X Live Card Upgrade on X32 Not Working

[ChasHands]

Brand new X Live card will not record properly.

I installed a new X Live card last week on an X32, currently running firmware 4.09, which I believe is the preferred FW version for the X Live card. My understanding from the forum / FAQ's / instructions was that the X Live card no longer required a card FW update if the mixer was already running FW4.09.

The X32 is in good condition in a permanent theater install, and believed to be working properly. The factory USB card was previously working properly.

When I removed the factory USB card and installed the X Live card, I noticed that that the X LIve card barely felt like it made any contact with the edge connector; there was almost zero resistance when sliding it back into place. The original USB card required a firm pull to "unseat" the edge connector. And the two machine screws don't really snug down at all to put firm pressure on the X Live card.

The USB I/O part of the X Live card is working properly. I cannot get the SD cards to record properly.

I bought SanDisk Extreme Class 10 32GB cards, as suggested in numerous X LIve tutorials. I confirmed they were initially formatted Fat32. I inserted the cards, and I "see" the cards. Assuming that the "Card Output tab" still defines the output patching for recording, then my I/O routing is correct for what I want to send to the cards. Local In 1-8, Local In 9-16, AES50A In 17-24, User In 25-32.

I hit Record, and the card appears to be recording. I stop and try to playback a 20 minute capture. The graphic shows the card "playing back" as if in high speed fast forward, and the card "plays" a 20 minute file in a few seconds and then stops.

If I place that SD card in my Mac laptop, and open the folder, I see maybe 6 wav files, NOT 32. If I play one of those wav files, I hear the audio correctly at normal speed, and the file is the proper duration. Looking at the Card Info confirms the wav files are recorded at 48kHz, matching the
board preference.

I tried reformatting the two cards again Fat32 on the Mac laptop in Disk Utilities. Same issues. I tried power cycling the console. I tried reinserting the cards. Per one forum tip, I tried toggling the console preference from 48kHz to 44.1kHz and back.

I really need to get this working in the next couple of days. I bought the card *specifically* because the show required multichannel QLab coming in on Aux 1-4 via the USB port, and I was unable to attend most of the Tech Week, and knew that I would need to tweak the sound design on this show with a live recording / virtual soundcheck. The show opened this past weekend, with more shows this weekend, beginning Thursday.

Any suggestions? Is this a defective card?

[pvannatto]

Hi @ChasHands, welcome to our forum. From what you describe, I would suspect the X-Live card, particularly if it plays 20 min recording in a few seconds.

One thing to note is that the X-Live records multi-track wav files, not single track ones. So if you only recorded one session on the SD card and you are seeing 6 wav files, something is wrong (should only see one wav file).

[ChasHands]

Hi Paul - thanks for reply. I'm not at the venue today/tonight, and so I could not get a better capture of what I see on the laptop, but when I say I "see", what I mean is I see a flash card, with folders that seem to represent each of the 4-5 tests I did (folders and files have all seemingly random alphanumeric names, not like a date & time oriented name like I would see on the USB stick two track recordings), and each folder has a handful of files that I can open via Quicktime on the desktop just like I could open a "kick drum" or "bass guitar" track from a Pro Tools session. Examining the file info of each of those wav's is where I noted 48kHz sample rate, and listening to them revealed just one of many mics in use on this show (16 cast mics, 10 pit band mics, a couple of narration mics, and some "utility" mics.

I did not include this in my first description but on the second page of the card information display, it shows that the card is set for "32x32".

So, everything I described was done properly and as it should be, and the X Live card should be working right now? ie the X Live card is defective?

Do these X Live cards always appear to make such poor contact with the edge connector upon insertion into the console?

Charles

[pvannatto]

folders and files have all seemingly random alphanumeric names, not like a date & time oriented name like I would see on the USB stick two track recordings)

Actually those alphanumeric names are date/time related, but in hexadecimal notation. Patrick has fortunately extensively documented how the X-Live works and these folders/files are related in his X32 OSC Protocol doc (page 74).

Do these X Live cards always appear to make such poor contact with the edge connector upon insertion into the console?

I haven't inserted my X-Live card since it was initially released. So I don't actually remember how easy or hard it was to insert. I do know that they have recently released a new model of the X-Live card (probably due to chipset changes, etc.).

the X Live card is defective?

Can't say for certain. But the speedy playback is very concerning and is not normal. I would suggest that you contact the seller.

[ChasHands]

Paul, et al -

Issue seems to be resolved, however operator oversight seems to be the casue of some or all of the blame.

I did pull the X LIve card from the X32, examine the card, get pictures, confirm the CR123 battery was placed correctly according to (+) indicated.
The X LIve card is the "newer green" version, where the SD card lights flash in reverse, and (apparently) the battery is oriented the opposite way as on the "original brown" version of the X Live card. See the first screenshot "X32_XLive_Green Card"

See the "TIP_X32_FW_Versions" pic of the current X32 firmware status. Is it correct that the X Live Card shows "x-liveI16"?

The main issue seems to be operator error. I did not notice / fully understand the meaning of the Playback Config panel on Page 2 of the Card Setup tab. I was thinking of the *entire* X Live card as the "USB Card" and in my head I guess "SD Card" erroneously translated to the original USB stick recorder, so it was set to "USB Playback". When I toggled to "SD Playback" I got 32 tracks of virtual soundcheck playing correctly! See "TIP_PlaybackConfig1-2-3" for reference.












I'm documenting this mostly for anybody else who might make this mistake. I will say three different Midas / Behringer fluent engineers looked at this last week and all failed to spot that issue, and went down the rabbit hole of "is the card defective?" based on the weird "high speed playback with no audio" interaction.

So to recap this situation (the forum will not allow a .MOV upload) - when I had the *wrong* Playback Config selected ie "USB Playback", and then I selected an SD card file with the window encoder, and hit play, it appeared to play through the file at high speed with no audio routed to channels, then stopped in 3-4 seconds.

The only thing I cannot explain is my statement that when I examined the SD cards on my Mac laptop last week, I saw "multiple" wav files in each folder. That is not happening now. And everything looks as it should be, correctly identifying this file as a 48kHz recording of about 14 seconds.

See "TIP_SD_Card_32A_411"



I will assume all is OK, and get busy with recording the Thursday night show, so I can tweak my sound design on Friday.

PS: I can confirm the 64GB cards worked fine when formatted Fat32. All of these cards have been the SanDisk Extreme Pro 100MB/s Class 10 cards in 32GB and 64GB.

Thanks for listening and your replies.

[pvannatto]

I will assume all is OK

Glad to hear that it was only user error, and glad to see that you used our forum for troubleshooting. And thanks for documenting it all.

[MJKlein]

Off Topic

the forum will not allow a .MOV upload

Please use a hosting service and link. Thanks.

[MJKlein]

I'm documenting this mostly for anybody else who might make this mistake.

I want to personally thank you for the followup. I also commend you for your candor. You have added to the knowledge base and this will indeed "help the next guy."