Muse Research

jamison100 · Post by **jamison100** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:42 pm

Hi,
I will be going on the road soon, and I want to have an emergency back-up plan in case the hard-drive dies on my Receptor. This is crucial, as I use about 80% of my sounds from the Receptor.

Is this as simple as getting disk imaging software to make a redundant image of the hard-drive, or do I actually have to set up and re-register all my plugins on a different hard-drive? I run Kontakt, Elektrik Piano, Bosendorfer 290 and B4.

Thanks,
Jamie

JayVee · Post by **JayVee** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:42 pm

Every time I ask about this, I get told to back-up only specific Banks/files (as if I need to conserve space on my back-up hard-drive)
I'd LOVE to simply drag everything over to a back-up drive, and have the confidence in knowing that I have everything I need and everything I use ~ backed - up.

There always seem to be a problem with 'permissions', or my not having the proper authorization to do this, when I try to simply drag everything over...

So I look forward to the responses of others on this.

looneytunes · Post by **looneytunes** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 3:58 pm

Hi Jamison,

I do recall Muse posting an offer to 'backup' Receptor drives for 'data critical' situations. They mentioned something about this not being straightforward. You might wish to search the forums, or send Muse a note about this service.

Also, you can checkout OGGs FAQ, which should describe how to do backups (if you are Linux saavy).

Regards,
Kevin L

TechEverlasting · Post by **TechEverlasting** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 12:06 am

My perspective based on years of touring with and supporting tours of Broadway shows is that you should either have a complete backup Receptor with all plugs installed or else find an affordable hardware synth module (or maybe even a controlling keyboard) that will make similar sounds that you can use in an emergency. What good will a spare Receptor hard drive do you if:

The truck driver forgets to close the back of the truck, your rack falls off the truck while it's on the road and the motherboard cracks.

The power supply fails, perhaps due to faulty voltage at a venue or a local crew member spilling a beer in it.

Another piece of equipment falls on your Receptor and shorts out the MIDI-In jack.

I've encountered all of these scenarios and worse, although admittedly not with Receptors. If the Receptor should fail for any reason during a performance your audience isn't going to wait for you to take it apart and put a new hard drive in. If you own a laptop with similar plugs it might be worth considering having that on-hand in case of emergency.

jamison100 · Post by **jamison100** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 1:51 am

Thanks for the helpful advice! I actually use other synths during my show, so if for some reason the Receptor died, I would be able to make it through a show. However, I would want to be able to pop in a new hard-drive in the hotel afterwards, so I could be up and running again for the next night. Is there a way to format a blank harddrive with the Receptor operating system? Then i could manually reinstall all my plugins, register them online and then copy my folders of presets/samples.

TechEverlasting · Post by **TechEverlasting** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 2:22 am

It's good to hear you're able to get through the show if any one component dies. It drives me up the wall to hear about electronic musicians who go out without any fail-safe and then crash and burn. It just makes the whole idea of using synths live look bad. I still don't see why you're so certain the hard drive is the one component of the Receptor that is prone to failure. At the very least I would also bring a spare power supply.

I know of two major shows on Broadway in recent years that had their pits completely flooded when the sprinkler system was set off by the guy who was in charge of testing the fire alarm system. For one of them it happened two days before opening night and destroyed most of the synths. You just can't be careful enough...

frog_jr · Post by **frog_jr** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:28 am

TechEverlasting wrote:I know of two major shows on Broadway in recent years that had their pits completely flooded when the sprinkler system was set off by the guy who was in charge of testing the fire alarm system. For one of them it happened two days before opening night and destroyed most of the synths. You just can't be careful enough...

That is soooo funny. Probably wasn't then.

You got me curious. Would this work: take the hard drive out, purchase an identical one and use Ranish or Ghost or I don't know, QTPartEd(?), copying the MBR and all, and then try that out. Hell, you could just experiment with a nonidentical drive if you felt like it. I don't know if Receptor has protections against this or not ... it is a Linux OS, right?

metrognome · Post by **metrognome** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:35 am

Hi. I have Acronis True Image. It saved me once. Running win xp I had the blue screen of death and had a previous working version image saved. Bought a new drive of a different size and manufacturer and transfered the image that was saved on a usb drive. Took 15 minutes and ALL was as before, including Tracktion and many plugins, a CAD program, a photo editor. I did have to re-register with Microsoft but that was done online easily.
Don't know about other OS's though.

frog_jr · Post by **frog_jr** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 4:53 am

Well, there's a bit more to it than that I understand. This is an embedded Linux distro, all custom. I don't know that what I said would work, I'm just curious.

Bryan@MuseResearch · Post by **Bryan@MuseResearch** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 5:14 am

[quote="TechEverlasting"]My perspective based on years of touring with and supporting tours of Broadway shows is that you should either have a complete backup Receptor with all plugs installed or else find an affordable hardware synth module (or maybe even a controlling keyboard) that will make similar sounds that you can use in an emergency. What good will a spare Receptor hard drive do you if:

The truck driver forgets to close the back of the truck, your rack falls off the truck while it's on the road and the motherboard cracks.

The power supply fails, perhaps due to faulty voltage at a venue or a local crew member spilling a beer in it.

Another piece of equipment falls on your Receptor and shorts out the MIDI-In jack.

I've encountered all of these scenarios and worse, although admittedly not with Receptors. If the Receptor should fail for any reason during a performance your audience isn't going to wait for you to take it apart and put a new hard drive in. If you own a laptop with similar plugs it might be worth considering having that on-hand in case of emergency.[/quote]

Of course you are absolutely right... having a back up solution of some kind is essential, whether that is the built-in sounds in a keyboard, or a back up Receptor. A lot of pro bands run two Receptors in parallel, sending MIDI and patch changes to both, and the tech can instantly switch from the output of one unit to the other should anything ever go wrong.

