fully recorded stems as expected.

Format your sd card and also, you may want to try 1.2.14.

Thanks, I somehow missed this version, will try it out.

Thanks.

UPD: Oh wait, I just realized its a beta

[Lucas1010]

You can still give the Beta a try. I've been using it on two Blueboxes without issue. You can always revert if your situation does not improve.

[Steve]

The MIDI source is Polyend tracker connected to RK-006 via TRS.

Try bypassing the RK-006 and see if it resolves.

I love the RK and use it every day - and in my travel setup. However, the RK has a clock priority approach that I have stumbled over a few times. The RK will only forward Clock from the first input (after booting) that it receives clock from. It will, however, forward transport (start/stop) from either input.

If you send our devices start/stop they will respond. But if you do not also send a valid clock source our device will follow its internal tempo - sometimes even slower. I just tested this using my Tracker -> RK-006 -> bluebox and can confirm the same results reported. Only after I reboot the RK and send clock from the Tracker first, does it respond as expected. This includes cueing the bluebox to REC before starting clock and transport.

Something to consider.

[sirshannon]

I think this probably does address the truncated playback, if I understand the issue.

The problem when I have it is as you described: sending transport and clock from a sequencer when recording on the bluebox sometimes causes the clock to run at some other (slower) tempo on the bluebox. When this happens, the time is shown wrong on the screen and is slower/shorter than the actual time. So a 5-minute recording might appear to last only 2 minutes according to the bb screen. And then when playing the file on the bb after recording, the playback stops at the 2 minute mark. The wav file is recorded correctly and can be played on a computer but not on the bluebox because the bluebox thinks it is a 2-minute recording.

I thought this was a known issue?

[Steve]

The truncation is known, in the sense that it has been reported. The bluebox may run slower during recording but it doesn't track the length of a recording so it doesn't necessarily know how long a file 'should be'. It does not remember where you stopped the transport. We addressed other issues in the background that would have affected this.

[sirshannon]

Note: Removing my reply, my original comment above was right. The issues were related, the Bluebox does track the length of recordings, and when you start/stop the transport when recording.