1st Gig Digital - Take two

[Jim Casey]

Here we go again...

I'l let ya know on Monday!

[HeadlineDJ]

Jim, Are you running the machine before gigging with it.

It's always wise to test run a machine and setup at least a few times prior to taking it live.

Anytime I build a machine I mix with it for several hours each day/night for at least a week, trying all the features in every order possible. Leave it turned on over night performing burn in tasks etc.. doing this will soon tell you if your hardware is flaky or not.

Seems your first outing was an unfortunate case of hardware failure, how long had you used the old drive for prior to it crashing like that?

Also if anyone has a machine built, I'd advice checking the drive serial numbers on the manufacturers websites, as these days there are lots of re-conditioned drives that some oem builders fit.

[Jim Casey]

The machine had run for seven hours before the drive failure.

I have run it for the past 24 hours at my office with no issues so far.

I am keeping all of my Cds with me for backup in case (my box has a dual CD player in case)

[Glen Millar]

A true test of a system is to run it at least 96 hours non-stop. Ideally I like to run my systems for 14 days nonstop before I use it at a gig. If anything is going to happen, it usually will show up in the first 100 hours.

Btw...most new larger hard drives do now have a rated usage based on hours used. So even the makers of the drives know the new larger drives will not last as long as older smaller drives.

[Jim Casey]

Well...
I can tell you my first two weddings digital went very well.

Wedding #1 I was about 90% DIgital, 10% CD
Wedding #2 tonight - All but ONE song digital

Total playing time, 13 hours.