Again, I'd reiterate that I don't think having a backup hard drive is all that effective. You should of course back up all your data as you would with ANY electronic device... But if someone is really concerned about having a backup drive, we will help them with a solution. I can understand that people do have innate concern about hard drives.. they are the most delicate part of any computational device next to the display, but our experience with Receptor is that the hard drives have proven to be remarkably reliable, or at least the brand that we use (Seagate).

You never know what can happen on the road... and its funny you bring up beer. We've had one customer have a Receptor go down when an audience member threw a bottle of beer onto the stage, bursting, and bathing the Receptor in beer. Not recommended, as Receptor is, admittedly, prefers wine, specifically reds.

And then of course there was the forklift incident that happened with another big band where they drove a forklift THROUGH the front panel of the unit, crushing the front panel (although the unit still booted and responded to patch changes!).

So you are absolutely right... pros always have a plan "B" solution. It just makes sense, and I also think it alleviates some worry as a player since you're not having to worry about what to do if the unexpected happens. Even as a drummer, I always have spare sticks (of course) as well as heads, beaters, and sometimes even spare snare drums or or an extra pedal just in case, and depending upon how important the gig is...

Anyone have any other tips or wisdom they want to share?

Groovology

TechEverlasting · Post by **TechEverlasting** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 5:43 am

I'm not sure if I'd call it wisdom, but I can tell you that I often get resistance from producers and other budget minded folks when I insist on complete backup systems for theatrical electronic music systems. I frequently get suggestions similar to "can't we just buy a spare hard drive?" I've gotten to the point where I will refuse to be involved in a project if there isn't a full backup in place, because it just ends up making me look like an idiot. I also want to make clear that none of my comments are intended to question the reliability of the Receptor. I think Muse has done a great job creating a road-worthy solution for those wanting to use soft-synths.

I don't have enough experience with Receptors to know what the long term weaknesses are, if there are any. I have been responsible for probably over 100 Kurzweil K2 series synths throughout the past 15 years. If I had just provided backup hard drives for those units I would have solved about 10% of the problems that cropped up on various tours. Power supplies, audio jacks, logic boards, cracked keys, loose MIDI and SCSi connectors and acts of God and beer have been much more common sources of trouble.

Bryan@MuseResearch · Post by **Bryan@MuseResearch** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 4:37 pm

I'm with you on this... I don't think that hard drives are the weakest link in a high tech piece of gear. Physical damage to the unit, somebody accidentially snagging a cable thus causing a hard right angle pull on the jack for example, is far more likely a cause of failure... or a huge power spike or huge ground differential (not common in theater, but fairly common in live performance) is more likely to cause a failure than a drive failing by itself.

Oh yes, and beer...

Thanks for your comments!

Bryan (groovology)

Goofaman · Post by **Goofaman** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:46 am

Respectfully, I have to disagree with much of this conversation--- or at the least try and re-frame it from my own point of view:

I just bought my second Receptor (Komplete/Pro) and have spent about 27 hours installing a whole bunch of complementary plugins and libraries (EastWest Orchestra, etc.). I've successfully authorized everything; my hat's off to Muse for making this possible.

BUT-- that's 27 hours I do NOT want to ever spend again! No I don't tour, and if my Receptor went down, I wouldn't miss a session (probably) but--- I don't care--- I still do not want to go through all of this config again.

And--- hard drives by FAR have been the most unreliable components of my studio. I don't trust them with stuff I have put lots of time into, unless I have a backup (or two) waiting somewhere in the wings.

So-- I respectully ask that Muse come up with a comprehensive backup strategy for the ENTIRE drive. I'm willing to re-auth the few plugins that aren't on iLok, if that helps; I just don't want to hand-configure and transfer 400+GB of sample data plugin by plugin. I want to start an automated restore from a backup drive, and find it done in a few hours or so without my interaction.

Thanks for reading. Will this ever be possible?

-GM

TechEverlasting · Post by **TechEverlasting** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:26 pm

Goofaman wrote:And--- hard drives by FAR have been the most unreliable components of my studio.-GM

Yes, hard drives are arguably the most unreliable component in a studio, but this thread has been about playing live and touring, which offers a completely different set of challenges.

I agree that a comprehensive backup strategy for the entire Receptor hard drive would be of great value.

Fixed Error · Post by **Fixed Error** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:47 pm

Hmmm, i was just thinking what a timely discussion this is for me as i'll be working as backline tech on an upcoming tour and we're using a receptor. No, never had a problem with the hard drives and am pretty confident with them, although i have had a number of random receptor resets which area little unnerving...

Having an exact duplicate of your receptor on a laptop is what we usually do for backup; touch wood, ive not had to use it under battle conditions. I guess the benefit is that you can use exactly the same plugins and sound sources so you dont have to compromise on quality. Also if you do have a problem with the receptor you can just run the same show on the lappy. Made me think sometimes why not just use a laptop in the first place but no, too many variables. Of course if the laptop goes down then youre screwed. Hmm, makes me wonder, how many backup systems constitute a good backup?
One thing about the receptor i appreciate is the quick reboot of the system in case something goes wrong. We were using an Akai s6000 on the last tour and it went down mid show one time - took forever and a day to reload the multi.

Regards,
James

Muse Research

KVR Audio

Hard-drive emergency backup